Prepared Remarks for Secretary Ray LaHood
American Chamber of Commerce Exec Board Meeting
Alexandria, VA - November 6, 2009

I am honored to be here today with the leaders of state and local chambers of commerce from across the country.

Wherever you’re from – a city, a suburb, or rural America – I want to thank each of you for acting as an important anchor for the companies that turn to you for information, education, networking, and a strong sense of community. During this difficult recession, your chambers have been a port in the storm for companies trying to navigate these hard times.

President Obama and I understand that we still have a long way to go to fully restore our economy and recover from the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression. But I think this Administration has done a number of things to pull us back from the brink of an even more serious economic situation.

So let’s say that today, the glass appears half-full, rather than half-empty.

Most notably, our economy grew in the third quarter of this year – the largest three-month gain in two years. Housing sales are also rising.

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Company announced its first profitable quarter in North America in more than 4 years. The billion dollars Ford earned last quarter was due, in part, to the popular Clash for Clunkers program that the Department of Transportation ran over the summer.

That program got the assembly lines running again at Ford and other automakers. It put more than 2.8 billion dollars into auto dealers’ pockets around the country. And it created the equivalent of 21,000 full-time, year-round jobs.

We also have hard evidence the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is making a positive difference in key sectors of the economy. Many economists now agree that the Recovery Act contributed between 3 and 4 percentage points to real GDP growth in the third quarter.

The program also reaches out to your chamber members – the small businesses that drive economic growth in this country. The Obama Administration has already put a tax cut into the pockets of the vast majority of small business owners and employees.

We’ve supported nearly 65,000 loans to small businesses. That’s more than 13 billion dollars in new lending. And more than 1,200 banks and credit unions that had stopped issuing SBA loans when the financial crisis hit are lending again today.

In personal terms, the Recovery Act has helped many, many Americans pay the mortgage, put gas in the car, and buy the weekly groceries. And it’s providing an economic lifeline for thousands of people who were unemployed before the stimulus took effect.

We know for a fact that Recovery Act investments have created or saved more than 640,000 direct jobs so far. These are real, identifiable jobs directly funded by the Act.

And bear in mind that this program is at the mid-point, with less than half the total funds spent so far. At this rate, we’re on track to create and save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

I’m proud of the Department of Transportation’s role in moving our share of recovery funds out into thousands of communities.

We have made more than 30 billion dollars available for more than 9,800 transportation projects in every state and territory -- from roads and bridges to transit systems, airports, and seaports.

Our efforts have helped to save or create more than 80,000 construction-related jobs generated by the Recovery Act so far – many of them in economically distressed urban and rural communities.

I’ve personally met with construction managers, workers, and transportation officials in more than 30 states and 60 cities. They tell me the Recovery Act has saved their businesses or boosted their capital budgets at a very, very critical time.

Over the next 9 months, we’re going to accelerate the recovery spending across the board and get all the money out the door on schedule, so that more good projects can move forward.

But this is just a starting point. We must find other new ways to stimulate economic growth.

One essential step is reforming health care.

Rising health care costs undermine small-business growth, explode our deficits, and cost our nation more jobs with each passing month. So let’s finish the job as soon as possible.

We also need Congress to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, so we can begin to reduce our dependence on oil and eventually bring our transportation costs down.

And we need a new approach to planning transportation around the country – one that is driven more by our priorities than our programs.

One of our top priorities is supporting livable communities that offer residents choices among different modes of travel — from highways to transit to bike paths.

With thoughtful planning, and good public-private cooperation, our transportation policies will enhance economic competitiveness by providing access to jobs, education, affordable housing, and services like health care.

We’ll also give businesses greater access to markets.

And done right, our targeted transportation investments will help to preserve the qualities that make each urban, suburban, and rural community unique.

One of our first action items on this agenda has been teaming up with HUD and EPA to coordinate federal investments in transportation, housing, better air quality, and water infrastructure across the country.

And of course, through the Recovery Act, we’re laying down an 8 billion-dollar marker for new high-speed passenger rail service in key corridors, plus an additional 1.5 billion dollars in competitive grants for innovative inter-modal transportation projects that support livable communities.

But to move ahead, many more changes are needed.

For example, we need to offer local jurisdictions greater flexibility in determining how federal transportation dollars are spent. After all, you understand what makes your communities special – and you know better than Washington how transportation can play to your strengths.

This is a key concept we hope to see in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill from Congress. To help this approach succeed, we’re asking metropolitan transportation planning organizations around the country to step up and play a more central role than ever in shaping and articulating regional transportation priorities and plans.

The bottom line is this: Transportation is a gateway to economic development, and a better quality of life, for all of us in the United States.

And from Day 1, the Obama Administration has been committed to investing in the transportation infrastructure that Congress and the American people have worked so hard to build over the years. So let’s work together to take our economy, and our nation, in positive new directions.

In closing, I want to remind everyone that our very highest priority at DOT is safety – and that means, among other things, you should avoid driving while distracted.

Don’t send text, don’t use your cellphone, your iPod, or your Blackberry when you’re behind the wheel.

Distracted driving is a dangerous epidemic with disastrous consequences.

We’re using every tool at our disposal -- research, technology, and our rule-making process -- to get a handle on this problem and find effective ways to curb it.

We all need to take personal responsibility for our habits behind the wheel – beginning today.

Thank you very much.