the hearing will come to order i apologize i had suddenly realized that i could barely see out of my glasses so i had to make a quick trip to me to kind of clear the fog away anyway  member as well mr secretary this is your second appearance before the subcommittee this year and we're pleased that have you with us this morning to discuss the fiscal year two thousand two thousand ten budget request for the part of the transportation you've been on the job now a little over four months and we're in you're getting your political team in place so the the department a new direction the department has a unique opportunity new policy with major multi year authorizations that are pending for the aviation and the surface transportation programs the budget which you really see which was released nearly a month ago requests a total of seventy two point four five billion for the agencies and programs within the department of transportation and represents a little more than a two percent increase over the fiscal year two thousand and nine and acted level excluding the recovery act funding that was passed earlier this year in many ways this budget represents a positive step forward for aviation and passenger rail programs but there are some urgent challenges that lie ahead for the highway and transit programs while the budget proposes modest increases for the surface transportation programs there is for the specific highway transit and safety programs service budget before us has overall funding levels but little information on the individual programs for each agency this is underscored by than nearly forty billion from the general fund for the highway and trust transit programs which is described as a placeholder until the administration comes forward with its reauthorization proposal this causes the subcommittee some difficulty as we move forward to put together the the presence of school year additionally the current transportation authorization safety lou expires at the end of the school year two thousand and nine it is uncertain whether authorization will pass before  expires leaving in doubt future funding and and revenue levels it's imperative that the long term solvency of the trust fund be addressed solutions have been proposed in the last year  two congressionally designated commissions on transportation infrastructure of recommended substantial reforms and it strongly suggested that we need additional revenues to maintain the and improve our aging service transportation system given the national long term impacts of the change in the financing structure could have i believe the administration must exert greater leadership in this area and hope that you will provide more specificity on the budgetary needs of the highway and transit programs as well as in this ration suggestions on how these programs ought to be financed as i mentioned at the outset there are some positive aspects to the budget pending before us with regard to aviation and i'm pleased that  the budget request acknowledges the unfortunate infrastructure needs at the nation's airports the previous administration repeatedly sought to cut the airport improvement program by over seven hundred fifty million dollars a year the budget also proposes a robust eight hundred sixty five million in the f a s next gen program which was created to modernize our nation's aging air traffic control system however given the aviation industry is declining performance record exemplified by the study drop in on time arrivals the successful implementation of the next gen system is vital to managing air traffic growth and reducing delays and i fear that your eight hundred  fifty million request is too little too cautious in addressing that challenge i'm not sure what's going on here i seem to my lights seems to be saying that the my macro phone is on but i keep slipping in and out of apparently maybe just because i'm not really talking directly into it and that might help ok part of now i actually don't need much of a mike concerning passenger rail i'm pleased that the administration requested one billion for high speed and inner city passenger rail to follow on the eight billion dollars appropriate and in the american recovery and reinvestment act this is a significant step towards diversifying the nation's transportation options and reducing congestion on our highways additionally i'm pleased that the administration has embraced the concept of livable communities for too long transportation housing and energy policy have been as separate three years with little or no coordination on the federal state and local level a few months ago you and and and the hud secretary shaun donovan announced a new sustainable communities initiative and i'm want to learn more from you this morning on how the department intends to move forward on that initiative last so i would like to commend your department's implementation of the recovery act as of ma department reports that over seven and a half billion dollars in obligations have been invested in infrastructure projects across the country these funds have been crucial in creating thousands of jobs and repairing our nation's  d transportation infrastructure mr secretary as i've just outlined you are presented with many challenges but equally many opportunities i strongly believe and i am sincerely hopeful that under your leadership we can break out of the historical practice of transportation silos and focus on holistic approach is that reduce congestion improve mobility increase affordability and reduce environmental impact before we have an opportunity to hear from you i would like to recognize our ranking member tom latham for any opening remarks that he would like to make thank you mr chairman and good morning  role i think the department and the administration are going to be a lot better because of your your leadership your commitment to the programs and and a great asset for the whole department i just want to thank you for your openness and coming to visit and to talk about what's we're looking at here in the future and i want to continue that dialogue and as good personal friends i'm