On March 11, 2013, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at the 38th annual Legislative Conference on "Public Transportation Takes Us There" and praised President Obama's approach to transportation and said that "big and bold" projects are a "federal responsibility", citing $550 billion put forth by the president in his 'jobs bill', and urged attendees to start thinking that way moving forward.
"Now I'll tell you this, the president has stepped up. Every proposal the president has ever made has been big and bold. The last one he made, $550 billion dollars, was paid for. Big and bold, that's what we need. If we're going to continue to serve your communities, if we're going to continue to make progress, and you're going to continue doing the projects you want to do, big and bold. That's what America has always been about. Now, we have a lot of communities that have 50-year old transit systems. They need new cars and new infrastructure. We're ready, willing and able to be helpful on that. We need the resources. Communities can't afford to do this on their own. This is a federal responsibility. Big and bold. That's what I want you to start thinking about," LaHood said.