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Yesterday, President Obama urged Congress to pass the transportation portion of the American Jobs Act, which would immediately provide $50 billion for transportation infrastructure projects and allocate $10 billion for a National Infrastructure Bank.

“Construction workers have been among the Americans hit hardest over the past few years, and that makes no sense when there's so much of America that needs rebuilding,” Obama said in a prepared statement. “This week, Congress has the chance to do something about it and pass a bill that will put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems.”

The Obama administration released a report to highlight the importance of rebuilding the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The report highlights rail, highway and airport projects in a number of states.

The administration also announced several “common-sense steps” it’s taken to improve the process of reviewing and approving transportation projects, such as by helping to cut red tape and leverage additional private-sector funding. The steps include:

• directing the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to award $527 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program grants by year’s end, months ahead of schedule;

• directing the USDOT to shorten the application process for the 2012 round of Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program funding to accelerate projects (TIFIA provides up to one-third of the financing needed for bridge, tunnel, toll, transit and other large-scale transportation projects); and

• establishing a Transportation Rapid Response Team to expedite reviews of surface transportation projects. Co-chaired by the Council on Environmental Quality and USDOT, the team will identify and implement best practices to improve the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of environmental review and permit decisions for transportation projects, said Obama.