WASHINGTON — Two prominent governors, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania's Edward G. Rendell, sent a memo to President Obama saying he needed to assert more political leadership instead of leaving it to Congress to draft a plan for improving the nation's aging highways, bridges and ports.
In particular, Rendell said he was concerned that Congress -- left to its own devices -- would load up a future infrastructure plan with "earmarks" and other narrowly focused spending priorities that undermined its credibility and effectiveness.
At a meeting with the president last month, the two governors and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg discussed the memo they had sent to the White House, a draft of which reads: "It is very important that the administration be proactive rather than left reacting to congressional proposals."
In the coming months, Congress will consider a bill to set aside as much as $450 billion for highway and other infrastructure projects over a span of six years. House aides said members of Congress intended to insert special projects, or earmarks, into the bill, despite warnings from Obama that he wanted to rein in such spending.
As yet, the Senate has not decided how it will handle earmarks in the bill, said an aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Rendell cautioned in an interview that if the bill was larded with earmarks, it could jeopardize the political consensus needed to modernize the nation's network of roads.
"If your administration is to have a substantive impact on this key legislation," the memo reads, "you must take the lead in setting forth a new national vision for infrastructure policy, as well [as] articulating goals and program specifics for this once-a-decade legislative vehicle."
Strengthening the commitment to public works was one of Obama's major campaign pledges.
But the call for the White House to take the lead in drafting a major bill collides with Obama's approach so far. And it was unclear whether the president was prepared to change his strategy.
On the mammoth economic stimulus bill, which represents Obama's biggest legislative achievement to date, he largely deferred to Congress, letting the House and Senate hash out the details while he supplied the broad goals.
