James Oberstar: “Mr. Speaker, this is an embarrassing time for members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure because a…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is an embarrassing time for members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure because a bill that is supposed to improve traffic is now stuck in traffic. In Ohio, where I am from, we always joke about the fact that our State flower is the orange barrel or the orange cone. We do not have that going on in Ohio now, but construction projects all across the country are stuck in traffic. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) have correctly stated all the statistics and figures about why this is an important bill to keep America moving, why it is important for jobs. The last time we did this extension I talked about that AASHTO came up with an estimate that if we had done our work and if this bill signed into law before the last bill, TEA-21, expired on September 30, we would have 90,000 jobs in the economy already, we would have $2 billion of investment, and every extension that we have to come to the floor and ask for continues that.”