Pete Domenici: “Senator, you will be writing the new ISTEA law. If you will care to rename it, it will be renamed under your direction…”

“Senator, you will be writing the new ISTEA law. If you will care to rename it, it will be renamed under your direction, not under mine. But I would say, from what I can find out, this $26 billion trust fund surplus--we spend about $20 billion each year and they have done that for a long time. This $26 billion that is referred to is made up of two things: $20.6 billion of it is compounded interest, and $5.9 is committed to projects. Frankly, that does not mean we have an awful lot of money to spend. As a matter of fact, we probably do not have very much. But, from my standpoint, this trust fund balance is a very reasonable balance to keep in the fund. If at some point we can get to a better plan and do it over a period of time, you are going to find this Senator on your side.”