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[American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials] 12/18/91 [OA 6040] [1]
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George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Draft Files
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13595
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13595-004
Folder Title:
[American A ssociation of State Highway and Transportation Officials] 12/18/91 [OA 6040] [1]
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26
17
5
3
293000ss
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE: 12/17/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
-
-
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: The American Ass. of State Highway and
Transportation officials
SUBJECT:
Dallas, TX 12/18/91
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
BOSKIN
CARD
ANDERSON
DEMAREST
SNOW
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
THE ATTACHED HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO THE PRESIDENT
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
31 DEC 17 P2:
December 16, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVE DEMAREST
of
FROM:
TONY SNOW TS
SUBJECT:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
On Wednesday, December 18th, at noon, you will deliver
remarks (approximately 15 minutes) to the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) at the Hyatt-
Regency in Dallas, Texas. The audience of approximately 600 will
be comprised mainly of AASHTO and guests from the signing
ceremony (construction workers, other state and local
transportation officials from around the country).
Your remarks praise the merits of the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act you will have just signed,
stressing the bill's job-generation potential. You also focus on
the importance of transportation efficiency for national
productivity, and touch on the human, day-to-day impact of freely
circulating transportation for ordinary Americans.
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft Four
December 17, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgements]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
today became a reality, not far from here. I signed the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- a law that
will bring our transportation policy into the 21st Century and
will let us build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
This bill culminates more than two years of hard work by my
administration. It also shows off two themes that define our
approach to making things happen. First, define a mission and
accomplish it. Early on, we defined our mission -- to lay the
foundation for the most significant revolution in American
transportation history. We understood that a transportation
system provides mobility, the lifeblood of the modern economy.
Second, don't define your missions in isolation. Know how they
2
will make life better for everyone. We pursued our revolution
because it moved us closer to our three top domestic priorities:
jobs, jobs and jobs. 11
Sam Skinner did a splendid job in framing our National
Transportation Strategy, and in building its cornerstone, the law
I signed today. He did such a good job that I named him chief of
staff after John Sununu resigned.
Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using reason with
our friends on Capitol Hill. But it paid off: our dream -- at
least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Many people contributed to our effort, and I want to thank
everyone who supported us. As you know, we sought your opinions,
and I must say, you weren't shy in offering them up. 11
But through the gruelling business of negotiation and
compromise, we never lost sight of our mission. We understood
from Day One that America can't move ahead in the international
marketplace any more rapidly than its infrastructure will allow.
Ideas fly around the globe at light speed -- because the
infrastructure can handle the traffic. We need that kind of
competitiveness in surface transportation as well.
Our National Transportation Policy begins with a big dose of
common sense. We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic
jam. A worker can't do much for the economy, the family, or the
community by sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
3
We know that a vital piece of equipment, trapped on a truck,
trapped in traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if back-ups on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system put everything in gridlock.
And we know that Americans have become tired of waiting for
improvements. Everyone pretends to be a transportation expert,
but too often they have become experts in enduring delays.
Last week transportation expert Jay Leno did a little comedy
performance at the National Press Club. I know, the press does a
good enough job with political comedy on its own.
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. It sounds crazy, but the proposal is
serious, and it shows that some people accept traffic delays as a
fact of life. Well, I think we'd better dedicate ourselves to a
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hour's labor, and hour's time with
family and friends, an hour's chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's the amount of time 4 million workers spend on the
job each year!
In other words, Americans nationwide waste more time each
year in traffic delays than workers spend on the job at all our
4
auto companies / all our electronics companies / all our textile
companies / all our lumber companies / and all our furniture
manufacturers -- combined. And people wonder why AASHTO members
get so worked up about the importance of their work! 11
The waiting drains away 34 billion dollars in delays and
fuel costs in the nation's 39 largest metropolitan areas alone.
The point is simple: We can't afford not to invest in
transportation. No matter how much people might want to ignore
the rest of the world, we must make a choice: Take the lead, or
let others pass us by.
Sam Skinner and I prefer to lead. That's why we decided
early on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry:
"Let's get there."
We decided that half-measures wouldn't work. We wanted a
transportation law that would address road and bridge needs
around the country; a law that would complete important mass
transit projects; and a law that would encourage innovation in
every aspect of our transportation network, from road
construction to high-tech rail systems.
Our law accomplishes that mission. It will help finish our
155,000-mile National Highway System. When completed, these
roads will comprise only four percent of our total public road
mileage, but they'll carry 75 percent of our intercity truck
traffic and 40 percent of our highway travel. That's efficiency.
5
Our law encourages states to build the roads they need, not
the roads some far-away central planner thinks they should have.
That's common sense. 11
The Highway System created by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956
revolutionized American life forever. It spawned suburbs,
cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce and culture --
edge cities, as they're called in a new book. Where bare fields
stood 30 years ago, American enterprise now thrives -- with
office space, shopping centers, entertainment areas; regions that
function as workplaces by day and recreational hubs by night.
Our new transportation law will pump new life into these
newest cities, and support their further evolution.
It will rejuvenate centers like the Dallas-Fort Worth area,
where roads and rails have paved the way to more than 500,000 new
jobs in the past decade alone.
This law also will revolutionize transportation by
enouraging local governments to invest in innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and that's just a
beginning. Wall Street has begun to develop a brand-new market
for financing privately built and operated infrastructure.
Investors know a winner when they see it.
These roads will pay for themselves. In addition, they can
support other projects. Operators of the Dulles Toll Road will
pay taxes, which can leverage even more transportation
investment. In short, private projects of this sort get the most
6
bang for the buck -- and give us a better shot at meeting our
vast transportation needs. That's innovation. And that's good
government. 11
Consider other items in our new transportation law:
It provides 38 billion dollars to improve our new national
highway system.
It sets aside 24 billion dollars to fund a variety of
highway and transit projects.
It simplifies the means by which truckers register their
vehicles, liability insurance, Interstate Commerce Commission
operation authority and mileage for state fuel tax payments.
That simple act of streamlining could save trucking companies as
much as as 1 billion dollars this year.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Our law will encourage exploration into new transportation
technologies -- such as high-speed rail systems.
Last, but not least, our law will create good American jobs
today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The funding in the law will support up to 600,000 jobs in
this fiscal year.
But that's just the start. Privately constructed projects
funded with this money will generate even more work for Americans
7
-- and as I've been saying all along, these projects will give
America the ability to move forward as never before. The biggest
bang in this law comes not from construction projects, but from
the life they will breathe into towns, counties and cities across
America.
I'm proud of our law. We defined our mission, and after
lots of thoughtful policymaking and hard work, we accomplished
that mission. Now, thousands of Americans can get back to work.
I've instructed the Department of Transportation to get the
money moving now. We will make available the vast majority of
state money from the Highway Trust Fund. And we'll accelerate
the release of 300 million dollars for mass transit projects. I
encourage you to do your part in making sure this money gets to
its destination swiftly, gets used wisely, and helps Americans
build the foundations for the Next American Century. Moreover,
I'd like to challenge you to look past the old ways of doing
business and dare to innovate, to create new means of moving
American forward.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails the senses -- the hustle, the
8
bustle, the tornado of activity. Today I saw a domestic vision
in sweat and toil, concrete and steel: Not an abstract proposal,
but a program that will produce real results -- now.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. It will
help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It will
enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school. It
will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they need,
when they need them. It will help auto companies get new cars
from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
Every American understands transportation's role in our
progress as a Nation. When we talk about economic renewal, we
say we want to get America moving. When we talk about progress,
we talk about getting things moving. And when we talk about
roads and rails, we call them arteries. Well, the time for
talking about such essentials has come to an end. Today, we
start doing. We start improving our roads and bridges and
railways -- our equal opportunity escorts to the future. 11
Thank you. May God bless you and the United States of
America.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 16, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVE DEMAREST
AD
FROM:
TONY SNOW TS
SUBJECT:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
On Wednesday, December 18th, at noon, you will deliver
remarks (approximately 15 minutes) to the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) at the Hyatt-
Regency in Dallas, Texas. The audience of approximately 600 will
be comprised mainly of AASHTO and guests from the signing
ceremony (construction workers, other state and local
transportation officials from around the country).
