Frank Lautenberg: “Mr. President, the ISTEA conference report includes language that reauthorizes a very important mass transit project in…”

“Mr. President, the ISTEA conference report includes language that reauthorizes a very important mass transit project in my state. The New Jersey Urban Core project provides critical links in a rail system that is the backbone of the transportation system of the Northeast and the nation. The Urban Core project links all of New Jersey's rail lines and builds new ones where necessary, to establish one comprehensive and coordinated rail transportation system within the state. Mr. President, the Conference Report makes a number of changes to the authorization of this important project. The report adds new projects as elements of the Urban Core and makes a number of critical changes. The conference report is silent on the future of full funding agreements. Do the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Banking Committee... agree that it is important that the Secretary and the State of New Jersey enter into full funding grant agreements sometime in the next six years, for those elements of the Urban Core that can be demonstrated to be under construction by September 30, 2003?”