Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to pass the extension of our major surface transportation legislation, that's H.R. 662. I would like to first lead off by informing Members and the Speaker that this extension is a spending freeze at 2010 levels through September 30. We find ourself in a situation where the major transportation legislation that authorizes all of the policies, the various projects, all the funding levels and all of the activities that are so important to job creation, to building the Nation's infrastructure, that legislation expired September 30, 2009. In the past Congress, since that time, we have passed a number of short-term extensions. We are now on the sixth extension of that legislation. What happens when the Congress does this is we end up sending the worst message and the worst policy possible across the Nation, across the land, to our States and our localities that are trying to build the Nation's infrastructure and trying to determine what Federal policy, what their partnership and funding relationship will be with the Federal Government. Right now, in a time in which across this Nation we are experiencing some of the worst unemployment, in my district I have some areas with 17 percent unemployment. And where is that unemployment? That's in the construction industry.”