CONGRESSWOMAN EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON NAMED SOUTH WEST TRANSIT ASSOCIATION LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR
 

From left to right: Executive Director of the South West Transit Authority (SWTA), Kristen Joyner; Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson; President and Executive Director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Gary Thomas; and President of SWTA, Charla Sloan.

Washington, DC (March 15, 2011) – Today, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson was honored by the South West Transit Association (SWTA) with the organization’s 2011 Legislator of the Year Award. The SWTA Legislator of the Year award recognizes a member of the U.S. House or Senate who has significantly advanced the interest of public transportation in the previous year.

Congresswoman Johnson was nominated by the Texas Transit Association, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T), for her visionary leadership and steadfast support.  Congresswoman Johnson has helped to advance one of the largest and most ambitious expansion programs ever witnessed in the U.S. public transit industry, thereby positioning DART as a modern-day success story for today’s American public transit renaissance.

“Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson was supportive of DART way before it became popular,” said President and Executive Director of DART, Gary Thomas. “Congresswoman Johnson is a visionary and has always known the value of transportation to the region and to her constituents.”

In accepting the award, Congresswoman Johnson said, “I am especially honored this morning to be receiving the Legislator of the Year Award from the Southwest Transit Association. Texas and the Dallas Region have rapidly growing populations, which makes entities such as the Texas Transit Association, DART and the Fort Worth T vital to meeting Texas’ transportation needs. It will take all of us working together to succeed and I am very proud to be partnered with you in this effort.”
Now serving her 10th term representing the 30th Congressional District of Texas, Congresswoman Johnson is a true champion of public transit, having shepherded critical federal funding for the DART project over the past two decades.  Her efforts have advanced DART as the first modern light rail system in the Southwest.
The award was presented to Congresswoman Johnson at the annual SWTA legislative briefing breakfast and attended by over 70 transit leaders from across the 8-state SWTA region.

LINK TO VIDEO OF AWARD PRESENTATION - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvH0uq8RYhc 
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U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. She is also the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas that includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.