Congressman explains state's piece of stimulus
Adam Sacasa
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: News
Illinois is expected to receive $8.8 billion from the recently passed stimulus bill for use on improvements to roads, education funding and other building projects.
"There's an old adage," said 17th District Congressman Phil Hare. "If you're heading towards a cliff at 100 mph, you don't need more time, you need a change in direction. We passed an economic stimulus bill tailored very much after what the president wanted."
With 2 million homes either in foreclosure or ready to go into foreclosure, Hare and others felt the need to do something.
With the bill, $69 billion will go into infrastructure for "shovel-ready" projects, meaning the preliminary work and permits must be completed within 120 days or they will lose their funding.
The bill also leaves the No Child Left Behind program fully funded.
"We were putting a lot of regulations on schools, and our teachers were testing instead of being able to teach. They were having to take money out of programs like the arts and sciences and P.E. in order to pay for it," Hare said.
Locally, Macomb schools will receive $635,000 in funding. Vocational education, which had no funding under the Bush administration, gets reinstated, while $12 billion was also allocated in order to make schools more "green."
For students receiving a Pell Grant, there will be an additional $500 for each student.
Alleviating the nation's healthcare issues still remains a major problem the bill aims to tackle. Doctors will receive $2.9 billion to help with the late payments with Medicaid. The National Institute of Health also will receive $11.1 billion after being vetoed any funding under the previous administration.
Transportation that students use, like railways and highways, will also be seeing improvements.
"I am a huge supporter of Amtrak and passenger rail," Hare said. He originally proposed $500 million in funding for passenger rail.
"I found out that at 1:00 a.m., someone beat me to it and put an $8 billion dollar addition for high-speed rail, so they knocked out my $500 million. I don't mind losing that battle," Hare said.
U.S. Highway 136 will receive $350,000 and Route 67 will get $3,350,000 in funding for resurfacing.
"We're not going to see tons of big companies come back again," Hare said. One thing he hopes to see is the expanding of the rail industry, which will help create jobs for the area with American-made projects.
One issue brought up by the passage of the stimulus bill is whether or not to accept the money.
"I think that's foolish," Hare said. "I said, 'Look, if you don't want 'em, I'll take 'em, because I've got this university, the city, these highways, all these different projects."
"I want to see all these projects ready to go. I want to see people working and to get this area stimulated again," Hare said.
"There's an old adage," said 17th District Congressman Phil Hare. "If you're heading towards a cliff at 100 mph, you don't need more time, you need a change in direction. We passed an economic stimulus bill tailored very much after what the president wanted."
With 2 million homes either in foreclosure or ready to go into foreclosure, Hare and others felt the need to do something.
With the bill, $69 billion will go into infrastructure for "shovel-ready" projects, meaning the preliminary work and permits must be completed within 120 days or they will lose their funding.
The bill also leaves the No Child Left Behind program fully funded.
"We were putting a lot of regulations on schools, and our teachers were testing instead of being able to teach. They were having to take money out of programs like the arts and sciences and P.E. in order to pay for it," Hare said.
Locally, Macomb schools will receive $635,000 in funding. Vocational education, which had no funding under the Bush administration, gets reinstated, while $12 billion was also allocated in order to make schools more "green."
For students receiving a Pell Grant, there will be an additional $500 for each student.
Alleviating the nation's healthcare issues still remains a major problem the bill aims to tackle. Doctors will receive $2.9 billion to help with the late payments with Medicaid. The National Institute of Health also will receive $11.1 billion after being vetoed any funding under the previous administration.
Transportation that students use, like railways and highways, will also be seeing improvements.
"I am a huge supporter of Amtrak and passenger rail," Hare said. He originally proposed $500 million in funding for passenger rail.
"I found out that at 1:00 a.m., someone beat me to it and put an $8 billion dollar addition for high-speed rail, so they knocked out my $500 million. I don't mind losing that battle," Hare said.
U.S. Highway 136 will receive $350,000 and Route 67 will get $3,350,000 in funding for resurfacing.
"We're not going to see tons of big companies come back again," Hare said. One thing he hopes to see is the expanding of the rail industry, which will help create jobs for the area with American-made projects.
One issue brought up by the passage of the stimulus bill is whether or not to accept the money.
"I think that's foolish," Hare said. "I said, 'Look, if you don't want 'em, I'll take 'em, because I've got this university, the city, these highways, all these different projects."
"I want to see all these projects ready to go. I want to see people working and to get this area stimulated again," Hare said.
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