Applauding the men and women who keep America moving and recognizing National Transportation Week.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 420, a resolution recognizing National Transportation Week and applauding the men and women who keep America moving.

Although Congress established National Transportation Week more than 40 years ago, this concurrent resolution provides an opportunity to acknowledge the great contribution of advances in transportation to our Nation's economic success and to salute the men and women who toil on a daily basis to improve America's mobility.

Our transportation investments have paid enormous dividends and enabled our Nation to become the premier economic power in the world. For instance, over the last 2 decades, spending for transportation and logistics fell from 16 percent of gross domestic product to less than 9 percent. We are moving more goods and more people far more efficiently than ever before. By reducing the portion of GDP that is dedicated to logistics, this 7 percent efficiency gain in our $10 trillion economy results in a savings of more than $700 billion per year.

It is this great American success story that this resolution recognizing National Transportation Week celebrates, and I urge Members to support the resolution.

But words without deeds are meaningless. The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on a bipartisan basis recognized that the beginning. Under the leadership of the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), they worked together to craft a bill that would invest $375 billion over 6 years to improve our highways, transit systems and safety programs, the very level of investment derived from the Department of Transportation's report on our highway and transit needs. Moreover, the investment would create and sustain up to 3.6 million family wage construction jobs, including 1.7 million new jobs.

Despite strong bipartisan support for this legislation in the House, the House Republican leadership, at the bidding of the White House, would not allow the committee to bring that bipartisan bill to the floor. Had the Bush administration not erected the roadblocks that prevented our bill from advancing through the legislative process, we could have celebrated National Transportation Week in a more meaningful way, pouring the concrete, laying the rail, and cutting the paychecks envisioned within the enactment of TEA-LU.

In an effort to move the bill forward, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reluctantly reported and the House overwhelmingly passed a bill weeks ago with an investment level that is more than $100 billion less than our original bill, $100 billion less than what DOT's analysis shows is required to relieve congestion and improve the surface transportation system in our country.

But even the significantly smaller House bill, authorizing $283 billion and guaranteeing $275 billion is too high for the White House. The administration is still insisting that the total investment be no more than $256 billion over 6 years.

So, let me be clear on what the administration's bill provides: Not one more dollar for highway and transit infrastructure, not one new job. Compared to where we are today, the administration's bill provides no increase for highway funding and no increase for transit funding for the next 5 years, not a single additional dollar. As a result, not one additional job will be created by this zero-growth investment.

The administration's absolute insistence on flat-line investment for highway and transit infrastructure is unprecedented. In contrast, under TEA21, highway investment jumped from $21.5 billion in fiscal year 1998 to $31.6 billion in fiscal year 2003, a 47 percent increase. Transit investment grew even faster, from $4.6 billion in 1998 to $7.3 billion in fiscal year 2003, a 56 percent increase. Even under very difficult budget conditions in the early 1990s, under ISTEA, highway investment still managed to increase from $16.8 billion in 1992 to $18.3 billion in 1997, a 9 percent increase.

Under the President's bill, highway investment will have zero percent growth, from $33.6 billion in 2004 to $33.6 billion in 2009. Similarly, transit investment will have zero percent growth, from $7.2 billion in 2004 to $7.2 billion in fiscal year 2009. Moreover, the President's proposal will cut the guaranteed transit investment to $5.9 billion, an 18 percent cut from fiscal year 2003.

Mr. Speaker, this country has worked too hard to put the current transportation system in place to allow the administration and this Congress to squander previous investments made over generations and allow that system to deteriorate. As we celebrate National Transportation Week, let us move beyond the rhetoric of congressional resolutions to a bill that honors the work of generations of transportation workers and a system that must remain the envy of the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 420.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 420) applauding the men and women who keep America moving and recognizing National Transportation Week.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, House Concurrent Resolution 420, introduced by the chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), recognizes the week of May 16 through the 22 as National Transportation Week and applauds the men and women who keep America moving.

