Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. The gentleman says full time, but very frankly there wasn't participation by everybody in this full discussion. In fact, as I said last week and I will reiterate this week, because he hasn't changed his position, Ray LaHood, Republican, former chief of staff to the Republican leader in this House, former chairman of an appropriations subcommittee on the Republican side of the aisle, says: This is the most partisan transportation bill I've ever seen, and it is almost the most antisafety bill I've ever seen. It hollows out our number one priority, which is safety; and, frankly, it hollows out the guts of the transportation efforts that we have been about for the last 3 years. It is the worst transportation bill I've ever seen during 35 years of public service. Ray LaHood, Republican, Secretary of Transportation. Whatever time the gentleman has spent that he thinks exposing this bill, he didn't expose it on our side and he apparently didn't expose it in a way that reached bipartisan agreement from the Secretary of Transportation. I will tell you, I lament the fact, Mr. Leader, when I was the majority leader--the gentleman likes to refer to that--the transportation bill passed with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. Every transportation bill that I've seen in the 30 years I've been in the Congress of the United States has passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and it came out of committee almost unanimously.…”