Dave Camp: “I would add to the gentleman from Alaska's remarks by saying the Ways and Means Committee proposed a tax reform…”

“I would add to the gentleman from Alaska's remarks by saying the Ways and Means Committee proposed a tax reform discussion draft that actually funded the highway trust fund for 8 years. Now my friends on the other side would like to shorten this temporary measure, which goes through the end of May, to just go through the end of December, and that is wrong for a couple of reasons. First, the Senate bill that is being considered has the same length of time as the current House bill, so that would be out of step with the direction that the Senate is trying to go. We are obviously trying to form a bipartisan, bicameral piece of legislation here. The second is that, if we only were to pass this along for a few months, all of the problems that the Members on the other side talked about would only be made worse, that is, there would not be the ability to plan over the winter, for example, for spring construction projects. To just extend it for a few months, again, makes it so temporary and so short that you would immediately have companies, States, employers hedging their bets on whether funding is going to continue after that time. The construction season isn't just in the good months of the year, it also goes through the winter, and that is why it is so important that we get through the end of May to June 1 to give the Congress time to really come up with a long-term solution, which clearly everyone prefers on both sides.…”