Your remarks praise the merits of the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act you will have just signed,
stressing the bill's job-generation potential. You also focus on
the importance of transportation efficiency for national
productivity, and touch on the human, day-to-day impact of freely
circulating transportation for ordinary Americans.
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft Three
December 17, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgements]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
today became a reality, not far from here. I signed the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act --- a law that
will bring our transportation policy into the 21st Century and
will let us build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
This bill culminates more than two years of hard work by my
administration. It also shows off two themes that define our
approach to making things happen. First, define a mission and
accomplish it. Early on, we defined our mission -- to lay the
foundation for the most significant revolution in American
transportation history. We understood that a transportation
system provides mobility, the lifeblood of the modern economy.
Second, don't define your missions in isolation. Know how they
2
will make life better for everyone. We pursued our revolution
because it moved us closer to our three top domestic priorities:
jobs, jobs and jobs. 11
Sam Skinner did a splendid job in framing our National
Transportation Strategy, and in building its cornerstone, the law
I signed today. He did such a good job that I named him chief of
staff after John Sununu resigned.
Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using reason with
our friends on Capitol Hill. But it paid off: our dream -- at
least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Many people contributed to our effort, and I want to thank
everyone who supported us. As you know, we sought your opinions,
and I must say, you weren't shy in offering them up. 11
But through the gruelling business of negotiation and
compromise, we never lost sight of our mission. We understood
from Day One that America can't move ahead in the international
marketplace any more rapidly than its infrastructure will allow.
Ideas fly around the globe at light speed -- because the
infrastructure can handle the traffic. We need that kind of
competitiveness in surface transportation as well.
Our National Transportation Policy begins with a big dose of
common sense. We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic
jam. A worker can't do much for the economy, the family, or the
community by sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
3
We know that a vital piece of equipment, trapped on a truck,
trapped in traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if back-ups on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system put everything in gridlock.
And we know that Americans have become tired of waiting for
improvements. Everyone pretends to be a transportation expert,
but too often they have become experts in enduring delays.
Last week transportation expert Jay Leno did a little comedy
performance at the National Press Club. I know, the press does a
good enough job with political comedy on its own.
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. It sounds crazy, but the proposal is
serious, and it shows that some people accept traffic delays as a
fact of life. Well, I think we'd better dedicate ourselves to a
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hour's labor, and hour's time with
family and friends, an hour's chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's the amount of time 4 million workers spend on the
job each year!
In other words, Americans nationwide waste more time each
year in, traffic delays than workers spend on the job at all our
4
auto companies / all our electronics companies / all our textile
companies / all our lumber companies / and all our furniture
manufacturers -- combined. And people wonder why AASHTO members
get so worked up about the importance of their work! 11
The waiting drains away 34 billion dollars in delays and
fuel costs in the nation's 39 largest metropolitan areas alone.
The point is simple: We can't afford not to invest in
transportation. No matter how much people might want to ignore
the rest of the world, we must make a choice: Take the lead, or
let others pass us by. 11
Sam Skinner and I prefer to lead. That's why we decided
early on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry:
"Let's get there." 11
We decided that half-measures wouldn't work. We wanted a
transportation law that would address road and bridge needs
around the country; a law that would complete important mass
transit projects; and a law that would encourage innovation in
every aspect of our transportation network, from road
construction to high-tech rail systems.
Our law accomplishes that mission. It will help finish our
155,000-mile National Highway System. When completed, these
roads will comprise only four percent of our total public road
mileage, but they'll carry 75 percent of our intercity truck
traffic and 40 percent of our highway travel. That's efficiency.
5
Our law encourages states to build the roads they need, not
the roads some far-away central planner thinks they should have.
That's common sense. 11
The Highway System created by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956
revolutionized American life forever. It spawned suburbs,
cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce and culture --
edge cities, as they're called in a new book. Where bare fields
stood 30 years ago, American enterprise now thrives -- with
office space, shopping centers, entertainment areas; regions that
function as workplaces by day and recreational hubs by night.
Our new transportation law will pump new life into these
newest cities, and support their further evolution.
It will rejuvenate centers like the Dallas-Fort Worth area,
where roads and rails have paved the way to more than 500,000 new
jobs in the past decade alone.
This law also will revolutionize transportation by
enouraging local governments to invest in innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and that's just a
beginning. Wall Street has begun to develop a brand-new market
for financing privately built and operated infrastructure.
Investors know a winner when they see it.
These roads will pay for themselves. In addition, they can
support other projects. Operators of the Dulles Toll Road will
pay taxes, which can leverage even more transportation
investment. In short, private projects of this sort get the most
6
bang for the buck -- and give us a better shot at meeting our
vast transportation needs. That's innovation. And that's good
government. 11
Consider other items in our new transportation law:
It provides 38 billion dollars to improve our new national
highway system.
It sets aside 24 billion dollars to fund a variety of
highway and transit projects.
It simplifies the means by which truckers register their
vehicles, liability insurance, Interstate Commerce Commission
operation authority and mileage for state fuel tax payments.
That simple act of streamlining could save trucking companies as
much as as 1 billion dollars this year.
Our law will invest 150 million dollars into an incentive
program to prevent drunk driving and to improve occupant safety
-- an an especially timely investment during the holiday season.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Our law will encourage exploration into new transportation
technologies -- such as high-speed rail systems.
Last, but not least, our law will create good American jobs
today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
7
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
600 thousand jobs in this fiscal year.
But that's just the start. Privately constructed projects
funded with this money will generate even more work for Americans
-- and as I've been saying all along, these projects will give
America the ability to move forward as never before. The biggest
bang in this law comes not from construction projects, but from
the life they will breathe into towns, counties and cities across
America.
I'm proud of our law. We defined our mission, and after
lots of thoughtful policymaking and hard work, we accomplished
that mission. Now, thousands of Americans can get back to work.
I've instructed the Department of Transportation to get the
money moving now. We will make the vast majority of state money
from the Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the
year. And we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars
for mass transit projects. I encourage you to do your part in
making sure this money gets to its destination swiftly, gets used
wisely, and helps Americans build the foundations for the Next
American Century. Moreover, I'd like to challenge you to look
past the old ways of doing business and dare to innovate, to
create new means of moving American forward.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
8
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails the senses -- the hustle, the
bustle, the tornado of activity. Today I saw a domestic vision
in sweat and toil, concrete and steel: Not an abstract proposal,
but a program that will produce real results -- now.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. It will
help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It will
enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school. It
will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they need,
when they need them. It will help auto companies get new cars
from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
Every American understands transportation's role in our
progress as a Nation. When we talk about economic renewal, we
say we want to get America moving. When we talk about progress,
we talk about getting things moving. And when we talk about
roads and rails, we call them arteries. Well, the time for
talking about such essentials has come to an end. Today, we
start doing. We start improving our roads and bridges and
railways -- our equal opportunity escorts to the future. 11
Thank you. May God bless you and the United States of
America.
#
#
#
#
STATE THE OFFICE THE UNITED OFFICE 3900g OF STATES
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
DEC 16 1991
NOTICE:
Enclosed are comments from staff members of the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). Such comments do not necessarily
represent the official position of the Director of OMB or of the
Office of Management and Budget. If you wish to have the
Director's personal comments, please let me know -- and contact
me if you have any questions.
If our proposed substantive changes are not made, please let
us know before the material is prepared in final.
James C. Murr
Associate Director for
Legislative Reference
and Administration
12:9d 9133016
Document No. 293000ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
12/13/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00 p.m. Monday, 12/16
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: THE AMERICAN ASS. OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
SUBJECT:
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
DALLAS, TX 12/18/91
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
R
ANDERSON
SNOW
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
PLEASE FORWARD ANY COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO TONY SNOW IN ROOM 122
EOB, EXT 2930, NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 16,
WITH A COPY TO THIS OFFICE.
THANK YOU.
RESPONSE:
See comments
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
91 DEC 13 P4: 49
Draft One
December 13, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgments]
[jokes]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a new revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
became reality today, not far from here. I signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of1991 1991 a law that will bring
Martin
44864
our transportation policy into the 21st Century and will let us
build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
You know and I know and all America ought to know: This law
would never have seen the light of day without AASHTO. 11
Although I can't thank all of you by name from this
platform, let me single out your past president, Hal Rives.
