One might call the Obama stimulus package the "great bait and switch". What do I mean? When the American public endorsed the stimulus package in October, the stock market had just collapsed, comparisons were being drawn to the great depression, and a sense of nostalgia for Roosevelt's "new deal" had swept widely across the country. There was much talk of the "new, new deal" being loaded with public works and infrastructure investment to rebuild America's physical economy. But, what actually was delivered to the public by Congress this week is not what everyone had been expecting. According to an analyst at ENR, the overall infrastructure and construction spending component of the $787B stimulus package just approved by Congress is actually less than 20% of the total!

Here is how it breaks down according to ENR:

TRANSPORTATION [$49.3 billion]

• Highways: $27.5 billion
• Transit: $8.4 billion
• New discretionary grant program: $1.5 billion for highways, transit, rail, seaports, other projects. U.S. Dept. of Transportation will choose which projects will be funded.
• Airport Improvement Program construction grants: $1.1 billion
• Rail: $9.3 billion, including $1.3 billion for Amtrak, $8 billion for high-speed rail
• Port, transit, rail security: $300 million
• DHS/Transportation Security Administration: $1 billion to procure, install airport explosives-detection, baggage-scanning equipment
• Coast Guard, bridge alterations: $142 million
• Coast Guard, acquisition, construction, improvements: $98 million

DEFENSE/VETERANS [$7.8 billion]

• VA: $1.25 billion for hospital and other medical facility construction and upgrades
• DOD: $4.24 billion for "facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization," includes energy-efficiency improvements, plus repair and modernization of DOD buildings, including medical facilities.
• DOD: $2.33 billion for facilities projects, including housing, hospitals, child-care centers, other military "quality-of-life" projects.

HOUSING/HUD [$9.6 billion]

• HUD Public Housing Capital Fund: $4 billion
• HUD redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes: $2 billion
• HUD energy retrofits, "green" projects in HUD-assisted housing projects: $250 million
• HUD Community Development Block Grants (housing, services, infrastructure): $1 billion
• HOME investment partnerships: $2.25 billion
• Lead-paint abatement: $100 million

ENERGY [$30.6 billion]

• Electricity grid, including "Smart-Grid" activities: $11 billion
• Home-weatherization assistance: $5 billion
• Energy-efficiency and conservation grants: $6.3 billion
• Renewable-energy loan guarantees: $6 billion
• Carbon-capture-and-sequestration demonstration projects: $1.52 billion
• Clean Coal Power Initiative, round III: $800 million

BUILDINGS [$13.4 billion]

• GSA federal buildings, energy-efficiency upgrades: $4.5 billion
• Border stations, ports of entry: $300 million
• Facilities on federal and tribal lands: $3.1 billion
• Fire stations (federal grants): $210 million
• GSA new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters: $450 million
• GSA U.S. courthouses, other federal buildings: $300 million
• Agriculture Dept. bldgs/facilities: $200 million
• Agriculture Dept. rural facilities: $130 million (supports $1.234 billion in loans)
• NIST construction: $360 million
• NOAA procurement, acquisition and construction: $430 million
• NASA construction (hurricane damage repairs): $50 million
• National Science Foundation academic facilities modernization: $200 million
• NSF major research equipment and facilities construction: $400 million
• DHS consolidation: $200 million
• DHS ports of entry: $420 million
• Smithsonian facilities: $25 million
• National Institutes of Health, grants for construction, renovation of non-NIH research facilities: $1 billion
• NIH buildings and facilities (construction, renovation): $500 million
• Social Security Administration, National Computer Center replacement: $500 million
• State Dept. Capital Investment Fund: $90 million

WATER AND ENVIRONMENT [$20.1 billion]

• DOE environmental cleanup: $6 billion
• EPA Clean Water and Drinking Water funds: $6 billion
• EPA cleanup, including Superfund: $1.2 billion
• Agriculture Dept., rural-water and waste-disposal facilities: $1.28 billion appropriations, to support $3.8 billion in loans and grants
• Corps of Engineers civil works: $4.6 billion
• Bureau of Reclamation: $1 billion

SCHOOLS

No specific line item, but $39.5 billion of the bill’s $53.6-billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund will go to local school districts, and school modernization is one of several eligible uses for that $39.5 billion. Local school officials will decide how to use the funds.

Source: Unwrapping the Big Package: Long-anticipated $787-billion measure includes $130 billion of construction spending, 02/18/2009, ENR, By Tom Ichniowski. Ichniowski notes his sources as including: Senate Appropriations Committees, Offie of Sen.Ben Nelson, AGC, ENR

Posted by rjorr at February 21, 2009 10:32 AM