TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 3087, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2003.
This bill, which was crafted in a bi-partisan, bicameral fashion will extend the Federal transportation programs for an additional 5 months to February 29, 2004.
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century expires on September 30 of this year. Legislation is necessary to carry on the essential functions of the highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit and other programs that are recipients of highway trust fund money. This bill accomplishes just that. It funds the programs at five-twelfths of the fiscal year 2004 budget conference report level.
H.R. 3087 is a clean reauthorization of these programs. This bill contains no new projects and no new programmatic changes. It simply extends TEA-21 and current provisions of transportation law. As the chairman of the Banking Committee whose jurisdiction includes the reauthorization of the transit title of TEA-21, I was hopeful that, working with the chairman of the relevant committee, we would have achieved passage of a multiyear bill. As funding levels and an appropriate source for those funds have yet to be identified, that proved to be impossible.
While I am not overly confident that 5 months of negotiating will resolve this problem, I support this piece of legislation. I believe it is essential that we continue to authorize our Nation's highway and transit infrastructure. I think this necessary stop-gap measure is the way to achieve that. I recommend the bill to my colleagues and ask for their support.