Bud Shuster: “I wish the gentleman from California would have shown that kind of passion when the stimulus bill was passed 2 years ago…”

“I wish the gentleman from California would have shown that kind of passion when the stimulus bill was passed 2 years ago and had come to the floor and said that the stimulus bill should be an infrastructure bill. There was only a very, very small portion--I think about $68 billion of that $800 billion stimulus package--that went to the infrastructure of this country. Where was the gentleman when that outrage was happening? If you want real stimulation--and we believe this stimulates the economy in that this helps put concrete on our roads and repairs our bridges and puts people to work--this bill will do that, a 5-year bill. An 18-month bill is not going to put any kind of certainty out there. I correct myself. It will create certainty. The certainty is that it will bankrupt the trust fund in less than 2 years. Our bill that we've been trying to pass here, a 5-year bill, that's what the people back in the States want. To the gentleman from Oregon, I'm surprised. He has been a long-time member of the T&I Committee and knows that a long-term transportation bill is better for the States, that it's better for the folks who build roads and employ people, and that that's what we need here. That's what we're trying to get at.”