On the recordJune 4, 2015
Shame on me for asking the Department of Transportation to follow the law, respect the Constitution of the United States, and make economically sound decisions. This is not a partisan issue, in response to that allegation. In September, I wrote the GAO, along with my colleague from Florida, Representative Patrick Murphy, asking them to study the project to ensure taxpayer funds were not at risk. A recent independent economic analysis conducted by Dr. John Friedman concludes that, even under all optimistic assumptions, AAF will generate losses of more than $100 million and will be unable to service its debt burden. Dr. Friedman has a Ph.D in economics, is a distinguished Brown University professor and former Economic Council special assistant in the current Obama administration. The Department of Transportation has been unable to explain where they get their authority to authorize bonds for this project. That is because they don't have any authority. They say title 23 funding has been given to the project in the past, which could trigger the bond authority, but have been unable to state where title 23 funds were ever spent, on what projects, and when. This is just common sense. Now, it might not make some congressional sense to some people, but this is common sense and a simple ask that the Department of Transportation follow the law and not violate the law to help a special interest and put the taxpayers on the hook for $1.75 billion.…
