John Mica: “Mr. Chairman, this is my 14th year in the Congress. This is the first year that we've not had a major dustup over…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is my 14th year in the Congress. This is the first year that we've not had a major dustup over Amtrak, and that is a direct credit to the hard work on our side of Mr. Shuster and Mr. Mica, and on the Democratic side to Chairwoman Brown and the chairman of our full committee, who Ms. Brown has referred to as the guru of transportation. And I think this bill is one that deserves every Member's support. I was glad that Chairman Oberstar, in his remarks, talked about the high cost of fuel and gasoline, and he talked about airlines. And I just want to throw another one in. Continental Airlines is a big carrier in my part of the world. They just announced they're going to lay off 3,000 people out of a workforce of 54,000. And in talking to them, their jet fuel costs in the last year have gone up $2.3 billion. And if you think about what $2.3 billion means, translated over the workforce, it means that if fuel hadn't gone up by that amount, everybody that works for Continental Airlines could have gotten a raise of $50,000. I mean, we're talking real money.…”