mr. schneider next.. >> i do have individual plants plans for you to see and pass out ... josh baker snider that you thank you for having us back to the continue ages and the initial agreeable solution and vice president phoning was worried about the bright light issue and so i made a good fate effort to cross that line and strive for compromise and prepare to radios a top story and improve building aesthetic and is unfortunately the i consistently found that the probability sponsor was not up front about and misrepresented the changes that were made and to look back at that, i'll point out some of those issues. there were 33 issues and i'll go through them in increasingly order of supports the first is rather of the building is improved and that is acceptable and i thank you for the good work on it the second issue the appearance of the front of the building and there has been no substantive change to the front of the building and i have here side-by-side the only and new plans on the projector and you can see that they look the same we had asked some articulation and the

mr. schneider joins us today.or your time. >> good to be here. >> shannon: i want to ask about something you wrote about. according to the confidential information that forces linked with the administration are suggesting that government might re-classify firearm and weapons changing their status under the national firearms take make it more difficult to get that. what can you tell us about that? >> well, according to the confidential information i have, semi-automatic firearms or certain semi-awe mattic firearms thunder scenario would be declared as title ii national firearm act firearm. the false argument they use for this is to say that certain semi-automatic firearms can be easily made in to or changed in to fully automatic fire arms. this is untrue, of course. but of course this type of thing has not stopped this administration in the past. this would mean people who wish to acquire semi-automatic fire arms would not be able to acquire them unless they were willing to get the prior approval of the government.

thank you. >> miss schneider, five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and members of that committee. i appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of the illinois governor to give you an update on the high speed in inner-city passenger rail program. i want to thank the members of this committee, the congress, and the obama administration for supporting a help the inner city passenger rail system and for supporting improved service with words and money. we are grateful for the investments from the american recovery and investment act which have provided more than $1.4 billion for illinois high- speed rail. these current investments in illinois high-speed passenger rail systems are already supporting thousands of jobs with much more on the way. we cannot do it without federal help. we need continued federal funding for high-speed rail to finish the job restarted and keep our promises to travelers and taxpayers. we ask that congress appropriate additional funds for state making these investments, including illinois in the midwest. ne

mr. chairman. and thank you for this second round of questions. secretary schneider, i hated the program that you have overseen has been dubbed train to nowhere but i think it's so incredibly spiritual. so i want to ask you about the benefits when the recovery money was invested. because i understand that governor quinn announced the purchase of a multistate purchase of new passenger rail cars that will be manufactured in a new plant in illinois. so those are new jobs, new rail cars, and that, in fact, california is also purchasing some of those cars. and so we have created, you know, a piece of the industry that's really important to our manufacturing core. can you talk about this in some of the other success stories in more detail so that we can name your program something else? >> thank you very much. i appreciate that, because i think the communities in illinois feel very strongly that are being served by this higher speed trains, that they are someplace. in terms of the rail equipment, we've partnered with the california department of transportation, the califor

mr. edward hamberger who is president and ceo of association of american railroads. and, finally, honorable and schneider, secretary of transportation for the state of illinois. like to welcome all of you. i'll tell you we appreciate your patience, as you can do. we've had some lively discussion today. there is a lot of interest in passenger rail service, intercity and high speed. we look forward to your contribution. if you have a lengthy statement that extends beyond five minutes, without objection it will all be considered as part of the record, and included in the record. we welcome you, and we will now begin and we will start with mr. behm who is the inspector general for rail, maritime, and economic analysis of the department of transportation. welcome, mr. behm, and you are recognized. >> mr. chairman, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on the implementation of the nation's high speed intercity passenger rail program. since we raise concerns in april 2010 about fra's ability to meet this challenge them we've seen fra make no progress in implementing its grant program. t