House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed yesterday that she will bring $358 billion of bond-related and other federal spending provisions to the House floor next week as part of the economic stimulus package.
The appropriations portion of the bill was approved by in the House Appropriations Committee late Wednesday by a vote of 35 to 22.
Pelosi said she expects the lower chamber of Congress to clear the full stimulus bill, which will also include tax provisions, by mid-February.
"We won't leave here [for the Presidents Day recess] without an economic recovery package," said the California Democrat.
The spending legislation contains $30 billion for highway and bridge construction, a combined $8 billion for clean and drinking water state revolving funds, and $3 billion for airport improvement project grants - all of which states can use to repay or supplement bonds.
The bill was amended by the appropriations committee late Wednesday to relax the deadlines by which states must obligate their stimulus funds.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had pushed for a 90-day "use it or lose it" deadline on states and the Appropriations Committee initially proposed a 120-day deadline. But the committee ultimately approved an amendment sponsored by Rep. John W. Olver, D-Mass., chairman of the committee's transportation panel, that would give states six months instead of four months from the date they received stimulus funds to obligate half of that money for projects.
However, Olver was unable to replace the "use it or lose it" provision with one that would have provided bonuses or penalties for complying with, or failing to meet, the deadline.
The committee approved another amendment that would block Illinois from using any of the stimulus funding unless the state legislature approved the use of such funds or Gov. Rod Blagojevich was no longer in office. In addition, the panel voted for one amendment requiring laborers on stimulus projects to be paid the prevailing wage and another requiring that only U.S.-produced iron and steel be used for public works and construction projects funded with stimulus money.
Committee chairman Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis., suggested during the markup session that even more stimulus spending may be proposed and that lawmakers probably will tinker with the bill's provisions in the near future.
"I don't know, frankly, that it will be adequate," he said. "There is a reasonable probability that this package is not big enough ... It may undershoot the mark, and we may need to make adjustments down the line."
The Senate Appropriations Committee is tentatively slated to vote on its own spending package on Tuesday. The committee's bill had not been released as of press time yesterday.
