Thomas E. Petri: “I would first like to salute the chairman of our committee for bringing us to this day and to the gentleman from…”

“I would first like to salute the chairman of our committee for bringing us to this day and to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and my colleague, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), the staff on both the majority and minority of the committee. It has been a lot of work and a long road, and we still have far to go, but this is an important milestone in the passage of our Nation's transportation policy for the next 6 years. This legislation will have an impact on each of our constituents literally every day as they go about their daily lives, whether it is driving kids to school, hopping on a train as part of a daily commute or picking up a gallon of milk that has been brought over the road on a truck. We on the committee had hoped to be discussing a somewhat different bill today. TEA LU, as introduced at $375 billion, is the right thing to do. It was fashioned to start to address the needs as identified by our own United States Department of Transportation. Anything less will not maintain and improve our transportation system. Nonetheless, this bill at $275 billion is a step toward meeting the needs we as a Nation have with a reduced amount of resources and is the best that we can achieve at the current time, given the situation that we find ourselves in. This bill provides increases each year in funding for the core highway formula programs for the States so that every State will see an increase in its funding.”