Hoyer Remarks at Ribbon Cutting of New WMATA Office Building in New Carrollton, Maryland
NEW CARROLLTON, MD – This afternoon, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Governor Wes Moore, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Congressman Glenn Ivey (MD-04), Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson, MDOT Secretary and Metro Board Member Paul Wiedefeld, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke, and Metro Board Chair Paul Smedberg at a ribbon cutting ceremony for WMATA’s new Maryland office building in New Carrollton. Below is a transcript of his remarks:
“Thank you very, very much. Well, I'm glad I came to hear all of this. So, Randy, Thank you. Randy and I had an opportunity to meet very early in his career - at WMATA, not his career, and I knew immediately this was a can-do person. This was somebody who was going to follow through on the work that Paul and so many others had done. Now, I want to talk about Paul. Paul, in 1966, I ran for the Maryland State Senate in 1968 we had a referendum in Prince George's County. My opponent in 1978 - 68 - said the proposition was Metro would not pay for itself [and that] we ought not to have a Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority we ought not to build this system, we'll build some more roads. We had a referendum in 1968 and the people of Prince George's County voted to proceed.
“And how proud all of those voters would be to look on this building, which is simply a representative of Metro's success. Have they had hard times? They have. Has every transit system had a hard time? They have. So we are not unique in that respect. I think we are unique, however, in the success we have shown in overcoming the challenges that have confronted us.
“I went to Congress in 1980, some years thereafter, after 12 years in the Senate. And there was a gentleman there whose name was Frank Wolf. He was a Republican. And President Reagan had been elected the same year I was elected to Congress. Well, actually, I was elected in '81. He was elected in '81, and we went there at that same time, and he offered a premise that the federal government ought not to be participating in local transportation projects. Frank Wolf and I for the next 12 years were joined at the hip, literally with Carmen Turner and other directors, but Corbin Turner in particular, to make sure that the federal government kept its commitment to transit, not just in Maryland, or Virginia, or the District of Columbia, but throughout the country, knowing full well that if we did not have mass transit, the gridlock that we would experience would be exponentially greater, and that the environmental impact of those more and more and more automobiles would be exponential.
“So we pursued that effort and in the early nineties, we completed the funding for the entire system plan at that time. The Governor was a great success and Senator Cardin was involved at the state level, as was [Senator] Chris Van Hollen, in making sure that we got to this effort. Your predecessors, Angela Alsobrooks in particular, but others as well - and your continued leadership of this county and bringing together Team Prince George's County and Team Maryland are part of the reasons for this success. So thank you very much. Now, I could go on and on about the history because '68 was 55 years ago, over a half a century, ago. And Carlton Cycles, I ran with him on his ticket for Governor. He didn't win, I was fortunate enough to win, but Carlton Cycles was one of the fathers of this Metro system. He had a vision and he kept focused on that vision. But let me say, this is a very impressive building. We dedicate impressive buildings. We see the glass, we see the concrete, we see the steel, we see all other building materials that go into this building and make it a building that is going to be a success in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
“But this building would be irrelevant and a waste of taxpayers money if it weren't for the people whose dedication, whose talent, whose hard work makes this building the success it's going to be. So, I want to thank all of you. Raise your hand if you work for Metro and you worked in this building. Thank you. Godspeed.”
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