Bush signs $286.4 billion highway bill in Illinois<font face='verdana' size='1' color =#CC0000><b> * New * </b></font>
8/10/2005MONTGOMERY, Ill. President Bush, saying it will help economic growth, today signed a whopping $286.4 billion transportation bill that lawmakers lined with plenty of cash for some 6,000 pet projects back home.
With fanfare, Bush signed the more than 1,000-page highway bill into law at a plant operated by Caterpillar Inc., which makes road-building equipment. For the president, it was his second trip away from his Texas ranch this week to highlight recently passed legislation.
If we want people working in America, we got to make sure our highways and roads are modern, Bush said. We ve got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century.
I mean, you can t expect your farmers to be able to get goods to market if we don t have a good road system, he said. You can t expect to get these Caterpillar products all around the United States if we don t have a good road system.
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