they put another $2 billion into the program with over 300 votes. this is not insignificant and it was done in a very short period of time. the people's representatives get it because the people get it. this is a wildly prospered -- popular program. our government is not buying cars for people, they are providing an incentive for people to go into these dealerships and trade in a car that gets very high gas mileage for a car that gets lower gas mileage. . . . $2 billion

that we are hopeful that >> corey boles is here from dow jones, but we will begin with the associated press. >> how much of the $1 billion is being spent? are you over the limit? >> we are not over the limit because of some processing issues. we had hired an outside group, citigroup, to help with the processing and this is being done where dealers send the information to a new jersey site and it is processed there. we have not spent $1 billion but all of our estimates with car dealers running out of automobiles and people in the showrooms, we believe that we

would be out this weekend. we wanted to alert congress to that before the house went for their recess. >> there is a lot of confusion. is this program going to extend into this week and beyond? >> the program is extended. the program is continuing. automotive dealers are not open on sunday. the group that we contract with are open and we believe that the backlog of paper lot will be cleared up very soon. as car dealers up and up tomorrow, the program will continue, i guess. >> good morning, mr. secretary. does the program continue even if the senate does not pass? if the billion dollars is exhausted, that is all that is currently available. >> any deal that has been made in the pipeline, where they filed a paper work and where we

are evaluating it and making whatever adjustments -- anything that is in the pipeline will be paid. if the senate does not pass the additional $2 billion, the program will be suspended. the program is actually authorized for november 1, but if we do not get that $2 billion from the senate to match what the house passed, we would have to suspend the program next week. i believe that congress will do this -- i believe that the senate will do this because of how wildly popular this is. i am sure that senators are hearing from their constituents all over america, particularly those who already gone to the dealerships and purchased an automobile. >> when you say in the pipeline, those transactions entered in before the balers closed yesterday? >> new transactions that will be transacted tomorrow -- there will be a good faith effort that they will be paid. if someone goes into a show ring

tomorrow and buys a car, the money will be available to remit to them -- i the $3,500 or $4,500. we will continue the program until we see what the senate does. i believe that the senate will pass this. i have great faith in the senate and i have great faith in this program because it is a wildly popular. the centers will see their way to pass the $2 billion. i feel pretty good about that. >> if the senate does not act, with the administration need to tap the tarp funds or some other funding? >> the conclusion is that the tarp money cannot be used for this. it is clear in the legislation that this would not be allowed. that is the reason that we went back to congress. there was a scramble on thursday night when we announced 20 windy and to the white house and others that we would run out of money if it continued at the

stream of sales. the best results at that happened was to use money from the recovery plan that was provided for some other programs, including energy programs. when i spoke to the speaker, she made it's clear to me that that money will be put back into those energy programs. the tart money, it was determined, could not be used, steve. >> is there a way that there is some environmentally finding -- friendly senators who are pushing for stricter environmental standards on the program before it is extended again? what is the administration position on that? >> we think that the standards that were set in the original authorization that takes the program for november are good standards. the truth is that of all the sales -- a trade ins have been

-- 62% have been trucks. we are taking an enormous number by are burning vehicles in terms of trucks off their record and these people are buying cars they get much better gas magic -- that get much better gas mileage. we are meeting the standards that the senators are asking for. what a lot of trucks being treated in and a lot of better fuel mileage automobiles being sold, in a way i think we are really meeting that metric that they would like. we think that the program is working very well. >> mr. secretary, let me go back to friday when the story was breaking. the program was planned to stay in effect until november fairest. some of your republican colleagues in the house of representatives are saying that if they cannot get this program right, how will they run health care? >> steve, that is the silliest

argument that i have ever heard. the program -- we sold about 250,000 cars in three days. something must be working. the paperwork is in the works. we are reimbursing dealers. there have been a few glitches with some paper work but the idea that we ran out of money? something must work. this is one part of stimulus that really has work. the money is going out the door, people are buying new cars, we are taking gas guzzlers off the road, particularly trucks, people are buying cars they get very good gas mileage -- this has met all the metrics that we established by congress when they enacted this. to say that it is not -- if we had not sold any cars, if we had not run out of money, i would agree with congress. which ran out of money -- to under 50,000 cars will have been

