Tom Latham: “It takes $5 million from the DOT's Financial Management Capital account and puts it in Operations for Vehicle Safety.…”

“It takes $5 million from the DOT's Financial Management Capital account and puts it in Operations for Vehicle Safety. Let me say that there is no guarantee that DOT will use this money as the gentleman has talked about. {time} 2010 There's no dedication of funds here, obviously. First, this would eliminate half of the funds the DOT has to make sure its financial systems are current. I don't need to tell anyone here how critical it is that DOT's financial systems, which govern the accurate disbursement of many billions of dollars each year, need to be kept in a good working state. Second, this would increase the vehicle safety portion of NHTSA's operations. We're already giving this account $12 million more than last year, after it was frozen for the last 3 years straight. We simply don't need that additional increase. Again, with these funds, there's no way to dedicate them to distracted driving. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.”