Jim Inhofe: “The bill offers an increased ability to use innovative financing methods. Out in California and in Texas, they have been…”

“The bill offers an increased ability to use innovative financing methods. Out in California and in Texas, they have been able to do some things where they have convinced us they get many more miles and much more local participation by the public-private partnership, by the TIFIA rule, and it is something that we would not be able to do nationwide if we do not get this bill and we just operate on an extension. There are a lot of people who are very concerned about a provision in our bill that is called the Safe Routes to School. I know the Senator from Vermont has been interested in that. This is something where we would be talking about saving young lives. Right now, the provision is not there. So if we have an extension, it is merely an extension of TEA-21, the one that we have been operating under for the last 7 years. If we are not able to pass this bill, then the States will continue to have uncertainty in planning, thereby delaying projects and negatively impacting jobs. The Senator from Missouri commented that for each $1 billion spent, it provides 47,000 new jobs. So this would easily be the biggest jobs bill probably in the history of America. But if we operate on an extension, there can be no planning. There is not going to be the construction. The Senator from Missouri is from a northern State and so is the Senator from Vermont. In Oklahoma, though, our construction time is longer than it is in Vermont, and it is actually longer than it is in the State of Missouri.…”