Addressing participants at AASHTO's Washington Briefing Tuesday, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) a member of the Senate Finance Committee said his recent push to get infrastructure spending included in the economic stimulus package was an "eye opening" experience, demonstrating the need for allies at all levels of government.

Last month, Wyden and 22 of his Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle signed a letter urging Congress and the Bush administration to include "significant" funding for infrastructure projects in the stimulus package. Their attempt was unsuccessful. President Bush signed a $168 billion stimulus package last month that will send rebate checks of $600 to $1200 to 130 million households this May.

Opponents of funding infrastructure through the stimulus package argued that the projects would take too long to implement. Wyden disagreed and on Tuesday, he thanked AASHTO for helping to compile a list of more than 3,000 highway projects, worth a total of $18 billion, in 46 states that could have been started within 90 days. "It became clear to me that in areas like road resurfacing and other projects that were ready to go, you could spend the money significantly more quickly than the rebate checks would arrive," Wyden said.

Wyden described last month's debate on the stimulus bill as being "representative of the challenges we face in the days ahead. We're going to have to make sure that we have allies at every place on the political spectrum; the executive branch and legislative branches, all places; because right now there is an intense competition for resources."

Wyden also gave the roughly 200 state transportation leaders attending the event an update on the proposed "Build America Bonds" legislation, a $50 billion bond initiative for infrastructure projects co-sponsored by Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) "This is not a substitute for fixing the Highway Trust Fund, but it would provide new money on top of regular transportation funding. It is money that can be controlled and used by the states to fund the projects they consider most critical," Wyden said.

"We've got traffic jams in parts of this country where people don't get to see their families for hours on end because they are sitting in traffic. Transportation relates to our quality of life and to the economy. This is absolutely essential if we're going to have the bright economic future that we want for our country. And at the end of the day I don't think you can have big league quality of life ... with little league transportation systems," Wyden said.

Wyden spoke at the AASHTO Washington Briefing, a week-long conference to inform officials from departments of transportation from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico about critical transportation issues facing the nation.

• AASHTO News