James Oberstar: “I was so troubled by the remarks of the gentleman from Texas, for whom I have great respect. I think he was making more…”

“I was so troubled by the remarks of the gentleman from Texas, for whom I have great respect. I think he was making more of a political argument than a substantive discussion of the matter at hand. In December, the House passed the Jobs for Main Street bill. It included the piece that is before us today. That measure went over to the Senate. It was held up in its entirety, and in the specific that we are dealing with today, by a hold, a series of holds, and then a filibuster by the Senator from Kentucky. Eventually, the Senate overcame that filibuster. This measure, this $15 billion, has been before the Congress for 22 months. It is no surprise to anyone. The measure before us does what Republican leadership did with our support on this side on SAFETEA-LU in 2004 and 2005; 12 extensions of current law, 12 extensions, in order to muster the support we needed, in order to buy the time necessary to pass the 5-year surface transportation bill. This measure before us provides $77 billion for a 15-month extension of current law. It restores the $8.7 billion rescission that was required in SAFETEA-LU, at the insistence of the Bush administration, which required, for the President's signature, a rescission at the end of the 5-year period, and that occurred September of 2009. That meant that programs were underfunded, that is, underfunded below the authorization level of SAFETEA-LU, for the past several months. The bill restores that funding level.”