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“OMISSION FROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD OF WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1998” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7175-H7176 on Aug. 4, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OMISSION FROM THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD OF WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1998
A portion of the following was omitted from the debate of the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Frost at page H-6601 during consideration of H. Res. 510, providing for consideration of the H.R. 4328, Department of Transportation and related agencies appropriation Act 1999.
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, it is my intention to make a fairly brief opening statement and then to yield back all of our time in an effort to try and move this along.
Mr. Speaker, while I rise in support of this rule and this bill making appropriations for the Department of Transportation for fiscal year 1999. I am concerned that a point of order may lie against an amendment which seeks to limit expenditures of funds for a highway project funded in this bill. Mr. Speaker, should this point of order be pursued and ultimately upheld, the House will set a terrible precedent which may have ramifications far beyond this transportation appropriations.
The matter is now being negotiated, but I do want to express my concern that a major change in the rules that govern this House was included in T-21 and was never even considered by the Committee on Rules. That being said, Mr. Speaker, while the funding level of this appropriations bill is slightly below the levels requested by the President in several areas, overall, the Committee on Appropriations did a good job of providing adequate funding for most of the programs and services in the bill.
Mr. Speaker, while I rise in support of this rule and this bill making appropriations for the Department of Transportation for Fiscal Year 1999, I am concerned that a point of order may be against an amendment which seeks to limit expenditures of funds for a highway project funded in this bill. Mr. Speaker, should this point of order be pursued and ultimately upheld, the House will set a terrible precedent which may have ramifications far beyond this transportation appropriation. The matter is now being negotiated, but I do want to express my concern that a major change in the rules that govern this House were included in TEA-21 and were never even considered by the Committee on Rules. That being said, Mr. Speaker, while the funding level of this appropriations bill is slightly below the levels requested by the President in several area, overall the Appropriations Committee did a good job of providing adequate funding for most of the programs and services in the bill. The bill provides a total $46.9 billion, a nine percent increase over last year's funding levels, much of which is required for the new and guaranteed funding levels for highway and transit programs pursuant to the recently enacted TEA-21 bill.
I am particularly pleased that the Committee has provided $10.6 million for RAILTRAN funding for Phase II of a modern and efficient commuter rail connection between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. While funding for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system North Central line is considerably less than the amount that had been requested, I remain hopeful that the Committee will, within the constraints imposed upon it by subcommittee allocations, be able to increase this funding when the bill goes to conference.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my concern about a particular problem that has been brought to my attention which affects a number of cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Because TEA-21 zeroed out operating assistance for transit systems in large urbanized areas, suburban cities within those metro areas have also found that they too have been restricted in the manner in which they can use federal transit funds. In my own congressional District, the cities of Arlington and Grand Prairie will be particularly hard hit by the elimination of operating assistance. In both instances, the suburban city transit systems are used exclusively to provide transportation for the elderly and the disabled but neither city has a dedicated sales tax to pay for such a system.
Consequently, Mr. Speaker, I am currently writing legislation that seeks to correct this problem now confronting cities like Grand Prairie and Arlington. I hope to be able to introduce this bill before the August recess and would urge the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Transportation Committee to give this legislation careful consideration. If the Congress does not provide a remedy, cities like Grand Prairie which serve 3,500 disabled and elderly persons a year will most likely have to cut back their services by 50 percent next year.
Mr. Speaker, given the constraints with which the Committee must address the concerns of individual Members as well as the component parts of the Transportation Department, this is a good bill. I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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