[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TRANSIT FUNDING

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, Federal transportation law currently 
penalizes communities like Redding and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in my 
district or like South Bend, Indiana; Lubbock, Texas; Shreveport, 
Louisiana; Wichita, Kansas; Jackson, Mississippi; Fort Collins, 
Colorado; communities like them all over the country.
  When these communities reach 200,000 people, transit systems in these 
areas are required to spend Federal money like the big-city transit 
system. They lose their flexibility. What they need is a small system 
with unique needs. They are lumped in with the New Yorks and the 
Philadelphias. But areas like Lancaster and Redding are nothing like 
Philadelphia.
  As a result, people in these areas and dozens of others lose out, and 
that is why I introduced a bill to prevent the Federal Government from 
penalizing these thriving communities, the Transit Flexibility 
Protection Act. This bill does not authorize new money. It merely 
protects small transit systems and their ability to use Federal funds 
wisely.
  If we are going to invest in public transit, we should at least do it 
in a way that truly promotes it in communities like these.

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