James Oberstar

Our override of that veto was 107.

All of these had chief's reports. All of these have been through the process. That is merit enough.

Eighty-one. My recollection was a little higher than that number. Eighty-one, that is right.

It is disappointing Mr. Boardman felt necessary to recuse himself from this hearing because of some perceived conflict.

This program is not going to outsource jobs to Bangalore.

I will not pretend to have read every one of these because we didn't really have the time in which to do that.

I vigorously objected to that because that included projects that had gone through the district, the division engineer that had a chief's report six, seven years ago.

The criteria is jobs. Does this put people to work in a short period of time?

See, your fate and that of the Secretary of Commerce and that of the President and Vice President and the sort of reputation of the Congress for being able to deliver depends on that portion, on that local initiative being able to award…

Yes. You describe a dispersment program that will bring in regional project managers to deal with 'more difficult and complex projects.'

You will have to give your answer and then I have to go next to Mr. Buchanan.

EDA has been a favorite government agency of mine.

You raised a very interesting point about planning. The question is what is meant by planning.

By the time we brought our bill to the Floor, unemployment in the construction trades was 970,000; today it is 1,900,000.

The point is that you and I need to have a further conversation about this.

I am concerned about how grant recipients report job creation, which is one of the requirements under the Recovery Act.

I said, have you ever heard of dynamite? Blow the goddamn thing up----

Well, that is good to hear. I had the same reaction. Initially there was a little push-back and questioning...

I just want to project on screen this process for ensuring transparency and accountability that I crafted at the outset of our Committee version of the stimulus...

My objective in fashioning the program was to do something that is doable; not that is dreamable, but that is doable.

That is characteristic of much of the infrastructure that Amtrak has to deal with, isn't it?

I am proud to be a Member of this Committee and this Subcommittee. I look forward to doing one of the best Highway Bills ever.

it is in the interests of the Federal government nationally to elevate this project.

If we do not achieve authorization by October 1st for the next Federal fiscal year... our spending or investment on highways and transit would drop somewhere between 30 and 40 percent for the next Federal fiscal year.

I greatly appreciate Mr. Blumenauer who is always a fount of ideas and new initiatives.