White House photo by Chuck Kennedy Obama's infrastructure spending proposal would require approval from Congress, which didn't adopt similar plans he proposed last year. Related Links: Blog: Construction reax to SOTU White House transcript of State of the Union speech White House background document on SOTU proposals President Obama's State of the Union address included a further pitch for increased federal infrastructure spending, which he proposed to finance through savings gained from the military’s pullout from Iraq and pulling back from the Afghanistan war.Obama can take action on some of the many items he discussed in his Jan. 24 speech
The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline has suffered a major setback, with President Obama's Jan. 18 announcement that the State Dept. denied a permit for the $7-billion project.
Highways, transit and passenger rail are the big winners among construction programs in President Obama’s $3.7-trillion fiscal 2012 budget request, which calls for sharp increases in those sectors next year, kicking off a proposed $556-billion, six-year surface transportation bill. But many other major construction accounts would suffer cuts under Obama’s plan to help meet his goal of freezing overall non-security-related discretionary funding. Among programs that would be trimmed are Environmental Protection Agency water infrastructure, Army Corps of Engineers civil-works construction and General Services Administration new buildings construction. The Associated General Contractors calculates that the Obama budget seeks a total of
President Obama’s Labor Day call for a new transportation infrastructure program could move public-works spending closer to the national political debate’s front burner. So far, Obama and White House officials have offered only an outline that doesn’t specify how much they want to spend or precisely how the program would work. Photo: Ap/pablo Martinez Monsivals If the framework were converted to detailed legislative language, it would face a tough path on Capitol Hill this year. For one thing, Obama’s plan quickly drew harsh blasts from congressional Republicans. Moreover, the Hill is on a tight schedule: Only about three weeks remain
The Obama Administration’s decision to open up offshore oil and gas development in the Middle and Southern Atlantic states, new areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean is winning praise from oil and gas industry officials. They say the development could provide thousands of new jobs for contractors in those regions. On March 31, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said land in those offshore regions could be leased for oil and gas development beginning in 2012 if there is interest from industry and if development can be done in an environmentally responsible manner. Development off California’s coast
President Obama has proposed a $3.8-trillion budget for fiscal year 2011 that would freeze total "non-security" domestic discretionary spending--the category that includes most federal construction programs--and result in cutbacks in most of the key construction accounts. Photo: White House Obama, with OMB Director Peter Orszag (left) and deputy director Rob Nabors, seeks freeze in "non-security" spending Obama's proposal, transmitted to Congress on Feb. 1, does recommend boosting a few construction programs, including the federal-aid highway obligation ceiling. It also proposes a new, $4-billion "National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund," for transportation projects "of regional and national significance." Administration officials have
With uncertainty in the air about how rapidly Congress will move on an economic stimulus package, President-elect Barack Obama urged lawmakers to act as quickly as possible on his still-developing plan, warning that if they do not, the current crisis will only worsen. Photo: AP/Wideworld President-elect Obama presses for stimulus. In a Jan. 8 speech at George Mason University in Virginia, Obama fleshed out some of the elements of the developing plan in more detail than he has so far, and reiterated that it would include aid for highways, school repairs, modernization of federal buildings and a boost for alternative