While I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Hal on finding life
Hale
after DOT. He's decided to relax in his retirement by
+3120
coordinating transportation operations at the Atlanta Olympic
2
Games in 1996. I don't know, Hal: When most people want to
relax, they go fishing or golfing or something 11
I'd also like to thank Sam Skinner, who was my
Transportation Secretary throughout the negotiations on this
bill. Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using sweet
reason with our friends on Capitol Hill. As a result, our dream
-- at least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT. 11
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the experience, dilligence,
and vision of the American transportation industry. It really
doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation will move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because the infrastructure makes it possible to do
SO. But too often, we can't get goods to market quickly, or
parts to manufacturers, or workers to their jobs because our
overburdened surface transportation network can't handle the
traffic.
Our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
Hale
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio
43120
3
We know that a vital part, trapped on a truck, trapped in
traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if backlogs on the expressway or the subway or
Hale
the mass transit system put everything in limbo.
x3120
Things are bad. It really came home this week when Jay Leno
did a little comedy performance at the National Press Club. I
know, the press does a good enough job with political comedy on
its own. 11
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. The problem is, the proposal is
serious. So I think we'd better dedicate ourselves to a
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hours' labor, and hours' time with
family and friends, an hours' chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's 4 million work-years -- in one year!
To put that in perspective, Americans waste more time in
traffic delays than the workers at all our auto companies / all
our electronics companies / all textile companies / all our
lumber companies / and all our furniture manufacturers spend on
the job each year.
4
The waiting drains away 150 billion dollars in interstate
commerce alone, and another 34 billion dollars in delays and fuel
costs. Heaven knows what costs the pollution imposes on us.
If people don't think that shabby infrastructure robs us of
our future, they don't know the facts. Sam and I decided early
on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry: "Let's
get there." 11
Our law makes a good start. It invests in our 155,000-mile
National Highway System. These expressways comprise only four
percent of our total public road mileage, but they carry 75
percent of our intercity truck traffic and two-fifths of all our
highway travel. That's efficiency.
More important, our law encourages states to build the roads
they need, not the roads some far-away central planner thinks
Hele
they should have. The Highway System created by Dwight
+3120
Eisenhower in 1956 revolutionized American life forever. It
spawned suburbs, cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce
and culture -- edge cities, as they're called in a new book. You
can find a half-dozen such edge cities here in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex -- places with vast amounts of office space,
shopping space and entertainment space; places that support huge
work populations by day and consumer populations by night.
Where bare fields stood 30 years ago, American enterprise
what
now
thrives. Our new transportation lawnlet will people move through
Martin
4864
does
these cities and do what they want -- it will pump new life into
this
mean ? our newest cities.
Holp
43120
5
Those who doubt the impact that a good transportation system
makes should look at the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Roads and
rails have paved the way to progress -- to the more than 500,000
jobs this region has gained in the past decade.
This law also promises to revolutionize transportation by
letting local areas use the money for innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and a brand-new market for
financing privately built and operated infrastructure suddenly
has begun to appear on Wall Street. These roads actually pay for
themselves, while also returning tax money to the treasury They
as
enable us to get the most bang for our buck -- and to meet our
Hall
X3120
vast transportation needs. It's a new day -- and the bill we all
worked so hard to pass will foster brand new ways of dealing with
our transportation needs.
This law provides 38 billion dollars to improve our existing
national highway system. It sets aside 24 billion dollars to
fund a variety of new highway and transit projects.
The measure could trim away as much as 1 billion dollars'
worth of red tape for the trucking industry.
We have set aside 150 million dollars for an incentive
Halp
program to prevent drunken driving and to improve occupant
+3120
safety. After all, our road systems should move our people, not
lead them to their deaths.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
6
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Last, but not least, this new law will create good American
jobs today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
over 500,000
Hale
660 thousand construction jobs in this fiscal year. But that's
X3120
just the start. Privately constructed projects funded with this
money will generate even more jobs.
I won't wait to get this money moving. I've instructed the
Department of Transportation to get the money moving now -- and
to make it easier than ever for states to use the money as they
need it. We will make the vast majority of state money from the
Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the year And
Hale
we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars for mass
<3/20
transit projects.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails anyone who comes here -- the
hustle, the bustle, the tornado of activity.
7
Here in the airport complex roads and railways and airways
link, just as they do in other major cities. Here, people rush
to work, go to meet family and friends, do their work -- and live
their lives. They hurry toward the future -- just through their
ordinary activity.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. This law
will help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It
will enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school.
It will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they
need, when they need them. It will help auto companies get new
cars from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
In the movie "Field of Dreams," a mysterious voice tells
Kevin Costner, "If you build it, they will come. " Well, if we
Martin
X4864
build our roads and railways, our airlinks and our bridges
f
we repair what we have and build what we need, the whole world
will come -- to watch, to enjoy, and to do business.
My friends, we will build it -- and they will come.
Our surface transportation network has transformed America
from a nation of relatively isolated villages and towns into a
thriving network of cities and states, counties and townships --
all fitting together, working together, joining to shape a rich
and exciting future.
Every American understands the transportation's role in this Martin
progress. When we talk about economic renewal, we say we want to
X
1864
8
get America moving. When we talk about any kind of progress, we
talk about getting things moving. Well, the time for talk has
come to an end. Today, we start doing. 11
The roads are equal opportunity escorts to the future -- all
our futures. So let's get the job done.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and the United States
of America.
# # # #
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
12-16-91 : 11:59 : LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 2
Document No. 293000ss
91 DEC 16 P12
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
12/13/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00 p.m. Monday, 12/16
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: THE AMERICAN ASS. OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
SUBJECT:
DALLAS, TX 12/18/91
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
ANDERSON
SNOW
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
PLEASE FORWARD ANY COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO TONY SNOW IN ROOM 122
EOB, EXT 2930, NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 16,
WITH A COPY TO THIS OFFICE.
THANK YOU.
RESPONSE:
Shawn - - OK
Arnie -
SH - Small Comments PIS 3,4,7
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 11:59 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 3
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft One
01 DEC 13 P4: 49
December 13, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgments]
[jokes]
I look out at all of you, people I. had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a new revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
became reality today, not far from here. I signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- a law that will bring
our transportation policy into the 21st Century and will let us
build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
You know and I know and all America ought to know: This law
would never have seen the light of day without AASHTO. 11
Although I can't thank all of you by name from this
platform, let me single out your past president, Hal Rives.
While I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Hal on finding life
after DOT. He's decided to relax in his retirement by
coordinating transportation operations at the Atlanta Olympic
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
12-16-91 ; 12:00 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 4
2
Games in 1996. I don't know, Hal: When most people want to
relax, they go fishing or golfing or something. 11
I'd also like to thank Sam Skinner, who was my
Transportation Secretary throughout the negotiations on this
bill. Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using sweet
reason with our friends on Capitol Hill. As a result, our dream
-- at least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT. 11
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the experience, dilligence,
and vision of the American transportation industry. It really
doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation will move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because the infrastructure makes it possible to do
so. But too often, we can't get goods to market quickly, or
parts to manufacturers, or workers to their jobs because our
overburdened surface transportation network can't handle the
traffic.
Our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 12:00 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218:# 5
3
We know that a vital part, trapped on a truck, trapped in
traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if backlogs on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system putSeverything in limbo.
Things are bad. It really came home this week when Jay Leno
did a little comedy performance at the National Press Club. I
know, the press does a good enough job with political comedy on
its own. 11
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. The problem is, the proposal is
serious. So I think we'd better dedicate ourselves tola
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hours' labor, and hours' time with
family and friends, an hours' chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's 4 million work-years -- in one year!
To put that in perspective, Americans waste more time in
traffic delays than the workers at all our auto companies / all
our electronics companies / all textile companies / all our
lumber companies / and all our furniture manufacturers spend on
the job each year.
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
12-16-91 ; 12:01 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 6
4
The waiting drains away 150 billion dollars in interstate
commerce alone, and another 34. billion dollars in delays and fuel
costs. Heaven knows what costs the pollution imposes on us.
If people don't think that shabby infrastructure robs us of
our future, they don't know the facts. Sam and I decided early
on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry: "Let's
get there."
Our law makes a good start. It invests in our 155,000-mile
National Highway System. These expressways comprise only four
percent of our total public road mileage, but they carry 75
percent of our intercity truck traffic and two-fifths of all our
highway travel. That's efficiency.
