Rewarding local investment would help projects like the Gold Line Foothill extension.

I would ask that the record be kept open for 2 weeks so that our terrific witnesses here can get their comments in.

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

I believe no jobs program pending in Congress is more important than making this innovative financing a reality.

I hope we will see action on this bill in the near future because we are on very delicate ground right now as we try to resolve the budget issues before us. We have two sides to the legislative branch--the House and the Senate. I think we…

I came to the floor to briefly voice my very strong support for this FAA reauthorization bill and to thank my chairman, Jay Rockefeller, for his leadership. Many people have said this, but it is worth repeating. This is a jobs bill. The…

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

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.

We have an imperative.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

It is time we invest in America.

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

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.

We need to do that here.

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.

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

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

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

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.