Senator Harry Reid
Environment and Public
Works Committee
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Thank you Senator Jeffords for holding
this hearing today.
We have some real challenges ahead of us
as we proceed with the reauthorization of TEA-21. Perhaps our greatest challenge is to address the ever widening
gap between the demand for transportation and the capacity of our
infrastructure.
This mismatch results in congestion, lost
productivity, wasted fuel, increased pollution, and reduced quality of
life.
And this gap will only grow wider over the
next decade.
This committee and the Transportation and
Infrastructure Subcommittee that I chair are charged with the difficult task of
addressing this problem. We must come
up with new and creative solutions:
We will look at providing increased
funding for new roads and more lanes where possible.
We will try to reduce demand for our road
infrastructure in metropolitan areas through better planning and new
investments in mass transit and high-speed train service.
We will look at intermodal and
technological solutions to freight issues.
And at our next subcommittee hearing, we
will look for innovative ways to increase the capacity of existing road
infrastructure through new technologies and an increased focus on operations.
Implementing solutions and making
necessary investments in highways, transit, rail, new technology, operations,
and any other good idea we come up with will cost us money. The transportation problems this nation
faces are not easy ones to solve. But
they are important. Worsening traffic
congestion poses a significant threat to continued economic growth in my home
state of Nevada. No doubt many other
states and regions are experiencing the same problems. We cannot stick our heads in the sand while
traffic congestion worsens, productivity declines, and people=s
quality of life suffers. Transportation
is an essential part of our economy and a part of our every day life. We have to be prepared to devote adequate
resources to build a first-rate transportation infrastructure.
To this end, this Committee introduced S.
1917, the Highway Funding Restoration Act, which now has 68 bipartisan
cosponsors. Senator Jeffords and I have
worked very closely with Senator Conrad to ensure that the Senate Budget
Resolution that his Committee is marking up this week will increase highway
funding well above the level requested by the President.
However, money alone will not solve our
problems. We need to be creative in
developing new ideas and new approaches.
Last week, this Committee hosted a
symposium on transportation research.
Transportation research is underappreciated, but it is vital if we are
to continue to advance our knowledge of the construction and operations of our
infrastructure. While we must begin to
address our nation=s transportation
problems today, research will help us make further progress in the long-run.
The challenges facing us are daunting, but
our task is critical for the economic future of this nation.
I
come to this hearing hopeful that we will uncover some innovative solutions. I
look forward to hearing from our witnesses.