Joseph Knollenberg: “I am pleased to say that I will support the conference report. The conference report has much to commend. We meet the…”

“I am pleased to say that I will support the conference report. The conference report has much to commend. We meet the majority of the transportation funding guarantee as mandated by SAFETEA-LU, plus included some wise legislative provisions such as raising the airline pilot mandatory retirement age to 65 and prohibiting towing on Federal roads in Texas. We didn't go overboard on funding Amtrak and kept the reforms we put in place 2 years ago in hopes of bringing the railroad into the modern age. One unfortunate point I would like to make is one of the Transit New Starts Project, a project for the Chicago area's commuter rail, Metra, the UP West Line, was inadvertently not included in the bill. It was funded in the House bill, and in the negotiations all sides supported conference funding, and I am very hopeful we can work a little magic to get that included.”