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Secretary LaHood Endorses Feingold Plan to Cut Unspent Earmarks to Save Taxpayer Dollars
Washington, D.C. – During a Senate Budget Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold asked Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood about several key issues including helping Wisconsin businesses compete for high-speed rail projects and ways to reduce the deficit by cutting wasteful earmarks.
Helping Wisconsin Businesses Compete for High-Speed Rail Projects
Feingold pressed Secretary LaHood to look for ways to help small businesses in Wisconsin participate in the construction of the high speed rail project, which recently received $822 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), better known as the stimulus. Feingold supported Wisconsin’s application for the stimulus funding, which will be used to extend passenger rail service from Milwaukee to Madison, improve the current line between Milwaukee and Chicago and study a possible future line from Madison to the Twin Cities. Feingold urged LaHood to look for ways to ensure that contracts for large construction projects paid for by the stimulus benefit local small businesses in Wisconsin, possibly by breaking them into smaller pieces, in order to best fulfill the promise of job creation. LaHood indicated he would look for ways that the DOT could place an emphasis on making these contracts open to small local businesses as the terms of the awards are negotiated with the states.
“With $822 million in stimulus funds behind it, the high speed rail project holds incredible potential for Wisconsin’s economy and Wisconsin jobs,” Feingold said. “I want to be sure this project is benefiting Wisconsin as much as possible, including making sure Wisconsin businesses can compete for the variety of construction jobs that go into expanding high speed rail. Not only will this help Wisconsin’s economy, it will also protect taxpayers by ensuring there are more bids and lower bids for the construction projects.”
Feingold followed up on this issue in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, encouraging them to look for ways to ensure local small businesses can compete for all ARRA contracts.
Watch the exchange here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nodnfEd8gAg
LaHood Endorses Feingold Proposal to Cut Unspent Earmarks to Save Taxpayer Dollars
Secretary LaHood announced the administration’s support for a Feingold proposal to rescind federal funding for earmarks that have gone unobligated for a decade. President George Bush’s FY 2009 budget proposed rescinding $626 million in highway earmarks that were over a decade old and had less than ten percent of the funding utilized. Feingold expanded that concept to rescind these dormant earmarks across all federal agencies as part of his Control Spending Now Act, legislation to slash the deficit by one half trillion dollars by cutting wasteful programs.
“We are supportive of your proposal,” said LaHood, who said that his agency is identifying millions in earmarks for this purpose.
Watch the exchange here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8EQcNv8Bbg
Earmark Reform
Feingold pressed further on the issue of earmarks by highlighting the Section 5309 program, which supplies funding for states to purchase buses and bus facilities. The program is typically completely earmarked, rather than allocating funds on the merits of the projects. Wisconsin has been responsible and typically received a state-wide allocation that is distributed on need, while in most other states, these funds are not distributed based on merit or need. Feingold requested the creation of a formula or competitive program to replace the current system, and suggested the new formula be modeled after Wisconsin’s system.
“We will do that and we will certainly look at your proposal,” LaHood said. “There were no earmarks for our portion of the economic recovery. We did it on a competitive basis. We know we can do it, it’s the best way to do things, it’s the fairest way to do things. And we hope that working with all of you under authorization we can find that path forward.”
