Tom Carper

The idea that we pulled out of it, pulled out of a trading block that included us and 12 other nations, 40 percent of the world's trading, and we walked away.

I think one of the smart things this administration has done early in its tenure is to make sure that people in neighborhoods across America can go to the federally qualified community health center and be vaccinated.

I just think you--and Mr. Chairman, you and Senator Grassley, before he leaves--you fellows did great work, absolutely great work.

We have a surface transportation system that is in bad shape, and we can do better than this, and we need to do better than this

Folks who ride transit around our country, whether it is Delaware, West Virginia, California, Des Moines, those are folks who are not going to be using the roads, highways, bridges.

The times are a-changing, our cars are changing, our drivers are changing.

I don't think that is a winners and losers contest that we should be in, and it is not a contest that I think we should allow the States to get into because of all the other collateral costs of suppressing the growth of electric vehicles.

I have talked to a lot of Governors and a lot of State legislators, and I know you have too, but those who have in the last decade, not in the last 5 or 6 years, who supported increases in traditional user fees in their States have…

We have the opportunity to provide leadership for the Senate, and I think for the Congress, in dealing with some of our toughest challenges

Aim high, there is more room up there.

Our concern is how do we help make sure that lower income families, at risk families, don't end up bearing an inordinate amount of burden?

I think of the States as laboratories of democracy.

Action has to be taken if we are going to be successful in implementing a major and futuristic transportation infrastructure investment program.

The States are laboratories of democracy, and they give us the opportunity to find out what works and do more of that

I think again, as heavy users and payers of our transportation system, we really need to look at our trucking industry separately from our passenger vehicles.

I will be extremely concerned about any proposal that we adopt that allows for this kind of selective choosing of winners and losers and deliberate suppression of consumer choice toward electric vehicles.

I think the last thing is that a national pilot is definitely necessary if the Federal Government is going to engage in this activity.

I am sitting here thinking about Dwight Eisenhower and his leadership, which got us started on the interstate highway system.

We need to invest more in our transportation system, for sure, and that the Federal Government has a continued role to play.

We are on the cusp of another transformational change in the way we not just build our roads, highways, and bridges.

Our tradition in this Committee is to work across the aisle to work together, and we do that pretty well

The gas tax, and you know better than I do the political reasons why we can't just raise the gas tax, would prove that.

We have the opportunity to address all of those, all of those

We need to replace per gallon fuel taxes with per mile charges, in some form or another.

It is clear that we need to find new revenues to provide for the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.