WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) has assumed the post of Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for the 111th Congress as the Committee began its work on the stimulus bill to aid the country’s economic crisis and create jobs. Later this year, the Committee will begin crafting the Nation’s next multi-year transportation bill, funding highway and bridge programs and the country’s mass transit systems.

“As Vice Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I will be riding shotgun over federal transportation programs and funds,” Rahall said. “In the 111th Congress, the Committee will work on the 2009 Federal Transportation Bill which is critical to the continued development of southern West Virginia and the Nation. This year it will be more difficult than ever to find the necessary resources to adequately fund the bill.”

Through past Transportation bills, Rahall has funded important highways in southern West Virginia, including the King Coal Highway (I-73 Rt.52 replacement highway between Bluefield and Huntington), Route 10, the Heartland Corridor rail tunnel project - Wayne County Intermodal Project, the Coalfields Expressway, the Shawnee Parkway, the New River Parkway and the Beckley Z-Way. Past bills have funded Pullman Square in Huntington and the planned Beckley Intermodal Gateway (BIG) project. The bill has funded the Rahall Transportation Institute at Marshall University, and has provided transit monies to Huntington’s The Transit Authority (TTA). Highway enhancement project have been funded through the bill which allowed the Governors to fund a myriad of local projects. Rahall has provided funding for the Coal Heritage Trail and the New River Visitor Center in the transportation measures

“The Transportation Committee’s importance to West Virginia can not be over emphasized. It touches every major artery of commerce and travel by our businesses and citizens,” Rahall said. “We have to look no further than the success of Pullman Square to measure the impact the Committee’s work can have in an area.”

Important to West Virginia’s overall federal highway funding is the formula the legislation uses to distribute funding across the states and other jurisdictions. In the last bill, for example, West Virginia received $1.69 for every $1.00 West Virginians paid into the highway trust fund from every gallon of gas purchased at the pump. Rahall fights to keep the formula intact for each new Transportation bill.

“The highway formula is a crucial tool West Virginia uses to level our playing field with states with flatter topographies which don’t have to compete between mountains and money,” Rahall said. “I fight to protect our return, because it is an issue of fairness.”

As the second highest ranking Democrat on the Committee, Congressman Rahall was appointed to this post in the 110th Congress to support the Chairman and to use his 32 years of service on the Committee to help shape the agenda. In addition to serving as Vice Chairman of the Committee, he will also serve on the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, and the Subcommittee on Aviation.

The Committee’s jurisdiction extends over airports, river ports, and Corps of Engineers programs. The Corps operates Beech Fork, East Lynn, R.D Bailey and Summersville lakes. Rep. Rahall used his position on the Committee to establish the Corps mandatory water releases from Summersville, creating West Virginia’s now famous whitewater. In addition, the Corps is the lead federal agency to provide navigable waterways and maintains and operates the Bluestone dam. The Congressman’s Southern West Virginia Environmental Infrastructure program, which has funded projects from Krouts Creek flood control to the Mercer Summers water project , and administered by the Corps, was crafted through Rahall’s work as a senior member on the Committee. The federal program to fund water and wastewater projects through the federal revolving loan fund is under the Committee’s jurisdiction.

“This year we will consider legislation that will transform the surface transportation system of the United States and relieve congestion, ensure U.S. competitiveness, improve the daily lives of our citizens, and provide the building blocks for the long-term economic recovery of the nation,” Rahall said. “One important cautionary note must be made. The Transportation bills regularly come under attack for funding so called ‘pork’ projects. These local projects are most often the result of Members of Congress having worked for months, even years in some cases, with local support groups in their districts. The Congress and our new President will scrutinize these projects more closely than ever before. Local support for local projects requested through their Members of Congress will be paramount in keeping these projects in the bill. Otherwise the executive branch, federal and/or state, will use their own agendas for distributing the highway taxes southern West Virginians have already paid to other areas and other projects.”