#EMind: Edwards' Statement on Surface Transportation Conference Agreement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 29, 2012

Contact:

Dan Weber/Benjamin Gerdes

(202) 225-8699

Edwards' Statement on Surface Transportation Conference Agreement

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (MD-4), a Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released this statement today following passage of the conference agreement on H.R. 4348, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012. The agreement authorizes highway and transit programs for 27 months, includes necessary, national transit safety requirements, a 5-year reauthorization of the flood insurance program,  and a one-year extension of the current student loan rates.

"I am pleased that 100 days after the Senate passed a transportation bill with 74 votes, House Republicans have yielded on their partisan approach to repairing our nation's roads, railways, and bridges. This is not an ideal transportation bill – but, it's past time to get people to work. This bill will create or save over 2 million jobs and help rebuild our nation's infrastructure without the unnecessary, partisan policy riders involving coal ash and the Keystone Pipeline – provisions that have no place in a highway bill."

"Today is also a last minute victory for our nation's students and their parents who could not afford to see loan rates double at a time of record high unemployment for our young people. Without action, the loan rates would have doubled for 7.4 million students, costing each student borrower $1,000 in additional repayment costs. That would have been unacceptable.

"I do not agree with all of the provisions included in today's conference agreement, particularly involving the environmental review process and the elimination of transit operating assistance, necessary for our metro system. Nonetheless, I could not allow those objections to stand in the way of an agreement critical to our nation's students, transportation workers, and economic recovery. Republicans attempted that approach with almost disastrous consequences – our country deserves much better."

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