Good news for the struggling construction industry – the Senate has approved funding for extensive work the national highway system, promising tens of thousands of jobs.
The Senate-approved bill allocates over $109 billion in the next two years towards highway construction projects across the country, significantly higher than Obama’s proposed bill of $57 billion, and on a much faster timeline. Much of the funds from Obama’s bill wouldn’t be paid out until 2022, while the Senate-led bill will put struggling construction crews to work in the next few years.
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The bill couldn’t come at a better time for the construction industry, which lost another 20,000 jobs in October and is seeing unemployment rates above 13.7 percent.
The bill was inspired by the killing of Jason Rivenburg in March of 2009, after he pulled to the side of a road to sleep because it was too early to make the delivery in his truck. Dubbed ‘Jason’s Law’, the bill aims to improve the shortage of long-term parking for commercial vehicles, with road and bridgework across the nation’s highway system.
