All of the Congressional officials present vowed to fight hard to preserve ISTEA and the flow of federal transportation dollars to NJ. Torricelli's remarks provided the best overview. He said the U.S. has no urban policy, but under ISTEA, it had crafted a transportation policy to fill the gap, and that the economic potential of older centers like Newark could be unlocked via smart investments in public transit projects. He noted that no one in the southern and western STEP-21 coalition of states, which would repeal much of ISTEA and try to return federal dollars to states in proportion to gas tax payments by each state's motorists, argued against the merits of ISTEA, but on the dollar returns to their states. That, he said, was a repudiation of federalism and the principles that have governed the country since adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Torricelli called for full funding for the Hudson-Bergen light rail project, including its extension to Giants Stadium, and for construction of the much discussed Newark-Elizabeth light rail line.

As each speaker noted, NJ does well through ISTEA's allocation formula. According to NJ Transportation Commissioner John Haley, for every transportation dollar NJ sends to Washington, it gets back $1.12 for highway and $4.69 for public transit projects. But taking the overall flow of federal revenues and expendiutures, NJ only gets 62 cents for every dollar it pays in federal taxes.

Former Congressman Robert Roe, who was instrumental in getting projects like the Hudson-Bergen light rail and the Kearny Connection off the ground with federal funding, also spoke. He departed from the consensus somewhat by stating that not only dollars, but also the transportation planning principles embodied in ISTEA, were critical to New Jersey. He specifically cited ISTEA's metropolitan planning and urban sub-allocation provisions as important to the state's future. He predicted that skillful horse-trading could mitigate the sectional fight over dividing up federal transportation dollars and leave ISTEA generally intact.

Attendees of the forum were asked to endorse a set of ISTEA reauthorization principles that the northeast and allied states have developed. Overall, they amount to the preservation of ISTEA in its current form, with some modifications. The most unfortunate of these is the assertion that Metropolitan Planning Organizations should be self-certifying, rather than under some form of oversight by the federal government.