Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Ronald Reagan was the last President to raise the Federal gasoline tax to support transportation programs when he signed the Surface Transportation Act of 1982. He justified the gas tax increase as necessary to pay for needed investments in building and maintaining our Nation's surface transportation infrastructure and to help jump-start an economy that was then also stuck in a recession. He referred to the highway bill as a ``jobs'' bill to promote economic growth. Since that bill was signed into law back in January of 1983, Republican-controlled Congresses have allowed the highway fund to go bankrupt, necessitating multiple infusions from general funds to allow it to limp along with short-term extensions of current law. Today, some within this Chamber won't even support a Federal transportation bill at current funding levels, as if the crumbling interstates and growing list of structurally deficient bridges are no longer a Federal responsibility. Instead, they insist on including unrelated measures like the Keystone XL pipeline that is designed to stall completion of even a modest, multiyear transportation authorization. Mr. Speaker, the Keystone XL pipeline should have nothing to do with the transportation bill and will have no impact on gasoline prices despite what its advocates claim. Today, there is already an estimated 20-year excess capacity of oil pipelines from Canada to the United States.…”