Recovery plan passes House and Senate, Obama to sign on Tuesday

Final numbers available

Steve Hawley, Feb 16, 09.

UPDATE (2/17/09, 3:40 pm): President Obama has signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in Denver, ABC News reports.

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The House and Senate both approved the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act conference report on Friday, according to CNN. The network also reports that President Obama will sign the legislation on Tuesday in Denver.

The final text of the bill contains $17.7 billion for rail and transit, including $8 billion for high-speed rail, $6.9 billion for transit grants, $1.3 billion for Amtrak, and $750 million each for rail modernization and transit new starts. The transit grants include $100 million for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the bill provides $27.5 billion for highways and $1.5 billion for discretionary grants to be used for surface transportation.

While the House bill allocated some money to states for intercity and high-speed rail and the Senate version created an additional category for the High-Speed Rail Corridor Program, the conference report merged the two categories. The final version provides Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood discretion to divide the money between the two programs, “[giving] priority to projects that support the development of intercity high speed rail service.”

Below are the final numbers, in thousands: