Quigley holds Chicago roundtable discussion on transportation funding

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Dist. 5), a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD), recently held a roundtable discussion late last week in Chicago about transportation funding.

The discussion included women- and minority-owned businesses, as well as transportation agencies. They focused on the necessity of a long-term, fully funded transportation bill, especially how such a bill would impact the economy in Chicago.

“This week, the House voted on the 34th short-term funding bill in the last six years to extend transportation funding, failing to provide the long-term investments in transportation that our country and Chicago so desperately needs,” Quigley said. “The local business leaders and transportation agencies that participated in today’s roundtable echoed what we already know to be true: The lack of long-term funding and planning is forcing state and local governments to cut back on their construction projects, and private-sector companies have had to stop hiring workers and investing in capital. It is time to provide American businesses and American workers with transportation-funding certainty. It is time to pass a long-term transportation bill that will grow our economy and create jobs.”

“Congressman Quigley understands the need for a long-term transportation bill, and how funding uncertainty significantly impacts the small- to medium-sized engineering and construction businesses in creating new jobs and sustaining long-term viability in the industry,” Federico d’Escoto, president of d'Escoto, Inc., one of the biggest Hispanic-owned program-management, engineering services and construction-management firms in the Midwest, said. “Congressman Quigley's track record in securing much-needed funding for both transportation and public-transit projects demonstrates that he is results-driven when it comes to this very important issue.”

"Congressman Quigley understands the importance of a sustainable transportation funding program,” Dave Bender, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC), said. “His leadership is essential to the vitality of Chicago's future for its transportation system, which will serve the changing demographic of citizens' needs for the next 50 years."