Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 76. This very important legislation grants congressional consent and approval to Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to enter into a compact under Article I, section 10 of the Constitution, establishing the Metrorail Safety Commission. Importantly, Federal transit funds have been suspended by the Federal Transit Authority until Congress grants its assent to these amendments to the WMATA compact, as H.J. Res. 76 would do. I want to thank my friend, the distinguished minority whip, Steny Hoyer, for taking the lead on this measure, and all of our colleagues in the Virginia and Maryland delegations and District of Columbia delegation for supporting it in such a strong, bipartisan, and cross- Potomac River fashion. I am proud to join them. Mr. Speaker, I did want to take a moment to say a word about the Metro system. WMATA is not just the Metro that serves the Washington area. It is truly America's Metro system. It is the second largest system in the Nation, behind only New York City. It is 117 miles long. It has 91 stations, and it includes more than 12,000 employees. It is critical to the functioning of the Federal Government because it moves more than 40 percent of the Federal workforce every day to and from work and also during the day for various missions that people go on during the normal workday. It is essential to national security.…”