By Michele Fuetsch, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Sept. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
During their recent presidential nominating conventions, Republicans and Democrats both took credit in their official party platforms for the two-year transportation reauthorization bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in July.
However, while the Democratic platform emphasized the “long-term infrastructure investment” contained in the measure because they said it will create jobs, the Republican platform praised the law’s “return to federalism.”
The Republicans said in their platform document that the law gives states more flexibility in spending federal money and speeds up the approval process on transportation projects.
Platforms typically are a list of the actions a political party supports in its effort to appeal to the general public.