On the recordNovember 3, 2015
I thank the chairman. Mr. Chairman, first, I would like to acknowledge the difficult and challenging job Chairman Shuster and the committee have had in crafting this bill. I commend his leadership and hard work on this critically important bill. This bill dedicates grant funding to freight and highway projects of national significance. Though this program is of vital importance to projects in our districts, there appears to be a bias on how the vast majority of funds have been awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and suburban projects appear to often be ignored. For instance, H.R. 3763 converts the Surface Transportation Program, or STP, to a grant program with the intention of allowing States added flexibility in receiving funding for local projects. I ask the chairman to be mindful of the distribution of such funding levels as it pertains to suburban projects. Understanding the difficult choices the chairman has had to make to get this bill through the House, I would ask that, as this bill moves to conference, we work together to find some level of equitable distribution of Federal funds to suburban areas. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster).
