The Obama Administration is set to announce a new jobs bill and state officials are clamoring to get their hands on some of the $69 billion the federal government is dedicating to the next batch of stimulus-related infrastructure projects.
"The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials identified 9,500 "ready-to-go" highway, bridge, transit, port, rail and aviation projects that it says will create hundreds of thousands of jobs - much like the list of "shovel-ready" projects that the association pushed in the run-up to the $787 billion stimulus bill Mr. Obama signed in February.
Last time, state officials requested $64 billion in infrastructure spending but were allotted $34.3 billion, about 4 percent of the $787 billion.
In the nine months since the last stimulus went into effect, work has begun on 7,886 projects totaling $18.6 billion, about 54 percent of the total funds available, according to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee."
FULL STORY: States vie for $69B in infrastructure funds

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