oberstar, for those kind words. no one admires him more than i do and no one knows the work of the transportation and infrastructure committee than chairman oberstar. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from virginia. mr. pierluisi: i want to thank the gentleman from -- mr. perriello: i want to thank the gentleman from penn -- from tennessee. if we can't put that to deficit reduction, how can we move forward in the simplest possible terms? if that $107 million is left on the table it will be spent on something. if we remove that contract authority it will not. that will save taxpayers money. that's the important thing. if we can't agree on those small steps how can we make the big steps? we need to take this money off the table and make sure it doesn't get spent wastefully. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia yields back the balance of his time. all time havi

oberstar: we need to restore the construction grant program. we need to invest substantially more, on the federal government side, as an inducement to states and local governments to make the investments they need to make. man: but the federal role is going to continue to be diminished because of so many competing demands. so the expectation that the federal government will step in and infuse a lot of capital into water infrastructure, i think, is doubtful. and whether they should or not, i think, will continue to be debated. narrator: where money continues to be elusive, some cities and towns are turning their assets over to private companies, hoping the private sector can find the solutions they cannot. man: in the u.s., roughly 90% of all water and wastewater systems are still publicly owned and publicly managed. the remaining 10% are managed by privately held companies. man: the private sector has learned to become very efficient, and frequently a municipality can save themselves a significant amount of money by bringing in a private compan

oberstar: the federal government has let down municipalities. the first investment under the '72 clean water act was to deal with the biggest waste streams. and after a period of six or seven years, to then go to municipalities under 250,000 population. but that was just about the time when the federal government converted to a loan program. so smaller-sized communities have had to deal with repayable loans. a larger cost on a smaller tax base, and, arguably, less affluent communities. man: sewickley township is a rural farming community, however, herminie itself would be considered to be the downtown area of the township. it's the agways, the auto-parts store, the bank. it's your typical small-town village. man: people think that rural areas are pristine and perfect and everybody has a nice, simple life. that's, uh, not exactly the situation here. when you come into town in the summer, you know you're coming to herminie. woman: the aroma in 90-degree days... can sometimes just want to knock you over. woman: we have water. we have power, we have

oberstar, chairman of the house transportation and infrastructure committee. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. markey: with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 5730. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended -- ms. markey: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announce. , future proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. oberstar: -- >> i move to suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 2598 praising the commandant of the coast guard academy for the 100th anniversary of the coast guard academy and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempo

oberstar: i thing he gentlewoman for her courageous lead on this issue. the $35 billion for afghanistan is roughly equivalent to the amount in the recovery act for highways and transit. if instead of afghanistan, they were invested in fund, we could do what we did in the recovery act, 1,262 bridges, 5,000 transit stations improved, 1.3 million jobs that we've documented on our part of the recovery act but this is a conflict with no end, no exit, no offset and we should not provide money for it. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. who seeks recognition? the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: i'm prows to -- proud to recognize our great leader, mike pence of indiana, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. pence: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pence: i thank the distinguished ranking member for yielding time. i rise in opposition to the amendment and also to the underlying bill. i have great respec

oberstar mentioned moments ago. lowering the sites, like south carolina, we are finding that those markets are beginning to compete vigorously. as the economy improves, i think the markets like the one that you represent, like greensboro, n.c., are going to find themselves the object of service from both of our companies. >> thank you for that. >> you bet. >> you concur? >> i do. markets are better served by healthy carriers rather than ones eating a hand to mouth existence. >> the gentleman has the development of the three international airlines will alliances over the past 50 years, a positive or negative impact on competition. pricing and customer service. strike that, let me ask you a different way. our three alliances enough or sufficient to ensure future competition? >> as one of the founding members of the star alliance, i think it has certainly served the purpose of giving consumers the opportunity to fly across the globe with a multitude of different carriers that belong to the same alliaace, doing so seaml

oberstar: i thing he gentlewoman for her courageous lead on this issue. the $35 billion for afghanistan is roughly equivalent to the amount in the recovery act for highways and transit. if instead of afghanistan, they were invested in fund, we could do what we did in the recovery act, 1,262 bridges, 5,000 transit statio improved, 1.3 million jobs that we've documented on our part of the recovery act but thiis a conflict with no end, no exit, no offset and we should not provide money for it. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. who seeks recognition? the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: i'm pws to -- proud to recognize our great leader, mike pence of indiana, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. pence: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pence: i thank the distinguished ranking member for yielding time. i rise in opposition to the amendment and also to the underlying bill. i have great respect for

