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The American Crisis in Transportation Coalition, formed earlier this year to call attention to deterioration in the U.S. transportation system, is calling on Congress to weigh job creation as lawmakers develop and consider the next long-term surface transportation bill.

Earlier this month, Congress passed a six-month extension of the current surface transportation law, which holds spending to current levels.

“While Congress ponders what to do with the next bill, unemployment remains at dangerously high levels, hovering around 9 percent,” said Frank Busalacchi, coalition chairman, in a prepared statement. “The next surface transportation bill could be a powerful tool to create good-paying jobs.”

Busalacchi stressed that the United States faces a $225 billion annual “shortfall” in transportation funding, according to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, of which Busalacchi is a member.

For every $1 billion of new transportation spending, an estimated 30,000 jobs are created, coalition officials said. The jobs range from engineers to project managers to equipment operators to highway line painters, they said.