You remember my calling the Vice President of IBM in this hearing room and telling him, I am going to nail your shoes to the floor.

Maybe if we changed the name of the airport you would be able to get in more frequently.

And I would reiterate what Chairman Oberstar said, to please pick up the telephone or walk across the Capitol to the other body and encourage them to pass the reauthorization bill.

I am disappointed to hear you, not disappointed you are saying it, disappointed they are not doing it.

The thought behind moving toward NextGen is that it will increase system capacity.

You cannot legislate good management. You can legislate good metrics.

There is some sort of sequencing that has to happen as FAA has laid it out.

There have been at least five redesigns that I am aware of, that I have lived through that have never been implemented.

Mr. Ehlers, thank you. With your scientific mind you can help us. You are right, we should not denigrate black holes by likening them to the Senate.

I am glad you had that encounter, let us say, with Dr. Summers. But do not hold your breath.

Well, all of you can be very helpful by walking 200 meters across the front of the Capitol and telling the Senate to move the aviation bill.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for staying close on the hide of all these participants in NextGen.

There are pieces of NextGen that are tested, proven, some operable.

It cost several hundred million dollars to redo pieces of STARS because when the FAA directed Raytheon...

It is not the airlines. It is the air travelers who are paying for this system through their ticket tax.

That is a very much appreciated candid answer.

it is very important for us to continue this process of hearings on the Recovery Act and holding Federal and State agencies accountable for the Recovery Act funds that we crafted into the recovery program.

I want to thank you and your staff throughout the country of staying on top of things.

We have seen that in the Federal Highway Program with the States getting bids back 25 percent on average lower than final design estimates.

They do. They have been through Accelerated Public Works in 1963, Accelerated Public Works II in 1965.

The USDOT does not make those decisions of which projects.

The need is great and I appreciate again your support for the six-year bill.

All this stuff that we are reading about is either misrepresentation, deliberately or through lack of knowledge...

I would point out, and I appreciate the gentleman raising that, in our surface transportation authorization bill we restructure the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration to include within them an Office of…

I think the CARS program, which was wildly successful, and the Recovery Act clearly demonstrate that when the Federal Government, State and local leaders, and the private sector team up to take bold actions, the American public wins.