Frank Lautenberg: “the Senator is right. The fact of the matter is that among the items that have to be considered in establishing a proper…”

“the Senator is right. The fact of the matter is that among the items that have to be considered in establishing a proper formula has to be the amount of mileage recorded within the States' roadbed systems. In my State we have north-south I-95, east-west through to I-80, and all kinds of cargo and material pass over these roads and cause enormous traffic congestion in New Jersey. Our roads are beat up, with heavy trucks taking more than their fair share of the abuse. We stand there and kind of grin and bear it. But it is in the national interest. If one wants to use an analogy, we have to look at what happens in environmental legislation. New Jersey, being in the location that we are on the east coast, is the unfortunate recipient of material carried by the prevailing winds from west to east. They carry all of the pollutants and all of the particulate that is thrown up by stacks across the rust belt, or the iron belt, or the steel belt in the midwestern States. Some of that material travels hundreds of miles to arrive at its place of deposition, which is New Jersey, Maryland, and New York, in the eastern States. So, as we consider environmental legislation, we try to accommodate what causes the problem. The problem is caused by the energy and industrial nature of things from the Midwest. That is part of the formula.…”