On the recordFebruary 28, 2012
Well, let me say thank you to my friend. I know he is here to talk about judges, which is a critical issue. I am very happy he is going to do that. The lack of action on these qualified nominees is hurting our people. But I wanted to thank him for his comments. The Senator from Maryland, Mr. Cardin, is a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and has worked so hard, along with our invaluable staff, and provided an invaluable contribution to the Transportation bill. I guess the question I will get to is this one: With 2.8 million jobs on the line--that is 1.8 million jobs we have currently attached to a highway bill and then an additional 1 million jobs which will be created because of some of the work we did on TIFIA to leverage the jobs--does not my friend believe this is the time to move a jobs bill, when we are in the process of seeing this economy finally turn around? The turnaround is not as fast as we want, but does my friend believe the timing of this couldn't be better; and that if we pass this bill, which is so bipartisan, it will kick this economic recovery into higher gear?