sure in the future the next five or six years to get through that authorization i really appreciate the situation you're in that you're working for the white house and you need to represent their position and there's obviously a whole process that the authorizer is need to complete and you need to work with them and i hope that the t n i committee would would work with us and a ppreciate the calendar and the process that we have however where the clock is ticking and time is short here this has been a very bipartisan subcommittee and chairman has been very gracious and we're going to work i have really faith that we're going to come up with a good product these issues as you know are extremely important for the people at home and as we go around our districts in our states we always hear about the projects that need to be implemented or put testimony and i quote the administration is developing a comprehensive approach for surface transportation reauthorization consequently the budget contains no policy recommendations for program subject a including those for the federal highway administration the federal motor carrier safety administration national highway traffic safety administration and the federal transfer administration end quote you know we're in a bit of a quandary here  that we're going to have our bill marked up in july off the floor before the august break the senate probably as we usually happens doesn't move quite as quickly  but you know i am we want to have a bill signed into law by the end certainly this calendar year and i want to work with the chairman make sure we get that done i think everyone in a room knows full well that there will not be a surface for signature this year probably not even and two thousand and ten and that puts us in a real difficult situation with the short falls obviously in the trust fund today but there will be an appropriation bill and we need to make sure that we get your input on this now because the train whether be a high speed rail or a local is going to leave the station here pretty quickly and we want to make sure that we work together to get it done the states are depending upon their reimbursements beyond august as you know and they can't wait two years to get this all done i really hope today we can just have a dialogue and i know you're delivering the administration's budget proposal but i do think you're going to hear a lot of concerns from the committee about the proposals or the lack of some specifics as to what we need to go forward i just hope you'll go back to the administration a lot of good friends on o m b obviously you're being on the committee we all know and love all and be and but make sure that they know how important it is to get these specifics to us as soon as possible so with that mr chairman i appreciate it and look for your testimony thank  floor is yours your full text of your testimony will be placed in the record if you could contain your remarks to somewhere close to five minutes or so then we can get on with the questioning thank you chairman and mr latham and members the committee for the opportunity to discuss the administration's fiscal year two thousand and ten budget request for the united states department of transportation i'm grateful for the many kind remarks that all of you have expressed  d i appreciate that very much the president is seeking a total of seventy three point two billion dollars in budgetary resources this funding level supports the president's ambitious agenda for revitalization in hansing our national transportation infrastructure as you know transportation is vital to the health of our economy and the american way of life it's essential we continue to invest in these assets to keep our highways and rails in good repair keep our freight maritime shipping lanes open and keep all modes of transportation operating as efficiently and safely as possible i'm mindful that on the road on the rails in the air and on the water safety always has been and will continue to be our chief concern at d o t that's why over one quarter of the department's total budget request supports transportation safety i want to highlight the president's funding request for some of our critical modes first high speed intercity passenger rail as you know president obama and congress has made a historic eight billion dollar investment to jump start new rail corridors around the nation yesterday we had eight governors along with the vice president myself and listen to them about their dreams and considerations for high speed rail the president's budget proposes to fund a five year five billion dollars high speed rail state grant program this represents a major commitment by the government to offer the traveling public a safe and sustainable alternative to driving and flying the budget also includes one point five  dollars to support amtrak when combined with the one point three billion provided in funding through the recovery act amtrak is poised at last to addressed its longstanding capital needs with respect to aviation the president's budget request nearly sixteen billion dollars also be able to fund additional air traffic control positions and invest in nearly thirty five hundred airport infrastructure projects at fifteen hundred airports it's vital that we fully fund f a a in order to ensure we can more modernize our air traffic control systems attract and retain the talent that's needed to keep our aircraft flying safely reduce congestion at the busiest airports and reduce aviation's impact on the environment the maritime industry also plays a vital role in our economy with nearly half of all u s foreign trade by value traveling by water the president's budget seeks three hundred forty six million dollars for the maritime administration this includes fifteen million for a new presidential initiative to enable merrit to work with the department of homeland security on modern freight infrastructure links that type orts highways rail networks into a seamless transportation network i'm pleased to report that merit has addressed budget issues at the u s merchant marine academy which have