Floor Statements

I thank my colleague for organizing this Special Order and rise just to say a word of thanks and appreciation to Jay Pierson for his 33-plus years of service to this institution and for what he represents.

Members of Congress stand in the well of the House, and I don't know how many people watch C-SPAN on national TV, but, in fact, this institution is sustained by dozens of individuals who work very quietly and for many years behind the scene both in the Speaker's office, the minority leader's office, the Parliamentarian's office, the Clerk's office, and so on, people who really dedicate their life to helping to make this great democratic institution function.

I'm reminded of something that Lyndon Johnson said years ago. He said when he came to Washington, he discovered that the definition of an expert on Social Security--which was a big issue, and still is--was someone who knew Wilbur Cohen's telephone number, because Wilbur Cohen was the guy who actually understood the program and could answer any question about it.

And I think the definition of an expert on behavior on the floor of the House of Representatives and how to handle debate and amendments and all that is someone who knows Jay Pierson's telephone number or where he is or can reach him. He's helped me on numerous occasions managing various amendments and bills, and that's true of every Member of this House.

Jay, I appreciate you and your service, and I wish you very many years of success to come.

I thank my colleague from Iowa.

I actually want to echo the words of Nick Joe Rahall in commending both of you gentleman--especially Tom--for organizing this Special Order. I think it says something about each of your character and your respect for the process and for this institution. We hear a lot about how the camaraderie or the goodwill has deteriorated in this body, but I think, at least so far as Iowa politics is concerned and a lot of us from the Midwest, that's not the case. There's strong differences, but there's also strong respect and a recognition that we're working on something that's greater than all of us and we're trying to do our best for the American people and for our country.

I got to know Leonard Boswell and his wife Dody--I don't know if you remember this, but I think it was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1979. A new freshman Member of Congress, my wife and 8-year-old daughter and I went up to Hershey. They had a bipartisan conference there for a couple of days. It was really fun. We got to go on tours and had different sessions. They broke us down into different groups, and my wife and I happened to be the same group with Leonard and Dody, and we hit it off right away, feeling that here was someone who was not your typical idea of what a politician is but someone who is in it for the right reason and doing public service and was a decent person.

Leonard is, I think, a very, very low-key, very proud, and very tough person. Some people say you've got to be a firebrand and you've got to yell and holler and all that. I was raised with the idea that it's the empty can that makes the most noise. Sometimes the most noise is not the way you get things done or you make a contribution.

Leonard has always been a strong, steady, responsible, honorable, honest participant in the process and someone I have looked up to. I have served with him for many years on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He's honored us in Wisconsin by coming with his true love of aviation. I think he actually graduated first in his class back when he was taking both helicopter and fixed wing aviation back in the fifties. So he's been a good pilot of all sorts for a very long, long time. A couple of Bronze Stars and a lot of the other awards that he has received during his service in the military, there's a story behind each one of those, an important one. I know that a lot of people are very grateful for what you did during those 20 years in the military representing our country.

He's a natural leader. He was selected by his friends and neighbors to be a leader in a co-op movement in Iowa, and then elected to the State senate and became president of the State senate. He's always shown, as I have had the opportunity to work with him, a real concern for his constituents and their problems and personally has gone to bat to make sure that they're getting a fair deal and a hearing and not just going through the motions. His knowledge of aviation has been a great resource for this Congress and for the Transportation Committee.

I don't normally participate in these sort of things, but I did want to come down here today to just say, Leonard, I respect you. You're the salt of the Earth, the kind of person that I think we would all like to be. I'm sure your family is proud of you and your neighbors are proud of you. We thank you for your service to our country.

I thank my chairman.

I rise in support of the bill before us, Senate bill 1956, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011.

In January 2012, the European Union began to unilaterally apply its Emissions Trading Scheme to all civil aviation operators landing in or departing from one of the EU Member States.

Just yesterday, the EU announced it was going to postpone the application of the Emissions Trading Scheme on international operators until 2014. Prior to that announcement, EU Member States would have required international air carriers and operators to pay for emission allowances and, in some cases, penalties for carbon emissions starting in April of next year.

