Joliet Herald-News
July 14, 2005
Funding projects: Lawmakers seek federal cash; Will, Grundy factor in
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON &emdash; As Congress prepares to wrap up long-stalled transportation spending legislation, Illinois' delegation appears ready to reap hundreds of projects, including some tentative ones of national significance that for years have been only the subject of dreams.
Locally, projects that could receive funding in the final transportation bill include widening of Interstate 55 from Bolingbrook to Gardner, U.S. 30 improvements, a commuter parking lot at Joliet's Union Station and the proposed Brisbin Road interchange with Interstate 80 in Grundy County.
House and Senate conferees working on a conference report to resolve differences between their chambers are expected to reach an agreement this month, likely paving the way for final legislative passage and President Bush's signature this summer.
Possible projects include construction along Interstate 70 in southern Illinois and a new western access road to help with the modernization of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
The last six-year highway funding plan was scheduled to expire last year, but has received numerous extensions while lawmakers and the White House have argued what the total spending should be. The extensions have allowed states, such as Illinois, to continue to budget for what dollars they received in the past.
The House last March approved $284 billion for the nation's transportation needs, including nearly $600 million in earmarks for 253 Illinois projects. It also set aside $6 billion for projects of national significance, called megaprojects, that Illinois lawmakers planned to compete for with other states during closed-door conferee talks.
The Senate passed its $295 billion transportation bill in May, but provided no detailed breakdown for what specific projects would benefit, saying that would be handled in the final negotiations with House conferees.
Congressional aides say the White House has agreed to accept a bill that would spend $286.5 billion nationally over the six-year-period ending in September 2009.
Lawmakers in action
Illinois' only Senate conferee, freshman Democrat Barack Obama, said even though the House bill has hundreds of Illinois-specific projects, it is uncertain how many will get funding. He said the Senate eventually will have its own earmarks to offer and they may not be the same as those in the House bill. Furthermore, the number of local earmarks nationwide will determine how much money is available for the megaprojects.
"They're so big that not all of them make it on the list," Obama said.
Among the large projects Obama says Illinois should have as top priorities are a new Mississippi River bridge in the St. Louis metro area, O'Hare's western access road, and a Chicago-area infrastructure project to loosen the national freight rail bottleneck there.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert &emdash; a Yorkville Republican who is not a conferee, but whose force in the negotiations cannot be denied &emdash; also has a pet megaproject that would partly be in his district and involve building a new road in northern Illinois connecting Interstates 80 and 88.
Rep. Jerry Costello, a Belleville Democrat who is a conferee and a key member of the House Transportation Committee, is a leading advocate of the bridge, but only gave it an uphill chance because the overall transportation bill is not expected to total $300 billion, and therefore there will be much competition for available money.
Hastert influence
Steve Ellis, a vice president for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based nonpartisan watchdog group that has been critical of earmark appropriations, has little doubt that Hastert can get whatever large projects he really wants.
"I can't imagine the speaker will not take care of himself and take care of the state," he said. "I think Denny Hastert is the person who's going to carry the water of the megaprojects."
Hastert spokesman Brad Hahn said his boss does not want to be seen as overpromising and there would be no comment on what Hastert will bring to the state until it becomes law.
7/14/05