concerned many in the past and i have directed the agency to establish a blue ribbon panel of experts to examine the cademy long term capital needs this is a very high priority for me i want to make the merchant marine academy the same jewel that air force west point and and annapolis are and we're going to do that and it's going to take some dollars to do it but merchant marine academy is in very bad repair and they have nine hundred cadets there i visited the facility and we need we need to do some work there the blue ribbon committee will report back in six months with a complete plan about what needs to be funded how much and what it will take to do it are just previous past deputy secretary admiral tom barrett will chair that group and report back and i will keep all of you posted on that i'm confident the president's transportation budget for fiscal year two thousand and ten will help our nation continue to develop our most vital infrastructure assets for the twenty first century most of the significant challenges our department faces going forward is the ability to identify resources to meet our goals and provide american people with the transportation system they need and deserve obviously i'm grateful to congress for your interest for providing the forty eight billion in transportation funding through the economic recovery plan this historic of investment is making possible thousands of transportation projects around the country as a direct result we're helping to save or create good paying jobs that so many families and communities need right now and we're rebuilding retooling revitalizing our airports roads bridges ports transit systems and more but we must also recognize th primary funding sources the department has relied on fuel taxes in airline ticket taxes are no longer sufficient as you know last year the highway account of the highway trust fund require an eight billion dollar infusion from the general fund the current reduction in economic activity on our roads has made the problem of sustainability even more serious we remain at risk for another cash shortfall in the trust fund later this year probably by mid august and this situation puts even greater pressure on the general fund to ply supply resources that have historically come from the trust fund and we clearly cannot go down this path the administration has inherited a system that can no longer pay for itself we must think creatively as we search for sustainable funding mechanisms in the meantime i want to assure you we are working on a plan to address a potential trust fund shortfall this summer we believe strongly that any trust fund fix must be paid for we also believe that any solution must be tied to reform the current highway program needs to be more performance based and accountable to our priorities including making our communities more livable and sustainable we're pledged to work with congress on these important challenges and i'm confident we will find the solutions chairman thank you for the opportunity and i look forward to your  questions thank you mr secretary for your statement the tradition here is that each in the ranking member will have five minutes and then we will go five by five back and forth in the order in which people have come into the room so with that i will i will start with the first round of questioning i'm not sure exactly when there's some suggestion we may have votes sometime not long after eleven o'clock and we certainly want to be out of here sort of by by noon i will move on as quickly as we can generally mr secretary you've been very direct in your in your written testimony and also direct in your in your comments in your oral testimony about the state of the  is and you laid out exactly what what we ran into last year and the stated quite clearly that we're going to run into the same thing again this year with the ultimate being that authorization process back four years ago the position really coming from in a bipartisan way both parties on the t n i committee at the authorization level was that we needed more than was being done and if we needed more infrastructure we needed to have more expenditure but the agreement was finally reached to considerably limit what they had been asking for and and now here as we got through the next the last year of the authorization we already ran into a problem which has been exacerbated by the down slide of the economy as we go into this  now the money in the trust fund goes pretty directly money is raised in specific areas money goes directly into transportation issues both highway all the surface transportation programs particularly highway and the transit programs for maintaining and improving and expanding the surface transportation systems there's strong evidence that people people around the country will support dedicated funding when it's clear there's been referenda in various places to add a fact when it is clear that the what is being asked for is being used for a purpose of people can see in that they may believe and i think maybe the most dramatic one of ones of those that was in california where where the people voted for a nine billion dollars bond authorization to build high speed rail which we hope that the kickstarting will will certainly do  at the same time that you've been very direct about the problem you've been like a dancer walking on walking on a field of eggs as to the question of how this is going to be actually paid for  along the way though we have clearly the history of of where where dedicated funding can come from and we have also the history of several commissions who have looked at this at great extent and then and then have made recommendations for some series of of ways to raise money can you give us any any indication of where we're headed for where what you're going to be  offering to the authorization committee on how one gets out of the pay for i think i have i think i've been very frank about the fact that the administration does not want to raise the gas tax this is about one of the worst economic slumps that our country i've been in public service for thirty years and i