March 14, 1973
Page 7946
Mr. MUSKIE. I thank the Senator from New York.
Mr. President, I will use just a couple of minutes to sum up.
First of all, I make the point again that the purpose of the Muskie-Baker amendment is to give the citizens of rural America the option of using rail transit to solve their transportation problems. It does not change in any way the impact of this highway bill on States which do not choose to use rail transit or on communities which do not choose to use them.
I make a second point: that the revenues now flowing into the highway trust fund prior to 1956 flowed into the General Treasury. They constitute 98 percent of the revenues now accruing to the trust fund.
Congress decided to divert those funds from the General Treasury into the highway trust fund for the specific purpose of building the Interstate Highway System.
It is now time to consider whether to make those funds available in part to serve another national transportation need, having to do with the need for mass transportation in our cities.
It has been argued by the distinguished Senator from Texas (Mr. BENTSEN) and other Senators that one reason we ought not to adopt this amendment is that it does not ask for enough money. It is said that the amounts involved in the Muskie-Baker amendment would not make a dent on the mass transit problems.
I make two points in response. First, the highway trust fund when this bill is enacted will have undertaken to finance $87 billion of highway construction in this country since 1956.
Resources of this magnitude surely, if applied to our needs in the next 21 years, are sufficient to build us a balanced transportation system. I am not proposing that at this point we divert these funds entirely to mass transit. We are not ready for it.
What I am saying is that we ought to make a beginning with those revenues which originated in the general Treasury, to begin to deal with the problems of our cities in the transportation field.
Really, the argument of the distinguished Senator from Texas and other Senators ought to be for the Kennedy amendment. If those Senators think I ask for too little, then they should have supported the Kennedy amendment this year or, even better, the Kennedy amendment of last year.
The Muskie amendment is a first step, a beginning step, not a total step in giving the people of our cities a choice as to the transportation system that makes the most sense to them, the people that delivered it. As such, I urge the Senate to adopt it.