Political Quotes

“At the beginning of this discussion, the gentlewoman from Ohio talked about the wise use of our tax money, in this case in the water systems and the sanitation systems, to use that tax money for materials and products and machines that are built in America. That's but one example. It's a very good example, because we desperately need that infrastructure. It's the foundation for quality life, for healthy life, as well as for building our economy. There's another one that came to me in this process. Actually, today I had a telephone town hall, and a fellow said, you know, in Vallejo, California, the old shipyard at Vallejo, Mare Island Shipyard, has this huge building, and one of the European train companies is setting up a shop there. They don't know what they are going to do with it, but is there some way that you could help that company bring to Vallejo, California, and Mare Island jobs to refurbish trains? And my answer was, yes, absolutely. We have had a buy American provision in your tax money for years and years. There has also been in the law four waivers that Secretaries of Transportation have used repeatedly for more than 20 years now to waive off, forget about, ignore the buy America clause. So about $5 billion a year of our gasoline tax money is used not to buy buses and trains and light rail cars made in America, but rather made overseas.”