Political Quotes

“I take this time to urge my colleagues to let us proceed on the reauthorization of the surface transportation act, S. 1813. This is a critically important bill, and I am proud to be on two committees that have had jurisdiction over this bill. One is the Environment and Public Works Committee, where Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe have worked together to bring out a bill that received the unanimous support of our committee. I also serve on the Senate Finance Committee, where Senator Baucus and Senator Hatch have worked together so we have the sufficient revenues in order to be able to finance the reauthorization bill during its 2-year reauthorization. This bill is so important to our country. First, it gives predictability to our State and local governments. It gives predictability to the highway engineers. It gives predictability to contractors to know the funding will be there in order to advance our transportation programs. When we do these short-term extensions, it really does cause significant problems for planners. If you are trying to plan a transportation project, you need to know the funding is going to be there for more than just a few months. You need to have some degree of predictability. This legislation will allow us to give that predictability to those who are involved in the decisionmaking. It has been 2009 since we last reauthorized the surface transportation act. It is time for us to act.…”