[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 19, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H3374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COSPONSOR HOUSE RESOLUTION 37, MASS TRANSIT PASSES FOR HOUSE EMPLOYEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, today, tens of thousands of Americans 
are celebrating Bike to Work Day by using bicycles to get to their 
place of employment. They are reinforcing the notion that using a 
bicycle can be fun; it can provide a healthy and convenient alternative 
to the private automobile. It will illustrate the impact that small 
steps can take to improve our quality of life.
  At a time when we in Congress are worried about the health of the 
District of Columbia, when we are concerned about the funding of the 
Washington Area Mass Transit Authority, when we are looking at almost a 
billion dollars just to replace the Wilson Bridge here in the 
metropolitan area, and when, in Washington, D.C., consistently, the 
congestion is ranked in the top five in the country, bicycles make 
sense.
  There is another simple step that we can take to improve the quality 
of life, and that is using more effectively the $10 billion investment 
that we have made in the Washington Area Metro System. It, too, is a 
way to save money, protect the environment, and improve the quality of 
life. It has been part of the Federal policy for years to promote the 
use of transit as an alternative to the single occupant vehicle.
  In my community of Portland, Oregon, we promote that alternative by 
using transit passes as a way to make it easier for employees while we 
save money. There are over 60 individual companies that provide transit 
passes to over 45,000 people in the community.
  Just this last month, the largest private sector employer in Oregon, 
Intel, developed a program that is providing free passes for all 11,000 
of its employees because it makes sense for the company and for the 
community.
  Here in Washington, D.C., we have over 1,000 employers in the private 
sector, over 100 Federal agencies that together provide transit checks 
for over 50,000 commuters in the metropolitan area. Even the United 
States Senate for the last 6 years has provided transit passes for its 
employees who do not get free parking.
  I would suggest that it is time for us in the House of 
Representatives to take a step back and look at our policies to get in 
step with what we suggest the rest of America could do. If only 5 
percent of our employees used the transit program, one-half the 
percentage in the United States Senate, we could eliminate this parking 
on the parking lot immediately adjacent to the Washington Capitol South 
Metro Station. We could obviously save the upkeep, the 24-hour-a-day 
staffing that is there to protect the cars, and we could convert that 
block into a higher and better use. Certainly there are a number of 
opportunities for one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in 
Washington, D.C.
  I have introduced House Resolution 37; and, currently, there are over 
180 of my colleagues that have cosponsored it. I would suggest that it 
is time for the remaining people in the House to take a step back, 
think about what is good for the environment, think about what is fair 
for our employees, to not simply provide up to $2,000 a year of free 
parking but provide an alternative for our employees who decide to do 
the right thing, protecting the environment by using mass transit.
  It is good for the environment. It is good for our employees. It is a 
simple step to use our land more thoughtfully. Most important, it gets 
the House of Representatives in step with the Senate, with the rest of 
the Federal bureaucracy, and with what we are telling the private 
sector to do.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in sponsoring House 
Resolution 37.

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