Political Quotes

“obviously, my good friend, the Senator from Virginia, and I view this very differently. I will outline some of the differences we have. Let me clarify. The Senator from Virginia noted that the bill passed last year in the Senate with the storm water provision included. I ask my colleagues to recall that we did so only with the agreement that I would not raise it in the Senate in order to get it to conference, and we would address it in conference. I did so out of deference to my colleagues to get the bill off the floor and to conference in what turned out to be the vain hope we could get a conference agreement on the bill which we badly needed last year. I did not want to hold up progress on the bill last year. We did not have time to debate it fully. But this year, we have time to debate it fully. It is appropriate we do so. First, let me address the concept that this is a modest amendment, a small amendment. Back home, $900 million is not a small amount. I live in a State where $900 million means a whole lot. Do you know to whom it means a lot? It means a lot to the mayors. The mayors want safety for their citizens. These are community leaders who come to Washington to talk to me about how badly they need the money for their roads. I don't think $900 million is small. I don't think we should take $900 million from the highway, bridge, transit construction budget.…”