Dear Editor,
A recent Gilroy Dispatch article implied that I have questioned
Congressman Richard Pombo’s commitment to the BART-to-San Jose
project. In fact, Congressman Pombo has been a champion for BART
since 2002, when the project originally entered the federal funding
process.
Dear Editor,
A recent Gilroy Dispatch article implied that I have questioned Congressman Richard Pombo’s commitment to the BART-to-San Jose project. In fact, Congressman Pombo has been a champion for BART since 2002, when the project originally entered the federal funding process. He has consistently worked in a cooperative manner with his Santa Clara County congressional colleagues – Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda and Zoe Lofgren – and their collective advocacy efforts have resulted in federal funding being made available for the BART project for four straight years.
Earlier this year, Congressman Pombo invited the powerful chairman of the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee to come to Silicon Valley to meet with VTA officials about the BART Project and to tour the project corridor. This visit was one of the main reasons why we were successful in securing our most recent $6.5 million increment of federal funding for the project.
We are very fortunate in Santa Clara County to have a congressional delegation that works in a bipartisan manner on behalf of not only the BART project, but also all of our transportation interests.
This bipartisan approach has served us well and will be a key to our success in the future. Congressman Pombo has stood by the BART project in the past. I know that we will be able to count on him when we are ready to seek the necessary federal funding to construct the project.
Michael T. Burns, General Manager Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
