Ed. Note: Cross-posted from Fast Lane, the blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama called on Congress to do what it has done seven times over the past two years: pass a clean extension of the transportation bill.
Allowing funding for America's roads and bridges to expire would be disastrous for our nation's economy, costing nearly one million construction workers their jobs over the next year, furloughing 4,000 transportation professionals, and losing almost $1 billion in revenue after the first ten days alone.
According to a new report from the National Economic Council, a lapse in the federal program that supports road, bridge, and transit work would jeopardize more than 140,000 active projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs. As the President said, "Those are serious consequences, and the pain will be felt all across the country. In Virginia, 19,000 jobs are at risk. In Minnesota, more than 12,000. And in Florida, over 35,000 people could be out of work if Congress doesn’t act."
Fonte: White House