[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13941]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         INVOLVE ALL IMPACTED BY MASS TRANSPORTATION DECISIONS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to rise again today 
to again commend the Transportation Committee, the full committee Chair 
Mr. Oberstar and Ranking Member Mica on H.R. 6052. I wanted to discuss 
very briefly an amendment that I offered, part of which was included in 
the manager's amendment, and it has to do with promoting education, but 
as well to address the question of involving all of those impacted.
  It reads that ``public transportation stakeholders should engage 
local communities in the education and promotion of the importance of 
using public transportation in cities and counties, and in the 
planning, development and design of transportation routing lines.''
  This is particularly of interest to constituents in Houston as we 
build a new metro system. Today they broke ground in the east end. I 
congratulate them. But as we look to make sure that we are involving 
all of the participants, the stakeholders need to address the question 
of routing.
  The only way that you will provide mass transit as a system for all 
the people is they must buy into it. We have a situation in Houston 
where we are looking to reroute from Wheeler, and I hope that this bill 
will get this understanding. Promote education of mass transit and get 
the stakeholders and communities to buy into it.

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