FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 26, 2008
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Brings Together Houston METRO, Congressional Delegation, Local Officials, FTA in Washington
FTA Administrator, Mayor White, Six Members of Congress and METRO Board Discuss METRO’s Future
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) brought together key decision makers today to meet in her Washington office to discuss the future of Houston METRO.
Federal Transit Administrator (FTA) James Simpson, FTA Deputy Administrator Sherry Little, Houston Mayor Bill White, METRO Chairman David Wolff, METRO President & CEO Frank Wilson and six members of the Texas Congressional delegation (Reps. Culberson, Gene Green, Al Green, Poe, McCaul and Jackson Lee) all attended the meeting.
The participants agreed on several points:
• METRO and FTA commit to trying to sign the full funding grant agreement (FFGA) by the end of the year
• Work better to coordinate activities
• METRO will provide FTA with the info it needs to certify the project’s completion of the various steps in the approval process as defined in federal law.
“We had a very good meeting this morning,” said Sen. Hutchison. “I was pleased that we had a fruitful discussion with the FTA on the progress of the North and Southeast lines. Houston metro is so important for the quality of our city, for the capability to transport people and goods throughout our city, and we know that having a diverse system of public transportation will expedite all of those things and make our city of Houston a great place to live.”
“We met in our Senator’s office at her invitation to get more rail lines sooner rather than later in Houston,” said Mayor White. “We’re a fast growing community and we need to build new rail lines as soon as we can. The FTA can provide a lot of the federal dollars for that. Today, because of this meeting, we can have a commitment by the FTA to work with us to try to get the full federal funding on two of the lines – the north line and the line going to southeast Houston – by the end of this year. Both Metro leadership and the FTA in a very cordial and businesslike atmosphere talked about the steps that would be necessary to get that to occur.”
The FTA informed the participants that they will send to the Congressional authorizing committees on March 7 a letter providing 10-day notice to approve advancement into Preliminary Engineering.
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