sold with a billion dollars. we had the get an additional $2 billion to keep the program going. hey, the program is working. >> you mentioned that colleges and the amount of money that has been spent. a lot of people are worried about being on the hook for money that goes beyond a $1 billion. the senate is a very deliberative body. is the administration willing to commit that if the funding goes beyond a billion dollars, that dealers will not be on the hook? >> what i am committed to say to this morning is that any deal that is made tomorrow or the next day and is in the pipeline, the dealer will be reimbursed. the car buyer will also be reimbursed. i the that $3,500 or the $4,500, we have made that commitment. >> tuesday as the cut off? any deal made on wednesday? >> i did not say tuesday was the

cutoff point. we're waiting to see what the senate is going to do. they meet tomorrow and for the remainder away. we believe that the senate will pass another $2 billion and we're going to work hard with the senate on this to get this done. we will see what the senate does. our commitment is to make sure that car buyers and dealers are reimbursed. >> we should that -- which it point out that if you go to cars.gov, you can find out which cars are eligible. >> it is a listing of what the mileage is. i have a buick regal and on the chart that had been put together in collaboration of our people, ignite -- against 19 m.p.h.. it passed the peak 18 mpg or less. in order to get $3,500, you have

to take it for miles per gallon above that. for $4,500. you have to get higher than that. if you get 19 in my case, i do not qualify. >> any consideration to make this just for u.s. vehicles as opposed to any type of car? >> not at all, steve. i have heard that criticism that it should be just for gm, ford, or chrysler. but honda is made in the u.s. by american worker, to white tee, manufactured in the united states buys -- toyota, manufactured in the united states, they should not be disadvantaged because they do not have a name on it that does not look like white border chrysler. we will not disadvantage car manufacturers like that.

congress did not want to do that, either. there may be a couple of manufacturers not made in america but almost all are. all made by united states workers who are obviously been offending. >> corey boles from the dow jones. >> moving away from this, there are efforts in the congress mostly in the house to do more for the dealer is affected by the bankruptcy's. what is your position on that remark to gm and chrysler be forced to come back to the table to offer more assistance to these people? >> there is an odd a task force in the white house. nobody has taken more of an interest in the auto parts manufacturer than president obama. he has devoted a lot of time and energy and really put together a plan that i think has been a lifeline to the car manufacturers.

i have been in meetings with these manufacturers, very grateful that the president has been able to do something to be helpful to them. it looks like we're beyond the point of having to do much more. we will see how things are going. look, the karr program has been very helpful. as i have said, it is one of those stimulus programs that has been additional lifeline to car manufacturers. >> ken thomas of the ap. >> go back to last thursday. you and some others in the administration made calls to members to say that there were plans to suspend the program. the administration and change course. why did you and others make those calls and why was the decision made into not suspend the program? >> we made the call because we had an obligation, the people that are running the program, to alert everyone that we were

going to be out of money. if the string of sales would have continued, which it has, and there is one car dealer that we read about in the "chicago tribune", who is out of the automobiles. lots of people in the showrooms, a lot of cars being sold. we felt an obligation to alert everyone that we would be out of money if this kind of trend continued. it seems to have continued through the weekend. if a car dealer in chicago is running out of cars, i assume that others are too. we spoke with the white house about this and, look, i come from the congress. i spent 13 years in the u.s. house, a staffer 13 years before that. i have lots of relationships in that house and in the senate. these of the folks that one on the line to enact this program, and i felt an obligation to notify the white house and folks in the congress so that they could figure out what to do.

>> did dealers seemed to underestimate the response here? there were stories of a chaotic process, computer servers crashing, people having difficulty getting their process he's through, and did it it is underestimate this? was it poorly handled? >> before the program started, we had 30 days due to a role. that is a procedural pain, but anyway -- while we're in the process of standing up program, we had 2 million hits on this web site, just people trying to figure out what was going on. we knew that it would be very popular. we did not know it would be as wildly popular as it was. look, there were bureaucratic processes -- problems in processing that we had enough people that we had contracted with to do the paperwork.

