SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act

Floor Speech

SAFETEA-LU TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS ACT

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman for leading the charge on this important technical corrections bill. I want to voice my support for H.R. 1195, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

In the time that has passed since SAFETEA-LU was signed into law, we have heard from the Department of Transportation and several States regarding fixes to different programs and high-priority projects. H.R. 1195 addresses most of the areas that need correction.

It is important to note that this bill does not make substantial policy changes to SAFETEA-LU. Rather, this bill corrects provisions that were not workable in SAFETEA-LU. After we pass this bill, SAFETEA-LU will finally be able to accomplish what Congress voted to do 2 years ago.

The bulk of this bill is section 105, which makes changes to over 200 of the high-priority projects in section 1702 of SAFETEA-LU. These changes address surface transportation projects in the bill that were unable to be executed, clarifying recipients, and increasing certain project funding levels, and decreasing others to achieve budget neutrality.

The bill also makes a critical correction in the Transportation Research Program authorized in SAFETEA-LU. Errors were made in the research section of SAFETEA-LU that weakened the legacy research programs carried out by the Department of Transportation. This bill addresses that problem.

The bill also extends the reporting deadline for the National Surface Transportation Policy and Review Study Commission established in SAFETEA-LU. This important commission is tasked with recommending a new direction in funding and policy for our surface transportation programs, and we look forward to seeing their final report.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for revitalizing this technical corrections bill. I hope all of my colleagues will join me in supporting the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to thank Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Oberstar, and Mr. Mica, and certainly their staffs, for working so hard together to rectify the technical corrections that we are addressing in SAFETEA-LU. And I also want to thank our former chairman, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), for his hard work in providing the leadership that we had in the last Congress to get the SAFETEA-LU bill done.

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