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[Page: S482]  GPO's PDF
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   Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, for the past 6 months Congress has been discussing the best ways to stimulate the economy. Even though we are no longer working on an economic stimulus bill, we face a real crisis that will negatively affect our economy. We face unprecedented losses to our highway program. Every state will lose money.

   If we want to create true stimulus and maintain jobs for our citizens then there is an easy solution. Highways. For every $1 billion dollars that goes into the highway program, 42,000 jobs are created. In an attempt to address unemployment concerns and immediate stimulus to the country's economy, I, along with others on the Environment and Public Works Committee, propose an increase in obligation authority for the fiscal year 2003. This would restore the authorized levels for that fiscal year. It doesn't get us all the way there, but it's a start.

   This is about jobs. Skilled and unskilled jobs in highway construction are well-paid. These jobs would provide employment opportunities for workers who have lost manufacturing jobs, with minimal training requirements. In addition current jobs will not be lost in many of the supplier and heavy equipment manufacturing industries. This is money that can be spent quickly by state DOTs. Fast spending means fast jobs. Both state DOTs and contractors confirm that money can be spent and jobs maintained within the first 6 months. Without restoring TEA 21 levels, over 360,000 jobs will be lost.

   There is $20.5 billion in the Highway Trust Fund. We can afford at least the $4.369 billion from that balance to be distributed over the next year. In fact, we can't afford not to.

   This extra $4.369 billion begins to take care of this huge problem that we face. It is a problem that we addressed the other day in the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on TEA 21 reauthorization . We are looking at a highway program that is $9 billion lower for FY 2003 than it was in FY 2002. For my state of Montana that means a $79 million loss to our highway program. And in Montana, highways are our lifeblood. We need the highways and we need the jobs created from new highway funding. Also, we can't afford to lose any highway-related jobs because of this under funding.

   We passed a six year highway bill for a reason. So states knew how much was coming in from year to year. My State Department of Transportation is counting on at least the TEA 21 level.

   Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was at that hearing I just mentioned. And when I pressed him about this extra obligation authority for highways, his response was that highway money is good economic stimulus.

   In conclusion, I propose that we give States at least what they were expecting for highway projects in fiscal year 2003. They say there is no such thing as an easy fix, but let me tell you--this idea comes as close as any.

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