Dan Burton: “this historic bipartisan legislation restores the word trust to the Highway Trust Fund. For years the Congress has spent…”

“this historic bipartisan legislation restores the word trust to the Highway Trust Fund. For years the Congress has spent money dedicated to Highway Trust Fund on wasteful government programs, at the expense of our National transportation infrastructure. A trust fund is exactly that, a trust fund. Whether it is the Transportation Trust Fund or the Social Security Trust Fund, we need to restore the trust. In addition, BESTEA, goes a long way towards restoring funding equity to donor states like Indiana. The historic shortfall and inequity in Federal transportation funding in Indiana has left Hoosiers with an old, congested, and inadequate infrastructure. Allowing the gasoline taxes paid by Hoosiers to be spent in Indiana will allow Indiana to modernize our transportation infrastructure for the 21st century. This legislation distributes funds more equitably among States under the revised funding formulas. I want to thank and commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member Oberstar and the Members of the Committee for their hard work and encourage them to fight to maintain the equity levels in this bill when this legislation is debated in conference.”