While this postponement is a good first step, it is not a total withdrawal of this illegal scheme, and therefore, we must press ahead with this bipartisan legislation to ensure U.S. operators and consumers are protected.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme is legally questionable in a number of ways. First, it applies to the entire length of the flight, including those parts of the flight outside the EU's airspace. For instance, if a flight leaves Los Angeles to London, taxes would be levied not just for the portion of the flight over the United Kingdom, but also for the portions of the flight over the United States, Canada, and international waters.

The European Union's unilateral application of their emissions scheme to U.S. aviation operators without the consent of the United States Government raises significant legal concerns under international law, including violations of the Chicago Convention and the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement.

There are also concerns that the Emissions Trading Scheme is nothing more than a revenue raiser for the EU Member States, as there is no requirement that EU Member States must use the funds for anything related to the reduction of emissions by the civil aviation sector.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme will take money from the airline industry that would otherwise be invested in NextGen technologies and the purchase of new aircraft, two proven methods for improving environmental performance and reducing emissions.

Airlines for America, an air transport trade association, testified before our Aviation Subcommittee last year that the extraction of capital from the aviation system, as envisioned under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, could threaten over 78,000 American jobs. This is unacceptable.

But despite serious legal issues and objections by the international community, the European Union is pressing ahead with its plans. In September 2011, 21 countries, including the United States, signed a joint declaration against the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in New Delhi, India.

In the last year, there have been several other multinational meetings of countries who oppose the scheme, including meetings that took place in Russia and in the United States.

The bill before us directs the Secretary of Transportation to prohibit U.S. aircraft operators from participating in this illegal scheme. The bill also directs appropriate U.S. government officials to negotiate a worldwide approach to address aircraft emissions, and to take appropriate actions to hold U.S. civil operators harmless from the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme.

The EU needs to slow down and carefully weigh its decision to include international civil aviation in its emissions trading scheme. A better approach would be to work with the international civil aviation community through the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization to establish consensus-driven initiatives to reduce aviation emissions.

I am pleased to see movement on the part of the EU to work with the international community at ICAO to seek a global approach to civil aviation emissions. While the postponement for a year is a positive sign, it is not enough to ensure U.S. operators will not be negatively impacted by the trading scheme at some point in the future. Therefore, we are moving forward with this bipartisan bill to ensure U.S. operators will not ever be subjected to the illegal European scheme.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan, bicameral legislation.

Mr. Speaker, as we are approaching the final days of the 112th Congress, I want to join with so many other House Members in paying tribute to my friend and colleague, Representative Jerry Costello.

While Jerry and I have served together on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for over 20 years, I really have come to know and admire him during the last six years as we have served together in leadership positions on the Aviation Subcommittee. Jerry was Chairman for four years while I served as the ranking minority member, and this Congress that was reversed with the Republican majority.

But no matter which of us was Chairman, we forged a working relationship based on respect and a desire to work together on a bipartisan basis to get things done. And we have had a productive six years together. We passed the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009, one of the strongest safety bills to pass Congress in a long time. We spent a number of years working on a comprehensive FAA reauthorization bill, which culminated in the signing of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 on February 14, 2012.

We have been committed to providing oversight and support for the effort to modernize our air traffic control system, known as NextGen. As we were first starting out together with Jerry as Chairman back in 2007, we discovered the FAA could not even succinctly tell us just what NextGen actually was. We determined then that a major priority for us was to do all that we could to make sure this program was on track, that the FAA was held accountable for management of the program, and that other stakeholders be involved and consulted in this effort. Just this morning, we held our final NextGen oversight hearing, and I believe that we have been an effective team over the years on this program which is so critical to the future of our aviation system.

There has been much well-deserved concern expressed about the lack of civility and bipartisanship these days in the House. Jerry and I have shown that, even though you may not always agree, when you work through issues to actually accomplish something rather than just trying to score political points, we can do things that improve our nation.

Jerry is one of the workhorses of the House who has been an effective Representative for the 12th District of Illinois. He is a decent and honorable man, and I consider it an honor to have served and worked together with him. My best wishes go to Jerry, his wife Georgia, and the entire family as they begin this new phase in their lives.

Today, I rise to support the repeal of President Obama's health care law. I support health care reform that ensures that all Americans have access to affordable health care. However, I believe the health care law is fundamentally flawed in its approach and will only make worse our skyrocketing high health care costs and Federal deficit. A study last month found the cost of health care services is expected to rise 7.5 percent in 2013.

