Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon stands to gain 58 million dollars under a multi-billion dollar bill that passed the U-S House Thursday.

The so-called “green schools’ bill” is meant to create thousands of jobs, nationally, by building energy efficiency into public school buildings.

Northwest Oregon congressman, David Wu, says the house included his proposal, to expand the bill to also allow spending on seismic upgrades.  Congressman David Wu: “It’s just in the last 15 to 25 years that we’ve found out about a severe earthquake problem in our corner of the country, and we haven’t had as much time to adjust to the earthquake threat as, say the California schools have. So I hope some of the money will go into seismic retrofits.”

The bill now moves to the Senate. Wu says he's optimistic about its chances, even though senators stripped similar provisions out of the federal stimulus package, earlier this year.

Republican rep Greg Walden was the only member of Oregon’s delegation to vote against the green schools’ bill Thursday.