know many of you have to there are a lot of people hurting in america and there are a lot of people out of work and i think the last thing you want to say to people is going to raise your gasoline taxes a lot of people right now can't even afford to put a gallon  gasoline in their car because they don't have a job we're not going to raise the gasoline tax i mean i'll just say that in phatic we can't the economy is in very bad shape and and so i you know i don't think i've danced around on that one what i've said is the highway trust fund has been a great formula and mechanism for building a state of the art interstate system in america we have a model for the world and and and the problem is that people are driving less and when you drive less you put less gas in your cheaply we have less money in the highway trust fund so we need to think creatively about what we're going to do to use the highway trust fund and build on it and i've talked about some alternatives and hopefully some creative ways to do it  t you know and some of them have you know some people like them and some people don't like them but you know there's about four or five things that we could do i was in miami where they are on an existing road built what they call a hot lane and use tolls to do it so if you want to go faster and get out of congestion you get in the hart lane and you can add capacity to highways by doing that you can build bridges by tolling and you can raise a lot of money to do it we've also talked about public private partnerships there are people maybe not right at the moment because the economy's not that great that are willing to invest in roads are being built they're certainly willing to invest in the fiber to put broadband in you know in areas of the country that don't have it so there are these opportunities in the senate they've talked a lot about the infrastructure bank there's bills pending over there for that and so there are other creative ways and so  particularly come out to me there simply is not enough money in the highway trust fund to do what we need to do and the authorizer years are suggesting that we need to do much more than we have been doing in the past that's  editorial comment and then the further quote we must think creatively as we search for sustainable funding mechanisms so i'm just looking for what what are the are those creative funding mechanisms  the trust fund bankruptcy i was coming like you said in your testimony mid august you look for it to be out of money like you know i was doing about a half a billion dollars worth of work this summer and obviously a lot of that has come out of the trust fund and you said that you want to offset the money that goes in to replenish the trust fund can you give us any idea from the administration as to what those we have i think developed wonderful relationships when people asked me if i missed the house i don't miss the roll calls but i missed the relationship i really do there's a i mean we're trying to figure this out we've made some recommendations to the administration o m b gets involved in this or people in the white house to get involved with the leadership has to be involved with it and we're going to come back to you with what we think is the way we have to pay for this i mean we  is committed to paying for the five to seven billion dollars that's needed to plus up the trust fund in zero nine and it's about eight to ten billion for ten and we're committed to paying for it and i hope sooner rather than that money to be honest with the i mean that money has really been committed in a lot of different ways a lot of it's out the door and i commend you for doing i wish we had a lot more money in your department  package that would have actually created more jobs and in that rather than some of the oil i would say this is a lot of these projects are coming in under what we thought they would and we may be able to we're going to take that don't think there's any appetite probably next year time limitations it is or plan b are just going to continue the safety loop programs or what is there any thought as to well as a part is a part of the debate that is going on among our department white house o m b and others and the leadership here i mean that will be a part of you know how do we plus up the trust fund and what do we do about the way forward as far as authorization is there a date the sooner rather than later i mean look at this discussion is going on about every day at the white house i was just on the phone with some folks down there talking about this just to see if i could give you any more intelligent answers and i'm sorry i can't be more specific but i want you all to know that this is on people's agendas  disbursed what are those people going to say it's the department of what well let me there you know one of the things that i've discovered at d o t is that with with maybe only one or two or a handful of political people we've been able to do what all of you asked us to do in the timeframe to get the money out the door one hundred twenty days with the professional people d o t has some of the most professional people that i have ever seen in the thirty years that i've been in government the professional people have done the work and these are these are full time people who work at the department and are thrilled to come to work every day because they're doing what they love to do which is work with the state the o t s in the transit districts in and the airport officials and they're working with them on getting this money out the door and  so we you know the people that we've hired other political people in the different modes i mean we didn't bring anybody on to help us with this we use the professional people in the department and i commend you for doing the right job thank you thank you then go towards the east how does your department plan to address the impact of goods movement throughout the country to help with the stimulus we have one point five billion dollars in discretionary money we put out guidance and we leave that we'll use some of the money to enhance our ports we believe that