Senate Passes Transportation Bill, Putting Pressure on House (GOP)

[Bill USA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/us/politics/senate-passes-transportation-bill-putting-pressure-on-house.html?_r=1&hp

WASHINGTON — The Senate easily approved a two-year, $109 billion transportation and infrastructure bill on Wednesday, putting pressure on House Republicans to set aside their stalled version and pass the Senate’s before the federal highway trust fund expires at the end of the month.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, extolled the measure, passed on a bipartisan vote of 74 to 22, as “a jobs bill in the true sense of the word.”

“I hope the House will take this up and not listen to this shrill voice that makes up so much of the Republican caucus in the House,” he said.

But the nearly three million jobs expected to be “saved or created” by the measure largely come from construction jobs that stand to be lost if federally financed projects grind to a halt April 1, when money from the highway trust fund could no longer be used.
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