Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, at a time when Congress should be working together to make long-term investments in our crumbling infrastructure, today's T-HUD bill compromises our ability to meet the transportation needs of our local communities. This bill significantly cuts funding to one of the Nation's most vital transportation programs--TIGER grants. Even worse, this bill significantly changes TIGER grant eligibility to prevent the funding for public transit, bike, and pedestrian projects. The significant funding and eligibility changes this bill makes have left this important program without any teeth. It seems that ``TIGER'' is no longer a fitting name. Instead, we should be referring to this bill's National Infrastructure Investments program simply as ``kitten grants.'' TIGER grants support critical projects that are driving economic growth and job creation across America. This bill includes only $100 million for TIGER grants, which is a reduction of more than 80 percent from this year's funding level. This move is ridiculous given that the current funding level can't even keep up with the demand of an incredibly popular program. Already, in the current grant application round, the U.S. Department of Transportation has received nearly 800 applications that are requesting a total of $9.5 billion--a request of more than 15 times what can be awarded.…”