I wholeheartedly endorse his nomination and recommend to the Committee that we move quickly on his confirmation.

the Federal Government does have to treat like employees similarly.

We are very proud of his public service. We thank you very much for your continued willingness to want to serve our Nation.

the merit principles, which basically say we should hire people who can do the job because they have the skills to do the job and we evaluate them by how well they do that job and nothing else.

We hold this hearing today at a time when our national economy is struggling and the U.S. Postal Service is not immune to that trend.

I hope that we are indeed able to make these ideas work.

I think our challenge, Madam Chair, is to craft the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, that you referred to as MAP, that will meet our investment needs in a fiscally responsible way.

But I think we need to make sure that what we do in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act is consistent with our overall responsibility to balance the Federal budget.

Americans spend 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost of $78 billion a year to the economy.

Let's take a look at the overall problems that we have in America in dealing with quality of life and our commitment to our environment.

Total current spending is well below what is needed to improve the condition of our national transportation infrastructure.

There is no question that our national transportation system is in dire need of repairs and investments.

Our Nation's surface transportation system is in desperate need of repair while being stretched to its limits.

So yes, it is critically important that we make the right investments.

The funding we provided merely put a dent in the enormous backlog of transportation needs in this country.

I think the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a good first start.

I think most of us believe these tools are extremely important, and we want to make sure that you have the tools that you need.

I would just stress I would hope that we will have the opportunity to return to the issues of the PATRIOT Act far in advance of the deadline for the end of this year where we have to act.