mr. lahood? >> first, mr.cgovern, let me say that nobody in the congress has been provided the leadership you have on h d and the coalition you co-chair, you've done an extraordinary job of highlighting it everyday tundershower here. i know of your deep interest in that because i served with you. thank you for continuing your lead leadership. in our department, people think i have a lot of power. most everything that gets decided has to run up

mr. lahood? >> first, mr. mcgovern, let me say that nobody in the congress has been provided the leadership you have on hong durham and antihundred and the coalition that you co-chair. you've done an extraordinary job in highlighting it every day that you are here and i know of your deep interest in that because i served with you on that question. thank you for continuing your leadership and being very vigilant about it. in our department people think i have a lot of power but most everything that gets decided has to be run up 14 flagpoles before it can be decided. i like the idea of the commuter benefit equity program because it gets people out of cars. it certainly works in cities like washington, d.c. and other cities. i'm not going to say definitively, you know, that -- look, if it was up to me, you know, it is a good program and we are going to do all we can to work with you and others in the congress to promote that as a program that -- it goes to everything we talk about in terms of livability creating

mr. lahood, who informs us that in just three day's time, when this program was started, as far as they can tell it's already oversubscribed. that means the consumers like this program, it means they are reacting to it and it means that it would be irresponsible of us not to try to prevent the shutdown of this program just three days after it began. so we're here trying to take advantage of one of the few bright spots in the economy to help move the economy forward. we still have a long way to go before the good news shows up on the unemployment side of the ledger. today i think this is one piece of good news and i think we need to respond to it. i'd be happy to yield to my friend. mr. lewis: i just wanted to say, mr. chairman, that for some reason or other the gentleman who is our speaker has drawn the short end of the stick this week. he's been doing wonderful work, moving the process along, and i think the body should recognize his work. his work. mr. obey: i thank the gentleman >> the senate will take up the additional funding next trick. president obama spoke about the trading program

mr. lahood, who informs us that in just three day's time, when this program was started, as far as they can tell it's already oversubscribed. that means the consumers like this program, it means they are reacting to it and it means that it would be irresponsible of us not to try to prevent the shutdown of this program just three days after it began. so we're here trying to take advantage of one of the few bright spots in the economy to help move the economy forward. we still have a long way to go before the good news shows up on the unemployment side of the ledger. today i think this is one piece of good news and i think we need to respond to it. i'd be happy to yield to my friend. mr. lewis: i just wanted to say, mr. chairman, that for some reason or other the gentleman who is our speaker has drawn the short end of the stick this week. he's been doing wonderful work, moving the process along, and i

mr. chairman and i want to say thank you to the secretaries for being here. itis wanted zaidis secretary hud-- lahood we miss you. i am going to try to talk fast mr. chairman and gideon a couple of questions to each of the secretaries for the secretary lahood, this is about the recovery program and maintenance of the efforts that the governors have to certify to. about not cutting their own transportation investments efforts. in our state of connecticut the governor has made such as certified. the first question is have all the governors made that commitment, what is the department do to make sure states are maintaining that investment, their own investment plans and second to that come again with connecticut, $440 million made available, 262 million has been obligated, 71,000 to date has been thalade come end is that accurate from a perspective of looking at this as to whether or not outlays as a measure of economic activities, or should we look at that as a measure of economic activity or should we few outlays as a lagging indicator? >> well, i think the maintenance effort has been a problem and we

joining us, secretary of transportation, ray lahood. mr. secretary, thanks for coming in. tom forman is here to give us a little background. cash for clunkers. what's this all about? >> lot of buzz about this because it's starting today. here's how it works in a nutshell. say you have an older car that's not very fuel efficient that you would like to do a better job with. say it's an suv or something with several years on it, maybe good miles on it. here's basically what will qualify this as a clunker that you can get a deal on. 25 years old at most, so you want it younger than that. 18 miles a gallon or less, drivable, registered and insured for the past year. that will qualify it as a clunker under this program. so if that's the car you want and you would like to get a new car, the kind of new car you can qualify for is going to be a car that allows you to have a minimum of 22 miles per gallon with some exceptions, if you're buying a truck it may be a little less than that, under $45,000 base price. now, with options, it can go a lot more so you could be talking about a

mr. speaker, to take cog nizzance of a very fine day yesterday of bipartisanship. a former colleague of ours, ray lahood, came to south florida along with f.a.a. director to meet with several of us regarding radar in south florida. on the flight from us air here, the administrator and i heard a flight attendant do something nice. she complimented the 1949 booker t. washington class from miami who were enroute here to washington. it was a wonderful gesture and made for a wonderful day. my colleagues who continue to rant about us not having health care, i wonder what they would say if we do nothing. will health care stay the same? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. inglis: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm not hear to ask the president to make good on his promise about jobs, because i don't believe government creates jobs. government doesn't create wealth. all it does is move wealth around. we need jobs, but i'm here to ask the presi

lahood. on may 28, mary tyler moore, actress and spokesperson for the juvenile diabetes association. the national press club would thank you to mrr. keith for his donation of an autographed guitar for the 12th annual national press club 5 k run, walk, an auction. this will take place on the timber 12, 2009. and for more information on this event, go to our website at www.press.org. and second, i would like to present our guests with the traditional npc mug. >> all right. [applause] >> we have one more question for you. someone in our audience asks, what is the hardest thing about being toby keith? >> well, it would just be the publicity that comes with the political stuff. it is really difficult to talk about your music when every single interview you do -- you know, if you are releasing a movie or an album you hate to be disrespectful. i am not a disrespectful by. and you hate to be disrespectful, but every interview starts off with something political every time. it is always something to do with the military or it is something to do with the iraq -- the iraq war was the big one parent -- the big one. and it's difficult to go