Political Quotes

“I, too, rise in opposition to Senator Lee's amendment. This amendment does not reform the Federal-aid highway system as we know it; it dismantles it. It eliminates the Federal funding that each of our States relies on to build, repair, and to maintain our Federal highways. It would strike the entire surface reauthorization in this bill before us and replace it with an interstate highway-only bill with top-line funding of less than $20 billion over 5 years. At a time when we already have some 45,000 structurally deficient bridges in our Nation, this amendment would leave American travelers at risk due to serious disinvestment. Senators have come together, Democrats and Republicans, to bring this infrastructure bill to the floor because we recognize that States are in need of serious investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. This is not a partisan issue. On the Environment and Public Works Committee, where Senator Capito and I lead, we voted unanimously to advance a highway bill out of committee on a unanimous vote--20 to nothing. That bill increases the top-line funding for our highway Federal programs by 34 percent to a little over $300 billion--the highest amount of highway funding ever authorized by this Congress--and it is much needed. Senator Lee's amendment would go in the exact opposite direction, unfortunately. It would reduce the funding in our bill to less than $20 billion. That is a cut of about 95 percent. The PRESIDING OFFICER.…”