mr. oberstar: mr. speaker, i yield such time as he may consume, the gentleman from northern virginia, and yield myself 10 seconds to express my admiration for his concern of these federal employees, many federal employees reside in his district and even some of these 1,900 likely reside in the gentleman's district. i appreciate him coming forward to champion this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly, is recognized. mr. connolly: thank you, mr. speaker. and i rise in strong support of this bipartisan legislation, compensating those federal transportation employees who were unfairly furloughed on march 1 and 2 because of the lapse in the highway trust fund. i want to thank the chairman of the transportation and infrastructure subcommittee, mr. oberstar, and mr. mica, for their great service. and there's too many. mr. coble for his support on a bipartisan basis. their leadership is just critical in resolving this problem. h.r. 4786 a is -- is a simple, commonsense bill.

mr. oberstar: mr. speaker, thank you. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the bill h.r. 4786, and to include extraneous material. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. oberstar: mr. speaker, we are here on both sides of the aisle this morning on a mission of equity, fairness, even mercy on behalf

mr. oberstar, my democrat counterpart, the chair, he has worked. tion from the speaker and also from mr. reid to correct this after we pass this. but to do this in the proper legislative fashion, to actually create jobs, we should be fair to everyone and distribute this equitably to all states. also missing from this is a six-year bill which we only need. this only extends transportation authorization through december 31 of this year, which will leave many states behind. so this bill leaves many jobs behind. it leaves fairness behind. and again it doesn't do the job it should do in creating jobs that we so badly need in this nation. i will reluctantly oppose the so-called jobs bill on the basis that i stated. it's my hope that we can correct this measure. i'll do everything i can working in a bipartisan fashion to correct it so we have fairness for all 50 states in the distribution of the funds that they sent to washington. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized. ms. matsui: madam

mr. oberstar's proposal. are you going to give me a 7% -- are you going to yield to me if you say it's not true? mr. defazio: i signed up on the chairman's agreement and my state would not get those other funds. mr. latourette: that's what i'm saying. mr. defazio: i get about $30 million less. mr. la tore receipt: that's -- mr. latourette: no disrespect to your majority but you have not done such a great job passing bills so waiting for another bill to come -- try not to be partisan about this -- but this mess was created by george bush and perpetuated by president obama because his transportation secretary says they don't want to deal with the six-year bill until march of 2011. 30% of the construction trade in this country is out of work. why would you do this? and to my distinguished friend from oregon is transfer the $30 million and put it in the infrastructure. put these guys to work. actually build something. and again, going back to mr. oberstar's wonderful speech that he always gives, jobs with 1% of th

mr. oberstar's proposal. ou going to give me a 7% -- are you going to yield to me if you say it's not true? mr. defazio: i signed up on the chairman's agreement and my state would not get those other funds. mr. latourette: that's what i'm saying. mr. defazio: i get about $30 million less. mr. la tore receipt: that's -- mr. latourette: no disrespect to your majority but you have not done such a great job passing bills so waiting for another bill to come -- try not to be partisan about this -- but this mess was created by george bush and perpetuated by president obama because his transportation secretary says they don't want to deal with the six-year bill until march of 2011. 30% of the construction trade in this country is out of work. why would you do this? and to my distinguished friend from oregon is transfer the $30 million and put it in the infrastructure. put these guys to work. actually build something. and again, going back to mr. oberstar's wonderful speech that he always gives, jobs with 1% of that. w

mr. oberstar has ton a level best, and he was a written letter from ms. pelosi and mr.reid to correct it after we pass it. if this was the only flaw in the bill maybe we could look away. you heard democrats who also voted against the rule and almost took this bill down also state their objections to provisions that should have had the opportunity for at least an amendment by this body. so no consideration of changing the bill, making the appropriate fairness changes, equitable changes so we would all be treated equitably. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. etheridge: i yield a minute to the speaker of the house, speaker pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the speaker. the speaker: thank you very much, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. i appreciate his leadership and his intensive knowledge of this legislation and how important it is for us to proceed much madam speaker, i will not speak long because the sooner we debate it the sooner it

mr. oberstar: and we need to -- we're correcting that in this bill. will the gentleman yield an additional snin minute? -- minute? mr. costello: i yield one minute to mr. oberstar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. oberstar: so we're sending it over to the other body. majority leader reid sent it back with the appropriate members of the senate, to committee leadership and the senate floor leadership, but somehow it -- this correction has gotten bogged down. i also urge the other body to act on h.r. 476, which we passed march 10, to correct an additional problem created by the filibuster in the senate that caused highway authorization to lapse and 1,922 federal highway administration career employees to lose their salaries. they through no fault of their own get a 20% cut in their biweekly paycheck. that's unreasonable. now, we sent over a bill to the other body with the very clear payment restructuring. may i have another minute? mr. costello: i yield an additional minute to chairman oberstar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentle

mr. oberstar's proposal. are you going to give me a 7% -- are you going to yield to me if you say it's not true? mr. defazio: i signed up on the chairman's agreement and my state would not get those other funds. mr. latourette: that's what i'm saying. mr. defazio: i get about $30 million less. mr. la tore receipt: that's -- mr. latourette: no disrespect to your majority but you have not done such a great job passing bills so waiting for another bill to come -- try not to be partisan about this -- but this mess was created by george bush and perpetuated by president obama because his transportation secretary says they don't want to deal with the six-year bill until march of 2011. 30% of the construction trade in this country is out of work. why would you do this? and to my distinguished friend from oregon is transfer the $30 million and put it in the infrastructure. put these guys to work. actually build something. and again, going back to mr. oberstar's wonderful speech that he always gives, jobs with 1% of th

