Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I thank the gentlelady for sponsoring this legislation. I rise in support of it. As was mentioned, I am a cosponsor. This would rescind contract authority for old transportation earmarks. I think we all recognize there are a lot of earmarks that go through this place that are never funded, and that's usually a good thing because often they are quite wasteful. This bill also shines a spotlight on wasteful transportation earmarks in a number of bills, and it rescinds more than $8 million in contract authority for SAFETEA-LU which we passed just a few years ago. Many of us will remember, SAFETEA-LU contained more than 6,000 earmarks, including the infamous earmark for the Bridge to Nowhere, but it also included bike paths, museums, hiking trails, visitor centers, streetscapes, and parking facilities worth more than $700 million alone. I would urge those who are looking to bolster their fiscal credentials by voting for this legislation to rescind contract authority for old earmarks to remember that in 2 days we'll be considering the T-HUD transportation bill, which contains about 500 new earmarks worth more than $300 million, and if we are going back and saying, yes, earmarks are wasteful, we ought to recognize that in the same week we're doing this we're also considering a new appropriation bill with about 500 earmarks worth about $300 million.…”