More important, our law encourages states to build the roads
they need, not the roads some far-away central planner thinks
they should have. The Highway System created by Dwight
Eisenhower in 1956 revolutionized American life forever. It
spawned suburbs, cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce
and culture -- edge cities, as they're called in a new book. You
can find a half-dozen such edge cities here in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex -- places with vast amounts of office space,
shopping space and entertainment space; places that support huge
work populations by day and consumer populations by night.
Where bare fields stood 30 years ago, American enterprise
now thrives. Our new transportation law let people move through
these cities and do what they want -- it will pump new life into
our newest cities.
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 12:01 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 7
5
Those who doubt the impact that a good transportation system
makes should look at the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Roads and
rails have paved the way to progress -- to the more than 500,000
jobs this region has gained in the past decade.
This law also promises to revolutionize transportation by
letting local areas use the money for innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and a brand-new market for
financing privately built and operated infrastructure suddenly
has begun to appear on Wall Street. These roads actually pay for
themselves, while also returning tax money to the treasury. They
enable us to get the most bang for our buck -- and to meet our
vast transportation needs. It's a new day -- and the bill we all
worked so hard to pass will foster brand new ways of dealing with
our transportation needs.
This law provides 38 billion dollars to improve our existing
national highway system. It sets aside 24 billion dollars to
fund a variety of new highway and transit projects.
The measure could trim away as much as 1 billion dollars'
worth of red tape for the trucking industry.
We have set aside 150 million dollars for an incentive
program to prevent drunken driving and to improve occupant
safety. After all, our road systems should move our people, not
lead them to their deaths.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 12:02 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 8
6
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Last, but not least, this new law will create good American
jobs today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
660 thousand construction jobs in this fiscal year. But that's
just the start. Privately constructed projects funded with this
money will generate even more jobs.
I won't wait to get this money moving. I've instructed the
Department of Transportation to get the money moving now -- and
to make it easier than ever for states to use the money as they
need it. We will make the vast majority of state money from the
Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the year. And
we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars for mass
transit projects.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails anyone who comes here -- the
hustle, the bustle, the tornado of activity.
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 12:02 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218;# 9
7
Here in the airport complex roads and railways and airways
link, just as they do in other major cities. Here, people rush
to work, go to meet family and friends, do their work -- and live
their lives. They hurry toward the future -- just through their
ordinary activity.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. This law
will help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It
will enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school.
It will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they
need, when they need them. It will help auto companies get new
cars from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
In the movie "Field of Dreams," a mysterious voice tells
Kevin Costner, "If you build it, they will come." Well, if we
Incompak
build our roads and railways, our airlinks and our bridges Eps
sentence
we repair what we have and build what we need, the whole world
will come -- to watch, to enjoy, and to do business.
My friends, we will build it -- and they will come.
our surface transportation network has transformed America
from a nation of relatively isolated villages and towns into a
thriving network of cities and states, counties and townships --
all fitting together, working together, joining to shape a rich
and exciting future.
Every American understands the transportation's role in this
progress. When we talk about economic renewal, we say we want to
SENT BY:The TICKET CENTER
:12-16-91 ; 12:02 ; LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS-
6218:#10
8
get America moving. When we talk about any kind of progress, we
talk about getting things moving. Well, the time for talk has
come to an end. Today, we start doing. 11
The roads are equal opportunity escorts to the future -- all
our futures. So let's get the job done.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and the United States
of America.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 293000ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 DEC 16 PI: 10 1:00 p.m. Monday, 12/16
DATE:
12/13/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: THE AMERICAN ASS. OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
SUBJECT:
DALLAS, TX 12/18/91
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
ANDERSON
SNOW
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
PLEASE FORWARD ANY COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO TONY SNOW IN ROOM 122
EOB, EXT 2930, NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. ON MONDAY DECEMBER 16,
WITH A COPY TO THIS OFFICE.
THANK YOU.
RESPONSE:
To
N/C
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft One
91 DEC 13 P4: 49
December 13, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgments]
[jokes]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a new revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
became reality today, not far from here. I signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- a law that will bring
our transportation policy into the 21st Century and will let us
build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
You know and I know and all America ought to know: This law
would never have seen the light of day without AASHTO. 11
Although I can't thank all of you by name from this
platform, let me single out your past president, Hal Rives.
While I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Hal on finding life
after DOT. He's decided to relax in his retirement by
coordinating transportation operations at the Atlanta Olympic
2
Games in 1996. I don't know, Hal: When most people want to
relax, they go fishing or golfing or something. 11
I'd also like to thank Sam Skinner, who was my
Transportation Secretary throughout the negotiations on this
bill. Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using sweet
reason with our friends on Capitol Hill. As a result, our dream
-- at least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT. 11
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the experience, dilligence,
and vision of the American transportation industry. It really
doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation will move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because the infrastructure makes it possible to do
so. But too often, we can't get goods to market quickly, or
parts to manufacturers, or workers to their jobs because our
overburdened surface transportation network can't handle the
traffic.
Our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
3
We know that a vital part, trapped on a truck, trapped in
traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if backlogs on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system put everything in limbo.
Things are bad. It really came home this week when Jay Leno
did a little comedy performance at the National Press Club. I
know, the press does a good enough job with political comedy on
its own. 11
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. The problem is, the proposal is
serious. So I think we'd better dedicate ourselves to a
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hours' labor, and hours' time with
family and friends, an hours' chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's 4 million work-years -- in one year!
To put that in perspective, Americans waste more time in
traffic delays than the workers at all our auto companies / all
our electronics companies / all textile companies / all our
lumber companies / and all our furniture manufacturers spend on
the job each year.
4
The waiting drains away 150 billion dollars in interstate
commerce alone, and another 34 billion dollars in delays and fuel
costs. Heaven knows what costs the pollution imposes on us.
If people don't think that shabby infrastructure robs us of
our future, they don't know the facts. Sam and I decided early
on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry: "Let's
get there." 11
Our law makes a good start. It invests in our 155,000-mile
National Highway System. These expressways comprise only four
percent of our total public road mileage, but they carry 75
percent of our intercity truck traffic and two-fifths of all our
highway travel. That's efficiency.
More important, our law encourages states to build the roads
they need, not the roads some far-away central planner thinks
they should have. The Highway System created by Dwight
Eisenhower in 1956 revolutionized American life forever. It
spawned suburbs, cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce
and culture -- edge cities, as they're called in a new book. You
can find a half-dozen such edge cities here in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex -- places with vast amounts of office space,
shopping space and entertainment space; places that support huge
work populations by day and consumer populations by night.
Where bare fields stood 30 years ago, American enterprise
now thrives. Our new transportation law let people move through
these cities and do what they want -- it will pump new life into
our newest cities.
5
Those who doubt the impact that a good transportation system
makes should look at the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Roads and
rails have paved the way to progress -- to the more than 500,000
jobs this region has gained in the past decade.
This law also promises to revolutionize transportation by
letting local areas use the money for innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and a brand-new market for
financing privately built and operated infrastructure suddenly
has begun to appear on Wall Street. These roads actually pay for
themselves, while also returning tax money to the treasury. They
enable us to get the most bang for our buck -- and to meet our
vast transportation needs. It's a new day -- and the bill we all
worked so hard to pass will foster brand new ways of dealing with
our transportation needs.
This law provides 38 billion dollars to improve our existing
national highway system. It sets aside 24 billion dollars to
fund a variety of new highway and transit projects.
The measure could trim away as much as 1 billion dollars'
worth of red tape for the trucking industry.
We have set aside 150 million dollars for an incentive
program to prevent drunken driving and to improve occupant
safety. After all, our road systems should move our people, not
lead them to their deaths.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
6
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Last, but not least, this new law will create good American
jobs today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
660 thousand construction jobs in this fiscal year. But that's
just the start. Privately constructed projects funded with this
money will generate even more jobs.
I won't wait to get this money moving. I've instructed the
Department of Transportation to get the money moving now -- and
to make it easier than ever for states to use the money as they
need it. We will make the vast majority of state money from the
Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the year. And
we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars for mass
transit projects.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails anyone who comes here -- the
hustle, the bustle, the tornado of activity.
