Opening
Statement for Max Baucus
January
24, 2002
Thank you Mr.
Chairman. It is my pleasure to be here
today to discuss the reauthorization of a law that I am privileged to have
helped write. Along with Senators
Warner and Chaffee and others on this Committee and on other Committees, we
hammered out a bill that I believe was equitable to all states and that served
this nation=s transportation system
well.
TEA 21 staked out new
ground by putting into law the requirement that all gas tax revenues be devoted
to highways. Some of the members in
this room were instrumental in achieving that goal. Now I don=t
have to remind you of the difficult debates we had over funding formulas among
the three main groups, northeast states, donor states, and western states. But in the end, we achieved a bill that was
supported by the vast majority of Senators.
So the final result, while not perfect, was a good compromise and was
broadly supported.
I look forward to working
with the leadership on this Committee and other committees to develop a new
highway bill that will help to continue many of the ideas that TEA 21
began--the integrity of the Trust Fund, the budget firewalls and an equitable
distribution of formula dollars.
I plan to hold hearings on
the Finance Committee addressing the balances in the Highway Trust Fund and on
innovative ways of financing transportation projects.
I plan to use my role as
Chairman of the Finance Committee to gain more funding for the program and to
protect the Highway Trust Fund. As always I am committed to highways and to the
Highway Trust Fund.
I personally have several
ideas about what I would like to see in a new bill and as I do for every
reauthorization, I will be introducing a highway bill in the coming
months. I have been working with the
Montana DOT and other western states to develop ideas for the next several
years of highway policy. I assure you that my bill will not serve the West to
the detriment of other states. Quite the contrary. My bill will be a national
bill and a decidedly pro highway bill.
Once again, I look forward
to being very active and assisting the leadership of this Committee as much as
I can, as we embark on this new chapter in highway law.
There
is something of concern that I would like to mention here today, particularly
in the presence of our distinguished Secretary of Transportation. It has come to my attention that because of
various factors, the RABA for this year will be negative. In fact I have heard predictions that we are
looking at a program that is $9 billion less than the FY 02 program. We must do something about this. We cannot go into the next reauthorization
with such a low baseline. If this is in
fact the case and we are looking at a lower program over the next few years, I
would support the influx of new obligation authority to the states for the next
two years. This would prevent the base
numbers for the next highway bill from going down too much. I hope that
Secretary Mineta will address this in his remarks today and that this
Committee, the Finance Committee and the Administration can work together to
alleviate this problem that will plague our reauthorization efforts if not
addressed.
I look forward to today=s
hearing and future hearings as we prepare for the next reauthorization.