Political Quotes

“I echo what my good friend, the chairman of the committee, stated. The amendment does not keep the balance between donor and donee States. Our staff has run through many of these options, 300-plus runs from the Federal Highway Administration, to come up with a fair balance between donor and donee States. When you take a look at what is fair, we have heard complaints about the increase, that they are not getting enough percentage increase, but when you look at the State of Texas, over the 6 years of the bill, it gets a 42-percent increase. That is $5.3 billion. If you look at the State of Arizona, it gets a 40.23-percent increase, or $1.11 billion over the 6 years. California has a 40.14-percent increase, or $6.1 billion. There are a couple of States that even get 40-percent increases. This amendment purports to increase fairness by giving an even greater share to some of the States that have the largest share of the increase already. That does not have much to do with fairness. This is a very ill-advised amendment. As the chairman has pointed out, there is not money in the bill. This would add approximately $7 billion to the cost of the bill. I find it passing strange that some of the cosponsors of this bill were ones who opposed the Bond-Reid amendment to set the figure at $255 billion, and they have been very vocal in saying this bill spends too much. They would add about $7 billion to the bill. We are going in the wrong direction.”