[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 69 (Monday, May 23, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1057-E1058]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 2005

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee, I rise today, during National Transportation 
Week, to recognize our remarkable transportation accomplishments and to 
draw attention to the critical challenges that we now face.
  During the half-century that has passed between the first permanent 
Transportation Week in 1962 and this week in 2005, we have created a 
world-class transportation system that moved our nation forward to the 
21st century.
  We built an Interstate System that now extends more than 46,000 
miles.
  We built major new subway systems in cities like San Francisco; 
Washington, DC; and Atlanta.
  We created a cabinet-level Department of Transportation.
  We created Amtrak to preserve intercity passenger rail service.
  And we maintained and expanded a Federal transportation financing 
system based largely on the collection of gas taxes.
  Unfortunately, that system of financing is now breaking down and our 
forward progress is threatened.
  This week, as we celebrate the 43rd annual National Transportation 
Week, we are 2 years into the effort to reauthorize Federal 
transportation spending.
  Unfortunately, all the proposals currently under consideration fall 
short of funding our extensive transportation needs.
  The transportation reauthorization legislation adopted by the House 
would provide $284.9 billion, while the bill passed this week by the 
Senate would provided $295 billion. Both of these funding levels are 
imperfect compromises.
  Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar originally introduced the 
House reauthorization legislation at a funding level of $375 billion.
  The Bush Administration has, however, demanded that spending be 
limited to $284.9 billion--or a figure that is approximately $90 
billion below the level of investment that even the Department of 
Transportation says is needed.
  What is the real difference between $375 billion and $285 billion?
  It is the difference between merely maintaining a transportation 
system in which drivers experience nearly 4 billion hours of delay and 
constructing the new roads and transit facilities necessary to reduce 
congestion and to save some of the more than 40,000 lives lost on our 
highways each year.

[[Page E1058]]

  It is the difference between the 13.5 million jobs that would be 
supported by $285 billion and the nearly 18 million jobs that would be 
supported by $375 billion.
  To fill the gap between the funding the Federal Government is willing 
to provide and the funding that is needed, we have created so-called 
``innovative'' financing mechanisms, such as garvee bonds.
  These mechanisms enable states to issue increasing amounts of debt to 
try to meet the transportation needs that Federal funding is no longer 
meeting.
  As the title of an insightful report issued this year by the 
Brookings Institution describes it, these are simply short-sighted and 
unsustainable means of building ``Today's Roads with Tomorrow's 
Dollars.''
  The Federal Highway Administration reports that at the end of 2003, 
States had more than $77 billion in total highway related debt 
outstanding.
  As with our growing national debt, States' reliance on debt only 
shifts the burden of paying for our present transportation 
infrastructure needs on to future generations.
  We are going to confront a time in the not-too-distant future when 
States will have a back-log of construction projects that cannot be 
built because states are still paying for the roads they built 15 years 
ago.
  There is an old saying: even if you are on the right track, you'll 
get run over if you just sit there. The transportation reauthorization 
bill has now been passed by both the House and the Senate. Our 
immediate task must be to provide a measure of relief to our States by 
passing a conference report as soon as possible.
  As we approach the end of our sixth extension to TEA-21, we must 
remember that the more we delay, the less we are able to relieve the 
burden of debt States are incurring to fund transportation.

                          ____________________