The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been keeping track of how states are spending the stimulus funds allocated for roads. On September 2 the committee released a report ranking the states according to how much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for highways and bridges had been put to work as of July 31. This pdf file contains the state rankings. For each state, the chart shows the percentage of allocated funds for highway and bridge projects that had been put out to bid, were under contract, or were underway by the end of July. The top five states were Wyoming, Iowa, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

The national average was to have about 40 percent of the stimulus road money under contract and 32 percent funding construction that had already begun by the end of the July. Only 11 states had put even 50 percent of their stimulus road funds to work by that time.

Yesterday's report from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee doesn't explain why some states have allocated their stimulus money faster than others. The states near the bottom of the list (Hawaii, Virginia, Delaware, Ohio and Massachusetts) hadn't even spent 20 percent of their stimulus road funds as of July 31. Perhaps they are slow to approve projects and bids, or hoarding the cash to help support their 2010 budgets. Whatever the reason, the point of the stimulus bill was to get money into the economy quickly.

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Today Iowa Governor Chet Culver is taking a train tour to promote passenger rail in eastern Iowa, similar to a trip he took through western Iowa last month. He travels today from Iowa City through several small towns to Moline, Illinois, where the Quad Cities' passenger rail depot will be located. From there Culver will travel to Chicago for the Midwest High Speed Rail Summit on Monday.

The U.S. has ten high-speed rail corridors, and Business Week reported earlier this summer that the Midwestern and California corridors are well-positioned to receive some of the $8 billion in stimulus funds allocated for high-speed rail. A Federal Railroad Administration official spoke favorably of cooperation among eight midwestern governors, including Culver.

Competition for the stimulus rail funding will be stiff. The T4America blog reported last week that 40 states submitted a combined $102 billion in high-speed rail proposals for the $8 billion in stimulus funds. The overwhelming response from states prompted the House Appropriations Committee to allocate $4 billion toward high-speed rail in the coming year. The Obama administration had asked for $1 billion.

Republican Congressman Tom Latham (IA-04) tried to strip out $3 billion of the high-speed rail funding for more highway funds. However, the House on Thursday passed the fiscal year 2010 Transportation Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill by a vote of 256-168:

The spending bill passed by the House actually sets out $4 billion for high-speed rail, but Democratic officials expect to transfer half of that total to a national infrastructure bank that would give grants and make loans for large-scale transportation projects, another Obama priority.

"That is the most important transportation initiative since the Eisenhower interstate highway system," said Democratic Representative John Olver, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that wrote the bill.

Light rail projects are also expanding in many cities. At the annual meeting of 1000 Friends of Iowa yesterday, an official involved in planning a commuter rail project for Iowa City said it's currently hard to purchase train cars for light rail because of high demand nationwide.

Those who argue that we cannot afford to invest in passenger rail during an economic recession should read this piece by BruceMcF, one of the best transportation bloggers around.

Speaking of encouraging news, the Obama administration

has appointed Transportation for America Co-Chair Shelley Poticha to be Senior Advisor for Sustainable Housing and Communities at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the department announced today.

Poticha, who is also President and CEO of Reconnecting America, is expected to head a new HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities that would be created under legislation to be sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT).

"Shelley will help lead HUD's effort to change the way we think about how our communities fit with how Americans live their lives," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Her wealth of experience will help move us forward in creating sustainable, greener and smarter communities."

Poticha will represent HUD in an inter-agency effort to create sustainable communities involving the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation as well. The DOT and HUD announced joint plans to promote livable communities in March, and the EPA joined the effort in June.

Anyone interested in transportation policy should bookmark the Transportation for America coalition's blog.

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President Barack Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released a

blueprint for a new national network of high-speed passenger rail lines Thursday, saying such an investment is necessary to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.

The president's plan identifies 10 potential high-speed intercity corridors for federal funding, including California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, the Gulf Coast, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and New England.

It also highlights potential improvements in the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts.

The economic stimulus package included about $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, and Obama is seeking an additional $1 billion each year for high-speed rail in the next five federal budgets.

Matthew Yglesias would like to see the federal investment concentrated in the east coast corridors, where we know there is already demand for train service. But what do you expect from a New Yorker who went to college in Massachusetts and has lived in New York City or Washington ever since?

They say where you stand depends on where you sit, and from where I'm sitting, building high-speed rail linking major midwestern cities to Chicago seems like a worthwhile investment too. In addition to the economic benefits, energy usage and greenhouse-gas emissions would decline if large numbers of people started taking the train to Chicago instead of driving or flying from the cities in this corridor.

Yesterday eight Midwestern governors signed a letter to Secretary LaHood asking him to support the "Midwest Regional Rail Initiative," which

focuses on upgrading three existing routes by 2014 -- one between Chicago and St. Louis, one between Chicago and Madison, Wis., via Milwaukee and one between Chicago and Pontiac, Mich., through Detroit.

