Political Quotes

“I want to thank Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, Congressman Walden, Congresswoman Herrera Beutler, Congressman Blumenauer, and others who worked to get to a point where we all could come to common agreement on this. The chairman included in this bill an important program called the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program. This program establishes a competitive grant opportunity for States, for metropolitan planning organizations, and for local governments to the tune of over $740 million annually. Mr. Chairman, this recognizes the fact that we have massive needs in transportation infrastructure that remain unaddressed. In my home city of Baton Rouge, you can see right here on this poster board, Mr. Chairman, that, for a midsized city, we have the worst traffic in the Nation. This is a snapshot of Google Maps taken just a few hours ago showing all the extraordinary traffic. Right here is one place in the Nation where the interstate going from California to Florida drops down to one lane. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that it is all red and shows extraordinarily backed- up traffic. An average of 47 hours a year folks from this region sit in traffic. What this amendment does is it actually provides criteria for the United States Department of Transportation to consider when awarding grants under this competitive program.…”