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DOT announces transit grants
The Department of Transportation will distribute almost a billion dollars in public-transit funding, officials announced Monday.
DOT said it was awarding $932 million in grants from the Federal Transit Administration’s Alternatives Analysis, Bus Livability, and State of Good Repair program, which was included in the FTA's 2011 budget.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised the investment, but said it was just a start. Congress should also pass President Obama's proposed American Jobs Act, he said, which includes $50 billion in transportation spending.
"Investing in America’s transit systems, rails, roads, ports, and airports will generate tens of thousands of construction-related jobs and put more money in the pockets of working Americans," LaHood said in a statement released by the department.
FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff said the money would primarily be used to improve bus service in cities and rural areas.
"These grant funds will make sure that bus service in our communities remains reliable and desirable while putting thousands of Americans to work at the same time,” Rogoff said in a statement.
Rogoff also pushed for Congress to pass the jobs act.
“By passing the American Jobs Act, Congress can accelerate these efforts and give the American people the opportunity to keep more of their paycheck in their wallet rather than hand it over at the gas pump," he said.
The Senate recently voted down the president's $447 billion Jobs Act proposal, but Obama said Monday during a campaign stop in North Carolina that he expected Congress to vote on the separate proposals that compose the plan.
"Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing, so we're going to break it up into bite-sized pieces," Obama said in Asheville, N.C.
