Steny Hoyer: “I thank the leader for that observation and hopefully we can, in fact, move on that. We not only passed it last week but…”

“I thank the leader for that observation and hopefully we can, in fact, move on that. We not only passed it last week but we passed it a number of times before that. Mr. Leader, I would simply observe on our side and, frankly, on your side that the Senate number is a number that I think our committee certainly and this House could well approve. {time} 2030 I know the President does not like that number, but very frankly, as the gentleman knows, our own committee almost unanimously on voice vote passed out an authorization figure at, I think, 375, so $80 billion more than the Senate-passed bill. I would certainly hope that the Congress could exercise its will. The Senate was at 218. We were at 284. Now it is a little bit in between that. I would hope that we could move this conference as quickly as possible. It has been held up a long time and has a significant consequence for jobs, as the leader knows, significant consequence for contractors, States, municipalities, localities, and we have been a long time waiting for this passage that is now some 2 years late. But I appreciate the leader's observation that we will appoint conferees next week, and hopefully perhaps the leader can help accelerate that conference so we can agree.…”