but you don't have these kinds of problems. it is the kind of problem that really says that the program has been very successful and has worked. >> and at these daily -- car sales continue into the week, -- deluge of s car sales continue in the week, will this be fixed? >> it is handled through citigroup in new jersey. our people are there but the top people in citigroup today making sure that they have enough people to do this processing and making sure that they hire additional people if they do not, and making sure that any of the glitches in the program can be fixed. we are fixing it today said that we can really begin to move this through. >> what happens to all of these cars? how are they recycle? >> if you going to us showroom -- he go into a seven, and they work pulling the engines before

the dealer got reimbursement. we've had some complaints about that. we also fixed a problem in wisconsin and new hampshire that don't really require insurance. we fixed that part. most people have insurance. the lion's share of most people in that state as insurance. we got a way to verify -- verify that. but the car goes into the dealership, the dealer gets reimbursed, they put -- they drain the oil out of the engine, they put a chemical into the engine, they start the car and in seven minutes the engine is killed. that is what was required in ala. killed the engine. and it does to a scrap yard -- it goes to a scrap yard and they can sell off other parts on the automobile. the engine that it's very high gas mileage -- very -- a better

way to put it is not very good gas mileage, is killed. but other parts of the car can be used for scrap or stoppage. >> will the department of transportation make available the electronic documents that the dealers had to provide? >> i cannot think of any reason why we would not do that. what are you getting at here? >> just of the public can have a better understanding of what actually took place. >> in terms of how things were filed for why things got delayed? >> electronic records and data. >> i cannot think of any reason why we would not do it. >> how soon would we know from an environmental point of view whether this was a success? 62% more trucks that were traded in. how soon will we have some publicly available data to be able the analyze and see exactly how many clunkers that were trucks and larger cars were taken off the road? >> once we get the backlog fixed

up over the next couple of days, i think we will have some pretty good statistics to put out. our people pretty much know on a day-to-day basis what types of cars are being traded in and what types of cars are being purchased. i think i certainly mid to later this week, we will have a much better idea because we will have a lot of this paperwork through the pipeline. >> for our radio audience, our guest is transportation secretary ray lahood. how much money has been allocated and transportation projects in the stimulus program and how much has been spent? >> $28 billion for road, 20 billion for transit, buses, light rail, other programs like that. a billion dollars for what we would call high-speed rail, none of that money had been gone now. a billion dollars for airports,

and $1.5 billion in discretionary. we have about 7000 projects that are being funded. we have many more in the pipeline that we have actually improved and now it is up to the states to hire contractors. one of the issues is, once we approve something, the state has to hire a contractor to do the work. there are over 7000 projects under way, hundreds of people working all over america. i have been to 25 states and 42 cities, and everywhere i go, i see orange cones and meet workers who are on unemployment, january, february, march, now they are building roads and resurfacing. we have all the airport money out the door, $1 billion, almost half of our transit money, about $3.2 billion out the door. $22 billion out the door.

we have made great progress. and we beat every deadline that congress asked us to meet in terms of getting the money out -- obligated and out the door. the states are now hiring contractors and infrastructure all over america is being rebuilt. people are going to work. as unemployment is the lagging indicator, as most people know, by september or october, you will see people in the building trades and people building the roads and bridges, those unemployment numbers are going to come down. part of it was reflected yesterday -- friday, excuse me -- any economic news that came now that we're turning the corner on the recession. and not mind taking credit for that but we can take more credit for it in the fall when the other numbers come in. >> some say that that deadlines are tight and it has prevented them from pursuing ambitious

bridge projects. you see that as a problem and have stayed -- and have states been forced to perhaps repair bridges that are not as costly? >> i don't think so. we had a conference call with it tuesday to the gop's, if you count the territories, and we had a conference call, and 38 of them found in. we had this about a few weeks ago. what can we do better? the call lasted about 12 minutes because every one of these people is saying, we are very busy. we are getting contracts. people are going to work. we've had very few complaints from the complaintsdot -- from the state dot people. >> why is this administration not supporting using stimulus money as a stopgap as opposed to

new money from treasury? >> a lot does not allow us to do that. if you look at the economic recovery portion, the $48 billion? or look at other aspects of the economic recovery, over $700 billion. there are really no provisions in there to do that. look, as a former lawmaker and someone who is a part of a team on president of commons administration, we have to obey the law. a lot did not allow us to do that. >> and yet there are efforts by republican senators to allow a lot to do just that. i assume that the administration signaled their support for such an attempt. >> there was really not much activity along those lines. i heard some members of congress tried to talk about changing a lot. not really. there's not really support for doing that. >> mr. secretary, changing the subject.

