As President Obama prepares to unveil a proposed jobs bill, a follow-up to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D), who, with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [R] and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg(I), co-chairs the pro-infrastructure group Building America's Future, is seeking to see the White House boost the proposal's public works funding to $100 billion.
In a Dec. 7 interview with ENR in Bloomberg's Washington office, Rendell proposed to obtain the additional infrastructure money through a transfer to the Highway Trust Fund from the general fund. It would in effect be an early installment of the eventual multi-year successor to the current highway-transit authorization measure, SAFETEA-LU. The general fund payment would be reimbursed when the reauthorization is enacted. Rendell also is pushing hard to see the jobs bill include an infrastructure bank plan.