Martin Sabo: “I support the fiscal year 2001 Transportation appropriations bill. Mr. Chairman, the transportation bill historically…”

“I support the fiscal year 2001 Transportation appropriations bill. Mr. Chairman, the transportation bill historically has been developed in a bipartisan manner, and this year is no different. This year is the last year that the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Wolf, will manage the Transportation appropriations bill. I want to congratulate him on a job well done on this bill, and previous 5 transportation bills. He has devoted considerable attention to transportation safety issues and asked the hard questions. I want to thank him for the job he has done and the fair manner in which he has managed the work for the Transportation Subcommittee. I also want to thank the subcommittee staff for the tremendous job that they have done--John Blazey, Rich Efford, Stephanie Gupta, Linda Muir, Chris Porter, and Geoff Gleason for helping to produce a bill that both sides of the aisle can support. The bill provides $14.9 billion in new budget authority and $55.2 billion in total resources, including obligation limitations, for fiscal year 2001. This provides a respective 10 percent increase over last year. Mr. Chairman, this body should know that much of the new spending in the bill is for Transportation infrastructure programs and is spending mandated under TEA21 and AIR21. Funding for airport construction is up 64 percent or $1.3 billion over last year. Funding for highways and transit is up $2.6 billion or 8 percent over last year.”