. >> there was a quote from congressman oberstar who said, if you do not exercise self restraint, you will get pushed back from the traveling public. did he also implicitly mean that they will get pushback from congress on this is a the legislation? >> that was implied. he directly said, you can expect more regulation if you do not fix this yourselves. a big problem is, how do the airlines fix it? some of the testimony pointed to the need for the government to step in so that the carriers can be made to fix it. nobody wants to be the first to step in. if everybody had to do it, it would not be so bad. >> what is driving these baggage these? >> the oil price shot up to new record levels a couple of years ago, prompting airlines to look for other ways to make money. the fuel costs were so high, so they turn to these fees. then the recession hit. people stop flying. again, to make up some of that revenue, they looked to fees. the picture has now improved. . people are starting to return and live a little bit more. the errors -- fares have increased. the carriers are likely seeing some le

we are working with chairman oberstar and his committee. we are working with german boxer and her committee. we want to have a new transportation bill. -- chairman boxer and her committee. host: boston, independent line. caller: i was pretty amazed hearing the reason why it is ok to check for the highway with signs saying this construction is brought to you by the stimulus act. it is just not one of those reasons that holds weight. i have been driving in massachusetts and new hampshire and i drove find them months ago and i said i cannot believe there is a sign for that to tell us what the construction was funded by. it is like a smack in the face. that money could be better spent going to jump. -- jobs. host: did you hear his argument that those signs were created by a small business? caller: i do not believe that at all. it is like saying this useless program is ok because it gives people jumped. that is fine, but those jobs could be more permanent, more sustained. we do not need signed on the road to do those sorts of things. it is sort

congressman oberstar runs the states on how quickly they put the transportation infrastructure stimulusney for use and i think we are tied with no. 1 in the country. stimulus has got a bad name with the american people, but it has worked very effectively in pennsylvania. guest: -- in-line host: you asked the federal government for more stimulus. are you beyond aid to states? are you also asking for additional around for transportation jobs, it severed? guest: i think specifically if there is another bill to help the economy, i hope that it would focus on infrastructure. the infrastructure part of the bill has been the most successful of all in creating good family-sustaining jobs." i remember in congress, senator boxer and senator inhofe, people on different sides of the political spectrum, they urged increasing infrastructure spending in the original stimulus bill by two or three times of what was in the bill eventually. it that would have been a good thing for the country. i would like to see a very narrow-tailored bill, much smaller than the first, but puts additional and the structu

oberstar: i rise with a heavy heart in mourning the untimely loss of terry mcgou fwmbings hey, founder, empreczar yow of the paul bunyan bicycle trail. it was terry who 20 years ago saw the notice of termination of rail service along central minnesota's area from baxter, minnesota, up to hackensack, and rode out to -- like a modern day town crier, alert communities along the trail to join together, save the right of way to build the paul bunyan trail, which now has 650,000 users a year. every year, terry mobilized group rides and engaged the business communities all along the trail to see not only the physical and outdoors enjoyment and health benefits of a bike-ped-inline skating trail but also to see the business opportunities that have benefited the communities along the trail. we didn't expect terry's loss. he had suffered from parkinson's, but he was there at the helm of this year's ride and he was already planning for next year's ride. i shall miss him greatly as a friend, a treasured participant in bicycling, and all of bicycling in minnesota will miss terry. the speaker pro tem

congressman oberstar runs the states on how quickly they put the transrtation infrastructure stimulus money for use and i think we are tied with no. 1 in the country. stimulus has got a bad name with the american people, but it has worked very effectively in pennsylvania. guest: -- in-line host: you asked the feder government for more stimulus. are you beyond aid to states? are you also asking for additional aund for transportation jobs, it severed? guest: i think specifically if there is another bill to help the economy, i hope that it would focus on infrastructure. the infrastructure part of the bill has been the most successful of all in creating good family-sustaining jobs." i remember in congress, senator boxer and senar inhofe, people on different sides of the political spectrum, they urged increasing infrastructure spending in the original stimulus bill by two or three times of what was in the bill eventually. it that would have been a good thing for the country. i would like to see a very narrow-tailored bill, much smaller than the first, but puts additional and the structure