News Release from Lingle2012, March 30, 2012

Governor Linda Lingle today issued a statement commending Congress and the President for passing into law the 90-day extension of federal transportation funding (H.R. 4281).

"As the focus of our government leaders should be facilitating private sector job creation for many of the 12.8 million of our fellow citizens who are still unemployed, funding for road, bridges and railway projects is important. This is exactly the type of bipartisan result in the Senate that I will be working toward if elected Senator."

"It is important," stated Governor Lingle, "that our political leaders put the interests of our citizens' economic well-being first, ahead of the partisan political arguing that has unfortunately prevented the passage of a longer-term transportation funding bill. As Senator, I will always put the people's interest first, ahead of any party or ideological interest."

Governor Lingle also called on the U.S. Congress to pass the re-authorization of the U.S. Export Import (Ex-Im) Bank contained in the "Securing American Jobs Through Exports Act of 2011" (H.R. 2072). Without this re-authorization, Ex-Im Bank function ends on May 31, 2012.

"U.S. exports have been one of the factors behind the recent signs of economic recovery nationwide. The Ex-Im Bank is critical to help U.S. companies to access financing to support the exports of their goods and services abroad. In fact, 85% of Ex-Im Bank's transactions directly supported small businesses last year. I again urge our nation's political leaders to put aside partisan differences to pass legislation that will assist our nation's businesses in creating jobs as our economy continues to recover."

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