Political Quotes

“All good things come to an end. I appreciate the comments. I was going to address the need for clean water, but my good friend from Virginia is saying we need to make this into a water bill. He said we need to fund local water projects for Governors. I thought this was a transportation bill. I have already pointed out that the States can use up to 20 percent of STP in the national highway funds on storm water mitigation. But there are lots of unfunded mandates that this body has put, in the past, on our local governments to clean up local water. Do you know something. For the last dozen years, I have fought as chairman of the VA-HUD Appropriations subcommittee, with my colleague and very good friend, Senator Mikulski of Maryland, to provide the funds we need to try to help States and local governments meet their obligations. There is something called the State revolving funds, and every year the Office of Management and Budget--it does not matter whether it is a Republican or Democrat--cuts it. Those are the most important funds we can provide. We put in over $2 billion each year. It gets cut. We put it back in the next year to go into the State revolving funds. Senator Mikulski and I have funded hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of water cleanup projects in various States--including Virginia, I am proud to say, a State of which I am very fond--and helping them deal with their clean water needs. This is a transportation bill.…”