Political Quotes

“I rise today to take a few minutes to comment on the bill that the Senate will soon be considering to state why I oppose the bill in its current form. I am speaking of the bill that we oftentimes refer to as the Transportation bill. I do think this bill does some good things. I supported it coming out of the EPW Committee. It had very sound bipartisan support in that committee. But there is a serious concern with the bill, a concern for all of us. Specifically, there is a provision in the bill that is what I would call an earmark. However, it is often referred to by our rule as a congressionally directed spending item. Let me again say, purely and simply, it is an earmark. That is why, even though I supported the bill in committee, I did feel very strongly about that provision and I felt compelled to vote against proceeding to the bill and that is why I am here today, filing an amendment. This provision changes the purpose of an earmark that was included in the previous highway bill. Then the language goes on to do a second thing: It newly directs the money back to the same State where the earmarked project would have occurred, that being the State of Nevada. Let me repeat that. It takes an unspent earmark from a previous highway bill in Nevada and it replaces it with yet another earmark to the State of Nevada. I will go into further detail. First, the bill identifies any unobligated balances associated with this earmark. The bill reads: . . .…”