Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Talks About the $50B Piece of The Stimulus Bill Pie
Wednesday, February 11, 2009PAUL KANGAS: The stimulus bill could be a godsend for heavy equipment maker Caterpillar. The company said today, if the bill is passed it could rehire some of the 20,000 workers it's been forced to lay off. $50 billion in that bill is headed for transportation projects. So Stephanie Dhue caught up with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at the White House and asked him how Caterpillar could benefit.
RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: If the stimulus works and people that build roads and bridges buy off-the-road equipment from Caterpillar, people are going to go back to work. I don't know what the number is, but I think the fact that they've said it is a pretty extraordinary statement. And it's got to give hope to the people that have been laid off.
STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Now if the stimulus works, there's a lot of debate about whether it will work and whether it is stimulative enough. There's $50 billion for transportation projects, but there's also a lot of things in there that aren't stimulative like an extension of the AMT patch.
LAHOOD: Look it, from my point of view as the secretary of Transportation, I know from meeting with 43 secretaries of Transportation from around the country today they tell me they have projects that are ready to go. We have to get them the money. It will be done by the book. No shortcuts. And people will go to work. This is the first leg of the stool. It's a big, a big leg. But it's only the first leg.
DHUE: How can you be sure these transportation projects will be productive, that we don't have bridges to nowhere?
LAHOOD: Because first of all, we've said there's going to be a lot of transparency, everything will be up on the web site here at the White House, where the money is going, how many jobs. And we've been told by these 43 secretaries of Transportation today these projects have been sitting on a shelf in their offices because they haven't had the money to fund them. They get it here. These folks really get it. And they've told us that they have very worthwhile projects that will put people to work.
DHUE: How quickly really can you get the money out the door, the people to work, the projects going? Some people have said it's going to take two to three years to get some of these things going.
LAHOOD: We did not hear one complaint today from any of the 43.
DHUE: You don't often hear complaints where you're handing out tax dollars.
LAHOOD: No, but the purpose of the meeting really today was to say can you get this done in the time frames? To a person, they said absolutely.
DHUE: And we're less than a week away from the auto makers having to report their progress. Car sales are worse than they were before. Aren't they going to have to ask for more money?
LAHOOD: Look, if they just started receiving their money, you know, right at the first of the year and obviously they have certain requirements that they have to meet. We have the highest unemployment we've had in a long time. There are a lot of people out of work. When you're out of work, you're not going to be buying a car. If we put people back to work they'll have the ability eventually to buy cars. You know, that's longer term.
DHUE: We've been speaking with Ray LaHood, Transportation secretary. Thank you.
LAHOOD: Thank you.
