By Jim Berard (202) 225-6260
Rep. James L. Oberstar, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, issued the following statement in response to the Bush Administration’s surface transportation proposal released today:
The Bush Administration’s proposal for the next surface transportation authorization contains little that’s new. Mostly, it is a collection of the same uninspired and uninspiring policies that this Administration has offered over the past five years: toll it, privatize it, lease it, sell it, or congestion price it.
The Administration’s plan, presented during its waning months, calls to mind the concept of Mortmain, the dead hand, reaching out from the past to affect the future. It is obvious that the Administration remains blinded by ideology and a lack of a cohesive vision. It offers nothing to ensure a sustainable, long-term, intermodal, national transportation system.
The Administration’s proposal fails to provide a sustainable system of financing. It fails to provide an intermodal vision linking highways, waterways, railways, airways, and public transportation. It fails to provide adequate answers to congestion in our cities, or better ways to link rural America to the rest of the world.
In putting forth this proposal as it enters its final months in office, the Administration is attempting to place its dead hand on America’s transportation future. This Administration leaves town in January. Meanwhile, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will be hard at work to bring forth a new, sustainable vision to move our nation forward.
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