Jim Costa

It makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever, to me.

We need farmers and we need our urban constituencies, and we need to work together.

We have a broken water system designed for 20 million people and the farms that are the most productive anywhere in the world.

I mean, it is going to be bad, not only for my area, but for the entirety of California.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the world.

California and the West is going to need rainfalls of biblical proportions if we are going to get past these dry periods.

You need an integrated, multimodal approach that uses our road systems, our air systems, and our rail system.

The comments that the chairman made about taking the $68 million--billion dollars, excuse me--and applying that to the other systems...

We cannot build wider roads through our places.

We have got to find a way to compete and be a leader in transporting people, goods, and services.

I have already given $1 billion. Thank you.

Let me just say that we in the Congress have dedicated $8 billion, period, for high-speed rail.

California can afford to invest in our water and our transportation because the success of our State in the next 30 years depends upon both.

I reject the idea that investing in our State's transportation network means that we cannot invest in our State's water infrastructure.

We ought to be working together for these Americans sooner, rather than later.

High-speed rail is a part of that response.

California has 38 million people today living there. And by the year 2030 we will have over 50 million people.

I am hopeful today that we can focus on those legitimate challenges facing California high-speed rail, and that we can work together to deal with the challenges in this project and make it work.

As we all know, building major infrastructure projects are never, ever easy.

With thousands of jobs for California and the valley on the line, let's use today's hearing as an opportunity to exchange ideas on how we can best invest in California's infrastructure.

As a representative of the San Joaquin Valley of California, I know our economic recovery has been uneven at best. Unemployment remains unacceptably high in areas like my district. Those on unemployment are not socking taxpayer dollars…

So let's be clear about that. If the goal is we shouldn't open up any of these areas period, for a host of reasons that they believe are valid, I understand that.

I think science has demonstrated that it can be done, so I guess I am trying to understand what the problem is here.

And I rise in opposition to this bill. First of all, I want to thank Chairman Lucas, the gentleman from Oklahoma, for all the work that he has done over the years, and my appreciation for his efforts in the past few years. It has taken a…

I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from New York and fellow cochair of the Natural Gas Caucus, Mr. Reed, for the time. Places like the San Joaquin Valley, which I represent, are still struggling to create jobs in the wake of our…