John W. Olver: “I urge the adoption of the rule and passage of the bill. Let me briefly summarize the highlights of the bill. With…”

“I urge the adoption of the rule and passage of the bill. Let me briefly summarize the highlights of the bill. With regard to Transportation, the bill meets the highway and transit funding guarantees mandated by the authorizations, SAFETEA-LU. In meeting the guarantees, we were required to increase above the President's request the highway obligation limit by $631 million and funding for transit programs by $334 million. Airport development grants are funded at $3.6 billion, which represents an increase of $850 million over the budget request, but only $85.5 million over the last year. The Essential Air Service program is funded at $110 million, which will preserve all existing air service at small and rural communities. The President's request for Amtrak was woefully inadequate and would have resulted in the loss of intercity passenger rail service to many communities.”