[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1068-1069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1020
                            STREETCAR SUMMIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this week, people from dozens of cities 
around America are gathering for the annual Streetcar Summit.
  For the last 25 years, I've been working to reintroduce the modern 
streetcar to American communities. We

[[Page 1069]]

started with a project in Portland, Oregon, over 20 years ago. It was a 
great pleasure for me to see this open in 2001 and watch how this 
streetcar investment anchored revitalization in the downtown, led to 
over $3 billion of private and public investment along the right-of-
way, encouraged over 22 million people to ride the streetcar, and 
developed into a signature project for our community.
  More recently, when the new administration was sworn into office, I 
worked with the White House to implement legislation that I had in the 
last reauthorization that we called ``Small Starts,'' which somehow had 
stalled. Within 4 months, the new administration was able to help us 
figure out how to move it forward. In October of 2009, we were able to 
sign an agreement with the Obama administration and start the project.
  I'm pleased to report that this project--which has provided over 
1,800 jobs, that is extending a 3\1/3\-mile line--will be open. In 
fact, we've invited President Obama to ride on the first official trip. 
He can ride this year on a project that started in the first year of 
his administration, now a completed project. As an added bonus, he 
would be able to ride the first American-built streetcar in 58 years.
  While it's manufactured in Portland, Oregon--I say with some modest 
pride--it makes a difference for people around the country because it's 
going to be provided to other communities like Tucson, Arizona, in the 
project I worked on with our former colleague, Gabby Giffords. And 
subcontracting is occurring throughout the upper Midwest, where smaller 
manufacturers are helping construct this product made in America.
  As a result of the administration's investment of $419 million since 
October of 2009, we're watching projects take place in 10 cities across 
America--in Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Salt Lake--that are moving 
forward with this vision. Indeed, the people in the conference that 
will be here this week represent operating systems that are now in 
Seattle, San Francisco, Galveston, Little Rock, Memphis, New Orleans, 
Lowell, Massachusetts, Kenosha, Wisconsin. There are communities all 
across America that have seized this vision and are moving forward. 
They are coming together to deal with how communities, large and small, 
can seize on this proven technology that was, after all, the 
cornerstone of urban development long about 1900. This was the 
technology that was driving American community development. Well, it 
still can drive community development, provide tens of thousands of 
jobs, be able to help focus the revitalization of, what in some areas, 
are troubled neighborhoods. It's an opportunity to bring people 
together on the streetscape, to be able to give a different environment 
for shopping, recreating, and, frankly, preventing pollution, 
congestion--in many cases a trip not taken.
  I strongly urge my colleagues, when the opportunity arises this week, 
to meet some of the people in the vanguard of America's new streetcar 
renaissance. A simple, commonsense, proven technology that's cost-
effective, that provides an anchor for development, giving people an 
opportunity to give another choice to the residents--empowering them, 
making their neighborhoods more livable, their families safer, 
healthier, and more economically secured.
  This is what this Congress should be working on, coming together to 
take projects like this, a constructive Federal partnership, stretching 
dollars and making a success that we can all be proud of.

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