7
Here in the airport complex roads and railways and airways
link, just as they do in other major cities. Here, people rush
to work, go to meet family and friends, do their work -- and live
their lives. They hurry toward the future -- just through their
ordinary activity.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. This law
will help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It
will enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school.
It will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they
need, when they need them. It will help auto companies get new
cars from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
In the movie "Field of Dreams," a mysterious voice tells
Kevin Costner, "If you build it, they will come." Well, if we
build our roads and railways, our airlinks and our bridges. If
we repair what we have and build what we need, the whole world
will come -- to watch, to enjoy, and to do business.
My friends, we will build it -- and they will come.
Our surface transportation network has transformed America
from a nation of relatively isolated villages and towns into a
thriving network of cities and states, counties and townships --
all fitting together, working together, joining to shape a rich
and exciting future.
Every American understands the transportation's role in this
progress. When we talk about economic renewal, we say we want to
8
get America moving. When we talk about any kind of progress, we
talk about getting things moving. Well, the time for talk has
come to an end. Today, we start doing. 11
The roads are equal opportunity escorts to the future -- all
our futures. So let's get the job done.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and the United States
of America.
#
#
#
#
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 12-16-91 :11:04AM ;
The White House-
6218:# 1
Document No. 293000ss
WHITE HOUSE 91 STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
12/13/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00 p.m. Monday, 12/16
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: THE AMERICAN ASS. OF STATE HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
SUBJECT:
DALLAS, TX 12/18/91
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
ANDERSON
SNOW
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
PLEASE FORWARD ANY COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO TONY SNOW IN ROOM 122
EOB, EXT 2930, NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 16,
WITH A COPY TO THIS OFFICE.
THANK YOU.
RESPONSE:
on - a few thoughts.
Bo for SR
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 ;11:04AM ;
The White House->
6218;# 2
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft One
S1 DEC 13 P4: 49
December 13, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgments]
[jokes]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a You few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Beter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a new revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
became reality today, not far from here. I signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- a law that will bring
our transportation policy into the 21st Century and will let us
build - literally -- a road to the future. 11
You know and I know and all America ought to know: This law
would never have seen the light of day without AASHTO. 11
Although I can't thank all of you by name from this
platform, let me single out your past president, Hal Rives.
While I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Hal on finding life
after DOT. He's decided to relax in his retirement by
coordinating transportation operations at the Atlanta 01ympic
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 :11:05AM ;
The White House+
6218:# 3.
2
Games in 1996. I don't know, Hal: When most people want to
relax, they go fishing or golfing or something. 11
I'd also like to thank Sam Skinner, who was my
Transportation Secretary throughout the negotiations on this
bill. Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using sweet
reason with our friends on Capitol Hill. As a result, our dream
-- at least the vast majority of it - became reality.
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT. 11
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the experience, dilligence,
and vision of the American transportation industry. It really
doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation will move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because the infrastructure makes it possible to do
so. But too often, we can't get goods to market quickly, or
parts to manufacturers, or workers to their jobs because our
overburdened surface transportation network can't handle the
traffic.
our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 11:05AM ;
The White House->
6218;# 4
3
We know that a vital part, trapped on a truck, trapped in
traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if backlogs on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system put everything in limbo.
Things are bad. It really came home this week when Jay Leno
did a little comedy performance at the National Press Club. I
know, the press does a good enough job with political comedy on
its own. 11
Well, he was making fun of a proposal to put microwave ovens
in cars -- that's right, microwave ovens -- so drivers can feed
themselves while they wait. The problem is, the proposal is
serious. So I think we'd better dedicate ourselves to.a
microwave-free future for our highways. 11
The reason's simple: Every hour wasted on overburdened
transportation systems costs us a piece of our future. Every
wasted hour robs us of an hours' labor, and hours' time with
family and friends, an hours' chance to build a nest-egg.
Congestion caused more than 8 billion hours of delay on our
roads. That's 4 million work-years --- in one year!
To put that in perspective, Americans waste more time in
traffic delays than the workers at all our auto companies / all
our electronics companies / all textile companies / all our
lumber companies / and all our furniture manufacturers spend on
the job each year.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 :11:06AM ;
The White House-
6218;# 5
4
The waiting drains away 150 billion dollars in interstate
commerce alone, and another 34 billion dollars in delays and fuel
costs. Heaven knows what costs the pollution imposes on us.
If people don't think that shabby infrastructure robs us of
our future, they don't know the facts. Sam and I decided early
on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry: "Let's
get there." 11
Our law makes a good start. It invests in our 155,000-mile
National Highway System. These expressways comprise only four
percent of our total public road mileage, but they carry 75
percent of our intercity truck traffic and two-fifths of all our
highway travel. That's efficiency.
More important, our law encourages states to build the roads
they need, not the roads some far-away central planner thinks
they should have. The Highway System created by Dwight
Eisenhower in 1956 revolutionized American life forever. It
spawned suburbs, cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce
and culture -- edge cities, as they're called in a new book. You
can find a half-dozen such edge cities here in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex -- places with vast amounts of office space,
shopping space and entertainment space; places that support huge
work populations by day and consumer populations by night.
Where bare fields stood 30 years ago, American enterprise
now thrives. Our new transportation law let people move through
these cities and do what they want -- it will pump new life into
our newest cities.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 :11:06AM ;
The White House->
6218;# 6
5
Those who doubt the impact that a good transportation system
makes should look at the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Roads and
rails have paved the way to progress -- to the more than 500,000
jobs this region has gained in the past decade.
This law also promises to revolutionize transportation by
letting local areas use the money for innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and a brand-new market for
financing privately built and operated infrastructure suddenly
has begun to appear on Wall Street. These roads actually pay for
themselves, while also returning tax money to the treasury. They
enable us to get the most bang for our buck -- and to meet our
vast transportation needs. It's a new day -- and the bill we all
worked so hard to pass will foster brand new ways of dealing with
our transportation needs.
This law provides 38 billion dollars to improve our existing
national highway system. It sets aside 24 billion dollars to
fund a variety of new highway and transit projects.
The measure could trim away as much as 1 billion dollars'
worth of red tape for the trucking industry.
We have set aside 150 million dollars for an incentive
program to prevent drunken driving and to improve occupant
safety. After all, our road systems should move our people, not
lead them to their deaths. And this is a good time to remind everyone
our law will help states meet their environmental please,
that with the holidays approaching to
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building don't
or, perhaps be Can menting
drink
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 :11:07AM ;
The White House->
6218;# 7
6
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Last, but not least, this new law will create good American
jobs today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
660 thousand construction jobs in this fiscal year. But that's
just the start. Privately constructed projects funded with this
money will generate even more jobs.
I won't wait to get this money moving. I've instructed the
Department of Transportation to get the money moving now -- and
to make it easier than ever for states to use the money as they
need it. We will make the vast majority of state money from the
Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the year. And
we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars for mass
transit projects.
so think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails anyone who comes here -- the
hustle, the bustle, the tornado of activity.
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 :12-16-91 :11:07AM ;
The White House-
6218;# 8
7
Here in the airport complex roads and railways and airways
link, just as they do in other major cities. Here, people rush
to work, go to meet family and friends, do their work -- and live
their lives. They hurry toward the future - just through their
ordinary activity.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. This law
will help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It
will enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school.
It will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they
need, when they need them. It will help auto companies get new
cars from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
In the movie "Field of Dreams," a mysterious voice tells
Kevin Costner, "If you build it, they will come." Well, if we
build our roads and railways, our airlinks and our bridges. If
we repair what we have and build what we need, the whole world
will come -- to watch, to enjoy, and to do business.
My friends, we will build it -- and they will come.
Our surface transportation network has transformed America
from a nation of relatively isolated villages and towns into a
thriving network of cities and states, counties and townships --
all fitting together, working together, joining to shape a rich
and exciting future.
Every American understands the transportation's role in this
progress. When we talk about economic renewal, we say we want to
SENT BY:Xerox Telecopier 7020 12-16-91 :11:08AM ;
The White House->
6218;# 9
8
get America moving. When we talk about any kind of progress, we
talk about getting things moving. Well, the time for talk has
come to an end. Today, we start doing. 11
The roads are equal opportunity escorts to the future -- all
our futures. So let's get the job done.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and the United States
of America.
