[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 117 (Wednesday, September 27, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9401-S9403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TRANSPORTATION

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I am getting very close to the end of 
my Senate career. One of the issues I consider vital in terms of my 
knowledge and experience in the Senate for these last 18 years is that 
I have learned, among several other serious problems, of a problem that 
looms large and is often ignored. That is, how do we establish our 
transportation system to satisfy the growing needs for travel in this 
country?
  I see a crisis looming in our country because of congestion and 
because of our inability to move in a timely and reasonably comfortable 
fashion. We constantly read about delays at airports. As a matter of 
fact, these days I can almost never travel by air without resigning 
myself to the fact that I am not going to get there on time. There is a 
very good chance that I am going to miss my connection. There is a very 
good chance that a flight may be canceled. There is a very good chance 
that it is going to be a stressful, tough trip.
  I was fortunate enough to be a grandparent for the eighth time. My 
son lives in Colorado. I am, as everyone knows, I hope, from New 
Jersey. My son and his wife just had their first child, my number eight 
grandchild. The oldest is six years old. They are little kids. They are 
an awful lot of fun. I would like to see more of them if I could do it 
and still make sure I perform the duties necessary to represent the 
people of New Jersey and the people of this country.
  The trip I made consisted of two legs: one to Denver, CO, and the 
next one a short trip outside of Denver. It was on a Saturday. It 
wasn't on a busy weekday. It left an hour late from Newark. We were 
told that we should plan on a refueling stop in Wichita, KS. I have 
nothing against Kansas. I just didn't want to stop there if I didn't 
have to, because I was in such a hurry to get out and see my newest 
granddaughter. Her name is Hannah Lautenberg. I wanted to see her in 
the worst way. We stopped in Wichita long enough, about 40 minutes, to 
add more fuel.
  Why did we leave the Newark airport to start on a trip knowing full 
well that we weren't going to have enough fuel to make the trip? They 
said, based on the passenger load, the baggage load, and the severe 
headwinds that we were going to run into, we had to provide for 
circling over Denver Airport in case that was necessary. We managed to 
take on the fuel. We didn't have to circle over Denver. The weather was 
reasonable. But it was enough for me to miss my next flight.
  I called ahead and tried to reserve the second flight 2 hours later 
and was told that it was canceled and that the one 2 hours after that 
was full. Normally I would have exploded. But nobody would have cared. 
The worst thing is that you kind of resign yourself to saying, ``Oh, 
well, that is what I expected.'' Instead of getting a 30-minute 
airplane ride, I took a 2\1/2\ hour van ride bouncing along the 
pavement and trying to figure out what to do to keep myself amused 
during that period of time. It was hard to read.
  I got to see that beautiful grandchild. Boy, was I happy, too. She 
was as glorious as my daughter-in-law and my son described her. I 
thought she looked a lot like me. They said no. But it was a pleasant 
experience.

[[Page S9402]]

  I stayed overnight and planned to take a 1:30 flight out because I 
had only come in 5 o'clock the night before to Denver, CO from New 
Jersey. But I was told that the short flight was canceled and that I 
have to go back in the van. I have nothing against the van, the 
company, or the driver. It was just a lot of time to spend together 
with a stranger. That is what I did.
  I got back having missed two legs of the flight for which I paid in 
advance. I am not blaming that particular airline.
  It is terrible what we have adjusted to. We have adjusted to poor 
performance. We have adjusted to discomfort. We have adjusted to not 
having services that we paid for. That is the kind of society we 
created.

