Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this latest hearing on reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century – TEA-21, and I’d like to join you in welcoming our witnesses.
Mr. Chairman, as the Banking Committee continues its work on the reauthorization of TEA-21, it’s clear that we need to do as much as possible to help get people off our crowded roads. Just this week, we saw another indication of how traffic in the United States is getting worse: The Texas Transportation Institute issued its most recent traffic congestion survey of our nation’s urban areas and found that in the year 2000, urban drivers across the country sat in rush hour traffic for an average of 62 hours. That was up from 60 hours in 1999 and 16 hours in 1982.
62 hours a year, Mr. Chairman. For the New York metropolitan area, which includes northern New Jersey’s commuters, this delay was greater: 73 hours a year. All this traffic congestion cost our nation billions in lost productivity. It also caused increased levels of air pollution from all those cars stopped in traffic.
Mr. Chairman, as we consider today the return to our economy and environment from our investment in mass transit, we have clear evidence of how important it is to not only continue our commitment to help fund existing mass transit projects but to also increase it as well. We need not only to help maintain our nation’s mass transit infrastructure but also create new opportunities for commuters, whether they are by bus, rail or ferry.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to take a moment to discuss the problems facing Amtrak. The Administration is playing a high stakes game of chicken with Amtrak. We only have days before it shuts down. The Administration needs to work with Congress to provide the $205 million in funding for Amtrak to survive. If Amtrak shuts down, this would be a catastrophe for New Jersey’s mass transit riders: 82,000 daily commuters - over ¾ of New Jersey Transit’s rail passengers - would have to find another way to work. That’s because many of New Jersey Transit’s lines share the infrastructure with the Northeast Corridor.
I call upon the Administration now to support efforts to include $205 million in funding for Amtrak in the Supplemental Appropriations legislation pending in Congress.
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with you to develop legislation that continues to provide state, city and local transit agencies with a stable guaranteed source of mass transit funding. Thank you for holding this hearing and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.