Every Member of this body is well aware of the importance and the significance of our Nation's transportation system and its direct impact on the lives of everyone. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics,

the U.S. transportation system is composed of 46,747 miles of interstate highways, nearly 600 million airline passengers, 97,631 miles of class-one freight railroads, over 160,000 route-miles by bus, 26,000 miles of navigable waterways and over 69,000 miles of oil pipelines.

Mr. Speaker, our transportation system is so important to our Nation's economic activity and to our Nation's global competitiveness as a service, an industry and an infrastructure that it is more than appropriate that we recognize and applaud the men and women who keep America moving.

Our transportation sector accounts for 11 percent of the United States' gross domestic product and employs over 11 million Americans.

In my home State of Nevada, we are absolutely dependent on transportation for our economy. Tourism is the number one employer in my district, and the number one, two or three employer in every district in the country. Without the 30 million people who travel through McCarran International Airport each year, or the millions more who drive to Las Vegas and Laughlin down I-15 and US-95, we would not be experiencing the unprecedented growth in our community that we currently enjoy today.

I could go on, but I will conclude by saying I am encouraged every day by the new technologies that are constantly being developed to move us in ways that are faster, more efficient and environmentally sensitive. In Las Vegas, we are seeking to become the first community to deploy high-speed Maglev rail technology to better link us to southern California. We are also deploying Intelligent Transportation System technology known as the FAST system to warn us of traffic delays and Amber alerts.

Again, it is important that we recognize the significance and enormous contributions that transportation makes to our Nation's economy. I urge the adoption of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, a little more indepth history of the southern Nevada challenge in transportation, I think, today with Transportation Week it would be appropriated.

As you know, Nevada is one of the fastest growing States in the Union. We are growing at 5 to 7,000 people a month into the southern Nevada area. You can imagine the challenges that we have before us as a community that has almost doubled in the last 10 years, literally creating communities the size of 60 or 70,000 people every year.

Fortunately, over a decade ago, members of the Clark County Commission, local governments across the valley, decided to get together and create what is called the Regional Transportation Commission. The Regional Transportation Commission in concert with five local communities in southern Nevada worked together for the betterment and improvement of the southern Nevada area. As I mentioned, with the massive growth, the transportation needs are extreme. Fortunately, with the passage of this bill we will see additional funds to help us with this growth. And I applaud leadership and I applaud the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar, for introducing H. Con. Res. 420, which properly applauds the men and women who keep our country moving--the American transportation workers.

There can be no doubt that the transportation sector is the most critical sector of our economy. We cannot produce or sell goods, agricultural products or raw materials if we cannot move them throughout our great land, or ship them overseas. And yet, despite the importance of these workers, they now find themselves under attack from within and without. But, their government has, at best, abandoned them in their hour of need. In some cases, the Federal government has actually joined in--and even led--the assault on their safety, their livelihoods and their rights.

Mr. Speaker, we can never forget that the very first victim on September 11, 2001 was a flight attendant, sliced by a box cutter our lax security measures allowed on board. And yet, three years later, these underpaid and overstressed workers find themselves fighting for proper security training and for safer conditions. Will we ever truly honor the dead of that infamous day as long as these citizens are at risk? And today, two years after it expired, the flight attendants of Southwest Airlines continue to work without a contract, victims of the alliance between management and the National Mediation Board (NMB), the agency responsible for administering the Railway Labor Act (RLA) which governs their work class. Management has refused to offer a new contract after the rejection of woefully inadequate opening offers. However, NMB has refused to declare an impasse, which would allow workers and the Transport Workers Union, which represents them, to move forward in exercising their rights.

And the Southwest Flight attendants are not the only victims of the recalcitrance of the NMB. Despite the fact that the current round of national rail negotiations is well into its fifth year for thousands of workers, the NMB has refused to move the bargaining process along in a timely manner. Specifically, the NMB has refused to ``release'' the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the Sheet Metal Workers International Union (SMWIA) from mediation despite the fact that both unions have reached an impasse with management and further talks would be fruitless. It is intolerable for our government to force a rail worker to wait five years for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The NMB, whose three members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the other body, is responsible for providing bargaining and mediation assistance, and fostering productive collective bargaining between labor and management. The NMB's ability to either advance or delay labor-management talks is a power the agency should use fairly and with great care. The NMB is well known for touting its own record of having parties reach agreements without resorting to ``self-help'' such as strikes or lockouts.

