Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT: A LEGACY FOR USERS -- (House of Representatives - April 01, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of Tuesday, March 30, 2004, and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 3550.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 6 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I am very deeply touched by the words of the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), our committee chairman. We have worked closely together on shaping this legislation.

In a time when the image of the U.S. Congress to the rest of America is one of divisiveness and partisanship, this committee may well have set a model for how a legislative body ought to work, an interplay of ideas coming at the same issue, toward the same objective, with different viewpoints, openly debated, intensively discussed, thoroughly explored and a resolution that is in the public interest. It has been inclusive. It has been partnership rather than partisanship on this committee.

That is a great tribute to the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), who have put their best efforts forth, and to our respective professional staff who have carried the burden of the day time and again on what to others might be an arcane aspect of very complex issues but which are vitally important.

So, as the Chairman said, we come to the floor with a bill that serves the best, broadest interests of transportation in America. It is a bipartisan product. It is one that should be $100 billion more, as the Chairman alluded to, without using that number, but we all know where we need to be, and to the gentleman from Alaska's (Chairman Young) great credit, Mr. Chairman, he has advocated openly, vigorously in every venue, in this body, with the executive branch and in the public, as I have, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) have done for a more robust funding which we need, which we all know is necessary to address the transportation needs of America, keep our economy mobile, growing, productive and competitive in the world marketplace.

We do in the political arena what we can do, and what we can do here today under the circumstances is bring a bill at $275 billion that is good policy, sound policy for America, will move America forward.

Congestion is clogging the arteries of transportation in our urban areas, in our close-in suburban areas and is affecting rural America as well. Congestion is slowing the movement of people and goods, extending our daily commute, driving the cost of goods up in the marketplace, driving up the frustration of American drivers, making our roadways less safe, costing America more in the long run.

UPS, for example, estimates that for every 5-minute delay they lose $40 million nationwide. There are numerous other examples of costs of delay. The Texas Transportation Institute annually does a study of congestion in America. Their report in January of this year of 75 major metropolitan areas put the cost of congestion at $69.5 billion in just those 75 major metropolitan areas. That means that people are spending a week longer in their cars than they would if they could drive at posted highway speeds, buying four tanks of gasoline more than they would if they could drive at posted highway speeds, and using the name of the Lord more frequently in traffic on weekdays than they do in church on Sundays, I suspect.

We propose to address that problem by attacking bottlenecks in our transportation system, addressing with a megaprojects program huge conflagrations of people, goods, all modes of transportation, passenger rail, freight rail, trucks, passenger cars, maritime, aviation, and loosen the bonds of congestion in those areas with an initiative we call megaprojects, whose result will be net national benefits, net regional multistate benefits and net benefits to our national economy.

We are not just a continental economy. We are a global economy. China is investing, Japan is investing in its infrastructure, Europe is investing in its infrastructure to move goods and people faster, more efficiently, but America is not moving fast enough.

The study that in TEA 21 we commissioned the Department of Transportation to do, an assessment of pavement conditions, bridge conditions, congestion and safety, produced a report that recommended an investment of $375 billion on the grounds that we ought to be investing at all levels of government $125 billion a year in infrastructure improvement and we were only investing $75 billion. We are $50 billion a year short.

So, to keep our place in the competitiveness in the world marketplace, we need to do this. This is an investment that stays here in America. It stays home. The jobs created are American jobs. They are not created in Taiwan or Korea or Japan. They are created here in America, with American goods, American materials; and we ought to make that investment to make our economy move more efficiently, to put 1.7 million more construction workers back to work, generate an additional $80 billion a year in economic activity and keep America moving.

This bill will get us on the right track toward that objective.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 25 seconds to express my deep gratitude to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Highways, Transit and Pipelines. He has been a true partner in this enterprise with the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the chairman of his subcommittee, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri), and myself, contributing his time, days and nights and weekends, calling from home, calling from his district office, lending his consummate grasp of transportation issues from the transportation hub of America, Chicago, where all of America's complexities are joined.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), who is a great friend and a great contributor to this product.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.Holden), a distinguished member of our committee.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), our resident urban planner and thoughtful member of this committee.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia
(Ms. Norton), our committee resident legal scholar.

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, may I have a compilation of the time remaining?

The CHAIRMAN pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) has 12 ¾ minutes
remaining, and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) has 10 minutes remaining.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Colorado has identified an issue that has been highlighted by the
National Transportation Safety Board. I am in full sympathy with the gentleman, and we will work to accomplish that objective.

Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for his remarks and look forward to working with him.

Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

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Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

We have heard a wide range of thoughtful views, some of them expressed in very hurried fashion due to the time limitations. But if we had 24 hours of debate, there would not have been enough time to hear all the views of all Members because transportation really undergirds our entire economy.

I leave one statistic with my colleagues. In 1987 the cost of logistics, moving people and goods, consumed 16 percent of our gross domestic product of this country. Last year logistics consumed just under 10 percent of our gross domestic product. That is a gain of $600 billion in our $10 trillion economy. That investment gain is due to the investments that we have made through this committee in cooperation with States and localities improving our infrastructure. That is the core of why we are on the floor today, to advance the Nation's economy, productivity, and competitiveness at home and abroad.