Hundreds of bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete in Central Illinois. To that end, Representative Cheri Bustos says Congress needs to pass a long-term transportation bill. Marty Helfers is the Executive Director of the West Central Illinois Building Trades. He says long-term funding means more stability for local jobs:
“A lot of our major road builders, throughout the state, the country, cannot maintain their workforce, their quality engineers, their quality professional construction workers, if there’s no certainty that they’re going to have the work to keep these people going.
A short-term extension runs out at the end of the month. Bustos says she supports a measure to use some overseas profits from U.S. companies, collected at specific interest rates, to pay for transportation projects in the next six years.