National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2006

NATIONAL CAPITAL TRANSPORTATION AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 17, 2006)

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, when I was asked did I want to accept time in opposition, when I said nor should any Member of this body, I was not being rhetorical. This bill is indispensable to the Federal Government, and it is indispensable to the 20 million visitors who come every year.

I don't want anyone to think that the chairman and the Members who have come forward would have the chutzpah to come forward and say support a local transportation system.

This system was created by the National Transportation Act. It was not created by Maryland, Virginia, or the District of Columbia but by the Federal Government. It was created by the Federal Government, because by 1969, the Federal presence had spread to Maryland and Virginia, and it was very clear that the Federal Government itself could not operate without a modern transportation system allowing what amounts to 200,000 workers today to get from one place to the other.

Meanwhile, the gentleman from Texas has cited the many programs and the transportation funds that the local jurisdictions get, and that, of course, is what has supported this system ever since. What this funding is necessary for is capital funding in order to keep the system up and operating because of pressure put on the system by the Federal Government and nobody but the Federal Government. Almost half of those who ride every day are Federal employees.

Without dedicated funding, and here is where the chairman and the Members of the region deserve real credit because there is no dedicated funding for the system, so it has to be funded on an annual basis. The chairman's bill, supported by all of us, essentially says no funding is available unless there is a dedicated funding source.

So it performs the task that is responsible to the Federal Government by saying, here is your share that you must give, and it says to the local jurisdictions, you do not get the Federal share unless you come forward not just with funding, but with dedicated funding. The purpose of this bill is to deal with the initial investment that the Federal Government made, which is now going down the drain because the local jurisdictions cannot in fact, by themselves, deal with the maintenance and capital costs that Federal pressure has put on it.

Let me tell you what I mean by Federal pressure. We are so dependent on this system, that we subsidize Federal workers to, in fact, take Metro. As it is, you cannot, in fact, get on the roads here, even with Metro. Imagine what would happen if Metro were not available; but it is becoming unavailable because its cars are so crowded that there are many Federal workers who believe that they should just as well take a car, something that the roads coming to and from the District cannot stand.

I am a member of the Homeland Security Committee. I do not believe there is a single Member who would not not understand what in the post-9/11 world this transportation system means to the safety and security of this region. But I can tell you from my work, and the chairman is also on the committee, that it adds to the necessity that President Eisenhower saw in 1969, and an additional one that we cannot turn our heads from.

Ask your own constituents how they get around Washington when they come. There are 20 million of them. They are not my constituents, and they are not Chairman Davis's constituents, they are yours. And they would be lost without the Metro system.

The beauty of the bill is that it is going to get the local jurisdictions to do what all of our hectoring has not made them do until now, and that is to get the dedicated funding so that the cars, which are now overloaded with Federal workers every morning, you cannot get on these cars, will indeed have additions to them; so the facilities, indeed, can be maintained. The gentleman complained about that. He was perfectly right. There are not the funds to maintain it and keep it operating if you depend only on the three local jurisdictions.

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