#
#
#
#
(Snow/Grossman)
AASHTO
Draft One
December 13, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY
AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
HYATT-REGENCY HOTEL
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
NOON
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1991
[Introductory acknowledgments]
[jokes]
I look out at all of you, people I had the good fortune to
see just a few months ago, and I recall the words of the great
sage, Lawrence Peter Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."
Yogi always has had a way with words, but since we met in
the Rose Garden this June, a lot of things have happened. The
most important for you: a new revolution in transportation.
What we dreamed about then -- a new transportation bill --
became reality today, not far from here. I signed the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- a law that will bring
our transportation policy into the 21st Century and will let us
build -- literally -- a road to the future. 11
You know and I know and all America ought to know: This law
would never have seen the light of day without AASHTO. 11
Although I can't thank all of you by name from this
platform, let me single out your past president, Hal Rives.
While I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Hal on finding life
after DOT. He's decided to relax in his retirement by
coordinating transportation operations at the Atlanta Olympic
2
Games in 1996. I don't know, Hal: When most people want to
relax, they go fishing or golfing or something. 11
I'd also like to thank Sam Skinner, who was my
Transportation Secretary throughout the negotiations on this
bill. Sam pushed and pleaded, he fought and tussled -- and when
things got tense and tough, he even resorted to using sweet
reason with our friends on Capitol Hill. As a result, our dream
-- at least the vast majority of it -- became reality.
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT.
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the experience, dilligence,
and vision of the American transportation industry. It really
doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation will move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because the infrastructure makes it possible to do
SO. But too often, we can't get goods to market quickly, or
parts to manufacturers, or workers to their jobs because our
overburdened surface transportation network can't handle the
traffic.
Our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
3
Now, Sam has to follow his own act. As you know, he became
my chief of staff on Monday, and I look forward to the same kind
of leadership in the White House that Sam provided at DOT.
Sam and I have worked from Day One to breathe fresh air into
transportation policy -- to unleash the genius, the dilligence,
and the vision of the American transportation industry. You see,
it really doesn't take special genius to understand that in an
international marketplace a nation can move no more rapidly than
its infrastructure will permit. Ideas fly around the globe at
light speed -- because we have the infrastructure. But too
often, we cannot get goods to market quickly, or we cannot get
parts to manufacturers, or we cannot get workers to their jobs
because our overburdened and outdated surface transportation
network can't handle the traffic.
Our National Transportation Policy starts with common sense.
We know that you don't get anywhere in a traffic jam. A worker
can't do much for the economy, the family, or the community by
sitting on a highway, listening to the radio.
We know that a vital part, trapped on a truck, trapped in
traffic, won't do much for the factory that needs it.
We know that a loved one, rushing for an airport, can't
rejoin the family if backlogs on the expressway or the subway or
the mass transit system put everything in limbo.
Things are bad. It really came home earlier this week when
Jay Leno did a little comedy performance at the National Press
4
The waiting drains away 150 billion dollars in interstate
commerce alone, and another 34 billion dollars in delays and fuel
costs. Heaven knows what costs the pollution imposes on us.
If people don't think that shabby infrastructure robs us of
our future, they don't know the facts. Sam and I decided early
on to keep America moving -- and to adopt your battle cry: "Let's
get there." 11
Our law makes a good start. It invests in our 155,000-mile
National Highway System. These expressways comprise only four
percent of our total public road mileage, but they carry 75
percent of our intercity truck traffic and two-fifths of all our
highway travel. That's efficiency.
More important, our law encourages states to build the roads
they need, not the roads some far-away central planner thinks
they should have. The Highway System created by Dwight
Eisenhower in 1956 revolutionized American life forever. It
spawned suburbs, cultivated more than 200 new centers of commerce
and culture -- edge cities, as they're called in a new book. You
can find a half-dozen such edge cities here in the Dallas-Fort
Worth Metroplex -- places with vast amounts of office space,
shopping space and entertainment space; places that support huge
work populations by day and consumer populations by night.
Where bare fields stood 30 years ago, American enterprise
now thrives. Our new transportation law let people move through
these cities and do what they want -- it will pump new life into
our newest cities.
5
Those who doubt the impact that a good transportation system
makes should look at the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Roads and
rails have paved the way to progress -- to the more than 500,000
)
jobs this region has gained in the past decade.
This law also promises to revolutionize transportation by
letting local areas use the money for innovations, such as
privately built toll roads. Construction on such a road will
begin soon just outside of Washington, and a brand-new market for
financing privately built and operated infrastructure suddenly
has begun to appear on Wall Street. These roads actually pay for
themselves, while also returning tax money to the treasury. They
enable us to get the most bang for our buck -- and to meet our
vast transportation needs. It's a new day -- and the bill we all
worked so hard to pass will foster brand new ways of dealing with
our transportation needs.
This law provides 38 billion dollars to improve our existing
national highway system. It sets aside 24 billion dollars to
fund a variety of new highway and transit projects.
The measure could trim away as much as 1 billion dollars'
worth of red tape for the trucking industry.
We have set aside 150 million dollars for an incentive
program to prevent drunken driving and to improve occupant
safety. After all, our road systems should move our people, not
lead them to their deaths.
Our law will help states meet their environmental
responsibilities without casting aside their duties for building
6
these roads, and providing the means for future prosperity,
future growth -- and jobs.
Last, but not least, this new law will create good American
jobs today, good American jobs tomorrow, and it will build a
foundation for creating more good American jobs for years to
come. The first-year funding of this measure will support up to
660 thousand construction jobs in this fiscal year. But that's
just the start. Privately constructed projects funded with this
money will generate even more jobs.
I won't wait to get this money moving. I've instructed the
Department of Transportation to get the money moving now -- and
to make it easier than ever for states to use the money as they
need it. We will make the vast majority of state money from the
Highway Trust Fund available at the beginning of the year. And
we'll accelerate the release of 300 million dollars for mass
transit projects.
So think of this bill as a highway bill, a mass transit
bill, an environmental bill, a safety bill -- and a jobs bill.
It's all of those. But it's also the single most revolutionary
transportation breakthrough in American history.
Earlier today, I stood at a construction site not far from
here, and I thought of the incredible vigor of this region -- all
fueled by transportation infrastructure. A new kind of
exploration and vigor assails anyone who comes here -- the
hustle, the bustle, the tornado of activity.
7
Here in the airport complex roads and railways and airways
link, just as they do in other major cities. Here, people rush
to work, go to meet family and friends, do their work -- and live
their lives. They hurry toward the future -- just through their
ordinary activity.
This law will not solve all our transportation challenges,
but it will make a huge difference -- in every life. This law
will help young fathers rush their wives to a delivery room. It
will enable buses to ferry children safely and swiftly to school.
It will help just-in-time manufacturers receive the parts they
need, when they need them. It will help auto companies get new
cars from factories to showrooms. It will keep America where it
belongs -- in the passing lane.
In the movie "Field of Dreams," a mysterious voice tells
Kevin Costner, "If you build it, they will come." Well, if we
build our roads and railways, our airlinks and our bridges. If
we repair what we have and build what we need, the whole world
will come -- to watch, to enjoy, and to do business.
My friends, we will build it -- and they will come.
Our surface transportation network has transformed America
from a nation of relatively isolated villages and towns into a
thriving network of cities and states, counties and townships --
all fitting together, working together, joining to shape a rich
and exciting future.
Every American understands the transportation's role in this
progress. When we talk about economic renewal, we say we want to
8
get America moving. When we talk about any kind of progress, we
talk about getting things moving. Well, the time for talk has
come to an end. Today, we start doing. 11
The roads are equal opportunity escorts to the future -- all
our futures. So let's get the job done.
Thank you. May God bless each of you and the United States
of America.
#
#
#
#
Dec. 18 / Administration of George Bush, 1991
transit like the light rail and high-speed sys-
tion can help keep America "a land of won-
summer. I can't }
tems between Dallas, Fort Worth, and the
ders," and you made your voices heard.
