US Senators push for $60 billion construction aid

Monday, 24 October 2011 02:57:01 (GMT+2)

On Friday, Democrats in the US Senate pushed for a proposal to infuse $60 billion into the construction industry for infrastructure projects.  The effort was already defeated by Senate Republicans as part of President Obama's $447 billion American Jobs Act, complaining that financing the bill with raised taxes on the wealthy would actually hinder job creation.

Under the new Democrat plan, set for a Senate vote the first week of November, the construction projects would be paid for with a 0.7 percent surtax on Americans with incomes above $1 million a year, starting in 2013.  Of the $60 billion, $50 billion would be used for road, rail, air and bridge projects, and $10 billion would be used to create a national infrastructure bank that would leverage seed money for the largest initiatives, potentially attracting private investment.

"This legislation would create hundreds of thousands of construction jobs," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters. "There is no reason to block this bill."

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