  I have all kind of friends. I come out of the corporate world, as the 
distinguished occupant of the Chair knows, and am accustomed to 
business travel. In the days before I came to the Senate, you would 
have a reservation and arrive kind of at the last minute, get on the 
plane, arrive on time, do your business, and get on your way. It is not 
so anymore at all.
  Again, it is not simply because the airlines are neglectful or that 
the airlines aren't trying. They simply can't carry the load.
  We have to face up to it. If you have bad weather in Denver, CO, you 
can bet your boots that you will be held up by aviation travel 
throughout the country. If you have bad weather, as we do even in 
Washington, DC, where sometimes they say the weather is always sunny--
it is hard to believe that--you get stuck, and you feel it all over the 
country.
  We had a meeting at the Newark airport. I sat down with people from 
the FAA, the Secretary of Transportation, people from the controllers 
operation, people who manage the airports, and people from the Air 
Transport Committee who operate the airlines.
  I asked one question: Is the sky a finite place or can we say it is 
infinite and just put every airplane that you can get in the sky up 
there without feeling the impact? I don't think they were surprised. I 
was. The answer was no. It is crowded up there.
  I went to a place in central southern New Jersey just about two-
thirds of the way down where a couple of weeks ago we had an airplane 
crash. Two airplanes with a total of 11 people collided in the sky on a 
bright, sunny day. All 11 people died. It was a miracle that more 
people on the ground were not killed. I don't want to get too grizzly. 
But part of the airplane fell through a house roof with people in it. 
It was a stark reminder about how this system is overloaded.
  I fly a lot in the second seat in the airplane, listen to the radio, 
and do some of the observing that one has to do in an airplane cockpit.
  I hear over the collision warning system ``traffic,'' ``traffic,'' 
``traffic.'' That means that there are airplanes close enough to you 
that you had better be careful.
  I point these out because we have our heads in the sand. We are not 
facing up to the problem. There is no more room in the sky.
  I can tell you this: There are no communities that I have seen 
begging for more airplanes to come into their airports. I have not seen 
anybody that says, let's not build more highways. I don't care if the 
cars pass underneath my window making noise all night. I don't care if 
my kids read that excessive carbon monoxide and other emissions come 
out of automobiles and diesel trucks. I don't know of anybody saying 
that. They are saying, help us get around more effectively. There is 
one way to do that, Mr. President; that is, get this country into the 
21st century transportation mode.
  Not too long ago, I was on a trip to NATO and went from Brussels, 
Belgium, to Paris, France, a distance of 200 miles in about an hour and 
25 minutes. We are 250 miles from New York. Sometimes I make it in a 
cool 4 hours by air, because I have to get on the plane. One time they 
told me: Get on the plane, Senator. I want you to know that we are 
moving away from the gate but we are going to wait 3 hours because of 
the line-up of traffic before we can take off. But we have to pull away 
from the gate. So please make the adjustment.
  In 1987 I had the good fortune to understand the problem and wrote 
the law that banned smoking in airplanes. It happened right here. It 
was a tough fight, but we got it through. I thought, my goodness, 
suppose we had to sit in an airplane 3 hours before we took off today 
with the people who are accustomed to smoking in airplanes saying to 
the pilot while banging on the door: Let us smoke. It would have been 
awful, and people across the country would have been in rebellion if 
they had to do that. So there is a solution: Get on with an investment 
in high-speed rail.

