Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004
Surface Transportation Extension Act Of 2004 -- (House Of Representatives - February 11, 2004)
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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join with my colleagues today on what is the most important economic, environmental, and public safety issue that we will be facing.
I for one was a little bit startled when we had the President refer to this transportation bill as an entitlement program. With all due respect, this is not an entitlement, except to the point that I think, as referenced by our committee chair, the American public is entitled to have infrastructure investment.
I find it striking that we can have conservative icons like Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, we have the Chamber of Commerce, along with environmentalists, with unions, with development interests, with Realtors, all coming together with one of the broadest coalitions we have seen. All understand that this transportation funding is a user fee. To keep pace with inflation is an important national goal that was endorsed by no less a conservative icon than President Reagan. We are attempting to move forward in this fashion. It does not have to be this hard.
I would hope that our membership across the aisles will support our leadership on this committee who have taken a principled and strong stand to fund needs, as the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young) mentioned, that were identified by a study from the administration itself. It is not a hard sell to the American public. Eighty percent of the public feels that our highway and transit network are important to our economy. Sixty-nine percent of the public support increasing our Federal transportation investment, even if it means raising the gas tax.
TEA-21 has provided money for roads, for bridges, for virtually every metropolitan area. It has helped with air quality. It has helped with transportation enhancements, transit freight movement, bicycles. Communities large and small have used all of these provisions. Now is the time for all of us to step forward.
I am sorry we are not debating the 6-year reauthorization, but I hope that we will be using the next 4 months to actually do our job of legislating and passing a bipartisan bill that funds these needs, balances transportation, places a premium on environmental protection, and maintains local flexibility and control of decisionmaking.
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