Frank Lautenberg

When I look here, President Bush signed into law legislation I wrote to reauthorize Amtrak.

How devastating would it be to the business community, particularly in the Northeast or the heavy traffic areas, if Amtrak were forced to cut down services?

By making the necessary investments and implementing needed reforms, we can transform our transportation networks.

Investment in high speed rail is an essential step toward meeting our future needs to move people, commodities, and commerce efficiently across the country.

We have to get this done.

Take my wife's word for it. I am not hard to hear.

The only way to ever make these highway bills and these processes work is to build an issue where you get urban votes for rural roads.

If we embrace the status quo and fail to make the needed investments, the future is not going to look very attractive to us.

We need bold investments in infrastructure across the board, including high speed rail.

Shutting down or even cutting Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor would have a severe impact on the national economy.

We are in a hell of a spot.

Our existing transportation system is already being utilized beyond its designed capacity, and this is hurting our economy.

We are paying more for gasoline today. Right here in Washington I saw gas at $4.20 a gallon.

If we want to leave our children and grandchildren a better country, we better make these smart investments on their behalf and do it now.

We cannot rely solely on cars and trucks and planes. We have to invest in rail as well.

I want to enter into the record a letter I have that expresses from a bunch of NGO's, expressing support for the Wild Disease Emergency Act.

Yes, this is an enormous threat to the ecological balance that we strive so hard to maintain.

Shouldn't we all be able to agree that fish and wildlife needs the resources to help wildlife adapt to the warming that is already happening?

TSCA is so severely flawed that the non-partisan Government Accountability Office testified that it is a 'high risk area of the law.'

The question arises also, what might be the influence on the American economy if we get the system working as we would like to have it operate?

In this Congress, our goal must be to build on our progress during the last progress.

Yes, the recommendations made seem particularly obvious, not the least of which is to provide the resources for the Agency that conducts the program that it does, to make this reform attempt effective.

We also can substantially... reduce costs for individuals and families and Government and treatment and disruption in life that comes with conditions that result from exposure to dangerous materials.

Achieving meaningful reform of TSCA is a high priority for NRDC, and we look forward to working with members of this committee.

We need to figure out a better way to provide the kind of resources that we are going to need to do the job the American people expect us to do.