Mark Kelly: “I salute the efforts of the gentleman from Ohio, the chairman, and the leadership of both sides of the aisle in working…”

“I salute the efforts of the gentleman from Ohio, the chairman, and the leadership of both sides of the aisle in working with the administration to achieve a balanced budget agreement. It is a good agreement but we can make it better, and that is why I am supporting the bipartisan Shuster-Oberstar-Petri-Rahall substitute. To put it simply, this substitute restores trust to the highway trust fund, ensuring that revenues into the fund are spent out of the fund to support needed highway transit improvements around the country. This investment is desperately needed. There is a multibillion dollar backlog of transportation projects across the country, investments that we must make if we are able to compete in the global marketplace. The Shuster substitute boosts funding for transportation and includes offsets to keep the budget on a glide path to balance by 2002. It is fiscally responsible and fulfills our responsibility to invest in our aging infrastructure. Passage of this substitute will help us to craft an ISTEA reauthorization bill that will resolve the donor versus donee State controversy.”