A ‘Bold Step’
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday welcomed Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin’s testimony at a Senate hearing on transportation funding. The public works committee hearing was held one day after Sanders introduced a $1 trillion, five-year bill to rebuild America’s crumbling network of roads, bridges, transit systems and other infrastructure projects. The legislation would create or support 13 million jobs.
At the hearing, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx praised Sanders’ bill. “I think it is very, very important and I applaud Sen. Sanders for taking a bold step,” the top Obama administration official said in response to a question by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. “We need to invest more,” Foxx added. “What happens if we don’t? We’re going to pay probably more anyway on an individual basis. We’re going to lose opportunities to bring jobs to this country. For every billion dollars we invest, we estimate 13,000 jobs come as a result of it.”
