James Oberstar

Madam Speaker, we are gathered here to commemorate two extraordinary events. Forty years ago, the Cuyahoga River en route to Lake Erie caught fire and galvanized the attention of a Nation and the action of Congress to strengthen the…

Parking facilities are eligible under a number of our surface transportation programs, funded out of the Highway Trust Fund. In the SAFETEA-LU legislation, we authorize funding for parking facilities to encourage commuters to park their…

The New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia metropolitan area has the most complex air space in the United States; that means, the most complex air space in the world. Four of the Nation's five airports reporting the worst on-time performance are…

Without a great deal of enthusiasm, I oppose the amendment of the gentleman, although I supported it last year. But this year we have in place in our FAA reauthorization bill a process that will cure the problem the gentleman has brought…

We're not here reacting to and debating a newspaper story. The report of the planned dumping of highly toxic, highly residual elements into Lake Michigan has been documented. We will have a hearing in the Subcommittee on Water Resources in…

This is, as the chairman of the subcommittee has said, a shutdown amendment. It would totally eliminate operating grants for Amtrak and guarantee a shutdown. I suppose that is what the gentleman wants as he offers the amendment. He knows…

The gentleman from Arizona first wants to cut the operating account, and then, after Amtrak is unable to operate, then cut their capital and debt service funds, and then, I guess, bury passenger rail service in America. He doesn't provide…

in Texas, for example, of the $305 million assigned to Texas under the 2006 rescission, a total of $241 million of their cuts came from CMAQ and transportation enhancements. That's 79 percent of the amount that Texas alone cut out of these…

I greatly appreciate the remarks of the gentleman from Ohio. He did great service, Madam Speaker, during his chairmanship of the Economic Development Subcommittee in service to the needs of the Appalachian Regional Commission, the ARC, and…

I was in Sunbury and Shamokin Dam in Pennsylvania with our colleague, Congressman Carney, in his portion of the Appalachian Regional Commission looking at the Economic Development Highway Program of ARC. Well, it's a long stretch from…

189 years ago, on May 22, 1819, the steamship Savannah departed Savannah, Georgia, on the first transatlantic voyage by a steamship. This voyage demonstrated the commercial viability of steamships and meant that commercial shipping was no…

I join the Majority Leader (Mr. Hoyer) and Ms. Norton, along with Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Moran of Virginia, Mr. Wolf, and Mr. Wynn in supporting House Concurrent Resolution 79, to authorize use of the Capitol Grounds for the Greater…

Congressman Jim Leach was a very decent, distinguished and thoughtful Member of Congress. He was a learned Member of the body. He's a personal friend. He served this country in many capacities. He began his service as a staff member for…

Mr. Speaker, I heard our colleagues from Oregon, from Idaho and Montana speak about the disasters that are striking their area and the need for funding and assistance from this legislation. As we speak, there is a 22,000-acre segment of…

it was shortly after the election in which Juanita Millender-McDonald was elected to the Congress, she called on my office. I was the ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She came to see me about service on…

In the preceding Congress, this amendment was offered on the floor during consideration of the WRDA bill, and it passed by voice vote; WRDA passed by 406 votes. It requires adequate budgeting by the administration for maintenance of small…

Among some of the highlights are a provision that is of great importance to the 35 million people who live along the Great Lakes. There is a provision to direct the Secretary of the Army, along with directors of other agencies and…

There is an old saying among seafarers: ``No helmsman is tested in fair water.'' The gentleman from Louisiana was tested in the aftermath of Katrina, and I saw him at the helm in Baton Rouge when our committee made a tour of the…

First of all, we had a very clear agreement within the committee on the Democratic and Republican side not to take new items that were not in the 109th Congress Water Resources Development Act. We have vigorously adhered to that, kept a…

I think they have it wrong, and the gentleman stated it just right. Over the past 6 years, if we had passed the water resources bill in a timely fashion, it would have been in the range of $2 billion a year. That is normal. So what we are…

This legislation is vitally important. It is long-standing. Actually, transportation security legislation in the aftermath of September 11 originated in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where the gentleman from Alaska…

the godfather of security dogs, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton), would probably be surprised at this debate unfolding this afternoon. When I was Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, we were doing a major security act, he came to me…

Again, I want to express my great appreciation to the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee with whom I have worked very diligently and cooperatively. He is a man of great personal integrity and legislative honor and has worked…

The situation that needs to be cured is not that the statute preempts negligence claims requires a change. The situation needing remedy is the misinterpretation of the statute by some courts. That is precisely what this clarifying language…

This clarifying language comes in large part as a response to court opinions that have misapplied principles of Federal preemption which has prevented people injured by the negligent acts of railroads from being compensated. The bill does…