James Oberstar: “The purpose of today's hearing is a very serious and deeply felt need to establish a record on the need for continuation…”

We must move away from complete reliance on public funding for infrastructure and forge a new, stronger connection between private capital and infrastructure needs.

The Highway Trust Fund, based chiefly on the gasoline tax, will never again be adequate to fund even ongoing maintenance of our roads and bridges.

The efforts of Federal agencies can overlap and at times conflict, and currently, there is no body within the Executive branch to provide substantive coordination or, if necessary, resolution of disagreements among agencies to ensure…

I, too, have natural resources--national forests, national parks, wildlife refuges. When fire, as it does regularly, strikes the national forest, that land regenerates. The oil destroys. It likely cannot be restored by itself or by human…