In fact, the statute has survived since 1926 because it can work well if implemented fairly. But by failing to act on a release in the JAM and SMWIA case, the NMB is ignoring its own policy of expediting the bargaining and mediation process. Forcing employees and their unions to stay at the table well beyond the point of any productive negotiations frustrates the rights of workers and denies settlements within a reasonable time frame. The problems surrounding these excessive delays have little to do with the RLA, but rather with the manner in which the NMB administers the process. By failing to change the endless cycle of delay in rail bargaining, the NMB is denying basic due process. In other words, justice delayed is justice denied.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to truly honor America's transportation workers by helping to make them safe on their jobs and secure in their contracts.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my support for H. Con. Res. 420, a bill that designates May 16-22, 2004 as National Transportation Week. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and more than 30 other transportation industry organizations, National Transportation Week is an opportunity to highlight the functions and accomplishments of the transportation industry.

There are nearly 4 million miles of roads in the United States. That's enough to circle the globe 16 times, travel round trip to the moon 8 times, or take 800 round trips between New York and Los Angeles. Since 1982 our population has grown almost 19 percent, the number of registered motor vehicles has increased 36 percent, and vehicle miles traveled has ballooned 72 percent. In spite of this growth, we have failed to keep pace with the increasing demands on highways and transit systems. Over the last 20 years we have added less than five percent to road capacity and even less to public transit.

Transportation is about people, and about providing them with the opportunity to lead safer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. Moreover, our country's economic strength, our ability to improve productivity, and our capacity to create jobs are all dependent--to a great extent--on the health and vitality of our transportation system and its infrastructure. In 2003 the value of imported goods and goods designated for export that were carried on our Nation's transportation system amounted to nearly $2 trillion--that's $1,259 billion in imports and $724 billion in exports.

According to the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Transportation forecasts, by the year 2020: Annual vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. will increase 51 percent--from 2.8 trillion in 2000 to 4.2 trillion in 2020; the driving age population in the United States will increase 21 percent by 2020; and truck freight volumes will nearly double from 9 billion tons in 2000, to almost 17 billion tons in 2020.

I am stating these statistics because I am very concerned about the inadequate funding of our Nation's transportation system and this Committee's transportation bill. Without increased investment we will suffer both socially and economically. For every $1 billion invested in Federal highway and transit spending, 47,500 jobs are created or sustained. Our Nation's deteriorating infrastructure and congestion, along with safety and economic problems warrant our strong and immediate response. Hopefully, during National Transportation Week, by acknowledging how heavily we rely on our national transportation system and the essential role in plays in our social and economic health, we will agree on a funding figure that adequately supports our need to keep America moving.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity, while discussing National Transportation Week, to personally thank the 11 million Americans in our Nation's transportation workforce, especially those in Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, for their hard work. They literally keep America moving, and I am pleased that we can recognize them all today.

Mr. Speaker, moving people and goods quickly and efficiently is vital to keeping the United States globally competitive, and we need to break the impasse and complete a right-sized highways and transit bill. The needs are many, and many Americans need the work.

Not only must we adequately invest in our transportation systems, but we must also continue to invest in transportation workforce development. Today's youth in America will be constructing and operating our future transportation systems, and we must encourage imagination, innovation and interest in transportation.

Mr. Speaker, National Transportation Week could not have come at a better time. I urge the administration to allow us to proceed with a highways and transit bill that will create good jobs for Americans and provide resources to deal with the bottlenecks, crumbling bridges, the need for more light rail construction, intermodal terminals, trade corridors, transportation security, and safety programs.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and ranking member, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), for being some of our Nation's biggest advocates for safe and efficient transportation systems. I look forward to continuing to work with them to address our Nation's infrastructure needs. I thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) for leading this discussion.