It was LaHood's second appearance at an AASHTO Washington Briefing.

"What a difference a year makes!" LaHood exclaimed in opening his speech this year.

LaHood congratulated the states for meeting the 100 percent obligation deadline for recovery act highway funds. LaHood was in Florida on Monday with Vice President Joe Biden to mark the milestone. (see related story)

"You all did a fantastic job; you did it right; and you did it by the book," LaHood said. "This bill created a lot of jobs and a lot of opportunities."

He added the president is planning to "push Congress hard" on a new jobs bill to continue the momentum. LaHood had a one-on-one meeting with President Barack Obama earlier this week in the Oval Office.

"The president wants a comprehensive, robust transportation bill," LaHood said. "We like a lot of the stuff in the Oberstar bill. ... The only problem is it costs $500 billion. That kind of money doesn't currently exist. The president said he doesn't want to raise the gas tax. ... When we figure out how to pay for it, we will move forward."

LaHood stressed several times that "we're not giving up on highways. We've made a huge investment. Why would we do that? But people want streetcars, they want more light rail -- they want different options. We can do both and we can do a good mix. We feel like we're full partners with you."

In discussing the recent $8 billion in recovery act high speed and intercity passenger rail grants, LaHood said he has urged foreign manufacturers to invest in American manufacturing facilities to support railroad construction. He said he has told their representatives, "If you want to come to America, we welcome that, but we want the train sets built in America, we want infrastructure made in America. ... There is not enough money in Washington to pay for all the things we want to do in high speed rail. This means private investment and we think it will be there."

A video of LaHood's seven-minute speech is available on AASHTO's YouTube channel at tinyurl.com/AASHTO-LaHoodWB. See also this week's Transportation TV News Update for additional coverage of LaHood's speech and the Washington Briefing.