[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNITY SYSTEMS PRESERVATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Radanovich). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. 
Blumenauer) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as someone who came to Congress because 
I believe that Federal Government should do more to be a constructive 
partner with our communities to help promote livability, I could not be 
more excited about developments that are taking place this week in 
Detroit. I just left the conference, the town meeting, on sustainable 
development where there were over 3100 people from around the country 
and more still registering. It was not so much a wrap-up of the 
President's Council of Sustainable Development, but rather a hand-off 
to citizen activists, students, business, government, nongovernmental 
agencies to deal with specific activities that they could do to help 
promote livable communities. There were a variety of workshops with 
people learning from one another, and the administration has announced 
70 specific commitments to help promote that more sustainable future.
  One of the programs that I am most pleased with was the 
Transportation and Community Systems Preservation Act. This was a 
provision in our TEA-21 legislation, the Surface Transportation Act 
last year, that was born in the Oregon experience where a group of 
private citizens pushed the State and Federal transportation agencies 
to consider an alternative to simply constructing a traditional bypass 
to look at what would happen if we were more thoughtful about the ways 
that we put pieces together.
  The results of their research was stunning. It proved conclusively 
that by dealing with the integration of land use, transportation being 
more connected and giving people more choices that we could, in fact, 
reduce congestion more than simply having a pavement-only solution.
  That found its way into TEA-21. I was happy to have supported it in 
our House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The driving 
force in the Senate was my Senator, Ron Wyden, a former colleague here 
in the House, and it has opened the floodgates; over 500 applications 
from around the country totaling over $400 million from people who 
understand the power of being able to plan their community. Sadly we 
are only able to award a small portion of those programs, approximately 
39, although there are opportunities in the horizon to increase those 
in future years.
  There may be some federal programs that obviously spend more money, 
but I think there will be fewer that will have more of an impact than 
helping citizens sort out the right investments and allowing them to be 
part of framing those solutions.
  The entire town meeting effort is an illustration of what livable 
communities are all about. It is not about Federal interference, but 
partnership. It is about giving people more choices rather than fewer 
and that will end up costing people less money rather than more.
  It is not the solutions for livable communities that are pushing 
people to the edge financially. It is the consequences of throwing 
money at problems in an unplanned way, problems that were first created 
by not carefully planning and thinking about what we are doing.
  A country that can put a man on the moon and bring him back safely 
over 20 years ago does not have to build a generation of failed 
infrastructure projects. It should not be illegal in most of America 
for a clerk working in a drug store to live in an apartment above that 
drug store rather than having to have to commute every day. The Federal 
Government should not pay people more to pave a creek than restore a 
wetland, especially if that wetland restoration will actually solve the 
problem as well or even better, and we should guarantee that people in 
communities, large and small, across America have a place at the table 
to discuss the impacts of infrastructure investments rather than being 
shut out by State bureaucracies.
  Finally, the Federal Government itself should do more to lead by 
example, whether it is finally requiring the Post Office to obey the 
same laws and codes that the private sector or that local government 
itself needs to follow or, for that matter, having the House of 
Representatives do as good a job in our recycling efforts as a couple 
of ambitious Boy Scout troops do back home.
  The bottom line is that the American public wants our families to be 
safe, economically secure and healthy. What is going on with the town 
meeting this week in Detroit is an example of how to do that. I hope 
that my colleagues will look at ways that each of us in Congress can do 
our best to help make our communities more livable.

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