Jimmy Carter photo

Remarks on Signing Into Law the Northeast Corridor Appropriations Bill

May 30, 1980

THE PRESIDENT. This is a good day for our entire country, and especially for the Northeast corridor and for those in the Middle West who have a real need for consistently good service in rail transportation.

Before I begin, let me express my thanks to Senators Cannon and Pell and Kassebaum, Pete Williams, to Representatives Florio, Madigan, and others, who have been so instrumental in passing this historic legislation through the Congress.

I waited a few minutes hoping that my friend, Governor Brendan Byrne, would get here. In the future, with a better Northeast corridor rail transportation, he'll be here on time. [Laughter] But he's been instrumental, as you know, in initiating this project, representing the Governors, because when he was chairman of the Conference of Northeast Governors, they made this Northeast corridor project their number one priority.

And also, I want to thank Governor Joe Garrahy, who's here, as well as Governor Ella Grasso who could not be with us today, but who currently holds the chairmanship of the Governor's conference on this particular item.

Americans sometimes forget that trains are the transportation system of the future, not the past. In a fast-changing world with energy costs, air pollution, deteriorating cities and communities that need to be revived, a need for efficiency, and the changing personal habits of our people, the prospect for rail transportation for people is extremely bright in the years to come.

This bill, Senate bill 2253, implements many of my administration's rail priorities. It provides, as many of you know, $750 million over the next 5 years for the Northeast corridor improvement projects to make possible a high-speed transportation corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts. It also provides $75 million in well-protected loan guarantees to the trustee of—to the Rock Island Railroad, which will provide an orderly transition for them in making sure that the workers there are protected. And there's $1 1/2 million in here for worker training for new jobs. I've supported these provisions in the legislation, and I congratulate the Congress for having passed this bill and presented it to me for signing today.

My administration has been very concerned about the bankruptcy of the Rock Island Railroad and its adverse effect on crucial rail transportation for the Midwest. The aid for the Rock Island trustee is very important to protect workers who are affected by the bankruptcy of this line, and it will also help in providing an orderly transition for maintaining the essential services in the Midwest.

This investment in the Northeast corridor will provide in direct jobs 30,000 person-years of employment. This will be skilled labor. It will also have a heavy emphasis on minority and small business contractors and will provide, in addition, between forty and fifty thousand additional, indirect jobs associated with the improvements in the Northeast corridor.

It will also improve riding conditions for more than 50 percent of all the Amtrak passengers and then, by 1990, we anticipate an increase in rail passengers of 5 3/4 million riders because of this legislation.

And I think most importantly of all, it will provide the basis for a revitalization of our Nation's industrial base. It will provide land use and improve the analysis of how land can be used in crucial areas, because it will focus on businesses and workers who will be inclined to locate in the area of these vast improvements.

It will also help to revive the central cities of the Northeast which have declined partly because of deteriorating rail service which will now be repaired.

In short, the total $2 1/2 billion authorized for the life of this corridor project is the largest public investment ever made in the Northeast part of the United States, and its impact is already profound and beneficial.

I'm especially pleased at the $140 million allocated for station improvements. This money will be tremendously magnified because of associated developments from the private industry sector near these new and improved railroad stations. For example, improvements in the Newark, New Jersey, station have already coincided with $125 million in nearby development. Newark has long needed an assist to commercial activity in that part of the city, and this appears to be accomplishing that goal. Also, South Station in Boston is becoming a major multimodal transportation center, and it will stimulate over $500 million in expected private development in that area.

Other benefits of this project, as I've mentioned very briefly in passing, will be lower operating costs, higher patronage by railroad riders, and less congestion of airports, less congestion on our highways, less use of oil, efficiency in the entire Nation's transportation system, and, of course, reduced air pollution—a lot of benefits from one bill.

In short, the $750 million in this authorization is vital not simply to the Northeast rail system but also to our Nation's businesses, our Nation's workers, all the cities of our country, and ultimately, of course, to all the American people.

So, again, I'm grateful to the Congress for having passed this legislation and for those private citizens like yourselves, men who've worked and women who've worked in the Governors' conferences and others, to make this day possible. It's with a great deal of gratitude and confidence that the future will be even brighter for our Nation that I now sign this important bill.

SENATOR CANNON. Thank you very much, Mr. President. This is a great day. It's a great day not only for the Northeast corridor but for those people affected by the Rock Island in the Midwest part of the United States. And I'm delighted that we were able to work the matter out between the Senate and the House conferees in a solution that I think is very compatible and will add to the rail service that we desperately need throughout all of the country. Thank you very much, sir.

CONGRESSMAN FLORIO. Mr. President, thank you very much. We're very pleased at the cooperation that's been received by the two Houses, with the executive branch. Your support of the Northeast corridor has been unquestioned straight on through, and your administration deserves great credit, and we thank you for your help.

GOVERNOR GARRAHY. Mr. President, as perhaps representing the Northeast Governors here, I should like to thank you. We've worked very closely with you, as Governors, to see this project come to this particular day. And in a very personal sense, I'd like to thank you for the State of Rhode Island, because this is going to permit us to revitalize our downtown area. It's going to open up acreage of new space in downtown Providence. It'll provide for the relocation of our station in Providence and, of course, help us get back and forth to Washington much faster. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. I'm sorry, if people arrive late we do not give them a place on the program. [Laughter] But since part of his tardiness is because we have not yet completed the Northeast corridor, I will let Brendan say a word.

GOVERNOR BYRNE. Thank you very much, Mr. President. It's nice to be here. I'm sorry to be late; I had to wait for my wife to get dressed. She has a lot of influence on me, too. I just signed a bill allowing sex education in schools in New Jersey. That's the only thing I've done that she disagreed with. She said we mandate reading, and they can't read; and we mandate writing, and they can't write. Now we— [laughter] —

I assume you signed the bill that my note said you signed, Mr. President, and that's going to be very helpful to us. People want to get from Boston to Washington fast; some of them want to get there too fast, but— [laughter] —

This bill, Governor Garrahy, will help your State, will help all of the States along that corridor. It will also help the people of those States.

I've had several meetings in the past few months which stressed the fact that the cities in the Northeast will benefit, because those station improvements and the roadbed improvements are going to revitalize a number of our cities in the Northeast. That will help tremendously. Newark, for instance, is being revitalized, and the revitalization is spreading from that station.

Also, the more people you get on mass transportation, the better off we all are. The people in our section of the country use less gasoline per capita than the people from any other section, and so there's more gasoline to go around throughout the whole of the United States. So we're not celebrating—although the leadership came from men like Jim Florid and Senator Williams—we're not celebrating with you on a regional basis at all; we're celebrating a bill which you signed for the benefit of all of the citizens of these United States. And we congratulate you for doing it.

We congratulate you for the courageous stands you've taken on a number of things very recently, Mr. President, including the courageous stand you just took on a budget resolution.

Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. at the signing ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House.

As enacted, S. 2253 is Public Law 96-254, approved May 30.

Jimmy Carter, Remarks on Signing Into Law the Northeast Corridor Appropriations Bill Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/251897

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