Haley Stevens: “the highway reauthorization bill recently passed the Congress. It was several years in the making and the result of a…”

“the highway reauthorization bill recently passed the Congress. It was several years in the making and the result of a compromise. Now one of our colleagues feels it is his responsibility to rewrite portions of that bill to achieve his goals, not those that are expressed in the law itself. Unfortunately, the manner in which the Senator wishes to do this has no impact on his constituency or any other constituency except Alaska. I fought for statehood as a member of the Eisenhower administration. I have been here now almost 37 years. This is the first time I have seen any attempt by any Senator to treat my State in a way differently from any other State. It will not happen. It will not happen. I can remember many times when other Senators have stood on the floor and used parliamentary devices that kept people up for 2 to 3 days. This is not the way to treat a State. We are a sovereign State. If the Senate wishes to take part of the highway money and share it with New Orleans, we would be happy to join any other State. We would be happy to make a fair contribution in any other program. We have already notified our State that many of the things we have been able to get funding for in the past may not be available now for a period of time until we build the area affected by Katrina or Rita. Our State suffered the largest disaster in America preceding Katrina, the 1964 earthquake. I remember it well.…”