Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003

SAFE, ACCOUNTABLE, FLEXIBLE, AND EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT OF 2003

AMENDMENT NO. 2269

(Purpose: To amend chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code, relating to the authorization of Federal funding for public transportation, and for other purposes)

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the pending amendment is set aside, and the clerk will report.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Alabama [Mr. SHELBY] proposes an amendment numbered 2269.

(The amendment is printed in today's RECORD under "Text of Amendments.")

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, the text of this amendment is identical to the legislation that the Banking Committee ordered reported from the committee by a voice vote yesterday. In other words, it was a unanimous vote in the Banking Committee.

I rise today in support of the Federal Public Transportation Act of 2004. This is the bill, as everyone knows, that was successfully reported out of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs yesterday.

I am proud of this piece of legislation which was crafted on a bipartisan basis with cooperation from the distinguished Senator from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, the committee's ranking member.

This amendment, which I hope will be part of the bill, provides record growth for public transportation at $56.5 billion-a 57-percent increase over TEA-21. This funding level tracks with the growth in the highway program to $255 billion. This combined funding will go a long way toward improving and expanding upon our Nation's transportation infrastructure. I am pleased, as I said, to be working with the Environment and Public Works Committee chairman, Senator Inhofe, to accomplish this goal.

Our amendment, which will be part of the bill, we trust, accomplishes three important policy goals. It creates funding flexibility, increases accountability, and improves the performance and efficiency of the transit programs in the United States.

The bill creates several new formulas to better address growing transit needs. A rural low density formula is created to allow for transit services in sparsely populated areas where employment centers and health care are great distances apart. A growing States formula is created to allow communities with populations projected to grow significantly in the coming years to put in place needed transportation infrastructure. A small transit intensive cities formula is created to address the needs of communities where the level of transit service exceeds what their population-based formula provides.

Our bill also creates a super-high density formula to provide additional funding for States with transit needs that are particularly great because they have transit systems in extremely urban areas with high utilization rates.

The bill increases the accountability within the transit program. It rewards transit agencies to deliver products that are on time, on budget, and provide the benefits that they promised. Further, this bill allows communities to consider more cost-effective, flexible solutions to their transportation needs by opening up eligibility of a new starts fund to nonfixed guideway projects under $75 million in cost. With this change, other solutions can be fostered, such as bus rapid transit, which can produce the majority of the benefit of rail at a fraction of the cost.

Finally, the bill seeks to improve the performance and efficiency of transit systems nationwide. It provides incentives for the coordination of human service transportation activities to eliminate duplication and overlap. It increases the focus on safety and security needs with transit systems to insulate them against terrorist attacks. It also enhances the role of the private sector in providing public transportation in an effort to reduce costs and to improve service.

In short, the Federal Public Transportation Act is a good bill and one that will dramatically improve the public transportation program to help Americans with their mobility needs in urban and rural areas nationwide.

I commend this to the Senate and ask my colleagues for their support.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I hope we can get together in the hours to come and try to put a package together, perhaps, and move this bill. This is an important bill in America for highways and transit. It affects everybody in America. It affects every Congressman's district, every Senator, and I think it is too important to ignore in any way.

I commend the senior Senator from Oklahoma, the chairman of the committee, for the work he has done. He has been pushing this highway bill-I know because he has been pushing me-for months and months. I do not know how many hours of work he and his staff have put in, along with Senator Jeffords, Senator Bond, and others. This is just too important. It affects so many Americans. It covers everything dealing with our infrastructure, and it will be good for the economy.

The Presiding Officer comes from one of the fastest growing States in the United States. Moving people in his State, as well as a lot of others, is very important. There has to be lead time to plan. I believe this is a good bill, considering everything. We have put it together in a bipartisan way in the Banking Committee where we, as well as the other committee, have authorization for transit. I stand ready to work with the principals to move this bill as soon as possible.

I yield the floor.