Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are dealing with the Transportation bill, and let me say I hope we truly deal with the Transportation bill eventually because there has been a great deal of work on this measure by the chairman and the ranking members of the relevant committees, and I thank them for the hard work they have put into this. I support their efforts to give States long-term security for moving forward with Federal highway aid and transit programs. I support the efforts to give States that long-term security for planning purposes, improve the project approval process, and reduce duplicative and excessive programs. However, I do have very serious concerns with certain aspects of the legislation proposed. Most particularly, and the reason I have come to the floor this evening, is to discuss what this legislation does to the Indian Reservation Roads Program. This is the program known as IRR. IRR is a jointly administered program between the Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Indian Affairs that addresses the transportation needs of our tribes by providing funds for the planning, the design, the construction, and the maintenance activities. The Indian Reservation Roads are public roads. They provide access to and within Indian reservations, Indian trust land, restricted Indian land, and Alaskan Native villages. There are approximately 29,000 miles that are under jurisdiction of the BIA and the tribes, and another 73,000 miles are under State and local ownership.…”