Cord Byrd: “we have completed today what I consider to be one of the most remarkable group of meetings that I have participated in…”

“we have completed today what I consider to be one of the most remarkable group of meetings that I have participated in during my nearly 40 years in the Senate. Those meetings were called by the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Lott. What brought us to the meetings were these circumstances: A 6-year highway authorization bill had been reported to the floor. Numerous Senators came to me and said to me, ``Senator, we need more money.'' I am not on the Environment and Public Works Committee. I am not on the Budget Committee. So I suppose I am a player who, in a way, has just come in from the outside. But working with the distinguished Senator from Texas, Mr. Gramm, whose amendment in the Finance Committee last year effected the transfer of the 4.3-cent gas tax into the highway trust fund, he and I and Senator Baucus and Senator Warner joined together in an amendment which would have provided $30.9 billion in additional contract authority for highways and bridges.”