when you look at the stimulus twenty eight billion for roads and bridges eight billion for transit one billion for airports eight billion for high speed rail there's some money money in there for amtrak the one point five discretionary that the congress put in the economic recovery portion we believe we're receiving some significant projects that are intermodal and there's nothing more in a mold than a port and so to enable to expand some capacity to relieve congestion i think you'll see a pretty good chunk of this money being used to ports around the country to do the things that you were just talking about that are very important to our ports i was just at the rotterdam ports and you know it's an economic engine for the country and i know that ports around the country are an economic engine where they're located and if we can use some of our dollars to help expand and relieve congestion then i think we've done a good service to the to the economy it might start movement of goods as well as the movement of vehicles to improving our environment now having said that there's probably nothing out there that is standing in the way of our efficiently moving forward many of these programs that there are driven by your department  we do need policy action that will help the congress interrupt this whole maze of conflicting overlapping etc environmental requirements i'd be interested in knowing what your  your position may be regarding states waiving some of these requirements and i'd specifically mention a relatively new saw that is maybe the congress and the administration should consider helping us look at a special court to deal with environmental concerns to make certain that environmental interests are adequately addressed at the same time don't stand in the way and drive a no growth policy member of the automobile task force we worked as a group that is working at the white house on climate change issues but ours relates a lot more to you know cafe standards than some of the other things that you're talking about  and you know i'd be happy to hear your thoughts back but you know we don't we don't necessarily have the jurisdiction like the e p a would or they do with the department of energy to do probably some of the things like upon what the environmental considerations the lawsuit and otherwise are doing to your ability to deliver product out there i mean it's pretty fundamental right there within that discussion i hope you at least think about the idea of a special court to deal with environment i will think in a second thank you thank you mr lewis i'm going to honor the placeholder that mr rodriguez put in order he was here before anybody else game and then went to the to do a quick into a new system and i have been some somewhat concerned about the diversity of that and seeing how as we provide the new air controller that we have some diversity we in terms of african american gender  as well as as as hispanic in wonder if you might want to comment on that because we've been working for a couple of years on trying to make something happen and we just haven't been able to crack that nut you know in terms of trying to get through there and trying budget and his name is randy babbitt he just i think he's like been three or four days on the job he's a former airline pilot of twenty five years and also was the head of the a businessman he knows the concern that's in recruiting that we really do a wide reach out and we've we talked about this in the department we've talked about the idea of diversity when we're reaching out to fill a number of these f a a controller positions and other positions within the department this is a very high priority for the administration it will be a high priority for mr babbitt and and  will let him know of your expression night i know that others on this committee have have had concerns i know that there's a plan in place for us to really do a lot more reach out and i want to assure you that we important really it's very important to our ability to get to high speed rail because we know that we're not going to have dedicated lines all over america that freight rail is going to be a going to have to be a partner with us so we have good relationships and i will  you know i'll have our people look into this and then i don't have i have additional time but also as we look at major cities looking at long term transportation needs such a sound tony and other communities between austin  san antonio and those fast rail fail passenger trains i know that there's a real need for for them to come back with those master plans not only for the states but communities in the region and i know the language is there to require that to occur is that my understanding yes on june seventeenth we will release the information the criteria the guidelines the guidance for high speed rail corridors or regions and that will go out to every governor in every state t and we've had regional meetings in which texas was included and i'm sure your people were there and so the guidance is out and then we will begin accepting applications in the fall and then  are a little disappointed because he's gone from la hood when right to the m's and so maybe maybe if we could revisit that issue he might be next in line you never know you never know maybe not maybe not after these questions we'll see you and i have talked about the star alliance and i thank you for your work in getting out some documents on april the seventh but as you know that continues even though that applications been pending for over a year at the department of justice and i guess i'm looking for some guidance the statutory deadline is coming past june the first i've talked to the president's chief of staff speed rail we have eight billion now and another five and the answer your question is going to make the decisions and maybe there won't be losers there might be some people disappointed but everybody when i'm sure with your leadership i'll try to make a point mr lott to make sure there are no disappointed people excell we look forward to that i want to congratulate you as well on the f a a reauthorization