I hope the Committee and the Obama Administration assigns sufficient gravity to this very serious problem impacting smaller cities, towns, and rural areas.

Colorado depends on coordination between Federal, State, and local authorities to keep families safe and go after bad actors.

He is somebody who cares passionately about making sure that our generation leaves more opportunity, not less, to the generation that is coming after us.

Tom Strickland is one of the finest public servants that has ever been produced by the State of Colorado.

I just want to thank you for holding the hearing and recognize that it is going to be the first in a series, because there is probably nothing more important that we will do in this Committee this year than deal with this problem.

I think it is particularly important when we talk about things like the deferred maintenance... an investment in our economy.

As Senator Bennett would say, I think Salt Lake City experienced a similar success in hosting the Olympics with their transit.

I hope that we can produce a bill in this Committee that shows that our commitment to helping local transportation entities more adequately meet those needs is just as strong.

We find ourselves at a crossroads at this time of economic downturn--a crossroads at which we must choose a path that creates jobs and moves us to a cleaner, greener future.

I am interested to know how we can increase the private sector's role in creating our transit future.

I can think of no one better to help guide this Committee through our discussion on the reauthorization of Federal transit programs than John.

So let me know when it is going to be.