I'm also very concerned about the law's negative effects on job creation. I have met with hundreds of employers in my district and hear constantly how the mandates and uncertainties created by the law are discouraging hiring. The report issued by the investment research firm UBS last September said that the health care law was ``arguably the biggest impediment to hiring.''

We need the right reforms to eliminate waste throughout the system and reward high quality, low-cost care. We should be choosing approaches which give consumers incentives to use their health care dollars wisely. Instead, we're going in the opposite direction by turning decisions over to the government.

I support this bill and would urge all my colleagues to work together to implement real reform to ensure every American has access to affordable health care.

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to support this amendment which would simply prohibit the use of any of the funds provided in the bill from being used to further the implementation of the illegal European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

The EU ETS has been a source of great concern of the Aviation Subcommittee, this House, the Administration, and the aviation community. The U.S. is joined in its opposition to the EU ETS by countries around the world.

Under the ETS, EU Member States will require international air carriers to pay emissions allowances, and perhaps penalties, for carbon emissions. A major objection is that the Emissions Scheme will apply to the entire length of the flight--including flight outside the European airspace.

The EU has no jurisdiction over airspace outside its boundaries and no legal basis to impose this Scheme on our air carriers. The unilateral application of ETS to our carriers in this way without our consent is a violation of international law--including the Chicago Convention and the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement.

There are other more productive ways to address the issue of carbon emissions, and the U.S. stands ready to work with our world partners through the International Civil Aviation Organization to do so--that is how you resolve global aviation issues.

Last year, this House passed H.R. 2954 which would direct the Secretary of Transportation to prohibit U.S. carriers from participating in this illegal Scheme. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing recently on a companion bill that has been introduced in the Senate.

This amendment is in line with the actions that the House has taken previously and reiterates the message that we will not stand for this unilateral, illegal scheme to be perpetrated against our carriers.

I urge Members to take a stand against this power grab and support this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate Lakeland College for 150 years of service as an undergraduate institution of higher education. Lakeland College is a private four year liberal arts college related to the United Church of Christ located near Sheboygan, Wisconsin--which is in my congressional district.

The college was founded in 1862 by a group of German immigrants to offer a traditional seminary curriculum to the local community. Over the years, it began to host additional courses and programs of study. The college adopted the name ``Lakeland'' in 1956 when the seminary program moved to Minnesota. In 1991, Lakeland opened a second campus in Shinjuku, Japan, to accommodate students with international interests.

Today, Lakeland College serves nearly 4,000 students and offers an 18 to 1 student to faculty ratio. It offers more than thirty degree programs and four graduate programs including education, counseling, business administration, and theology. Lakeland hosts a multicultural student body with students from over 30 countries.

Lakeland prides itself on its ability to foster an educational, covenantal, just, and global community, not only at its main campus near Sheboygan, but also at its campuses in Chippewa Falls, Fox Cities, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, and Wisconsin Rapids.

I have had the opportunity to visit the College on numerous occasions and commend retiring president Dr. Stephen Gould for his 42 years of service to Lakeland. In 2002, I was honored to have had the opportunity to speak at Lakeland's commencement ceremony. It is evident that the College instills strong community values in its students and alumni.

Strong institutions help make strong communities, and the people of Wisconsin, especially those in the Sheboygan area, are proud of the 150 years of service that Lakeland College has provided. To recognize this accomplishment, Governor Walker has declared June 23 as Lakeland College Day, a well deserved honor. Over 1,000 alumni will return to campus to celebrate June 21-24.

I extend my congratulations to Lakeland College on its 150th Anniversary and wish all its faculty, staff, students, and alumni continued success in their endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill to rectify an inequity regarding the benefits provided to surviving spouses through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). I am pleased to be joined by Rep. Rob Andrews in this effort.

PBGC provides pre-retirement survivor coverage, which provides a benefit to the surviving spouse of a pension participant who dies before retirement. However, in the case of a multiemployer pension plan turned over to PBGC, this benefit is guaranteed only if the plan participant dies before the plan is turned over. For single-employer plans the benefit is guaranteed regardless of when the participant dies.