Berra's great wor
DFW Airport. We have to help the em-
The future of American transportation
"Déjà vu all over E
ployee who's stuck in traffic so that he or
begins today. And so when we look back
I also want to si
she can get to work and help the econo-
years from now to this landmark day for
the Congress that
my. And the place to start that one is
America's transportation, we'll be able to
cause, as I said ou
right here. The time to begin, right now.
say, "Mission defined. Mission accom-
Republican bill or
All of us know the state of some of our
plished."
eral or conservat
highways. And I'm reminded of them when
So to all of you, may God bless you at this
achievement. And
I read the Isaiah verse of the admonition
very special time of year. And now let me
gress that are with
that "The crooked shall be made straight,
sign this bill so we can get some projects
credit from the A
and the rough places plain." I'm not sure
under way and get people back to work.
leadership, for tl
Isaiah had that in mind, thinking about the
And thank you for being with us, all of
getting this legisl.
shape of our Interstate System. But never-
you.
them, the ones I
theless, this transportation act will smooth
sure there may be
out and streamline our Nation's highways.
Note: The President spoke at 10:07 a.m. at a
the audience.
And it will enhance our transportation effi-
construction site on State Highway 360 in
Yogi Berra, he
ciency by investing in our 155,000-mile Na-
Euless, TX. In his remarks, he referred to
words, as I told y
tional Highway System.
Arnold W. Oliver, executive director of the
met in the Rose (
I'm pleased that the increased funding
Texas Department of Transportation;
things really have
will improve road conditions, ease traffic
Angela Dominguez of the Austin Bridge
portant for you, t]
Construction Company; and Dr. Theodore
revolution in trans
congestion, and reduce delays for the truck-
ing industry, thus letting them move those
W. Friend III, president of the Eisenhower
Earlier today, i
consumer goods more quickly and at lower
Exchange Fellowships, Inc. H.R. 2950, ap-
from here, I signe
cost, and reducing our dependence on for-
proved December 18, was assigned Public
Transportation Eff
eign oil. The new National System will rep-
Law No. 102-240.
get a better nam-
resent only 4 percent of all public roads but
ter]-but that's a
will carry 75 percent of intercity truck traf-
transportation poli
and will let us bui
fic and 40 percent of all travel. This system
future.
will increase access to American products
Remarks to American Association of
This law culmin
and services and then, ultimately, prosperi-
State Highway and Transportation
hard work by our
ty. And that's good for Dallas, good for
Officials in Dallas, Texas
lustrates my stra
Texas, good for Fort Worth, good for Tar-
rant County, good for Dallas, good for
December 18, 1991
done: First, define
America, and I'm proud, very proud, that
it. Early on, we de
the bill will make that happen.
Ray, thank you very much for that intro-
the foundation for
duction. It's nice to see the former
lution in America
Transportation is an $800-billion-a-year
AASHTO Presidents Hal Rives and Kermit
We understood fro
business. And as the world trade grows
larger, and as our planet, because of com-
Justice; AASHTO Vice President Wayne
can't move ahead
Muri; Frank Francois, the director. And I
ketplace any mor
munications, becomes smaller, an efficient
really must acknowledge somebody that's
structure will allo
transportation system will become even
very special to this occasion, and to thank
globe at the spee
more important than it is today.
the new Chief of Staff in the White House,
frastructure can h:
So, I want to congratulate Secretary Skin-
but the Secretary of Transportation just
that kind of con
ner. I want to single out and congratulate
gone out of office, Sam Skinner, who is with
transportation. Aft
all of the congressional leaders who got the
me here someplace. Over here: Sam. I
blood of the mode
job done on this legislation. And to the rest
know that everyone realizes what he's had
Second point: D
of you here, our many partners in this proc-
to do with all of this. Acting Secretary of
in isolation. We pl
ess, my appreciation for the tireless effort,
Transportation Busey is with us, the admi-
moves us closer to
the long hours and determination that all of
ral. And, out in the audience, of course, I
priorities: jobs, job:
you invested in supporting this forward-
want to single out our good friends from
Our national tra
looking legislation.
the Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
with a big dose
I also want to thank the State highway
It is great to see so many familiar faces
knowledges that y
and transportation administrators, indeed,
here, including many, as Ray mentioned,
a traffic jam. A V
every American. You knew that transporta-
who were with us in Washington this
the economy, the
1858
Administration of George Bush, 1991 / Dec. 18
land of won-
summer. I can't help but remember Yogi
nity by sitting on a highway listening to the
es heard.
Berra's great words, you've all heard it,
radio. A vital piece of equipment trapped
ransportation
"Déjà vu all over again." Here we are.
on a truck, trapped in traffic, won't do
ve look back
I also want to single out the Members of
much for the factory that needs it. And a
hark day for
the Congress that are with us today be-
loved one rushing for an airport can't rejoin
be able to
cause, as I said out at the site, this isn't a
the family if the backups on the expressway
ion accom-
Republican bill or a Democrat bill, or a lib-
or the mass transit system put everything in
eral or conservative; it is an American
gridlock.
SS you at this
achievement. And the Members of Con-
You have to move to improve. And let's
now let me
gress that are with us today deserve special
face it, we're not moving as fast as we
me projects
credit from the American people for their
should.
ck to work.
leadership, for their stick-to-it-iveness in
Last week, we had a distinguished visitor
th us, all of
getting this legislation passed. So I salute
at the White House, Jay Leno. [Laughter]
them, the ones I see over here, and I'm
And he did a little comedy performance
sure there may be others scattered through
there with Marlin Fitzwater in the press
07 a.m. at a
the audience.
way 360 in
Yogi Berra, he always had a way with
room, and then he was over at the National
words, as I told you. But since you and I
Press Club. And I know that the press does
referred to
met in the Rose Garden last June a lot of
a good enough job with political comedy on
ector of the
isportation;
things really have happened, the most im-
its own, but nevertheless. At any rate, he
stin Bridge
portant for you, the first stirrings of a real
was making fun of a proposal to put micro-
revolution in transportation.
wave ovens in cars. That's right, microwave
r. Theodore
Earlier today, as I mentioned, not far
ovens so drivers can feed themselves while
Eisenhower
from here, I signed the Intermodal Surface
they wait. [Laughter] I think we better
2950, ap-
ned Public
Transportation Efficiency Act. We've got to
dedicate ourselves, as everybody here has,
get a better name for this thing-[augh-
to a microwave-free future for our high-
ter]-but that's a law that will bring our
ways. [Laughter]
transportation policy into the 21st century
The reason's simple. Every hour wasted
and will let us build, literally, a road to the
on overburdened transportation systems
future.
costs us a piece of our future. Congestion,
ion of
This law culminates more than 2 years of
congestion caused more than 8 billion hours
tion
hard work by our administration, and it il-
of delay on our roads. And that's the
lustrates my strategy for getting things
amount of time 4 million workers spend on
done: First, define a mission and accomplish
the job each year.
it. Early on, we defined our mission: To lay
In other words, Americans nationwide
:hat intro-
the foundation for the most significant revo-
waste more time each year in traffic delays
3 former
lution in American transportation history.
than workers spend on the job at all our
d Kermit
We understood from day one that America
auto companies, all our electronic compa-
t Wayne
can't move ahead in the international mar-
nies, all our textile companies, all our
r.And I
ketplace any more rapidly than its infra-
lumber companies, and all our furniture
dy that's
structure will allow. -Ideas fly around the
manufacturers combined. And people
to thank
globe at the speed of light because the in-
wonder why the AASHTO members get so
e House,
frastructure can handle the traffic. We need
worked up about the importance of their
tion just
that kind of competitiveness in surface
work.
o is with
transportation. After all, mobility is the life-
The waiting exacts other costs, too. You're
Sam. I
blood of the modern economy.
familiar with them: $34 billion in wasted
he's had
Second point: Don't define your missions
fuel expenses in our 39 largest metropolitan
retary of
in isolation. We pursued this law because it
areas. And the point is simple: We cannot
ne admi-
moves us closer to our three top domestic
afford, or put it this way, we can't afford
tourse, I
priorities: jobs, jobs, and jobs.
not to invest in transportation. No matter
ds from
Our national transportation policy begins
how much people might want to ignore the
with a. big dose of common sense. It ac-
rest of the world, we must make a choice:
ar faces
knowledges that you don't get anywhere in
Take the lead, or let others pass us by.
ntioned,
a traffic jam. A worker can't do much for
Well, I prefer to lead, and I demanded a
on this
the economy, the family, or for the commu-
national transportation strategy that builds
1859
Dec. 18 / Administration of George Bush, 1991
a foundation for the future. And I wanted a
projects get the most bang for the buck and
and dare to inn
transportation law that would address road
give us a better shot at meeting our vast
of moving Ame1
and bridge needs around the country; a law
transportation needs. And that is innova-
Earlier today,
that would complete important mass transit
tion. And that is good government.
not far from }
projects; a law that would encourage inno-
Consider other items, if you will, in our
thought of the
vation in every aspect of our transportation
new transportation law:
region, all fuel-
network, from road construction to high-
It authorizes funds for an incentive pro-
structure. A ne
tech rail systems.
gram to prevent drunk driving and im-
vigor assails the
This law accomplishes that mission. It will
prove occupant safety, two very worthy
bustle, the torn:
establish a 155,000-mile National Highway
goals, especially during the holiday season.
saw a domestic
System. Roads that will comprise only 4
And it provides $38 billion to improve our
crete and steel,
percent of our total public road mileage,
new National Highway System.
but a program t
but that will carry 75 percent of our inter-
It sets aside $24 billion to fund a variety
now.
city truck traffic and 40 percent of our
highway traffic. That is efficiency.
of highway and transit projects.
