GOP leader: HSR funds won’t go for roads
Written by jrood
Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), who is expected to chair the House Highways Subcommittee of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in the next Congress in 2011, is quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that high-speed rail funds being returned to Washington by Ohio and Wisconsin most likely will be recycled to high-speed rail projects elsewhere.
Wisconsin’s Republican
Governor-elect Scott Walker, who said he will kill a high-speed rail project in
his state, had said he wanted to use the $810 million in federal funds
allocated for HSR to road projects instead. Walker said he intends to kill a
proposed high-speed rail project intended to link Milwaukee with Madison.
A similar desire has been
voiced by Ohio Republican Governor-elect John Kasich, who said he intends to
kill a proposed high-speed rail project linking Cincinnati, Columbus and
Cleveland, and return to Washington some $400 million in federal funds intended
for that HSR project.
The Journal-Sentinel quoted
Petri as saying he supports the shift in funds to highway projects, but that
such a plan is unlikely to prevail in Congress – that "if Wisconsin
decides not to use [the money] … the normal course of events would be rebid
and [it would go to] New York or California or one of the [other] states."
Separately, Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood on Nov. 9 told Kasich in a Nov. 9 letter that "none
of those funds may be used for anything other" than a high-speed rail
project.
In defending federal seed
money for high-speed rail projects, LaHood said the DOT already has
"obtained commitments from more than 30 foreign-rail manufacturers to
locate their bases of operations in the United States so we can restart idled
manufacturing plants in Ohio and other states and put our skilled workers back
on the job. I believe that Ohio manufacturers could benefit greatly as we build
train sets and tracks."