The PBGC web site acknowledges this discrepancy, stating ``. . . For the most part, the PBGC guarantees the same type of benefits for multiemployer pension plans as for benefits in the single-employer program, with the exception that preretirement survivor annuities are forfeitable in multiemployer plans if the participant has not died as of the termination date.''

The debate over how to best provide income security for older Americans will continue for some time. However, in the meantime, it is unconscionable that a widow or widower would be denied the modest benefits provided under the PBGC multiemployer plan simply because his or her spouse did not die before the plan was turned over to the PBGC.

This discrepancy appears inadvertent and deserves to be corrected by Congress. I ask my colleagues for their support of this legislation so we can address this issue quickly.

Mr. Speaker, in order for our students to be competitive in the global economy, we must do our part to ensure that they are acquiring the knowledge and skills they need for success. The skills needed for success go beyond the basics of reading, writing, and math, however. When surveyed, employers continually emphasize that, in our 21st century economy, students need to be adept at critical thinking and problem solving; communication; collaboration; and creativity and innovation, in addition to being proficient in core subjects.

While it's important to talk about these skills, it's even more important to see and recognize where they are being successfully incorporated into educational curriculums at the local level. Fond du Lac School District, located in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in my congressional district, is doing a lot of innovative work to prepare its students for success in the 21st century economy. Along with officials from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I recently visited the Fond du Lac School District to learn about their efforts firsthand.

The Fond du Lac School District, through the leadership of Superintendent Dr. James Sebert and John Whitsett, the School District's Coordinator of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, rewrote the school's entire curriculum in 2005 to fully incorporate 21st century skills. This fall, all students will be given Google Chromebooks to help further integrate technology into their education. Also this fall, the Fond du Lac Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Academy will open to many 3rd through 5th graders through lead teacher Sarah Edbauer. The STEM Academy will focus not only on a rigorous STEM curriculum, but it will also place a heavy emphasis on project-based and student-led learning as a method for teaching 21st century skills.

The STEM Academy in Fond du Lac is a good example of how community partnerships can broaden students' educational experience. Mercury Marine, based in Fond du Lac, is a world leader in marine propulsion and technology and a major manufacturer of outboard motors and inboard engines. The company has partnered in the development of the school's STEM Academy because of difficulties it has experienced finding qualified applicants to meet its workforce needs. The company conveyed, as have numerous other employers, that the nature of manufacturing jobs is changing and that successful employees need to be creative, need to be able to problem solve, and need to be able to work collaboratively with other coworkers, amongst other skills. Through the company's partnership with the Fond du Lac STEM Academy, it is hoping to grow a local workforce by getting students engaged in practical, real-world projects that will help them develop the skills they need to be successful when they enter the workforce.

It's important that Congress recognize the work that is being done in communities like Fond du Lac and that we look for ways to support these efforts. For these reasons, Rep. Dave Loebsack and I recently formed the bipartisan Congressional 21st Century Skills Caucus to inform and discuss better ways to promote 21st century skills in our nation's educational system. I invite all of my colleagues to join our efforts.

Mr. Speaker, in order for our students to be competitive in the global economy, we must do our part to ensure that they are acquiring the knowledge and skills they need for success. The skills needed for success go beyond the basics of reading, writing, and math, however. When surveyed, employers continually emphasize that, in our 21st century economy, students need to be adept at critical thinking and problem solving; communication; collaboration; and creativity and innovation, in addition to being proficient in core subjects.

While it's important to talk about these skills, it's even more important to see and recognize where they are being successfully incorporated into educational curriculums at the local level. Green Lake School District, located in Green Lake, Wisconsin, in my congressional district, is doing a lot of innovative work to prepare its students for success in the 21st century economy. Along with officials from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Partnership for 21St Century Skills, I recently visited the Green Lake School District to learn about their efforts firsthand.

The School District is home to the state's first 4K 12 International Baccalaureate World program. It stresses rigorous academic programs connected to relevant real-world project-based learning and skills acquisition. The district also recently opened a Global & Environment Academy Charter middle school focused on critical thinking and problem solving skills in a project-based learning environment. The school's focus on interdisciplinary cooperation, global literacy, and creativity will serve its student's well as they prepare to enter the workforce.

