Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today submitted the following statement for the record at the Committee hearing on global climate change:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  I would like to join my colleagues in welcoming my good friend Vice President Gore this morning, and thank him for the tremendous work he has done over the years.  He has not only raised awareness of the dangers of global climate change; he has transformed the debate and brought it into the public consciousness.  I would also like to recognize our distinguished Chairman’s own work in confronting global climate change, most recently during his trip to Poland in December as the leader of the U.S. delegation to the UN Conference on global warming.

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd today will address the Regional Transportation Forum presented by the Connecticut Sierra Club and the National Corridors Initiative. Dodd will speak about the need for investing in our state and nation’s infrastructure in order to create jobs and spur economic growth.

"We have a golden opportunity in the coming months to not only rebuild existing transportation infrastructure and provide new capacity – and we need to – but to also start thinking differently about the role transportation plays in America – about how we get to work and school, how our businesses move and ship products. Not just how we live our lives today, but how we want to live our lives tomorrow."

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) recently sent a letter to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Michael Griffin expressing concern about how the recent competition for the new Constellation Space Suit System was executed.  The competition resulted in NASA awarding the new contract to Oceaneering International, a firm that specializes in deep sea diving suits, instead of Connecticut-based Hamilton Sundstrand, the company that has manufactured America’s space suits for more than 40 years.  This decision has since been withdrawn by NASA due to concerns voiced by the NASA Inspector General and a protest filed by Hamilton Sundstrand with the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today spoke on the Senate floor on the state of our nation’s infrastructure and the importance of long-term investment in our roads, bridges, mass transit, drinking water, and wastewater removal systems.  Dodd’s speech comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the tragic I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Tomorrow also marks one year since Dodd introduced the National Infrastructure Bank Act along with Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE).  Dodd has held two hearings on the legislation, which has 12 co-sponsors.

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) announced today that they were able to secure more than $3.4 million for Connecticut initiatives in the Senate’s fiscal year 2009 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill.  Among other projects funded by Senate appropriators, the bill includes over $1 million for the construction of a new public safety complex in Hartford.      

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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.    

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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.