Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04), Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD), released the following statement after the fiscal year 2024 THUD bill was advanced out of the Appropriations Committee yesterday.
“The bill advanced out of committee yesterday prioritizes critical transportation and housing needs while also spending responsibly,” said Cole. “Totaling $65.208 billion, 25 percent below the current year, the priorities put forth in this legislation would benefit every congressional district across the nation, deliver on needed transportation safety updates to ensure roads and railways are safe to freight haulers and the public, aims to offset plummeting housing receipts and the inflationary burden on the American people and scales back the Biden Administration’s regulatory overreach.
“Oklahoma has an important relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration, as the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, the FAA’s only air traffic control academy, is in Oklahoma. And I know that the aviation industry is also important to many states’ economies. This bill prioritizes resources to the FAA to modernize the air traffic control system and train 1,800 new controllers and update and modernize facilities and equipment and fulfill Community Project Funding for airport improvement projects across the country. These measures will undoubtedly bring long-term certainty to the many facets of our nation’s aviation system.
“Furthermore, this bill would provide more than $60 billion in updates for highways and bridges, meets the president’s request for safety programs and enacts housing assistance programs would allow Americans to move up and out of rental assistance instead of staying locked in a program for a lifetime. This bill delivers funding for long-needed updates to real infrastructure and I applaud its passage out of the Appropriations Committee. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the coming weeks to ensure full funding for our government is realized to avoid a continuing resolution or disastrous shutdown.”
Cole delivered extensive remarks during the Appropriations Committee’s markup of the bill. Video available here and transcript here.
