Therefore, I am especially please to welcome Mayor Marc Morial, of New Orleans; Mayor Oscar Goodman, of Las Vegas; Mayor Anthony Williams, of the District of Columbia; and Mayor Bill Campbell, of Atlanta; each of whom will give us their perspective of what infrastructure needs are out there. As a former mayor myself, I will be especially interested in how you address your infrastructure challenges. I often tell people that the being a mayor of large US city is much more challenging that being a US Senator, because if, as a mayor, you don't do something right, you will hear about when you get home that night. Also, I want to welcome Peter Guerrero, Director, Physical Infrastructure, with the U.S. General Accounting Office who will be discussing the results of a GAO report for Senator Voinovich on how we can accurately identify our infrastructure needs.
Finally, I want to extend special welcome to my old friend Bob Portiss, Director of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. I have a special affinity for the Inland Waterway system because when I was a State Senator in the 1970, I arranged for a World War II submarine to be brought up the Arkansas River to Muskogee, Oklahoma. Thereby proving once and for all that Oklahoma has a navigable port. Most believe Oklahoma is a land locked state, but in fact we are America's most inland port and as I am sure Bob will tell us, the Port of Catoosa is a very dynamic port.
In closing Mr. Chairman, let me note that I believe we have a unique opportunity to address a serious national infrastructure shortfall because we have all the of major authorizing legislation for infrastructure coming due in the next couple of years. If we are wise we will work to make sure that the Water Resources Development Act of '02 compliments and works in conjunction with the reauthorization Highway program in '03 so that instead of having separate infrastructure systems we have a comprehensive package that works together.