Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You will not find one Senator on this committee or anywhere in the U.S. Senate that supports citizens perpetuating fraud on the IRS.

Well, if you could tell me precisely how much taxpayer money has gone into lobbying Congress.

But shouldn't we wait until we get a more accurate estimate of what occurred with the 2001 tax act before implementing this kind of regime that could cause a lot of disruption among many taxpayers?

Through the leadership of this subcommittee, we are very hopeful that funding will be provided to continue these lifesaving efforts.

I would just say that I think there is a real concern that we are not hiring those fast enough to meet that 3-year requirement.

But would you not agree that we have required a lot of our airports and our airlines in terms of security that has added a burden at a time when they are still struggling because of the economy?

Will there be identical cost-sharing requirements by the States?

I would be surprised if you can deliver the bacon on that.

This project certainly reached a major milestone when your administration included $75 million in your budget for 2004.

This is for aviation workers and I understand they have had the triple whammy.

There is a fairness element.

I think I heard Mr. Mead say that the foreign repair stations, some of them are not inspected at all; is that correct?

Unfortunately, it has not been clear what, if anything, the Bush Administration wants to do to address the crisis in our aviation industry.

I am concerned now that before we ever look at the results, determine whether or not there was complete confusion...

Do you expect a lot of EITC payments to be delayed this year?

I know you are not going to let me pin you down, but there is a rumor swirling that the Administration has drawn a line in the sand at $900 million.

These statistics bear show that the Department of Transportation has missed its stated performance goal for highway safety.

I think that all of us on this panel will agree that this record is unacceptable and must be reversed.

I think it is a very important question, Mr. Secretary, and we would like to hear from you as soon as possible.

Mr. Secretary, what we want to know is whether there will be information on the impact to the working families before we broaden this out to 2 million families and have a complete disaster--or maybe a complete success.

I will hold on my other questions and let other members of the committee respond and then come back to Ms. Blakey.

I would just argue that the aviation industry has, in fact, really been hit because obviously September 11th had an impact on people's willingness to travel by air.

It is difficult to overstate the seriousness of the crisis facing this vital part of our Nation's transportation infrastructure.

I joined with you in that decision and with the help of your FTA Administrator and Inspector General, a lot of progress has been made.