[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5374]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              FUTURE OF THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, it is here. We have been waiting with 
bated breath for the Ryan budget, perhaps some of the biggest and most 
immediate problems confronting our Nation, things that will put people 
back to work and boost the economy.
  For me, number one is the exhaustion of the highway trust fund, 
meaning, as of October 1 or earlier, the Federal Government will end 
all new authorization for State highway projects and bridge replacement 
and transit for 8 to 10 months because the highway trust fund is 
depleted.
  If you look through the Ryan budget, it is the subject of three pages 
of narrative and is screed full of blather, but a close reading gets to 
a blueprint for the future of the national transportation system. He 
has a simple solution. We will end it. We will end it.
  The legacy of Dwight David Eisenhower and a coordinated approach to a 
national transportation system, in the Ryan budget, it ends. He will 
devolve it, devolve it to the States. The 50 States assembled and the 
territories will be responsible for funding their own transportation 
system, and somehow it will serve national needs.
  Let's stop this madness.

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