Chuck Grassley: “I want to discuss a transportation bill that has been several years and several congressional sessions in the making.…”

“I want to discuss a transportation bill that has been several years and several congressional sessions in the making. For a very long time now, Senator Baucus and I have worked with the various authorizing committees to prudently fund the highway and transit programs. Of course, this has not been an easy process. But last year, we found a way to fund the programs in a way that enabled every State of the Union to bring home more money for needed transportation, particularly for highways. Let me repeat that because it is important. Every Member of the Senate, including those who complained about our funding mechanism, did better under our plan last year. This year we face a different set of challenges. There are conflicts that arose in last year's conference that are still with us. The conflicts spring from three principles that have proven very difficult to reconcile. I will lay out those conflicts. The first principle is to get a highway bill that is an improvement over current policy. That is where overwhelming majorities are in both the House and the Senate. We need adequate funding for our transportation infrastructure. We need to do our best to meet the job, economic development, and transportation needs of the country. The authorizers say improved policy requires more trust fund money. The second principle from conference is deficit reduction.…”