John Mica

I just rise in strong support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer). He has worked with the committee in drafting this amendment, done an excellent job, and we also have the support of FAA on this amendment…

I am pleased to allow them to submit their remarks. We are taking the amendment, and I know she is going to work with us. I would also be pleased to yield to our colleague from Hawaii.

I actually will support the amendment, but I wanted to give the gentlelady an additional minute to conclude if she had any remarks. As I said, we're very willing to work with her on her next amendment, and hope she would consider working…

I do not. But I was hoping to hear that the gentleman from Puerto Rico would be willing to work with me on his other amendment. And I'm sure he will. But I still will support his amendment because I'm that kind of a guy. I yield back the…

I claim time in opposition to the amendment. The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Florida is recognized for 5 minutes.

I would like to reserve my time that I acquired on behalf of the Ways and Means Committee to close and, I believe, if it's appropriate, have the Science Committee, which I think is yielded 5 minutes on each side, go forward prior to my…

I am so pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble), one of the senior members of the T&I Committee and a leader on the Judiciary Committee.

I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), the chair of the Highways Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Reminding everyone that we're borrowing 42 cents out of every dollar, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri).

The gentleman from Florida is correct, Madam Speaker, that this is about the rule, and the Rules Committee serves a very important purpose because we have 435 Members. When we come to the floor, you just can't have chaos. There has to be…

While, first of all, someone was not paying attention to the performance of the engineer in this case, and that is a shortcoming of our safety program, that needs to be corrected.

And don't tell me that you cannot make money moving passengers by rail.

We would have more employees, we would have more service if we ran better routes.

There is no reason why some of the money-losing routes cannot be put up for private sector competition.

I am open to working with you. And I know you're just excited about working with me.

We need to bring the private sector in.

The credibility moving forward has been damaged.

The launch has been an absolute disaster.

I consider myself one of the stronger supporters of bringing true high-speed rail to the United States and also expanding passenger rail service where it makes sense for the taxpayers.

It's a lack of leadership in the State of Florida on one person.

I pleaded and begged to look at the Northeast Corridor.

We currently--no offense to Amtrak, but basically we run what I term as Soviet-style passenger train system.

And I will just tell you I have no other priority for the balance of my tenure in Congress, so I am sort of focused on this.

My intent is not to deprive them of any of the space that they need, but rather to look at a consolidation that makes sense.

I have been here a while. It's sort of unprecedented to have a resolution of the nature we did in response to a prospectus request.