Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank my good friend, the ranking member, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the majority has turned virtually its only…”

“I thank my good friend, the ranking member, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the majority has turned virtually its only congressional policy, tax savings, on its head with useless short-term transportation bills and extensions. Their short-term policy on the Nation's highways, bridges, and transit has simply transferred the transportation tax burden to the State taxes of their constituents. Twenty-one States and the District of Columbia have raised their gas user fees--six since July 1--Iowa, Wyoming, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, District of Columbia, South Dakota, Idaho, Georgia, Nebraska, and Vermont. {time} 1445 States going in that direction are Michigan, North Carolina, Utah, and Washington State. States also considering user fee increases are Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, and South Carolina. That makes almost half the States that Congress has driven to State taxpayers alone, States that have nothing in common except the desire to keep their transportation infrastructure, the key to a growth economy, from completely disintegrating. Meanwhile, the Representatives in Washington have continually failed to pay their part, on the average, about 50 percent of the costs of State infrastructure with Federal dollars, yet the Federal dollars are only a pass-through that goes right back to the States.…”