John Mica: “As we consider before the House H.R. 1195, I want to express my support for this legislation. And, first off, I'd like…”

“As we consider before the House H.R. 1195, I want to express my support for this legislation. And, first off, I'd like to thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Oberstar, for his work and efforts, for his staff; Mr. DeFazio, who chairs the Highway Subcommittee; and also Mr. Duncan on our side of the aisle. Now, I know that this bill's being here didn't come by accident. As you heard, this has passed the House at least four other times. A great deal of credit for the achievement in bringing this legislation forward also must go to the former Chair of the committee, the distinguished gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young). Mr. Young worked closely with Mr. Oberstar in crafting legislation to deal with some of the needed changes that were necessary. When you pass a, I think it was, $286 billion transportation and highway transit authorization bill, there are always technical corrections that are needed. It's almost impossible to pass a bill of that magnitude with that many numbers, that many projects, and not come back and make adjustments, both in some of the formulas that are required and also in some of the requests from Members. So this is part of the process. One of the most important things, as people also ask us what we are doing to move the economy forward, I think it's absolutely essential that our transportation and infrastructure projects move forward.”