This law-anc
It simplifies the means by which truckers
will not solve
Our law accomplishes that mission. It will
establish a 155,000-mile National Highway
register their vehicles: Liability insurance,
lenges. It's not
Interstate Commerce Commission oper-
build every roa
System. Roads that will comprise, as I say, 4
ation authority, and mileage for State fuel
bridge, create a
percent. This law also encourages States to
build the roads they need, not the roads
tax payments. In so doing, it could save
want to see. L
that some faraway central planner thinks
trucking companies $1 billion this year.
billions and bil
Our law will help States meet their envi-
every need. Bt
that they ought to have. And that's just
ronmental responsibilities without stopping
move. It comm
plain common sense.
the wheels of progress. Our law will encour-
it encourages t
The Highway System created by Dwight
Eisenhower in '56, 1956, revolutionized
age exploration into new transportation
we will need in
American life forever. It spawned suburbs,
technologies such as these high-speed rail
This law will
cultivated more than 200 new centers of
systems.
all of us. It wi
And last, but certainly not least, our law
their wives to
commerce and culture, edge cities, as
they're called in the new book. Where bare
will create good American jobs today and
enable buses to
fields stood 30 years ago, American enter-
good American jobs tomorrow. And it will
swiftly to scho
prise now thrives, with office space and
build a foundation for creating more good
manufacturers r
shopping centers, entertainment areas; re-
American jobs in the future.
when they need
gions that function as workplaces by day
The funding in the law will support more
where it belong
and then recreational hubs by night.
than 600,000 jobs in this fiscal year. But
Every Ameri-
Our new transportation law will pump
that's just the start. Private projects funded
tion's importanc
new life into these newest cities and sup-
with this money will generate even more
we talk. When
port their further evolution. It will enhance
work for Americans. And as I've said all
talk about gettir
great centers like this Dallas/Fort Worth
along, a good transportation network will
talk about roads
area, where roads and rails have paved the
support jobs that wouldn't exist otherwise.
teries. Well, enc
way to more than 500,000 new jobs in the
And that's the biggest benefit of this new
start improving
past decade alone.
law. It sets in motion projects that will give
railways, our e'
This law encourages local governments to
America the ability to move forward as
the future. And
invest in innovations such as privately built
never before.
from now to th
toll roads. Construction on such a road will
I've instructed the Department of Trans-
ca's transportat
begin soon just outside of Washington, and
portation to get the money moving now.
"Mission define
that's just a beginning. Wall Street, they've
We will make available the vast majority of
Thank you.
begun to develop a brand-new market for
State money from the Highway Trust Fund.
your work, and
financing privately built and operated infra-
And we'll accelerate the release of $300
country, especi
structure. Investors know a winner when
million for mass transit projects. I encour-
Thank you all Vt
they see it.
age you to do your part in making sure this
These roads will pay for themselves and,
money gets to its destination swiftly, gets
Note: The Presi.
in addition, they can support other projects.
used wisely, and helps Americans build the
the Hyatt Reger.
Operators of the Dulles Toll Road will pay
foundations for the next American century.
referred to A. R
taxes, which can leverage even more trans-
And moreover, I'd like to challenge you all
and Francis B.
portation financing. In short, private
to look past the old ways of doing business
of AASHTO.
1860
Administration of George Bush, 1991 / Dec. 18
the buck and
and dare to innovate, to create new means
Statement on Signing the Intermodal
ting our vast
of moving America forward.
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act
at is innova-
Earlier today, out at that construction site
of 1991
ent.
not far from here, I stood there, and I
December 18, 1991
u will, in our
thought of the incredible vigor of this
region, all fueled by transportation infra-
Today I am pleased to sign into law H.R.
incentive pro-
structure. A new kind of exploration and
2950, the "Intermodal Surface Transporta-
ving and im-
vigor assails the senses, the hustle and the
tion Efficiency Act of 1991." This law pro-
very worthy
bustle, the tornado of activity. And today I
vides a new structure for our Federal sur-
oliday season.
saw a domestic vision in sweat and toil, con-
face transportation programs-highway,
improve our
crete and steel, not some abstract proposal
highway safety, and transit-and authorizes
but a program that will produce real results
funds for those programs for the next 6
fund a variety
now.
years.
S.
This law-and you all know this-this law
H.R. 2950 is landmark legislation. It will
which truckers
will not solve all our transportation chal-
carry the Nation into the post-Interstate era
ity insurance,
lenges. It's not going to fill every pothole,
and help provide the transportation infra-
mission oper-
build every road we require, mend every
structure for improved economic productiv-
for State fuel
bridge, create all the new technologies we
ity and enhanced international competitive-
it could save
want to see. Let's face it, it would take
ness. In the short term, this bill means jobs
this year.
billions and billions more to take care of
for working Americans. It provides more
eet their envi-
every need. But this law puts us on the
than $11 billion that can be used this fiscal
hout stopping
move. It commits real resources now. And
year to build highway projects. During the
W will encour-
it encourages the kind of innovation that
coming year, those funds will provide jobs
transportation
we will need in the future.
for over 600,000 Americans. The law will
high-speed rail
This law will make a huge difference for
continue to support jobs in the highway and
all of us. It will help young fathers rush
transit construction industries over the next
least, our law
their wives to a delivery room. It will
6 years.
obs today and
enable buses to ferry children safely and
When we submitted to the Congress our
W. And it will
swiftly to school. It will help just-in-time
proposal for reauthorization of Federal sur-
ing more good
manufacturers receive the parts they need
face transportation programs earlier this
when they need them. It will keep America
year, all those involved with the Nation's
1 support more
where it belongs, in the passing lane.
surface transportation system recognized
scal year. But
Every American understands transporta-
that it was time to redesign these programs.
projects funded
tion's importance. Just think about the way
The Interstate System-the largest public
ate even more
we talk. When we talk about progress, we
works project in history-is very near com-
S I've said all
talk about getting things moving. When we
pletion, and this law provides the final
1 network will
talk about roads and rails, we call them ar-
funds to finish it. The Interstate System has
exist otherwise.
teries. Well, enough talk. Today, we act. We
fundamentally changed transportation in
fit of this new
start improving our roads and bridges and
America. It has become easier and cheaper
S that will give
railways, our equal opportunity escorts to
to move goods, and virtually all Americans
ve forward as
the future. And so when we look back years
benefit from the speed and efficiency with
from now to this landmark day for Ameri-
which they can move from place to place
ment of Trans-
ca's transportation, we'll be able to say:
on our interstate highways. But our focus
/ moving now.
"Mission defined. Mission accomplished."
must now shift from major highway con-
vast majority of
Thank you. And may God bless you in
struction to better maintenance, manage-
vay Trust Fund.
your work, and may God bless our great
ment, and use of our existing highway and
elease of $300
country, especially at this time of year.
transit facilities.
jects. I encour-
Thank you all very, very much.
A key element of our proposal was the
aking sure this
National Highway System. Ours was not a
on swiftly, gets
Note: The President spoke at 12:15 p.m. at
call for a major new construction program,
ricans build the
the Hyatt Regency Hotel. In his remarks, he
but rather for identification of those key
erican century.
referred to A. Ray Chamberlain, president,
highways throughout the country that are
hallenge you all
and Francis B. Francois, executive director
the arteries for interstate and interregional
doing business
of AASHTO.
travel or roads that link those routes to
1861