Political Quotes

“I am pleased to join my friend and colleague, Senator Barrasso, to speak on behalf of the nomination of Nicole Nason to serve as Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Ms. Nason is currently serving as the Assistant Secretary for Administration at the State Department. Right now, though, there is no Administrator leading the Federal Highway Administration. In fact, it has been more than 2 years since we had an Administrator in charge at that important Agency. The last time our country went this long without top leadership at the Federal Highway Administration was more than 100 years ago, back when the Agency was known as the Bureau of Public Roads. Henry Ford had just introduced the Model T, and the idea of speedy and safe transcontinental travel was still outside of our imagination and even further from being realized. Today the Federal Highway Administration oversees more than 220,000 miles of our National Highway System and some 145,000 bridges. The sad truth is, many of these roadways and many of these bridges are in poor, in some cases, even dangerous condition, having been in use far beyond the intended duration of their original design. Moments from now, when Ms. Nason is confirmed--and I hope she will be confirmed--to be our Administrator, I think she is going to inherit responsibilities and political realities far more challenging and complex than perhaps all of her predecessors. As our next Administrator, Ms.…”