a lot of concern recently about taxing and driving. there are four democrats in the senate who would like to put states to ban testinxting and driving. they would withhold 25% of the state's highway funds. what is your position? >> i am for eliminating texting while driving. that is why i reach my conclusion on that -- my home in peoria, we have kept their although i am here full time now. the reason i mentioned that is when i was home a couple of months ago on a weekend, there was a story in our local newspaper about a young girl, 16 years old, who ran off the road blowhile texting. we can save a lot of lives by just saying no more. we should not allow it.

our department will be announcing on tuesday of this week a meeting that we will convene of safety people from around the country and here in washington, to recommend -- to make some recommendations are around us. safety is our number one important thing that we do at dot. it is the thing we think about every day. texting while driving is not safe. it causes accidents. it takes people's lives. as the secretary of transportation, i am for saying that we should not allow people to text while they are driving. i would go even further than that, but for now, i will let our group that we will convene to address this issue -- but i of reach my conclusion on this. i think that we can save lives and save a lot of injuries by just saying no more texting was

driving. >> the fund which obviously pays for state efforts to repave and rebuild bridges and roads across the country, what is the administration position? they are facing a major cash crunch. it was simply a stopgap measure to get through the fiscal year last week. what is your position on whether it should be an 18-month short term fix or as in the house, along a six-year, several hundred billion dollars solution? >> we support a robust bill. 18 months gives us the time to do that if congress was not going to pass the bill, the current bill expires at the end of september. congress could not pass a comprehensive bill. we want a comprehensive bill. we want to find a way to pay for the things that we all wanted to. we are not against building roads and bridges and all of the things that we do add dot, trains, planes, and automobiles.

that is what we are interested in. the safety aspect of that. we want robust bill but we think it takes time to do that. congress is wrapped up in so many big issues that we think 18 months is the best way to proceed. that is why we recommended that. that is the reason that the senate went along with that. in be in the senate passed that but then the house passed something -- a stopgap measure, as you said. now the senate has done that. we're still pushing for a longer extension. the money to pay for it. >> before we let you go, if you had dinner friday evening at the white house and a meeting at the next morning at blair house. can you give us some color of what came out of that session? >> a great opportunity for our cabinet to bond. we have been so busy in the first six months of this administration. the implementation of stimulus and all the legislative

activity are around climate change and all the activity around health care and what we have been doing it dot. it was a great opportunity for the cabinet to really bond with the president and form the kind of team that we have all been doing, but without the kind of relationship building. if anything came out of bed, it was the kind of relationships that really had a chance to reform and to get to know each other and understand what the president's priorities are. friday night, the president spent all lot of time with us and there was a lot of good interaction. we know where the president wants to take his agenda. look, i feel privileged to have a proceed in history with a very historic administration, as a republican. i think it is a great privilege to serve with the president and

his entire team. some of the smartest people, some of the brightest people, and some of all hardest working people i have ever met in my 30 years of public service, people who are making great sacrifice to serve america. i want all americans to know that. there are people in this cabinet who are making huge sacrifices because they believe in america, they believe in the president, and they believe in the agenda. we really are a team. >> ray lahood, former congressman from peoria, ill., six months into his job as the secretary of tributary. we continued the conversation with corey boles and ken thomas. the "washington post" said that this was bribing car buyers. your reaction? >> this is a novel attempt to induce car sales. in germany, there was a short- term spike but that followed

with a drop. moved out people who were going to buy cars anyway rather than stimulating new demands. they are selling a lot of cars, but it remains to be seen whether this is doing anything more than taking car purchases and moving them up into the third quarter. >> what came out of today's conversation, corey boles? >> it is clear that they can tell the congress that if they do not approve the additional $2 billion, they will have to suspend a popular program. ray lahood is from peoria and it is playing in peoria and in a lot of places right now. >> it should not be taken grant that the senate will act. the senate is a deliberative body and then are environmentalists who are unhappy with this and our republican fiscal conservatives republican fiscal conservatives unhappy about t