in terms of getting jane garvey involved in the negotiations with the air traffic controllers it's a travesty that the former administrator the f a a imposed a contract on those people and mr rodriguez has talked about some of the difficulties in recruiting but i'm a believer that not everybody is entitled to a contract that they love when they go to work but everybody's entitled to a contract when there's a collective bargaining that's collectively bargained and so thank you for your work and your service on that on the question of the trust fund and lou as you know that the blue ribbon panel appointed in the safety legislation recommended a forty cents a gallon tax increase you've been pretty clear about that also talked about vehicle miles traveled when mr latham was talking i heard this giant thud around the corner and i think that was jim oberstar falling over reauthorization i think that president bush was poorly served by some bean counters when they came in had two hundred fifty six billion dollars over six years which was clearly inadequate and two years later we delivered that bill and we continue to have some problems so i hope whatever the fix is that's vehicle miles traveled of it's tolling if it's i guess we're not going to the gas tax whatever it is we need to have that program in place in these to be a solid six year program so states can plan and make improvements and and do all the things that are  necessary last thing i just want to the yellow lights on so be real quick this auto task force is a disaster and it's a disaster because decisions are being made and i listened to a speech you gave where the administration didn't make any decisions on the auto dealers of the car companies but by creating these structured bankruptcy for chrysler and general motors you have not you with the task force has created an environment where the car dealers or the car manufacturers are going into court and they're waving the dealers day in court federal legislation they are trampling over state franchise legislation and people who have sold cars and each car dealer according to an idea employs about sixty people if you add up the chrysler and the g m car dealerships and forget about the thirty thousand u a w workers who have lost their jobs in the and the twenty communities that are now suffering it's over two hundred thousand people it's over two hundred thousand people losing a job and quite frankly the sopranos would be proud of what general motors is doing in this letter that they've sent out that not only if you question them you're out if you don't buy more cars you're out and they wouldn't be able to do that without the structured bankruptcy facilitated by the auto task force and i know the president when he announced the chrysler deal on april thirtieth i'm not one of those republicans who wants a president to fail i think if he fails the country fails but he said no communities would be disrupted by the bankruptcies and nobody that worked for chrysler would be disrupted as a result of the bankrupt that's not true and i would hope since we've had a double delegation congress has delegated the president the president's delegated this non elected task force i would hope that when the president comes back to the mideast you would sit down chat with him we got to have fairness in this mister secretary and it's just not fair well i wouldn't mind responding that if you know mine's chairman  i got i got your point look at i don't know another president who has done more for the american automobile manufacturer than this president in terms of taking an interest devoting a lot of time and energy and the amount of money that's been loaned to the american automobile manufacturer is substantial it's real money i think the fact that chrysler is about ready to come out of bankruptcy means that it was a pretty good blueprint for saving chrysler and i'll just tell you this steve the auto task force did not tell g m or chrysler which dealerships to close we didn't we had nothing to say and the president didn't say ok now you've got to close this one in peoria or this one in cleveland or whatever i mean we didn't do that those were and i've talked to the g m executive and i've talked to the chrysler c e o these are very painful hard decisions they were not made lightly because i'll tell you the g m c e o has worked for the company for twenty five years his father worked for the company for thirty five years he knows a lot of these employees i'm not saying he knows every salesman around the country but these are hard decisions for these people and i think the administration has done all that they have it could have done to save the american automobile manufacturer and i think the chrysler thing is going to show that it seems to be a pretty good blueprint for saving the american automobile manufacture chairman good morning sector good morning graduation thank you and welcome back appropriation room thank you first of all i want to congratulate you and also thank you for recommending victor mendis as the federal highway administrators and he had his hearing monday so i'm assuming will be coming to work for you very shortly will make you for thank you for recommending him since i gave you one good recommendation maybe you want to go back to the elves  how the process is working and and the possibility that the system may not come on on time under budget and would continue to have some problems but in the past we had problems in getting the federal agencies that were involved in developing next general just getting together and working on it and conversations i've had with some of the stakeholders the airline industry both commercial and general the air traffic controllers there seems to be that there isn't involvement of the stakeholders as this system is being  developed i can tell you that the existing system we sat here number of hours talking about the radar screen and the mouse because the air traffic controllers were concerned about how the equipment affected them and how they could use it  talking to some of the airline people are saying there's a pilot project i guess