Bud Shuster: “A lot of what Mr. Hoyer said I agree with when it comes to moving a transportation bill. I think it is important to…”

“A lot of what Mr. Hoyer said I agree with when it comes to moving a transportation bill. I think it is important to America, and our infrastructure is the backbone of our economy. We all know, I think, that in many places in the country it's crumbling, and we here in Congress need to do our job. But this motion to instruct the conferees to accept the Senate bill in its entirety is contrary to the purpose of having a House and a Senate conference. I know my friend from Maryland has been one of the great defenders of this institution. To suggest that we should just up and take the Senate bill is a bit surprising to me that the gentleman would do that. As I said, he's been a real champion to make sure that the House maintains its position and he has always been a strong defender. {time} 1350 Also, I would just like to remind my Democrat colleagues, because we've been debating this bill for the past several months--my colleagues sometimes need to be reminded that when they controlled both the House and the Senate, they weren't able to get a bill out of full committee on any basis, partisan or bipartisan. So it has been a difficult road. And again, they saw the difficulties back when they were in the majority. But it's our responsibility to sit down with our Senate colleagues and address areas where we have differences of opinion.…”