ment is heading toward 10 percent.
Asked about the pace and impact of the stimulus program, President Obama said in a June 23 press conference, “I don’t feel satisfied with the progress that we’ve made. We’ve got to get our Recovery Act money out faster.”
Some parts of it are moving quickly, though. The Social Security Administration has paid out $13 billion in one-time stimulus payments and to hire thousands more workers. Medicaid draw downs by states exceeded $21 billion. In all, federal agencies had made $152 billion available and paid out $53 billion.
But the most eye-catching part of the Recovery Act is the construction projects along the nation’s highways.
Industry and government officials urge an impatient public to just hang on because the promised money already is generating many projects that are just starting or are being contracted. Rep. James L. Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who tracks much of the DOT’s stimulus as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said on June 25 that more than 4,000 highway and transit projects had been put out to bid, with some agencies exceeding their timetables.
“I am pleased with the progress that has been made in the first 120 days since enactment of the Recovery Act,” he said.
DOT Secretary Ray LaHood tells audiences the plan was always meant to see the stimulus projects — road resurfacing, bridge repairs, airport runway needs, even help by states to freight rail or ports — start paying out more heavily this summer.
In many states, a lot of the wait is now over. Even if the bills are paid out in coming weeks and months, work is under way.
In Iowa City, Iowa, a construction crew
STIMULUS SPENDING
■ Amount of money paid out versus that available as of June 19.
AGENCY FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE
Department of Transportation $19.005 billion
Department of Labor $20.517 billion
Department of Commerce $542 million
Department of Homeland Security $526 million
Army Corps of Engineers $378 million Source: Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION says the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is generating thousands of construction projects nationwide, but critics and even some defenders say the program is paying out too slowly to give the economy enough of a boost.
For once, both sides are right.
Traffic cones and lane-separation barrels are sprouting on highways and bridges nationwide as federal stimulus dollars collide with the main construction season.
As of June 26, the Federal Highway Administration’s stimulus programs alone were funding 1,738 road or bridge projects in 46 states, under contracts worth $5.36 billion.
That does not count money in the Department of Transportation’s pipeline that will target some airport, rail or transit operations. Nor does it count transportation-related spending on border facilities at the Department of Homeland Security, or harbor work by the Army Corps of Engineers.
But the administration’s main tracker of stimulus spending, the recovery.gov Web site, said by June 19 all of the DOT’s stimulus programs had made about $19 billion available for states to draw on, out of a total $48 billion the DOT can spend. At that point, it had paid out just under $370 million.
The DHS made $526 million available through June 19, and had paid out $19 million.
Meanwhile, the freight slump continues, with mild indications that it could be stabilizing at levels far below last year (Story, page 36), while the recession could be the worst since the Great Depression and unemploy-
As highway projects
accelerate, some say spending
needs to step on the gas
MONEY PAID OUT $370 million
$6.571 billion
$241 million
$19 million
$43 million
was recently working overnight on a local overpass bridge on Interstate 80. In Illinois and Indiana, crews on Interstates 74 and 70 were working on a Saturday morning.
And a driver going from Iowa to Washington, D.C., found lane closures for road or bridge repairs in every state along the way.
The DOT still has tens of billions more to make available for near-term stimulus projects. In addition, parts of the stimulus bill were designed to aid projects that could take years to complete.
The Federal Railroad Administration, for example, just issued guidelines to states so they can apply for grants, out of a separate $8 billion pot the Recovery Act set aside for high-speed rail.
“We are going to start taking applications in a matter of weeks,” with some pre-applications in July and most final ones by Aug. 24, an FRA spokesman said. Decisions on some might come within a few weeks afterward.
Some of that money will go into existing freight and passenger rail corridors, to add new Amtrak lanes or to speed up existing ones on tracks owned by major freight lines.
Although true high-speed corridors would take years of construction and require separating out passenger lanes from freight tracks, projects that would be approved to upgrade more traditional Amtrak routes could see some funds paid out this fall. JOC
Contact John Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.
For weekly reports on
stimulus spending levels, see
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/
investments-agency.
References:
Archives