By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — After only a week at his new job as U.S. Transportation secretary, former U.S. representative Ray LaHood returned home to Peoria Jan. 30 to hold his first press conference as a member of President Obama’s cabinet.

LaHood discussed how his department would allocate the billions of dollars which may come through Obama’s impending economic stimulus plan to projects including rail, highway and air transit (among others), and also addressed whether any stimulus dollars would go toward new lock and dam construction on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

Despite urging from agriculture groups such as the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA) and the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA), LaHood indicated that funding for the 2007 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) would likely not be part of the stimulus package.

“WRDA was always going to be part of the ordinary appropriations process,” LaHood said. “(WRDA) is law now, and I think the people on the appropriations committee will do what they can to provide funding for the authorization. It’s a very good bill.”

A report card published last week by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation’s inland waterways a grade of D-, confirming the need to move quickly to fund lock and dam restoration through the stimulus, according to the NCGA. The House-passed version of the stimulus, however, does not allow for funding of WRDA and the Senate version being debated this week is said to contain similar language.

As a result, NCGA is urging growers to push their Congressional representatives to remove any language in the stimulus bill that inhibits WRDA funding under the Navigation and Sustainability Program.

The House passed its version of the stimulus plan on Jan. 28, allocating $4.5 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for inland waterways. However, the NCGA asserts, language in the bill prohibits money being spent for WRDA because it is not technically a “new start” project.

The NCGA joined business, labor and environmental organizations in sending a letter in mid-January to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other elected officials expressing support for using stimulus funds for WRDA.

Organizations signing the letter included the ASA, Corn Refiners Assoc., National Assoc. of Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers Assoc., NCGA, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Grain and Feed Assoc., National Oilseed Processors Assoc., National Sunflower Assoc., The Fertilizer Institute, U.S. Canola Assoc. and USA Rice Federation.

More than $1 billion bushels of grain, or 60 percent of all grain exports, move to export markets via inland waterways each year, accounting for $8.5 billion in exports, according to the NCGA.
LaHood said the House stimulus package allows $30 billion for infrastructure improvements to highways, $1.1 billion for rail, $12 billion for transit and $3 billion for aviation.

“All of that is going to be coming through the Department of Transportation,” he said. “There will be a lot of transparency about how the money is going to be spent – with no earmarks.”

He told reporters he is looking forward to his duties and that it is time for Americans to put partisan differences behind them and unite.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to serve in this very historic administration, during this historic time, when I think we can really make a difference in the lives of the people of this country,” LaHood said.

LaHood also made it clear the priorities of central Illinois are no longer his central focus. “I didn’t win an election this time,” he said. “I’m part of the Obama team now; my priorities will be his priorities.”