'Well-targeted' transportation investments will accelerate economic recovery, Bipartisan Policy Center says (1/24/2011)
1/24/2023The Bipartisan Policy Center recently released a report by two members of its national transportation policy project who called on Congress and the Obama Administration to change their approach to transportation policy.
In the report, titled "Strengthening Connections Between Transportation Investments and Economic Growth," authors Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Martin Wachs concluded that no new funds should be allocated to existing transportation programs if they provide “questionable” job creation, unclear long-term benefits or if the programs are an effort only to increase short-term employment.
The pair also recommended that investments should go toward "shovel-ready" projects only.
"Despite what has long been argued, investments in transportation infrastructure are not guaranteed to create jobs and simultaneously grow the economy," the authors said in a prepared statement. "We must ruthlessly focus on economic growth, immediately and in the future."
In addition, the authors recommended that federal transportation investments should not be "constrained by the silos and restrictions that dominate the federal government’s existing surface transportation program."
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News