Senate: Outlook Dim for Democrats’ Stimulus Package

As the Senate began a lame duck session, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Nov. 17 proposed a $100.3-billion economic-stimulus bill, with about $23 billion for infrastructure work. But in a sign that the plan faces long odds, Reid also said he has a smaller backup plan, without public-works aid.

The $100.3-billion bill has $10 billion for highways, $2.5 billion for transit, $2.5 billion for wastewater treatment and drinking-water projects, $2.5 billion for schools and $900 million for Corps of Engineers civil works.

Some Republicans, cool toward a public-works stimulus, may block the bill. Reid’s Plan B only has an extension for unemployment benefits and $25 billion in loans to auto�makers. President-elect Barack Oba�ma says a stimulus bill will be his first act on taking office.

Pam Hunter McFarland was a Senior Editor of ENR and her expertise was: Sourcebooks, Environment, Labor

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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