Columbia Crossing: Lawmakers looking for fresh commitment out of new Congress
OLYMPIA – Three of Vancouver’s state lawmakers are re-emphasizing the need for support for a new Columbia River bridge from people in Washington, D.C., including southwestern Washington’s new member of Congress.
Washington state Rep. Jim Moeller, who anticipates keeping his seat on the House Transportation Committee, said the key committee “will keep looking for the best ways and means to make this very needed Columbia River Crossing project come true before too many more years go by.
“Our families, businesses and communities in Clark County need to see this huge missing piece in our infrastructure solved – and we need to get this mission accomplished sooner rather than later,” Moeller emphasized.
Washington state Sen. Craig Pridemore said that “Southwest Washington deserves renewed commitment from Washington, D.C.” and that he and other state lawmakers “will work diligently with Congressmember-elect Jaime Herrera, R-3rd Congressional District, in supporting the Columbia River project.”
Pridemore noted that Herrera, as an outgoing member of the state House Transportation Committee, “has certainly been introduced to the importance of coordinating our work in the state of Washington with what our Oregon neighbors are doing regarding the new bridge.”
Washington state Rep. Jim Jacks recalled his “50 Businesses in 50 Business Days tour of Southwest Washington’s business and industrial community a year ago. I heard widespread support from the businesses for the new crossing.
“In fact,” Jacks said, “the most significant thing I learned is that 47 out of the 50 businesses I visited, 94 percent of them, support the Columbia River Crossing project. The business community needs a new bridge and improved freeway interchanges. The vast majority also support paying tolls. One owner told me he is paying his people $25 an hour to sit in traffic. He would rather pay a $3 toll and pay his people to drive.”
Moeller noted that “Jaime Herrera campaigned on a bigger federal role in the financing of important projects in our part of the country. I don’t know, of course, how that message will go over with her ‘cut-the-deficit’ GOP friends. But nonetheless, it’s certainly a line of reasoning that our Southwest Washington communities need to see emphasized back there in the other Washington.”
The three Washington state lawmakers agreed that the Evergreen State has a very small window of opportunity to lock in federal funding. They also agreed that southwestern Washington should benefit from having a Republican member in the new U.S. House GOP majority to go along with the continued Democratic presence in U.S. Senate leadership.
Moeller, Pridemore and Jacks, all three of them, are Vancouver Democrats who comprise the region’s 49th Legislative District delegation. They will join other Washington state lawmakers in kicking off the 2011 legislative session on Monday morning, Jan. 10.