Mayor Tom Barrett and other members of the United States Conference of Mayors met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss the implementation of the federal economic stimulus plan.

The meeting to shed more light on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act took place at the White House today.

"Wisconsin could be a huge beneficiary of (high-speed rail) money," Barrett said he learned at the meeting.

The final bill signed by Obama allotted about $8 billion in funds for high-speed rail production, Barrett told BizTimes by phone after the meeting today.

"Wisconsin is in an incredibly good position for this, with Chicago, the city where the president is from, very close, the push for the Olympics in 2016, and Jim Oberstar (chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee) representing Duluth, high-speed rail could ultimately turn out to be the biggest winner of all that nobody anticipated," Barrett said.

Barrett said he and many other Midwest mayors will advocate heavily for high-speed rail between Chicago and the Twin Cities through Wisconsin, making stops at Milwaukee, Madison and possibly other cities.

Barrett was joined at the meeting today by Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and approximately 80 other mayors from across the country in the discussion to shed light on how the stimulus plan will generate jobs.

"The major message was that we're considered accountable partners in this, we are going to be closely scrutinized and that we had a responsibility to be good stewards of these taxpayer dollars," Barrett said.

Barrett said part of the meeting included discussions about how the money will be divided between state and local departments of transportation.

"Both the president and the secretary of transportation agreed there was an issue there, but if they want to create more jobs, more of these resources have to be permitted to local projects. I think there will be more discussion on that later," Barrett said.

"People in Milwaukee are going to be paying back this package, and we would be fools if we didn't try to reap the benefits from it," Barrett said.

Super Steel Products Corp. in Milwaukee could stand to gain if high-speed rail receives major portions of allocations in the stimulus package. The company manufactures rail cars. To read more about how Wisconsin companies stand to gain from the stimulus plan, read the cover story of this week's BizTimes Milwaukee.