mr. oberstar told me about the new bill he was working on and the practice was making.home that evening and ready quick e-mail to the transportation committee thinking them for taking the time to visit in d.c. is hard work and action. as a belly dump driver, i transfer materials to and from a job. i haul materials such as class for the road base for a whole millington way do work tearout then i also haul makes to a paver. but i not only drive the track. i am expected to help maintain them. i griese moving parts. i checked the oil daily, crawling engine department, check for cracks in my frame into even make small repairs on the road if i need to. i for 500 miles or more on a day giving and driving an 80,000-pound truck is easy. i have to constantly be alert for traffic hazards, other drivers, and animals and puddles in a commute challenge to drive all day without getting tired here at even moref a challenge is trying to guess what's going to happen next spring. i get laid off every winter i'm usually brown thanksgiving and would usually be recalled in may after road res

mr. oberstar, ms. brown and mr.chuster to sign and requested. >> congressman, if i might, because i perhaps misunderstood the question there wasn't thinking quite clearly, the numbers we refer to i believe our projects that were requested by the state and they likely will be in our service and our lines. >> again between fra and amtrak is the recipient. finally, mr. peck, good morning mr. peck. [laughter] sorry you couldn't get away without me saying something. but i'm sure you saw this "washington post" story about the commercial real-estate situation in d.c. which is desperate but which presents us with a great opportunity to read i saw your number of dollars available allocated, obligated, extended. i work with ms. norton, the chairman to see at this time when we have a fire sale and we are leasing we have expensive leases when we have public agencies that can be housed at 50 cents, 25 cents on the dollar that we act now instead of later and to get vantage of the situation. i used to be in the development busines

mr. wharton what do you think on the firing line? >> chairman oberstar, i think it is definitely needed. as i mentioned in my testimony, we see a cliff, and unless there's a long-term solution, there's going to be a lot of people looking for work and a lot of businesses closing down. we need to act and we need to act now. >> ms. richardson, you're a practitioner at the state level what do you think? is this workable? can you work within that framework? >> well, chairman oberstar, if you and jack basho say it's workable, i would hate to argue with either of you, the two of you together. it certainly sounds interesting. i have not heard that discussed and haven't thought a lot about it. the idea of waiting three or four years for the economy to recover would be an appealing part of it. you know, would appeal to some of the dissenters in terms of increasing funding. the question would be is 15 cents or 20 cents going to be enough. you guys have done the math. i think it's very intriguing. very intriguing. >> well this is the first time it's been discussed i

mr. oberstar: i thank the gentlelady for yielding and i appreciate her personal story, a compelling story of a child in her district, her hometown, very touching for me, mr. speaker, because my youngest daughter lives in fort collins. with her husband and 3-year-old callie jo and monica bikes in the neighborhoods where she lives, fort collins, with a child carrier and i thought of that tragic accident, i thought of monica and i thought of her little callie and how it could well have been them. could well have been this 3-year-old child. and it -- the distinguished gentleman from tennessee, former chairman of the aviation committee and chair of the surface subcommittee, the gentleman has been very candid, very touching in the story that he related of his own shocking and deeply troubling experience. that's not to say scary. your life just sort of spins out of control at a certain moment when tragic event of this kind occurs. these are all reminders, very graphic reminders that we're not talking about an abstraction, not talking about some possibility that might happen to someone else, but

mr. oberstar and the hearings that we are having today and the hearings that we have had, we can truly say that we know how the dollars have been spent. we can piggyback on the states that have received the dollars and where those dollars are. and members of congress into the city council, to every single level we have been able to contact the officials and make them move those dollars go. and so i just want to put that on the record. this is bipartisanship. i don't understand how sometimes the rhetoric breaks down for whatever the moment of the time. but i want to be cleared that i am very pleased with this administration. and in fact i asked are going to have hearings in florida. were going to take it to florida and california, but i want to go to to were three cities in florida because we have benefited from high-speed and it's an example of how this country can benefit with high-speed. and it can change the complex of this country. i mean, 50 years ago when eisenhower and the members of congress decided to do the highway system, that was great for the country. now we're at a new area.

oberstar for their evers on thregs. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. baird: i'd like to recognize mr. kratovil for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. kratovil: i thank the gentleman for washington for yielding. madam speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 3650 and urge my colleagues to support it. maryland's first district, my district, is a district defined by the water that surrounds it. healthy water in our district means commerce, recreation and most importantly jobs. harmful algal bloom is a rapid overproduction of certain species of algae that produce toxins which are detrimental to plants and animals. these outbreaks are commonly referred to as red or brown tides and have the potential to kill fish and our aquatic life by decreasing sunlight available to the water and using up available oxygen in the water. in recent years, many of the nation's coast lines, near shore marine waters and freshwaters have experienced an increase in the number, frequency, duration and types of h.h.b.'s. if we continue to allow this problem to persist, bodies of wat

mr. braley: i think that's an a great opportunity to talk about the importance, when i served on the transportation and infrastructure committee, in the 110th congress, our chairman, the ledge dare jim oberstar, always reminded us that our global competitor -- the ledge dare -- the ledge dare jim observer -- the legendary jim oberstar reminded us, you have to look at global competitor. you look at china which is past -- which has passed the united states in number of automobiles, if we are competing with these people in a global market, dr. kagen, we have to similar types of commitments so our infrastructure system can make us competitive. i know from visiting your district in northeast wisconsin, it's a very spread out and remote area, in some parts of your district, yet the stilts you represent in those areas depend just as much on an infrastructure system as the people here in our nation's capitol. mr. kagen: i'll summarize what everybody here understands, we're $1.1 to $1.2 billion behind in investment in infrastructure. what good would it be if we generate several million job, even 10 million job, when we manufacturer things and we don't have -- we manufacture things and don't have the