It's important to note that federal investment in passenger rail could affect cities that are not currently on any of the high-speed rail maps. In fact, the first round of stimulus money allocated to rail will

go to upgrading and increasing speeds on existing lines where people could quickly be put to work. The second and third phases would focus on high-speed rail planning and money to jump-start corridors not yet ready for construction. The Transportation Department is to announce first-round grants before the end of the summer.

Representative Bruce Braley (IA-01), who has pushed hard for funding passenger rail links to Iowa, issued a statement today praising Obama's rail initiative, adding that "the Chicago to Quad Cities and Chicago to Dubuque lines are shovel-ready rail projects that will create jobs and economic growth immediately." No doubt many other members of Congress will push projects in their own districts.

Competition for the stimulus rail funding will be fierce, but I wouldn't be surprised if LaHood's Illinois roots improved prospects for funding routes to Chicago.

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A House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing featuring two low-profile cabinet members won't make a splash even on a slow-news day, and certainly not when a juicy story like the AIG outrage has so many angles to explore.

But take my word for it: big news came out of yesterday's Congressional testimony by Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood. The cabinet secretaries announced

a new partnership to help American families gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs. The average working American family spends nearly 60 percent of its budget on housing and transportation costs, making these two areas the largest expenses for American families. Donovan and LaHood want to seek ways to cut these costs by focusing their efforts on creating affordable, sustainable communities.

I explain why this is important and welcome news after the jump.

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The White House released detailed information today on the $28 billion the stimulus bill directs toward highway construction. According to a press release (sorry, no link), the highway spending will "lead to 150,000 jobs saved or created by the end of 2010." An estimated 95,000 jobs would come from the "direct impact of building new roads and fixing old ones," while 55,000 jobs would come from "the economic activity generated when these new workers spend more than they would have otherwise."

It is also worth noting that jobs in highway construction tend to pay better than average. The typical, or median hourly wage for all jobs in the economy was $15.10 in 2007 according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But for workers in the highway industry, the typical hourly wage was $18.31, a premium of over $3 per hour over the economy-wide median wage.

Looking more closely at different types of jobs within the industry helps to explain the difference. The median wage of blue collar, or production workers--folks who do jobs like welding and mixing--comes to about $16 per hour in highway construction compared to about $13.50 in the overall economy.

This page at Recovery.gov has a map you can use to see how much money in highway funds will go to individual states. For instance, Iowa is slated to receive about $358 million, of which about $240 million can be used in any part of the state. The remaining money is to be allocated as follows: $10.7 million for "mandatory transportation enhancements," $20.8 million for use in urban areas, $73.2 million for use in suburban areas and $13.4 million for use in rural areas. (By the way, "'enhancement' is a legally defined term for projects such as sidewalk repairs, bicycle paths, and beautification projects.")

Decisions within each state on where to spend the money need to be made quickly:

Parts of the allocation are set aside to make sure that urban, suburban, and rural areas alike all get a share. But since local leaders -- mayors and governors -- know their communities best, much of the money is left to states' discretion. And if states don't use it, they lose it. To make sure that funds go out quickly to give our economy the jolt it needs, states have 120 days to assign the funds to specific projects.

As a rule, federal highway funds tend to go toward new road construction, but it would be better to direct the stimulus funds primarily toward fixing the roads and bridges we have. Repairing crumbling roads and bridges improves safety, the quality of life and property values in existing neighborhoods. Building new roads stimulates sprawl without solving traffic congestion problems.

Attempts to ease congestion with road-building have been only temporarily effective; communities that have built the most roads have had no more success in keeping congestion in check than areas that have not added much road capacity - and in some cases less. Automobile-oriented transportation is also expensive: most Americans spend more on transportation than on health care, education or food, and those costs are highest in the most sprawling metropolitan areas.

Most of us like to think of America as a land of choices. Yet in just about any community built in the last 50 years, when it comes to transportation there is only one choice: to own a car and use it for every single activity of the day.

Sprawling development also increases "vehicle miles traveled" per capita and consequently greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Spending stimulus highway money on a "fix-it-first basis" would not only be wise, but also popular. A national survey by Hart Research Associates, released last week, found that

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe restoring existing roads and bridges and expanding transportation options should take precedence over building new roads [...]

To accommodate future U.S. population growth, which is expected to increase by 100 million by 2050, Americans favor improving intercity rail and transit, walking and biking over building new highways. When asked what the federal government's top priority should be for 2009 transportation funding, half of all respondents recommended maintaining and repairing roads and bridges, while nearly one third said "expanding and improving bus, rail, and other public transportation." Only 16 percent said "expanding and improving roads, highways, freeways and bridges."

When asked about approaches to addressing traffic, 47 percent preferred improving public transportation, 25 percent chose building communities that encourage people not to drive, and 20 percent preferred building new roads. fifty-six percent of those surveyed believe the federal government is not devoting enough attention to trains and light rail systems, and three out of four favor improving intercity rail and transit.

Transportation for America, a new coalition of more than 225 organizations, has called on President Barack Obama and Congress to "launch a new federal transportation mission" when the federal transportation program comes up for reauthorization later this year. That will be a major battle in Congress. In the meantime, here's hoping most states with spend their stimulus money wisely and not on building every new road on developers' wish lists.