It's important that Congress recognize the work that is being done in communities like Green Lake and that we look for ways to support these efforts. For these reasons, Rep. Dave Loebsack and I recently formed the bipartisan Congressional 21st Century Skills Caucus to inform and discuss better ways to promote 21st century skills in our nation's educational system. I invite all of my colleagues to join our efforts.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to join me and Representative Kind in correcting a government error and ending bureaucratic impediments that are keeping soldiers from receiving their earned benefits.

Quite simply, the Petri-Kind amendment, which is included in this en bloc amendment, would pay approximately 575 National Guardsmen for the vacation days they earned through the Post Deployment Mobilization Respite Absence program that they were unable to take after their last deployment due to government error. Some have not been reimbursed for as long as five years.

The problem occurred when the Defense Department did not issue the guidelines for calculating this benefit until several months after it went into effect. Some soldiers demobilizing during this time did not have these additional days added to their leave. Many of them have since retired or are not deploying again and are unable to use their earned vacation days.

This effort is a national problem, affecting Army National Guardsmen in 34 states. Unfortunately, soldiers in Wisconsin are affected more than those in any other state with 80 Wisconsin Army National Guardsmen impacted, most of whom are members of the 1157th Transportation Company based in Oshkosh. As I speak, this unit is once again serving overseas after deploying to Afghanistan just last month. I thank the entire Wisconsin delegation for their support of this amendment, as well as the National Guard Association of the United States.

This amendment is similar to Representative Kline's bill, H.R. 4045, which passed by voice vote in the House Tuesday night to pay a much larger group of soldiers who also did not receive the pay they were promised.

Mr. Chair, we have a moral obligation to ensure that our men and women serving in the military receive the benefits they are due. I appreciate the support give to this amendment by the House Armed Services Committee and urge it's passing by the entire House.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

I join with my colleague, Representative Hank Johnson, in offering this amendment today.

The budget year 2007 Defense Authorization Act created a statutory goal that 25 percent of the energy utilized by the Department of Defense facilities come from renewable energy sources by 2025.

The budget year 2010 Defense authorization act modified that goal to explicitly include renewable energy technologies like geothermal heat pumps that do not first convert energy to electricity, but instead use the energy directly to accomplish a task such as heating or cooling a building.

One technology--direct solar--is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout our economy, but that was left out of the changes made in the budget year 2010 act. Direct-use solar energy technology channels solar energy in the form of sunlight into a building using light pipes to provide interior lighting that is similar to traditional electrically powered lighting. Direct solar allows much of a building's internal lighting to come from sunlight, relying on electrical lighting only in the off-peak evening hours or when sunlight is diminished.

The amendment before us would simply clarify that direct-use solar energy, like geothermal heat pumps and other direct-use technologies that are now included, is considered a renewable energy source for the purposes of this requirement. This change was included in the House NDAA bill last year; however, it was unfortunately not included in the final conference report.

These changes will provide the Department of Defense with the flexibility to meet its energy requirements more quickly and in a more cost-effective way.

I respectfully request that my colleagues support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

This is not a window or a skylight. This is a technology that gathers the light through a lens, moves it through a light pipe, which then a fiber optical cable moves electrical light around the building. So it goes from the first floor, sometimes to the third or fourth floor down in the building. It is used by Coca-Cola and many other companies in the private sector. It's modern technology. It saves energy. It will save money so that we can meet our important defense needs without wasting money on unnecessary technology that moves it from solar to electricity and back to light, wasting a lot of energy in the process.

I yield to my colleague from Maryland.

I urge that this House not prefer one particular technology, which is currently the case, but allow a variety of technologies to meet the goal of a more energy-efficient society.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today I want to recognize those peace officers being honored during National Police Week, and I particularly want to honor a constituent of mine who was killed in the line of duty last year.

Officer Craig Birkholz was only 28 years old when he was shot and killed during a six-hour standoff at a home in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on March 20, 2011. Officer Birkholz is one of the 166 being honored today as part of National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and his name has been engraved on the National Memorial wall.

Officer Birkholz had been with the Fond du Lac Police Department for two years and was a veteran who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army. Born in Kenosha in 1982, he graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a degree in criminal justice. In 2009, he married his wife, Ashley. Men and women such as Officer Birkholz, who make the ultimate sacrifice in order to keep us safe, truly are owed our eternal gratitude.

