Political Quotes

“The answer to the gentleman's question is yes. And indeed--as I think the gentleman probably knows--the leaders of the relevant committees, Mr. Neal and Mr. DeFazio--Mr. Neal on the funding side, Mr. DeFazio on the substantive side of the policy with respect to infrastructure and transportation and other items that we think need to be included in infrastructure. We met with the President of the United States in April. Mr. Speaker, I will tell the gentleman, it is probably the most positive meeting that I have had with the President and that other members in the group had. This was Democrats and then the Secretary of Transportation was also there, Ms. Chao. And we talked about our joint commitment to infrastructure investment. We had suggested, as the President suggested during his campaign, that our target be $1 trillion over 10 years. In other words, a $100 billion a year, or on average, investment in infrastructure so that we will not only create a lot of American jobs, but also assure ourselves of being competitive with our competitors around the world in the 21st century. The President responded that he thought $1 trillion was too little and suggested a $2 trillion investment, i.e., doubling the $100 billion to $200 billion on average per year over 10 years. And we had discussion about that.…”