Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood Lauds Joplin Recovery
By: Eli Yokley, Missouri News Horizon
Updated: July 10, 2012
JOPLIN, Mo. -- U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood visited Joplin on Tuesday to announce $12 million in federal funding for the city as it continues to recover from the May 2011 tornado.
The grant funding will be aimed at the construction of two highway overpasses above railway lines in Joplin. The area was not directly effected by the storm, but LaHood said the funds will nonetheless go far in helping to boost the city's economy.
While in Joplin, LaHood met with city officials and reviewed some of the new recovery plans.
"There's a lot of activity going on in the community. You all have demonstrated what being an American means," he said. "You have partners from the president throughout this Administration, and certainly at the Department of Transportation."
The funds were granted to the city from the TIGER grant program, short for "Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery." The program was first established in 2009 stimulus program. LaHood, a former Republican lawmaker from Illinois, criticized lawmakers who have said the stimulus did not work, implicitly jabbing Missouri Republicans like U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Billy Long.
"Our portion of it did work," he said. "For those people who said economic stimulus did not work, that's boloney. It did work. It is working right here."
LaHood offered praise, however, for the delegation, noting their support of the TIGER grant program.
The grant funding will be aimed at the construction of two highway overpasses above railway lines in Joplin. The area was not directly effected by the storm, but LaHood said the funds will nonetheless go far in helping to boost the city's economy.
While in Joplin, LaHood met with city officials and reviewed some of the new recovery plans.
"There's a lot of activity going on in the community. You all have demonstrated what being an American means," he said. "You have partners from the president throughout this Administration, and certainly at the Department of Transportation."
The funds were granted to the city from the TIGER grant program, short for "Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery." The program was first established in 2009 stimulus program. LaHood, a former Republican lawmaker from Illinois, criticized lawmakers who have said the stimulus did not work, implicitly jabbing Missouri Republicans like U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Billy Long.
"Our portion of it did work," he said. "For those people who said economic stimulus did not work, that's boloney. It did work. It is working right here."
LaHood offered praise, however, for the delegation, noting their support of the TIGER grant program.
