Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today urged the Senate to approve legislation aimed at creating jobs by investing in our nation's roads and bridges.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Bingaman said it was disappointing that Republican-led filibusters killed President Obama's comprehensive jobs bill and a smaller version of it that would have supported teacher and public safety jobs. But, he said, the Senate has the opportunity tomorrow to pass another version of the jobs bill that invests in our nation's infrastructure.

The Rebuild America Jobs Act would provide $50 billion in infrastructure investments in highway, transit, and rail projects across the country while creating thousands of jobs. Passage of this legislation would mean at least $284 million in immediate investments for highways ($245 million) and public transit ($39 million) in New Mexico that would support a minimum of 3,700 local jobs. These resources are greatly needed in New Mexico to help stimulate economic development. According to the Federal Highway Administration, about 22 percent of New Mexico's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 19 percent of our bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

"Among other things, this bill would put Americans to work in improving 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of train tracks, restoring 150 miles of runways, and in implementing air traffic modernization efforts to improve air safety and reduce delays," Bingaman said.

Additionally, the bill to be voted on tomorrow includes $10 billion to establish an independent National Infrastructure Bank to leverage private and public funds in advancing a broad range of infrastructure projects through loans and loan guarantees. Under this proposal, which is modeled off of a bipartisan proposal Senators Kerry and Hutchison introduced earlier this year, the bank would help finance large-scale transportation, water, and energy projects that are of national or regional significance.

Bingaman pointed out that the bill is paid for a by a .7 percent surtax on income exceeding $1 million.

"In New Mexico, less than .1% of taxpayers would be affected by this modest surtax – that means that 99.9% of New Mexicans wouldn't be impacted at all and the handful of filers who would be impacted would only have to pay this surtax on the portion of their income that exceeds one million dollars. I strongly believe the Rebuild America Jobs Act is an important step in turning our economy around and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation," Bingaman said.