Political Quotes

“We have talked about various ways we can make it in America, certainly the fair trade dealing with China's currency and the whole idea of competition. We have talked about the way in which we have to make sure that our tax laws support programs of hiring in the United States rather than off-shoring. In all of these things I would hope our Republican colleagues would come along with us to make it in America. But on maybe 20 different bills that we have moved out of this House, there has been virtually no Republican support. There are other opportunities, and we offer these opportunities to our Republican colleagues to come along with us on some other programs. A piece of legislation that I am working on deals with these buses that were once made in the Midwest, in Ohio, and are still made in California. Right now we spend about $6 billion of our gasoline tax money to buy buses, light rail trains, intercity rail systems for Amtrak and the like. In the law, there are four waivers that allow the Department of Transportation to ignore the Buy American rules, and so what has happened over the last 20 years or so is that those waivers are routinely used and transit districts simply buy buses that are made overseas. Our tax money flows out of the country, our jobs disappear, and our industry, the transportation industry, is almost gone. My legislation tells the Department of Transportation, no, no, those waivers are finished. Three of the four waivers are gone.”