Frank Lautenberg: “I, too, view this report as does my friend and colleague and chairman of the subcommittee. It reflects what I think is a…”

“I, too, view this report as does my friend and colleague and chairman of the subcommittee. It reflects what I think is a good outcome after being forced to work with less resources than I would like to see devoted to transportation. But that is life in the present fiscal climate and consistent with our determination to have a balanced budget by 2002. As a matter of fact, the news is fairly good on that front. We may actually achieve that balance before then. But, meanwhile, we are taking the appropriate steps to our transportation bill to conform with the responsibility that we have undertaken as a result of the budget agreement. We spent a lot of time and energy trying to ensure that transportation would be treated as the appropriate priority, as we see it. And it has some very positive results. The Coast Guard is going to get a 12.7 percent boost so that it can continue to execute its many essential missions. Funding for FAA will increase by almost 10 percent. Within that amount, we have rejected the proposal by the administration to cut airport improvement grants by more than 33 percent. Instead, we have provided an increase for airport grants of more than 16 percent. Funding for Federal-aid highways went to a historically high level of $21.5 billion.”