Transportation, Housing And Urban Development, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--Continued -- (Senate - September 15, 2009)

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I commend my colleague and good friend from Delaware for his compassionate interest, not only in what sounds like a very worthy project in Delaware, but his constant commitment to making sure we are always looking over that next horizon, whether it is in education or energy issues he has been involved with as a Member of Congress and as a Governor, and now as the senior Senator from Delaware. The project he describes sounds like a good one, and I hope it gets favorable consideration from the Senate. I welcome the chance to support him.

I wanted to take a moment to talk about a project that is already in this very important 2010 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill. I commend the subcommittee chair, the Senator from Washington, and the ranking member for their good work on this bill. There is a certain amount of celebration in this bill for us in the greater Washington region because this Transportation appropriations bill is actually the culmination, in many ways, of an effort that has been ongoing for close to 50 years. Even when your dad served in the other body, one of the things I know he probably experienced was flying into our region, particularly flying into Dulles, and he might have found it difficult to get from Dulles into greater Washington.

One of the most remarkable things that has always stunned me as a Virginian, and as a long-time resident of the national capital area is that we have never had rail or metro linkage from our international gateway airport out at Dulles into our Nation's capital. With this legislation, with actions taken earlier this year, we finally have in place a financing arrangement and the beginnings of construction for the long overdue Dulles Metrorail project.

The Dulles metrorail project is part of a 50-year plan that started with the construction of Dulles Airport. Throughout that time, there was always a reserve. Anybody who made that drive--and I know the Presiding Officer has made that drive many times--has seen the corridor in the middle of the road. That corridor has been reserved for ultimately building out rail, from the existing Washington metro system, all the way to Dulles.

This is a project that my predecessor, John Warner, worked on for years. It was one of his proud accomplishments, finalizing Federal support for this project. I commend his efforts in the past. It is a project I have been involved with for over 20 years, first when I was on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, when we had to preserve that corridor for a metrorail project. I recall, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, efforts to try to take away that right-of-way so it could be used for additional highway construction. There was always a need to say: No, we have to reserve that. At some point, we will finally get metrorail to Dulles. This has now become a reality.

It was a project I worked on as Governor. There were a number of times we tried to put together a very complex financing arrangement in order to make sure all the partners, State and local and Federal, would step to the plate and do what was right but also do what was terribly important to the national capital region: making sure our international gateway airport is linked to the capital. I am proud to report that earlier this year in March, Secretary LaHood and former Senator Warner and myself, Governor Kaine, Congressman Frank Wolf, who has been a long-time supporter, got together and signed the final funding arrangement that committed the Federal Government, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and local communities on this critically important project.

It is needed for a variety of reasons. It is needed not only to link international and domestic passengers who come into Dulles to visit our Nation's capital, but this corridor has rapidly become the economic hub of all northern Virginia. Dulles Airport currently serves about 24 million passengers each year. Population in the Dulles corridor is expected to increase by 50 percent and employment to increase by 47 percent by 2030. As someone who I know travels that corridor on a regular basis, you have seen how it has been built up, and there will continue to be the expansion of a great deal of economic activity for all northern Virginia and for the entire Washington area, particularly in the high-tech sector.

This past March, the full funding agreement was signed, and $900 million over the period of the whole project was committed from Federal funds. But let me make clear it is not only the Federal Government that is stepping up on this critically important project. The Commonwealth of Virginia has committed to be a major partner in funding. The localities have stepped forward in terms of funding. There have been very creative activities in terms of creating a special taxing district of our local property owners in the region who will benefit from this metrorail extension. They have skin in the game as well. The State is contributing some of the toll revenues from our toll road in the corridor. This is a project, even during these difficult economic times, where the State, the localities, and the Federal Government have stepped up in a major way.

It will be enormously beneficial to our whole region. It will be enormously beneficial to the Commonwealth and to our Nation's capital in terms of the millions of visitors who come in from all over the country and the world. They will have the opportunity not only to take one of those increasingly expensive cabs, but also simply to jump on the train and come into Washington.

There is also another very important reason for continuing this project. The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project is an important multimodal project with critical homeland security implications. Expanding metrorail into the Dulles corridor is terribly important in terms of evacuation opportunities, should the capital ever be under assault. It is obviously terribly important in economic development activities, in terms of tourism activities. This project is crucial to the well-being of the whole national capital region.

As a matter of fact, earlier today I was out in Tysons Corner, one of our major development areas on the way out to Dulles rail. Although we were caught in some pretty dreadful traffic, it was a little bit of a mixed blessing. Part of the traffic was because construction has actually started on some of the rail stops in the Tysons area that will ultimately relieve not only traffic congestion but will, obviously, decrease greenhouse gases. So this project has added benefits as well, an issue I know is very important to the Presiding Officer in terms of dealing with climate change.

I know there are others in this body who perhaps have raised questions about some of the projects that are included in this 2010 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill. This is one of those projects I can't imagine anyone being critical of. This has been 50 years in the making. Enormous time, effort, and resources have gone into it. The fact that the final funding agreement has now been signed and we actually have broken ground is a time to celebrate. The $85 million included in this year's appropriations funding for the downpayment and first installment of what is going to be a critical Federal funding stream is a very worthy sum that is going to provide benefits for this region and for our capital for many years to come.

I, again, commend the chair of the Appropriations subcommittee, my colleague and friend, the Senator from Washington, for her great work on not only this particular Dulles metrorail project, which I believe, as a frequent flier in and out of Dulles, I hope she will be the immediate beneficiary of as well, but to all members of her subcommittee. I thank them for their good work on this bill, this important project, and the many other projects in this legislation.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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