that u s air is going to be involved with next gen and in pennsylvania but i think the system needs to develop itself with the  stakeholders having meaningful input so that at the end the aircraft industry both commercial and general knows how it's going to fit how it's going to work the air traffic controllers will know whether or not the system is one that they can use affectively and if they will have a system that can transition from the old to the new affectively and make our skies safer for the americans who will be up in the air and so i bring those thoughts to you and i know that you're a part of problem solver but i'm concerned that in the past everything has been done kind of isolated in a vacuum and i would administrator as we could have to get to next gen that will be randy babbitts number one priority he's a commercial pilot for twenty five years he knows the stuff he knows the importance of of you know the airline industry having the best equipment in the planes the other thing is there i think there's a commitment from the white house that next we have to get the next in the president understands this and so to his people and i think we'll be there sooner rather than later and sooner than a lot of people would have ever imagined this is a big big priority for us it can save it can save what i can it can really help us in saving a lot of fuel if you have the right equipment you can direct planes in and out airports so they don't have to fly all over kingdom come and you can you know relieve some congestion and save some jet fuel and but the safety part of it's the most important part of it and this will be the number one priority for randy babbitt for his time at the f a a to get us there and we think we're going to get some help from the white house on the funding part of it too mister can i just also say i was in phoenix recently and i had a chance to meet with the controllers there but also to tour the air traffic control our congratulations i think you had some to do with that state  growth of cities and city density and and so forth and and i had some questions and concerns that that i was trying to figure out what it really was less about dressage and more about the but they all seem to be teamed on this the smart growth which would move more to mass transit if i understood it was would we would basically turn the cities back in on themselves to fill in the blanks before we would go out any farther and that raised a question that came to my mind are we looking at a a future of federal land use planning federal zoning ordinances is there something that's going to restrict our cities outward grows to cause them to grow back in on themselves and become a higher density so that is that that the plan and as part of that question the the we're not going to create a national owning department we have no intention of doing that we'll leave that to local officials decide what they want to zone and where they want to zone it but i'll give an example i mean when i was in houston i took a light rail from downtown out to what i believe is one of the most comprehensive health communities in houston where they have mt anderson the children's hospital women's hospital and the people that i saw in that light rail were people who didn't want to get in their car and  get into congestion in houston and drive out there and there and also people that i don't know maybe couldn't afford to buy a gallon of gasoline but needed to go see their doctor and that's what we're talking about is creating opportunities for people who you know maybe don't want to own two or three automobiles look at every family's going to have a car i mean we're not going to eliminate cars and we're not trying to do that we're trying to say to people if if you'd rather get on a light rail or a bus or a metro line or  r bike path or a walking path to go to your doctor to go to the grocery store or even a street car i mean portland is a classic example they not only make the street cars there they use them and so that's the kind  of which which enables people to think that they don't always have to get in their car to go somewhere and they don't have to sit an hour and a half of congestion to go see their doctor go to the grocery store and so look at we have the opportunity of the o t to work with e p a the only way you would get the mass urban sprawl cities like houston l a and others to quit being farther urban sprawl was there was some kind of restrictions that would say that first the cities failed i believe this is exactly what th born so anyway getting back to the day i'm not so concerned about the rails i'm concerned about the because it looks like to me the federal government is going to have to impose restrictions to make people do that is that what you think they envision that's not what i envision to do what i envision to do is create opportunities for people to use a lot of different modes so that they have a lot of different options and in the event that they can afford a car can't afford a gallon  gasoline and they want to use clean burning light rail or or a natural gas bus or a diesel bus and create the kind of communities where you know you don't have a c o two floating around the air so you feel i can go out and take a walk or ride a bike or you know lots of options for people and you're not going to get into zoning we're not going to become a national zoning department  we have the ports highways the freight rail lines airports the bridges the international waterway high speed rail that comes from chicago into michigan not across michigan yet we hope we'll win one of those corridors and we're working on it we are primed to be one of the international gateways that the president talks about and i want to work with you on have done some work on it we're ready for our n p r and we talked about this when we met and recently my not about all of them but all of me to be looked at i'm not sure how they fit mine had a hundred million dollars got out of the recovery act can't yet find out what they are doing with it the transportation authorization was due to chairman ostara a week or so