by Janet Lundquist
Joliet Herald
June 13, 2012

JOLIET — Standing against the background of stone and earth-moving equipment, flanked by quarry workers, U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, took her colleagues in Congress to task Wednesday.

Biggert’s beef is with elected officials’ apparent inability to come to an agreement on a long-term federal transportation bill, which she says could provide 67,900 jobs in Illinois.

“We need some training in the House and Senate on negotiation 101,” Biggert said. “Let’s just stop playing politics.”
Fresh from a tour of the Vulcan Materials quarry on Laraway Road in Joliet set up by the Transportation For Illinois Coalition, Biggert noted the quarry wasn’t nearly as busy as it should be this time of year.

The tour van rolled past mountainous piles of rock — some broken into chunks for erosion control, some broken down smaller for road base, some finely crushed to be mixed with sand for asphalt.

Vulcan was not actively mining the quarry Wednesday because of the sluggish economy, said John Henriksen, vice chairman of the coalition and executive director of the Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers.

“We’d like to end these (federal funding) extensions. We’d like to get a bill finalized, which would provide certainty to government and the private sector,” Henriksen said.

A long-term bill would allow government to make decisions on projects, which would trickle down to the private sector, he said.
“With roads being somewhat in the air and the bill not being as robust ... that reduces productivity,” Henriksen said.

Short-term federal funding is fueling projects now, but is due to expire June 30, Biggert said.

A five-year bill proposal Biggert was working on with a bipartisan House committee did not have the votes to pass. She urged House budget leaders to consider a proposed two-year funding bill passed by the Senate.

Transportation isn’t a partisan issue, she said.

“We shouldn’t worry about politics right now,” Biggert said. “We should worry about getting it done.”