metropolitan clark county, los vegas, the largest population center. a very rural. very much branching. >> the rent. >> yes. the largest metropolitan area probably would have been -- if you didn't count north las vegas it would have been the reno. in carson city. >> did you have all of reno? >> oh, yes. >> is it fair to call this of fairly conservative district? >> very conservative. seventeen counties in our state. the only one that traditionally goes blue is clark county, which is vegas. the rest to vitiligo read. i'm proud to say this last election. it has made as a swing state for a number of election cycles. >> it is now represented by a republican. >> has been a republican for a long, long time. >> one of my colleagues is of representative. now, i do want our audience to know that if you have any sense of reading for fun or if you are a teacher or if you have any interest in education or in children or in politics you will want this book. now you just heard how do it was to have these people who were your campaign is with you. i was impressed by the honesty of

mile segment, let's actually, i'll be little partisan for a second, let's build a line from los angeles to las vegas. let's build a line from phoenix to las vegas. let's go from albuquerque to denver. let's try it. what do we have to lose? nothing. if we fail, then we fail, but we don't even know what failure is yet, because we haven't gotten there. >> senator udall. as the good governor was saying to me, who was that guy that built our 110-mile-per-hour service, i said david gunn, it's the only good thing he did for amtrak. but that's not true, i want to say that because david and i are friends, i talked to him a couple of days ago, i accused him from using the turbo money from the project in new york to get that done. but i know he got pennsylvania money. i think what tom is talking about is sab lutely true, with an exception. that is that the culture in this country is not a train riding culture. in the northeast corridor, about 43 million people live within 40 miles of where we operate ocela. it is a success. in 2000, we had about 37%, this was before it started, of the air-rail market was with

vegas. this project will ultimately connect victor ville to palmdale, calif. from los angeles to san francisco. this project will connect 3 major western metro mama ted -- metropolitan regions. each project meeting the criteria set up by our commission. this takes leadership and courage to get it done. it can be done and should be done. having grown up in south dakota, it would have been nice to take a 60 minute train lied for my thanksgiving holiday but instead i was stuck at home in a. it because we had to travel by car. these systems will be costly to design but we can do this. this is the united states of america. mr. chairman, i have something for this policy to commander -- consider. we must agree upon a bold new vision and make a cultural shift in the way we do transportation, a vision the american public can invest in and believe in and includes passenger rail that connect america like the eisenhower interstate highway system. we must do today what our parents and grandparents did for us. invest in a new vision. reform the current program and revolutionize the

vegas. it will connect that area to palmdale, california. which will go to san francisco to los angeles.his will eventually connect three major western metropolitan megaregions. each project meeting the criteria set out by our commission and the g.a.o. for being corridors of being 500 miles or less. this strigs is one that takes leadership and courage to get it done. it can be done and it should be done. i know having grown up in sioux falls, south dakota, it would have been nice too take a trip to minneapolis for a vikings game. but i was at home stuck in a blizzard because we had to travel by car. yes, these systems will be costly to design, fund and construct, but we can do this. this is the united states of america. mr. chairman, i have three policy changes for this committee to consider in the new authorization. first, we must agree upon a bold new vision and make the cultural shift in the h in the way we do transportation. a vision they can invest in and believe in, connecting america much like the eisenhower highway system did. we@@@@@@x it will include reliable, ontime performanc