Gwen Graham: “I believe two of the fundamental parts of being able to answer that question are that the United States needs to have…”

“I believe two of the fundamental parts of being able to answer that question are that the United States needs to have the best educated population on earth so that we can continue to generate the innovative ideas and the efficiency in production that has hallmarked our economy. Second, the key responsibility of the public sector is to maintain an infrastructure that will be as efficient as possible. Those are two of the keys to American productivity which will allow us to compete in the global economy and maintain an average income and standard of living that is dramatic and above the rest of the world. In my judgment, this legislation will not achieve that objective, while at the same time adding to our national deficit. For those reasons, I believe we should take more time with this legislation, see what comes out of the Banking Committee for public transit, be able to understand the implications of the financing program that was just reported by the Finance Committee, and what is going to be required in order to avoid another 6 years of degradation of our basic public surface transportation system.”