What are the consequences of not having the resources under which you would make those decisions?

For them, the choice between opening or not opening may very well depend upon a CDBG program that they can depend upon once standards are set.

Of course, we should rebuild to protect against future storms.

If we cannot get New York and New Jersey workers and businesses back to the pre-storm pace in terms of economic recovery, I think we are going to see our economic recovery slow down instead of moving forward.

Didn't we learn a lesson in a different context after September 11th that in a post-September 11th world, multiple modes of transportation are critical...

Now is the time to determine what actions we must take in order to build back the region in a way that makes us less vulnerable in future storms.

Yes, and isn't it fair to say that a delayed recovery is a failed recovery at the end of the day?

And if you increase the debt service to do that, short of getting greater ridership, you are ultimately looking at the possibility of a fare increase.

So, are we going to have a more horizontal effort within the State Department instead of silos?

So, in essence, it is more fiscally prudent to do the mitigation than to just replace as it was and wait for the next storm and repay all over again?

That amount would not even cover the recovery estimates that we currently have, much less get to any of the necessary mitigation investments that have been requested under the President's budget.

It seems to me that it is not only common sense, but for my friends who are fiscal hawks, the reality is that it is far more fiscally responsible to ultimately ensure that we do not have repetitive loss.