Lahood says Murray made the ‘right vote’ for the economy

U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood
said Wednesday that Democratic Sen. Patty Murray made a “tough vote” but
the “right vote to put people back to work” with the Obama
administration’s stimulus bill last year.

On Wednesday, LaHood and Murray were in Seattle to celebrate groundbreaking on the Mercer Corridor Project.
The $164 million Mercer project was able to move forward with a $30
million stimulus grant through the TIGER (Transportation Investments
Generating Economic Recovery) program, which Murray created as chair of
the transportation appropriations subcommittee. About $1.5 billion was
made available through the program, which was part of a larger $48
billion in stimulus money geared to get people back to work through
building transportation projects.

“If it wasn’t for the vote of Sen. Murray and Congressman Jim
McDermott to jump-start the economy, we wouldn’t have 14,000 projects in
America today. We would not be able to continue the president’s vision
for putting people to work, and we wouldn’t have had the TIGER program.
The TIGER program funded this and that’s why we’re here today,” said
LaHood, a moderate Republican congressman from Illinois before he was
tapped to join the administration.

“I know you’re all here to celebrate Mercer and I don’t blame you. It
is a mess. But I also want you to celebrate the extraordinary
leadership you have in Washington to keep people working in this
Washington,” he said.

Murray’s in a tight re-election bid with former Republican state Sen.
Dino Rossi, who has criticized Murray’s earmarks. Republicans have
blasted the Obama administration’s stimulus spending as Democrats appear
to lose ground on both the economy and the polls heading toward
November. In an attempt to stop the slide, Obama announced this week
another $50 billion plan for rebuilding America’s infrastructure and creating jobs.

The Mercer project is expected to support about 1,200 jobs. Another
highway project in Spokane received a $35 million TIGER grant. That
project is expected to support about 100 jobs.

– SeattlePI