I hope that National Police Week celebrated here in Washington will help those affected by the loss of a relative or fellow officer know that their life of service will continue to be honored. We will remember the life and service of Officer Birkholz, and the memorial is a lasting tribute to him and all fallen officers.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to congratulate and recognize the Exchange Club of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, as it celebrates 75 years of serving the Fond du Lac community. Established in 1937 by some of the city's most prominent leaders, the Exchange Club was viewed by its founding members as a chance to develop an entirely new type of service organization in the area, with an emphasis on helping those less fortunate while working to make life better for all area citizens.

It is a commitment Fond du Lac Exchangites have been fulfilling for 75 years. In the process, they have made innumerable contributions to the quality of life in the Fond du Lac area.

For 75 years, members of the Fond du Lac organization have met to exchange ideas about how to better serve the community while working to advance the National Exchange Club goals of benefiting and developing youth, promoting crime prevention, recognizing military and public safety service providers, fostering Americanism and preventing child abuse.

In its early years, the Exchange Club of Fond du Lac underwrote Christmas parties for the community's underprivileged children and held programs to recognize the area's high school sports teams. In the late 1940s, the Exchange Club was instrumental in convincing city officials that an underutilized city-owned building designated as a community center could be converted to a gathering place for area youth, something many felt the city badly needed. Thus, the Hamilton Community Building near downtown Fond du Lac was extensively remodeled in 1947 and used for decades as the Fond du Lac Youth Center.

In 1957, the club achieved one of its proudest moments by raising the funds needed to purchase a cutting-edge piece of medical equipment, called a Flame Photometer, for Fond du Lac's St. Agnes Hospital. At the time, only two other, much larger, medical facilities in Wisconsin had this particular life-saving equipment.

Another signature Exchange Club accomplishment was the furnishing of grounds supervision, maintenance and support for many years for Camp Tiwaushara, a large Girl Scout Camp located in Redgranite, Wisconsin, and operated by the former Wau-Bun Girl Scout Council. Members of the club went to Redgranite annually to clear brush and prepare the grounds for the camping season and to build structures needed for the camp.

More recently, Exchangites in Fond du Lac have been active in running a petting zoo for the community at Fond du Lac's Lakeside Park, distributing flags to children during the annual Fond du Lac Memorial Day Parade, and erecting numerous Exchange Club Freedom Shrines, permanently mounted reproductions of the most important documents in American history. Also in recent years, club members have purchased a walk-in cooler for a local food pantry and have funded numerous public safety initiatives, as well as supporting countless other local causes and nonprofit organizations in the Fond du Lac area.

I am proud to join with the Fond du Lac community in recognizing the invaluable contributions and outstanding service of the Exchange Club of Fond du Lac, and in congratulating the club on its 75th anniversary. In addition, I extend my best wishes to all club members for continued success in the future.

Mr. Speaker, today, along with Representative Lipinski, I am introducing legislation to stimulate the financing of passenger rail development from revenues generated from transportation oriented development.

The National High Performance Passenger Rail Transportation Oriented Development Act aims to capture some of the increasing value of commercial development around station areas, which in turn would help finance rail corridor infrastructure and operational expenses. Besides providing a funding stream for intercity and passenger operations, the initiative places emphasis on intermodal connectors to create vibrant communities along the corridor. The legislation aims to begin a major public-private partnership initiative that will revitalize America's rail infrastructure to create a true third passenger transportation option to highways and aviation while at the same time creating intermodal access communities.

Under the proposal, the U.S. Department of Transportation will retain a Planning Developer who will establish guidelines for transportation oriented development programs, including special assessment districts or similar mechanisms to capture revenues from increasing commercial value. Rail corridor development funds will be established at the regional level to capture increasing real estate values. A stream of those revenues will be directed to support rail passenger operations.

The proposal permits qualified projects to apply for federal incentives to finance construction and produce jobs. These incentives will include direct access to existing Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration programs, including a high priority for federal transportation grant applications. The initiative will be staffed by existing employees and remain revenue neutral in that all program activities, including the work of the Planning Developer, will be repaid once the high performance rail service and commercial development is implemented and generating revenues.

I hope that this bill will open a discussion on the possibilities and potential promise of passenger rail development in the U.S.