ago we submitted ten or fifteen of them many of them a m p o went to my district and asked him to ask for that so again i asked him what about the hundred and one thing over starr's requiring is that if and when it's authorized you have to have local money i want to make sure that our n p o from that i don't know and yet what they do secretary napolitano was in our district last weekend looking at our bridges and waterways and infrastructure needs and all of that one thousand less trucks a day cross that international bridge we were at a billion dollars a day before the demise of the industry we don't know what that's go come to but the whole traffic patterns i'm urging you to take a look at it i am not opposed to one project over the other project i want to end cap and same vision that i talked to you about if we use my hand and this is the world this is where michigan we back and forth i want to do world stuff and i want you to help us because as i said as i started talking we have the infrastructure for much of what's needed the international waterway our friends and neighbors with canada and doing what we need to do not this project or that project based on old projections but bringing it all together and becoming that international want to to hire to have jobs to increase our university i see all of that we have great university community wayne state michigan state you have them right there all of that needs to come together now what i don't want is doing and thank you told me you won't don't get involved in this or that because it's neither at this point it's a bigger vision a thousand less trucks a day the revenue source decimated people out of work i love what you said to all the people before you coming to me this morning you have the vision and be the president does too i want to work with you on it and not chairman over as well don't be bothered by individuals like myself talking about one this or that it's a new america and that's what i think we're building so my question is not really a question but a commitment from you this light rail from detroit to ann arbor we started five years ago in the plan and we hope to get it reauthorized in the next in the next session of that we want to see can you speak on the end have you had a chance to look at it and they need to be turned out has been no change in a match at the transportation but didn't michigan legislature i've been here thirteen years so they had to be seventeen years ago did a good job over the last last several years but there's going to be reform of m p o don't they don't meet this the structure of america and they need to they need to have a much wider opportunity for people and i've learned planning organizations that reflect the area from which they now are operating in and it's not just it's got to be the suburban area the rural areas so that they are much more inclusive and i  governor was was with us yesterday on our discussions on high speed rail and her suggestion is that you know if if if if we need facilities to build the high speed rail equipment and cars and you know equipment like that and that's something that your governor suggested and it's another good idea i mean ford excellent concept yes excellent concepts rival our we need to move on the air traffic controller positions and all i'll be following up with mr babbitt is as well last year as you know americans took ten point seven billion trips on public transit that was the highest in fifty two years and this increase in the use of public transportation requires expanded services and compasses but with state by state budgets in crises the opposite  is happening in fact more than eighty agencies across the nation have been forced to cut service lay off workers and raise fares and you've stated publicly in recent weeks that you are open to the idea of providing operating the systems to transit agencies one idea that has been promoted by local agencies is to have the flexibility to use federal capital monies for operating assistance are you open to considering this option and if not what ideas are you considering to help transfer the agencies during the time of crisis to keep up with the current needs i am open to this idea that  you know if we provide money to buy all these buses you don't have people to drive them or people to run the organizations it's counterproductive i mean i am open minded to this idea and i know there's a provision somebody put an amendment on the senate side to allow this to happen i don't i don't know if it will prevail or not but i think it's a part of the supplemental maybe but for the law in term i think we need to be open minded we need to have some flexibility about these things when there's a downturn in the economy thank you there's been a lot of discussion of here about high speed rail and you said that there'll be no disappointed people i hope that is also going to apply to the communities that are going to be disrupted by high speed rail but will not be able to afford to even ride on it on the high speed  particularly you know of course focused on california and i believe that this mode of transportation does in fact happen tensional for growing and challenging transportation issues in terms of of moving of people quickly and efficient however i have concerns about it because building a high speed rail route along existing highways or existing rights of ways in places like lake los angeles for example may minimize  the negative impact to other communities but the concern that i have that it would add to the damages that have already been done decades ago when the new interstate system divided and destroyed poor communities and caused lingering health issues for residents in my district alone for example communities are are dissected by no fewer than eight state and federal highways and several a rail roads so building a new high speed rail system along existing rights away is far more into disruptive and intrusive than proponents would like to believe and it certainly would be in communities like mine where i said the residents in those committees aren't going to be able to afford the proposed