"Weyrich was furious when he learned of the excision of the public transportation section:

"It is disappointing that after the paragraphs indicated were passed by a nine to three vote that someone without ever asking me would see to it to do away with these important policy considerations, Weyrich said to NCI. " It is the kind of gutter politics which make people hate their government, and Washington in general."

"Weyrich, who founded the Heritage Foundation and also founded and is chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, has been a leader of the American conservative movement since the days of the Reagan Administration. He is also one of the most knowledgeable and sought after supporters of public transportation especially light rail, in America."

The press release contains "the full text of what Weyrich wrote, adopted by the full commission, and then mysteriously disappeared from the official version of the report:

The Case for Public Transportation

"It is the view of the Commission that public transportation, especially in the form of electric railways, must and will play a significantly larger role in Americans' mobility. Federal transportation policy should not only accommodate but encourage this development...."

The section discusses the societal and environmental benefits of public transit investment, including congestion relief, energy security, air quality and climate protection,and urban re-development. It even includes historical information describing how public road investment, dating back to 1921, set the private electric railways on a downward spiral.

Thanks to Ron McLinden