  I have heard debate on this floor that distresses me, from 
intelligent people, from people who say: No, we don't want to spend any 
more on Amtrak, we have spent enough. This is a cash guzzler.
  The fact of the matter is, we haven't done the job that we planned or 
that we thought we should have. We have spent $23 billion, 
approximately, since Amtrak--as we know it now--was developed in the 
early 1970s. It sounds like a lot of money, but it isn't a lot of 
money, not when we consider what we put into aviation, what we put into 
airports over the same period of time. I repeat, $23 billion since 
1971.
  Since that period of time, we have spent $160 billion on aviation 
programs, $380 billion on highways. Yes, we do collect a highway tax, 
and I am not saying we haven't done a pretty good job in building 
highways and airports. I am glad to see things being updated and 
upgraded. The fact of the matter is, when it is compared to $23 billion 
in Federal subsidies for high-speed rail, it is a drop in the bucket. 
Germany is going to spend $70 billion in a decade upgrading its high-
speed rail system. We ought to learn from that.
  To say just because a State doesn't have active rail service they 
don't want it to happen is crazy. Everybody doesn't have the same kind 
of aviation airline service we have in Chicago or New York or Los 
Angeles or Dallas, TX. But we help the system perform. We pay funds 
into FAA and build control towers and build a flight service network. 
Why? Because it is good for the country. And so is high-speed rail, 
even if it doesn't touch your neighborhood.
  As a matter of fact, we have a bunch of locations that are going to 
be beneficiaries of high-speed rail. They are included in 14 of the 
most congested urban areas that are designated high-speed corridors, 
including Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, GA, Houston, TX, 
Washington, DC, and Portland, OR, just to name a few of the places that 
are going to benefit by investments in high-speed rail. However, we 
have a problem convincing people from those States that it is good for 
them, that we ought to be spending more money on getting this system up 
to snuff.
  I proposed a piece of legislation that calls for $10 billion worth of 
capital investment by Amtrak over the next 10 years to try to bring the 
system up to grade for the 21st century. That is on top of other 
subsidies for which we appropriate funds. It gives them the ability to 
sell $10 billion worth of bonds. The Federal Government does have to 
take some cost for providing a tax credit for bondholders.
  The benefits are enormous. Within 2 weeks, we will see the first 
high-speed rail train set come into Washington. It will be there just 
as a showpiece to tell us what is coming. Very soon thereafter, within 
4 or 5 weeks, we will be seeing high-speed rail service or modified 
high-speed rail service in this corridor, between Washington and New 
York. We started in New York, the New York to Boston route. It is not 
truly high-speed rail; it is modified high-speed. It took an hour and a 
half off a 5\1/2\-hour trip, and the trains are loaded. It is as if 
people were standing on the platform for weeks waiting to find a train 
ride that would get them to their destinations, depending on weather, 
overcrowded skies, congestion all over the place, getting in your car 
and sitting there with all of the toxic emissions, all of the 
pollution, waiting for the traffic to move along. It was indeed a 
blessing, recognized by the public.
  When we get the system in the New York to Washington area, it will be 
considerably less than a 3-hour trip. That competes very effectively 
with aviation and the shuttle flights. We have approximately 100 
flights a day. I don't want to deprive the airlines of revenue. That is 
not my mission. My mission is to help the American public

[[Page S9403]]

get to their destinations on time, not miss connections, and to feel 
more comfortable, and lift the spirit of people who have to travel for 
a living, or recreationally, for family reunions or all kinds of 
reasons--to make it easier. That is the mission we are on.

  We have endorsements from many organizations. I know the occupant of 
the Chair was a member of the National Governors' Association when he 
was the Governor of Ohio. They endorse high-speed speed rail. National 
Conference of State Legislatures; U.S. Conference of Mayors; we have 
environmentalists; the American Road and Transportation Association; 
the AFL-CIO, Rail Labor Division; all people who have an interest in 
seeing high-speed rail. And newspapers that think about these things 
and whether or not they are going to be affected by this: The New York 
Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago 
Sun-Times, the Tampa Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and other 
newspapers support this investment in high speed rail.
  I think we ought to get on with it. I plead with my colleagues, don't 
let this be a last-ditch stand to try to uproot the possibilities of 
getting these trains underway, getting this track underway, getting the 
signal systems underway. It will make a difference in lives all across 
this country. Some of those whose States are serviced or will be 
serviced by this high-speed rail connection have to recognize what it 
means to them directly and step up to the plate and say this will be a 
national asset, even if it doesn't touch any of the cities in my State.
  Recognizing time is precious and not wanting to hold the present 
occupant of the chair to a stricter schedule than he would like, I am 
feeling very generous and sympathetic because I know I am going to be 
able to call on the occupant of the chair to help us with the high-
speed rail situation. I thank the chair for the courtesy of permitting 
me to make these comments. This is a milestone for America. It is a 
very important point in how we see ourselves getting from here to 
there.
  I hope my colleagues will support this with enthusiasm, knowing very 
well this is going to be the mode of transportation that is essential 
to continue to carry out our responsibilities.
  I thank the Chair.
  I yield the floor.

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