Alan Lowenthal: “After speaking with the majority committee staff, and in deference to the wishes of the Chair, I want to be clear that I…”

“After speaking with the majority committee staff, and in deference to the wishes of the Chair, I want to be clear that I will be withdrawing this amendment at the conclusion of my control of time. In fiscal year 2010, a number of transportation projects, including critical seismic safety projects, received appropriations from Congress but were unable to receive the funding due to an incorrect account designation in the appropriations act. According to the Department of Transportation, the funds remain unobligated but inaccessible due to the congressional error in the account designation. Mr. Chair, crucial transportation projects needed to ensure public safety that were intended to be funded by Congress have been left without funding due to technical errors. My amendment would ensure that those unobligated funds currently stuck in limbo would be made available for the surface transportation program projects. This shouldn't be controversial. There is already language in the underlying bill before us that does something very similar. It transfers unobligated funds appropriated in previous years from one transportation program to another. I hope that, moving forward, the gentleman from Iowa will work with us to correct these accounting errors that have left crucial transportation projects without funding. Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment. The Acting CHAIR. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California?…”