Transportation bill signed into law
US President George W. Bush has signed a massive $286.5 billion transportation bill into law. The president, speaking at a Caterpillar Inc. plant in Illinois, praised the bill, saying it would relieve traffic congestion; save lives through stricter vehicle standards; and create a multitude of jobs over the next six years. Critics of the bill have lambasted it for being a pork barrel full of special interest projects for state senators seeking support in their hometown districts. The bill goes into effect for fiscal years 2004 to 2009 and contains over 6'000 special projects, which watchdog groups have decried as an unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars. Indeed, of the total amount, $24 billion has been earmarked for those special projects, a total Arizona Senator McCain, one of four senators who voted against the bill, labeled “egregious.” President Bush meanwhile reaffirmed the impact that the bill will have in helping people find work saying, “the bill I'm signing is going to help give hundreds of thousands of Americans good-paying jobs.” He also lauded the bill's provisions for creating better safety transportation safety standards, among them the creation of a safety standard for preventing vehicle rollovers by April 2009 and updating 34-year-old roof strength standards. Perhaps one the largest impacts the bill will have will be on the US steel industry. The bill contains a key provision that requires all transportation and construction projects use US steel. This is sure to make domestic steelmakers very happy given the sheer amount of materials they will be contracted to provide.