"It's pretty easy to follow red is bad" says Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey.

          With a clearly colored map, Mayor Morrissey made his case.

          His audience, a room full of local and area leaders and the man who make's the final call, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"This is my 30th state and 62nd city" says LaHood.

          Part of LaHood’s mission while touring the country is to decide what areas to give 1.5 billion dollars in federal grants.

          He says Winnebago County is a contender because it has the highest unemployment rate in the state.

"If we believe there are opportunities to bring down unemployment and put people back to work either in construction or long term jobs that's what were going to look at" says LaHood.

          Mayor Morrissey is asking for 70 million dollars to fix Rockford railways.

"A lot of what we'd be doing is consolidating a lot of confusing freight yards into one modern transportation hub that would free up a tremendous amount of land" says Morrissey.

          U.S. Congressman Don Manzullo was instrumental in getting LaHood to focus on northern Illinois.

"We gave him a real live session of the needs in Rockford needs of Rochelle and needs of northern Illinois" says Manzullo.

          And now Mayor Morrissey and other local leaders are hoping they can seal the deal.