Mr Straw restated his aim of creating 14, 000 more prison places by 2014, saying the government would be "failing in its fundamental duty to protect the public" if it did not increasecapacity to meet the anticipated pressure on the system.
The new posts include 20 social workers, 10 supervising social workers to increase the fostering service's capacity and four support workers who will work on preventing children entering the care system.
This bill should maintain - or preferably increase - current levels of funding, provide strong federal leadership for national transportation priorities, protect current assets and expand systemcapacity, retain the user fee principle for federal highway and transit financing, and expedite the process of transportation project review and approval.