Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today praised Senate Appropriations Committee approval of $241.1 million in federal funding for a variety of Connecticut initiatives.  This funding will be used for, among other services, economic development initiatives, education, health care, and family and community support programs – efforts essential to the wellbeing and continued success of Connecticut.

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Remarks as Prepared: The Committee will please come to order.  We gather here this morning to examine once again the condition of our nation’s infrastructure and proposals for needed improvements to it.

When the Committee last gathered to examine this critical issue, we considered the perspectives from individuals who held expertise in public and private financing, civil engineering, labor, and business.  They were unanimous in voicing compelling support for increased investment in our nation’s infrastructure and for the need to develop and implement alternative ways to finance this critically important investment in our nation’s future.

The entire Connecticut Delegation wrote to Governor M. Jodi Rell contesting the assertion that Connecticut saw a reduction in federal transportation funding.  The delegation countered the claims by outlining the actual increase in resources that the Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive in fiscal year 2008 for critical transportation initiatives.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) visited Norwich on Friday to announce the federal funding he secured for construction of the Norwich Intermodal Transportation Center, currently in the final stages of development.  Dodd joined Mayor Ben Lathrop to discuss the need for improvements to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which may pose a threat to the environmental well-being of the Thames Estuary in southeastern Connecticut.  Dodd first met with Mayor Lathrop to discuss these initiatives when the Mayor visited Washington, D.C. in January.   The city of Norwich is seeking federal funding for the Sound Norwich Wastewater Project in the Fiscal Year 2009 Interior Appropriations bill and has also requested additional funds for the transportation center in the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.  

At the site of one of Connecticut’s largest new investments in infrastructure, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) discussed the state of roads, bridges, transit systems, publicly-owned housing properties, and water treatment facilities in Connecticut and across the country.  Dodd visited the site of the Stamford Urban Transitway with Mayor Dan Malloy to discuss his bill on investing in our country’s infrastructure.    

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Joe Courtney (CT-2), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Christopher Shays (CT-4), and Chris Murphy (CT-5), today declared their strong disapproval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the proposed Broadwater Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Storage and Regasification Facility in Long Island Sound.  The proposed LNG facility is roughly the size of the Queen Mary II and will draw regular traffic of full LNG tanker ships through the relatively narrow mouth of the Sound and within a few miles of Connecticut’s shore along the entire eastern half of the state. The Connecticut delegation has previously voiced their objections about the proposed facility in letters to Joseph Kelliher, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Admiral Thad Allan of the U.S. Coast Guard, which is responsible for the security of offshore energy facilities.

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Remarks as Prepared: The Committee will please come to order. We gather here this morning to examine an issue of paramount importance: the condition of our nation’s infrastructure, and proposals for needed improvements to it.

THE most pressing problems can sometimes be the dullest — until they force their way into our attention in an instant.

“The Administration’s foreign policy budget simply does not reflect reality.  Our troops have been operating in Iraq since 2003 and in Afghanistan since 2001.  And yet, after all our troops have sacrificed and endured, and America’s lost standing in the world, the President still refuses to account for this war’s full impact.  By keeping the wars out of his budget the President somehow thinks that he can pull the wool over our eyes and act as if our continued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan won’t contribute to the national deficit, or won’t weigh on the shoulders of future generations of Americans.

Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, made the following statement in reaction to a report issued today by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission on America’s transportation needs: