Bruce Westerman: “The bill that passed the committee was partisan and wasteful. As expected, the Speaker succeeded in making a bad bill…”

“The bill that passed the committee was partisan and wasteful. As expected, the Speaker succeeded in making a bad bill even worse. That is crazy, but that is how it goes. And things are going wrong for rural America in this bill. In fact, it specifically bans building new roads and lets road and bridge funding expire while playing favorites with urban transit funding, like Amtrak and Speaker Pelosi's pet train project. It mandates policies that make us more dependent on Chinese supply chains while Democrats refuse to allow development of our own resources. The bill is more focused on the Green New Deal than the well-being of hardworking Americans--spending now with promises to tax later. Speaker Pelosi said it herself last week. According to the Speaker: ``There ain't gonna be no bipartisan bill, unless we have a reconciliation bill. Plain and simple. In fact, I use the word `ain't.' There ain't going to be an infrastructure bill, unless we have the reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate.'' Mr. Speaker, listen to that. The Speaker is hellbent on raising your taxes and using them to increase wasteful spending. House Democrats, led by Speaker Pelosi, can't even get on board with their Democrat colleagues in the Senate and administration. Maybe it is not too late to learn and do better. The STARTER Act is one way to move forward. Mr. Speaker, whatever path we choose, it would be better than going off the rails on a crazy train bill like this one. Mr.…”