Faster Better Safer: Americans for Transportation Mobility

August 3: Laborers rally for infrastructure jobs from Baltimore Sun

• Several hundred orange-shirted members of the Laborers International Union of North American rallied in Southwest Baltimore today to call for increased federal spending on infrastructure projects to help create jobs for its members and others.

July 28: Industry Reps Pitch for Infrastructure Spending from Rock Products

• Bill Schneider, president and CEO of Knife River, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure regarding the status of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Kevin Gannon, vice president Northeast Asphalt, also testified. Schneider testified in his capacity as chairman of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association. He spoke about the benefits to aggregates employees from ARRA stimulus money and to discuss the condition of America's infrastructure, construction unemployment numbers and the need for a long-term funding bill.

July 28: Administration favors tolling over fuel tax increase from Land Line Magazine

• U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Obama administration favors tolling and public-private partnerships over increasing the fuel tax to pay for transportation and infrastructure. LaHood told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that funding a long-term surface transportation bill, such as the one unveiled a year ago by T&I Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-MN, requires thinking "outside the box" in order to fund the estimated $450 billion to $500 billion price tag.

July 28: Stimulus Transportation Investments a Bright Spot from For Construction Pros

• The highway investments in the stimulus law have been a bright spot for a transportation construction industry hard hit by recession-induced cutbacks in state programs and decline in private sector work. But continued uncertainty about passage of a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill is hindering chances for a sustained economic recovery. That was the thrust of the message delivered by Kevin Gannon, vice president of Appleton, Wis.-based Northeast Asphalt, Inc., at a July 27 House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee hearing on implementation of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).