106 STAT. 4800 PUBLIC LAW 102-580—OCT. 31, 1992 (1) a sound and strong infrastructure is the essential core and foundation of the Nation's economic well-being and growth and its ability to compete in the global economy; (2) the Nation's infrastructure has been sorely neglected for years, and there is a desperate need at every level of government to increase infrastructure investment for the benefit of future generations; (3) it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to provide coordination, direction, and assistance in the restoration and maintenance of a sound infrastructure, including a national transportation system involving surface, air, and water transportation and facilities for restoration and preservation of water quality, prevention of damages from floods, and provision of hydroelectric power and mimicipal and industrial water supplies; (4) it should be a goal of the United States to develop a national intermodal transportation system that moves people and goods in an efficient manner; (5) the Nation's future economic direction is dependent on its ability to confront directly the enormous challenges of the global economy, declining productivity growth, energy vulnerability, air pollution, water pollution, and the need to rebuild the Nation's infrastructure; (6) a national intermodal transportation system is a coordinated, flexible network of diverse but complementary^ forms of transportetion which moves people and goods in the most efficient manner; (7) a national intermodal transportetion system will enhance the ability of United States industiy to compete in the global marketplace by reducing transportetion coste; (8) all forms of transportetion, including the transportetion systems of the future, will be full partners in the effort to reduce energy consumption and air pollution while promoting economic development and productivity growth; (9) investment in the infrastructure of the United States will pay immediate and long-term dividends in jobs and economic productivity and provide the foundation for the Nation's continued leadership in the global economic competition of the 21st century; (10) infrastructure investment differs significantly from other forms of government spending because it creates new wealth for the Nation; (11) the wealth and economic strength of the United States is in the Nation's infrastructure which provides the foundation for all aspecte of life; (12) failure to invest in the Nation's infrastructure has placed the United States in danger of becoming a serviceoriented economy rather than having a strong and mdependent manufacturing-based economy; (13) foreign competitors in the global economy have surpassed the Nation's productivity growth through massive infrastructure investmente, and many forei^ competitors have committed to making midti-trillion dollar infrastructure investmente in the future; (14) the improvement of the Nation's coastal porte is critical to ite ability to compete in the global economy through the efficient import and export of goods;
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