Political Quotes

“Well, Mr. Altmire, you're raising the San Francisco Bay Bridge fiasco, which is one that gets the adrenaline flowing in California because the State of California decided they would put it out to bid. And there were two bids that came out by the same contractor. One was a bid that said the steel would be coming from China and the other was a bid that the steel would be coming from America. So that is not just the steel, but the formation of it and the structure itself. So the Bridge Authority, in its infinite wisdom, decided to go with the 10 percent cheaper. Well, be careful if it's too good to believe. In this case what happened is the steel was manufactured in China. The bridge sections were welded together there. And it turns out that the welds were faulty; the inspections were faulty; the steel was not up to, and the overruns were well more than the 10 percent savings. Not only that, but you're employing some several thousand Chinese steelworkers. And mills in China are just revved up to get the steel going, and the mills in America shut down and American bridge and ironworkers were out of a job. We cannot let that happen anymore. And so, as this transportation bill moves forward, one of the key elements in it--and this is being proposed, I understand, by Mr. Rahall, and I think you want to talk about this in more detail--is that, associated with the program, not only is there more revenue and better in dealing with the issues that Mr.…”