[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 32 (Monday, August 15, 2005)]
[Pages 1271-1273]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient 
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users in Montgomery, Illinois

August 10, 2005

    Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks. Thanks for the warm welcome. 
It's such an honor to be here at Caterpillar. I want to thank the men 
and women who build the machinery here. I want to thank you for your 
hard work. I want to thank you for your--for putting out a great 
product.
    And I'm here to sign the highway bill because I believe by signing 
this bill, when it's fully implemented, there's going to be more demand 
for the machines you make here. And because there's more demand for the 
machines you make here, there's going to be more jobs created around 
places like this facility. So thanks for letting us come.
    I was telling some of the fellows I met behind the stage that 
there's a Cat working on the ranch right now. [Laughter] And I'm not 
driving it. [Laughter]
    I'm honored to be here with Denny Hastert. The best words that I've 
recently heard were these: Denny Hastert is running for office again. 
Denny Hastert is a great Speaker of the House of Representatives. He 
also loves his district, and he loves the people in his district. He was 
telling me the other day--other day, just a second ago, that he finished 
in the top 55 in his high school class. [Laughter] And the high school 
was right around the corner. He also mentioned that there was only 55 
people in his class. [Laughter] He's been here a long time, and he's 
seen this district grow and change and--but he's always had a heart for 
the people here. And I'm thrilled his wife, Jean, and his family is with 
us today as well. Thank you all for coming.
    Somebody said the Governor may be here. Governor, if you're here, 
thanks for being--there he is. Governor Blagojevich, I'm honored you're 
here. I appreciate you coming. Last time I saw you was at the Lincoln 
Library opening, and you were kind to be there then, and you're kind to 
be here today. I'm proud you're here.
    With me today is the Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta. Norm 
is doing a fantastic job as our Secretary of Transportation.
    We've got key Members from the United States Senate and the United 
States House who are here to witness this bill signing. Senator Jim 
Inhofe from the State of Oklahoma is with us today. He flew down--up 
from Texas. He and Senator Kit Bond from Missouri were the main leaders 
in the United

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States Senate to get this bill done. I'm proud they're here. Thank you 
for coming.
    Congressman Jim Oberstar from Minnesota is with us. Congressman Tom 
Petri from Wisconsin is with us--two key members on the committee. And 
you don't know the next one, but we do, and we know him well. He's a man 
of great accomplishment. He's the chairman of the House Ways and Means. 
He was very instrumental in getting the highway bill out of the House 
and out of the conference, and that's Congressman Bill Thomas.
    I want to thank the members of the Illinois delegation that are here 
today: Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Barack Obama, Congressman Jerry 
Costello, Congressman Bobby Rush, Congressman Ray LaHood, Congresswoman 
Judy Biggert, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Congresswoman Melissa Bean. 
Thank you all for coming.
    Somebody said His Honor may be here. There he is. Mr. Mayor, thank 
you for coming. I have gotten to know Mayor Daley over the last 5 years. 
I got to know him in the 2000 campaign in a way that wasn't all that 
pleasant, frankly. [Laughter] Let me just say, you want him on your 
side. [Laughter] But since I have become the President, he has been on 
the side of doing what he thinks right for Chicago. He is a great mayor 
of a great city, and I'm proud the mayor is here.
    Last 4 years, this economy has been through a lot. You know what I'm 
talking about. We've been through a recession, the stock market 
declined, corporate scandals. We had an attack on the homeland, and 
we've had the demands on our ongoing war against the terrorists. To grow 
the economy and help the American families, we acted. We passed 
significant tax relief. And the economic stimulus plan we passed is 
working. Thanks to the efforts of our workers and entrepreneurs, this 
economy is strong, and it is getting stronger.
    Real disposable personal income is up. Homeownership is at an 
alltime high. Small businesses are flourishing. And last week, we 
learned that we've added over 200,000 new jobs in the month of July. The 
national unemployment rate is 5 percent. Since May of 2003, we've added 
nearly 4 million new jobs. More Americans are working today than ever 
before in our Nation's history.
    But we recognize in Washington, more needs to be done. That's one of 
the reasons I signed an energy bill. In order to keep this economy 
growing, we've got to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil.
    And that's why I'm proud to be here to sign this transportation 
bill, because our economy depends on us having the most efficient, 
reliable transportation system in the world. If we want people working 
in America, we've got to make sure our highways and roads are modern. 
We've got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century. 
I mean, you can't expect your farmers to be able to get goods to market 
if we don't have a good road system. You can't expect to get these 
Caterpillar products all around the United States if we don't have a 
good road system.
    This road system that we have is going to be modernized through the 
Transportation Equity Act. It provides more than $286 billion over 6 
years to upgrade our Nation's network of roads and bridges and mass 
transit systems. The Transportation Act will finance needed road 
improvements and will ease traffic congestion in communities all across 
this country.
    Here in Illinois, as the Speaker mentioned, one of the key projects 
that he's been talking to me about for quite a while is what they call 
the Prairie Parkway. I thought that might be in Texas, but, no, it's 
right here in Illinois. [Laughter] Good folks understand what that means 
to the quality of life around here, when you have a highway that will 
connect Interstate 80 and Interstate 88. The Prairie Parkway is crucial 
for economic progress for Kane and Kendall counties, which happen to be 
two of the fastest growing counties in the United States.
    In other words, this bill is going to help modernize the highway 
system and improve quality of life for a lot of people. And these 
projects will require workers. Highways just don't happen; people have 
got to show up and do the work to refit a highway or build a bridge. And 
they need new equipment to do so. So the bill I'm signing is going to 
help give hundreds of thousands of Americans good paying jobs.

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    This bill upgrades our transportation infrastructure, and it will 
help save lives. The bill establishes a safety belt incentive grant 
program, which will provide incentives for States to adopt laws that 
increase seat belt usage. Under this bill, the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration will set stability standards to help prevent 
vehicle rollovers.
    In other words, this is more than just a highway bill; it's a safety 
bill. The American people expect us to provide them with the safest 
possible transportation system, and this bill helps fulfill that 
obligation. This law makes our highways and mass transit systems safer 
and better, and it will help more people find work. And it accomplishes 
goals in a fiscally responsible way. We are not raising gasoline taxes 
in order to pay for this bill.
    Our Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta, will work to ensure 
that taxpayers get the most from this bill and that projects are 
delivered on time and on budget.
    The United States Congress can be proud of what it has achieved in 
the Transportation Equity Act, and I'm proud to be right here in Denny 
Hastert's district to sign it.
    Thank you all for coming. May God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:39 a.m. in the Caterpillar-Aurora 
Facility. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of 
Illinois; and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL. At the time of 
publication, H.R. 3, approved August 10, had not been received by the 
Office of the Federal Register for assignment of a Public Law number.