Barbara Boxer

We have to figure out ways. I do not have the answers.

We have to have a robust transportation system if we are going to compete in the global economy.

Although colleagues in Congress differ on some issues--I would say many--we all agree that we have to create more jobs.

We have to put aside lots of our differences and move forward.

One of the most effective and far-reaching ways to create jobs is to fix our Nation's outdated infrastructure.

I think their presence here today, and the eloquence of their testimony they gave us, and their commitment to stand by our side, is very strong.

The country trumps politics, that is where we have to go.

I like, I would like an appropriate increase in the Federal Fuel Tax, recognizing that you are collecting half of what you used to.

We cannot afford to send a signal to the Governors... that this would be a disaster.

So, Tom Carper's idea of raising the gas tax one penny that he did with Voinovich a month for 24 months, that idea you like better.

The reason they are willing to go for a fuel tax, and the only way they will do it, is if you are going to put it in the roads and bridges and to improvements because that is what costs them money.

If we do not reauthorize, then everything will stop for those projects.

We have an imperative.

I am hoping to work with Senator Inhofe so that we can make this really a major piece of our new transportation bill.

I believe there is an argument to be made that people who use the roads should pay for them.

Our shared support for infrastructure investment follows many years of bipartisan support for exactly the kind of investments we are talking about today.

The failure to invest in rebuilding our infrastructure for the 21st Century will result in lower rates of economic growth and thus lower tax revenues.

When we are reduced to competing on who can make the biggest budget cuts instead of deciding on how to compete in the world economy and to secure our future, then I believe that we are having the wrong conversation at that point.

Strong Federal investment in our transportation system has never been more important to support the economy and to create and sustain good jobs for U.S. workers than it is right now at this very moment.

I look forward to working with you and the members of this committee to draft and pass surface transportation legislation.

We cannot solve our long-term Federal deficit if we fail to invest in the future.

What we want, and what our nation needs, is a strong economy, an economy where business can thrive and workers can build a decent life for themselves.

I would just hope that as we reauthorize Surface Transportation Programs that we are mindful that we need to increase, not decrease, our commitment to public transportation.

We need to do that here.

Now we have an obligation to set all that aside and work together for our people, for jobs, for business, for our Nation.