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“IN RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION WEEK” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1057-E1058 on May 23, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION WEEK
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HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS
of maryland
in the house of representatives
Monday, May 23, 2005
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I rise today, during National Transportation Week, to recognize our remarkable transportation accomplishments and to draw attention to the critical challenges that we now face.
During the half-century that has passed between the first permanent Transportation Week in 1962 and this week in 2005, we have created a world-class transportation system that moved our nation forward to the 21st century.
We built an Interstate System that now extends more than 46,000 miles.
We built major new subway systems in cities like San Francisco; Washington, DC; and Atlanta.
We created a cabinet-level Department of Transportation.
We created Amtrak to preserve intercity passenger rail service.
And we maintained and expanded a Federal transportation financing system based largely on the collection of gas taxes.
Unfortunately, that system of financing is now breaking down and our forward progress is threatened.
This week, as we celebrate the 43rd annual National Transportation Week, we are 2 years into the effort to reauthorize Federal transportation spending.
Unfortunately, all the proposals currently under consideration fall short of funding our extensive transportation needs.
The transportation reauthorization legislation adopted by the House would provide $284.9 billion, while the bill passed this week by the Senate would provided $295 billion. Both of these funding levels are imperfect compromises.
Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar originally introduced the House reauthorization legislation at a funding level of $375 billion.
The Bush Administration has, however, demanded that spending be limited to $284.9 billion--or a figure that is approximately $90 billion below the level of investment that even the Department of Transportation says is needed.
What is the real difference between $375 billion and $285 billion?
It is the difference between merely maintaining a transportation system in which drivers experience nearly 4 billion hours of delay and constructing the new roads and transit facilities necessary to reduce congestion and to save some of the more than 40,000 lives lost on our highways each year.
It is the difference between the 13.5 million jobs that would be supported by $285 billion and the nearly 18 million jobs that would be supported by $375 billion.
To fill the gap between the funding the Federal Government is willing to provide and the funding that is needed, we have created so-called
``innovative'' financing mechanisms, such as garvee bonds.
These mechanisms enable states to issue increasing amounts of debt to try to meet the transportation needs that Federal funding is no longer meeting.
As the title of an insightful report issued this year by the Brookings Institution describes it, these are simply short-sighted and unsustainable means of building ``Today's Roads with Tomorrow's Dollars.''
The Federal Highway Administration reports that at the end of 2003, States had more than $77 billion in total highway related debt outstanding.
As with our growing national debt, States' reliance on debt only shifts the burden of paying for our present transportation infrastructure needs on to future generations.
We are going to confront a time in the not-too-distant future when States will have a back-log of construction projects that cannot be built because states are still paying for the roads they built 15 years ago.
There is an old saying: even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. The transportation reauthorization bill has now been passed by both the House and the Senate. Our immediate task must be to provide a measure of relief to our States by passing a conference report as soon as possible.
As we approach the end of our sixth extension to TEA-21, we must remember that the more we delay, the less we are able to relieve the burden of debt States are incurring to fund transportation.
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