James Oberstar: “I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. The gentleman from Virginia has been very…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. The gentleman from Virginia has been very diligent and vigilant on deficit reduction and on careful investment of the public resources, as has the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Schauer), and there is no one who can exceed those qualities other than the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), a gentleman whose entire career has been one of public probity and clarity. As the gentleman from Michigan said, where he comes from and where I come from in northern Minnesota, where the gentleman from Virginia comes from, $107 million is real money. We could build 100 lane miles of new road at $1 million a mile in my part of the country. But being very clear, this is contract authority that is not going to be used. It's very clear it's not going to be used. The agencies have said they're not going to use it. But in the curious construct of our budget processes in both the executive branch and the legislative branch, on this side of the Hill and the other side of the Hill, that money can be used in an obscure fashion that it takes a very long time to explain to ordinary citizens. Say, in a passing comment in a Fourth of July parade, you can't plumb the depths of this curious budget process.”