On the recordJune 27, 2012
From the looks of it, the gentleman from California has quite a fight going on with the Sierra Club, with three of the four major newspapers--I don't know which ones they are exactly. I didn't know there were four major newspapers in San Francisco. Most places these days, if they have one, they're doing very well--and with the State legislature in California as well. I strongly oppose this amendment. And, frankly, I am disappointed by what it represents. This project, I think, is a perfect--well, maybe not perfect--is a very good example of the types of infrastructure projects our major urban areas need to remain economically strong, provide job creation now, and critical access to jobs in the future. Six of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in this country--those with a population over 1 million--exist in the State of California. California also happens to have five additional ones which have 500,000 to 1 million in population. Seven of those 11 are growing by more than 25 percent per year. And these are exactly the sort of places--all of them--they are places that need investment, continued investment, and continued assistance from the Federal Government. They are putting a major amount of money into our authorization plans, which we extend and are still under extension.…
