Political Quotes

“I appreciate the fact that we can work on a bipartisan manner. I look forward to doing that. I know that Mr. DeFazio looks forward to doing that; I know Mr. Shuster looks forward to doing it-- both very, very positive Members of this body. I will tell the gentleman, I am somewhat concerned, however, about rumors that I have heard that we are looking at, perhaps, a short-term patch. The problem, as the gentleman so well knows, with a short-term patch is it does not allow for the kind of planning that is necessary in terms of significant infrastructure projects, which require some significant lead time. Does the gentleman know whether or not we might be considering at least a 5-year or at least a longer term, maybe even as long as a 7- year authorization? Or are you contemplating that we, in May, would do another short-term patch? As you know, we Democrats opposed May 31. We wanted a longer extension. The House and the Senate agreed on a short-term patch--or short-term May 31 deadline. Does the gentleman have any expectations that we have the possibility of doing a 5-year or longer, so that the States and communities can plan on a long-term basis, as opposed to a very short-term basis? I yield to my friend. Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding. No decisions have been made at this point. This could be a prime example, just like our work on SGR. As a personal note, I would like to solve these problems in the long term. There is no reason to come back to it.…”