MONTGOMERY, Ill., Aug. 10 (UPI) -- President Bush traveled to northern Illinois Wednesday to sign a $286.4 billion transportation bill passed two years late and called pork-laden by critics.
The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the massive six-year bill to fund highways and $52.6 billion in spending for other transit projects before adjourning for summer recess, and Bush interrupted his vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch to travel to Illinois to sign it.
The bill includes $24 billion for more than 6,000 special projects nationwide, from bridges to jogging paths and snowmobile trails, that government watchdog groups call wasteful.
The signing ceremony at the Caterpillar Corp. factory in Montgomery, Ill., was a nod of respect to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who pushed the legislation through the House.
"And because there's more demand for the machines you make here," Bush told plant workers, "there's going to be more jobs created around places like this facility." Bush called the bill "fiscally responsible."
The bill includes numerous billion-dollar projects for the Chicago-area and northern Illinois, including in Hastert's home district.
