You may not think State Routes to School is a high national priority. I invite you to come with me in North Carolina, in Nevada, in Iowa.

I hope that it is the first of several hearings that we have on the Budget Committee dealing with infrastructure finance.

I hope that we can go to conference on the budget so we can begin to iron out some of those important differences.

Americans are interested in more choices.

The majority witnesses focus time their time and energy arguing for devolution--the concept that we don't need a strong federal presence and support in infrastructure development.

During the L.A. transit strike in 2003, congestion increased 89 percent. It has a huge impact, not just in communities like L.A., and Chicago, and New York, but in Oklahoma City, Salt Lake

America had a 50 year experiment with devolution, local control over infrastructure.

Ronald Reagan established the Highway Trust Fund portion that dealt with transit.

The federal government has largely failed to maintain a system of aviation facilities, the electrical grid, sewer and water systems, and interstate highways that once was the envy of the world.

Please share research showing that [state and] local governments are going to be interested in making substantial investments to facilitate freight movements for the nation as opposed to problems that people have locally.

I think there is, in fact, a national priority surrounding things like safe cycling, safe pedestrian activity, and having transit available to people.

Monday in the blink of an eye, hundreds of people at the Boston Marathon were faced with an awful decision. None of them woke up that morning expecting they, or a loved one, was going to need emergency care in a life-threatening situation…

In the aftermath of the 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq this spring, those of us who oppose the war, as those who thought it justified, are all sorting through what happened. More important, we are united in our support for our men and…

I would just put one item on the table that we would like to explore with you further, dealing with infrastructure finance.

It is disappointing that House Resolution 1120, the so-called ``Preventing Greater Uncertainty in Labor-Relations Act'' would actually create greater uncertainty for labor unions and businesses and wreak havoc on the middle class. I do not…

Healthcare reform will produce approximately $1 trillion worth of net budget savings over the next 20 years.

The reforms are making a difference. Costs are going down.

It's very important for us to take a step back and evaluate exactly what the economic employment opportunities are because things that we do to rebuild and renew America in a sustainable way-- Keystone has a few thousand temporary…

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________

I'm prepared to yield back, unless my friend from Memphis wants any concluding comment.

Well, energy transmission is something that is a part of the broader equation. Pipeline reliability is something that we all need to be concerned about. More fundamentally, we need to deal with the sources of energy, what is driving them…

Absolutely. Those 11 weather disasters last year cost us over $60 billion. It's also creating uncertainty in agriculture and in the business of insurance where it's more difficult for them to be able to calculate what they're doing. It…

I appreciate that comment. I was just thinking, as you were describing the threats on our Oregon coast, to what we just read in the Washington Post a couple of days ago here where the impacts of climate change are having a profound effect…

Well, the threats are manyfold. One is just when we are subjecting our armed services to try and deal with the extremes that you talked about, it's unpredictable. They have to be dealing with drought and with flood extreme weather events…

That last element is one that makes it so surprising that my Republican friends don't want to talk about dealing with climate change, energy efficiency on the floor, especially given the fact that an amazing stellar array of distinguished…