[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 52 (Thursday, April 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               BUILDING TRANSPORTATION ASSETS FOR AMERICA

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                         HON. TILLIE K. FOWLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 15, 1999

  Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Speaker, improvements to our nation's state and 
local infrastructure are necessary and long overdue. Economic growth 
and vitality hinge on a region's ability to accommodate commercial and 
commuter traffic both safely and efficiently. I am proud to say that 
last year's TEA-21 legislation, which I cosponsored, has begun to 
address these critical transportation needs, through honest, off-budget 
funding. I rise today to submit for the record an editorial that 
appeared last month in the Tampa Tribune. This editorial illustrates 
how local concerns are being met under the new funding formulas.

                 [From the Tampa Tribune, Mar. 3, 1999]

                     Bud Shuster's Words of Wisdom

       U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation 
     and Infrastructure Committee, made a field trip to Tampa the 
     other day to see our port, airport and highways.
       There is general agreement here on the importance of air 
     and sea transport, but the community is divided on ground 
     transportation--whether to continue to depend entirely on 
     roads or to augment them with a commuter rail line that would 
     largely follow existing freight rail rights of way.
       Shuster's advice: If you can, build rail.
       ``When you have right of way, you're half-way there,'' he 
     told us. ``Light rail seems to be pretty darn efficient.''
       This from a solidly conservative congressman representing a 
     Pennsylvania mountain district that has been Republican since 
     1860.
       Shuster helped deregulate trucking and has consistently 
     pushed to give local governments more say in how federal 
     transportation money is spent. Now up to half the federal 
     gasoline tax revenue in any one category can be diverted to 
     another, which means some highway money can be spent on 
     transit and vice versa. This flexibility gives state and 
     local governments more power, which puts them under more 
     pressure to make intelligent choices.
       The new transportation law is sending Florida about $440 
     million more per year, a sum that partially corrects the old 
     funding formula that for years shortchanged fast-growing 
     states.
       Shuster argues convincingly that all federal gasoline taxes 
     should be spent on transportation and that all airline ticket 
     taxes should be spent on aviation improvements. If the money 
     isn't needed, reduce the tax rate. But the money is 
     desperately needed, so Congress should invest it to improve 
     the national economy and public safety.
       He dismisses as ill-informed the often repeated criticism 
     that Congress loaded the latest highway bill with pork. High-
     priority congressional projects account for 5 percent of the 
     spending, and all those projects required the written support 
     of the state departments of transportation. Even if all these 
     special projects are unnecessarily fat, which they aren't, 
     the remaining 95 percent of the money is going back to state 
     and local governments.
       Shuster, a veteran of the endless tug of war over limited 
     revenues, conceded. ``These decisions are not made by angels 
     up in heaven.''
       They are made largely by men and women here at the local 
     level, and the better informed they are, the more wisely they 
     will invest tax-payers' money. It should interest them that 
     the neutral advice from conservative Bud Shuster, who is 
     neither campaigning here nor speculating in local real 
     estate, is to seriously consider rail.

     

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