Groupe Chronos

With the bickering continuing in Washington, each chamber of Congress has finally made a decision on their version of the infamous U.S. Stimulus Bill. The tone of President Obama's discourses had become much more frank, "The time for talk is over," he warned. In what he described as the worst crisis since the 1930's, the American people and the world were waiting for action. After weeks of arguing over unfathomable numbers, the Senate passed a $838bn stimulus package Tuesday. After reconciling that with a $819bn House proposal, the House and Senate have agreed on a $787bn package (NYT details). But hey, what's $24 billion among friends?

What some feared it might not be was: public transportation. Skeptics were critical that the Stimulus package might not incite the sweeping changes they envisioned coming from the Yes-We-Can President. Those in the transportation sector were holding their breath as each day their budgetary jewels for sustainable transit were on the chopping block. Transportation expert and CEO of GoLoco.org, Ms. Robin Chase explains, "The worst part is that we don't really know what will be in the [final] Stimulus Bill. It has been changing hour by hour, in a very nerve wracking way: more [funds for] highway, less transit, money moved into 'transportation' without saying what it needs to be for."

However, in the end there were some surprises. GreenBusiness.com is reporting that "all of the green measures included in the Senate version of Barack Obama's economic stimulus package have been retained. In addition to these explicitly green measures, $8.4bn has been pledged to mass transit projects" and a quadrupling of money for high-speed rail projects to $8 billion. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania introduced a high-speed rail bill in the fall and Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, co-sponsored that bill. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times reported that, "The addition was cheered by transit advocates, who had been dismayed that the stimulus deal included only $8.4 billion for mass transit. 'After decades of looking on with envy at efficient bullet trains overseas, American high-speed rail is finally leaving the station,' John Krieger of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said in a statement."

The result might even be better than those in the transportation sector could have imagined. Jeff Berman of Logistics Management explains, "It looks like the final amount of spending for highway, bridge—and rail—construction projects may be higher than what was originally proposed by both the House and Senate, according to a Washington Post report, which indicated that $49.6 billion would go toward these projects—which is an increase of more than $3.5 billion from the Senate's proposal."

Critics still claim the House proposal would create more jobs. While others claim that without a drastic change in policy all proposals discussed still just a gift for the auto industry. Supporting that theory was a $3.2 billion last minute tax break for the failing auto giant General Motors. "General Motors and Chrysler received a multi-billion dollar federal bailout in December to prevent them from collapsing. The stimulus bill also includes limits on pay and bonuses for executives of companies that have received rescue money from the Treasury's financial system bailout program. The caps would apply not only to companies that get help in the future, but also to those that already accepted bailout money," Herszenhorn continued.

Of course, nothing is set in stone until President Obama is puts his "John Hancock" on a finalized version of the bill. A large quantity of resources do appear to be poised to flow in the direction of US transit. The question then remains, will the US go so far as to adopt a two-thirds green and one third black policy, or will they invent their own road towards sustainable transportation?