Judd Gregg: “The TEA-21 total cost for 1998 to 2003 was a $218 billion bill. That included highways at $167 billion, transit at $41…”

“The TEA-21 total cost for 1998 to 2003 was a $218 billion bill. That included highways at $167 billion, transit at $41 billion, and safety and motor carriers at $10 billion. A straight 6-year extension of that would have been a $243 billion bill, with highways at $190 billion, transit at $49 billion, and safety and motor carriers at $3.4 billion. The administration's proposal was originally a $248 billion bill, with highways at $195 billion. SAFETEA, which is what is on the floor now, is a $318 billion bill, with highways at $255 billion, transit at $56 billion, and safety and motor carriers at $7 billion. The House, which is talking about marking up its own bill, is at $375 billion allegedly, with highways at $293 billion, transit at $82 billion--and it is not really clear yet what the safety and motor carrier number is, but it is pretty obvious if the House is over our number as we are taking this bill up on the floor, we are not talking about a conference that is going to come back to the budget number. So our one opportunity to enforce the budget, to have fiscal discipline, and to not significantly aggravate the deficit is this vote that is going to come up on the issue of waiving the budget. I certainly hope we will stand with the Senator from Arizona as he tries to enforce some fiscal discipline on this bill which, remember, if the budget number is put in place on this bill, it will be a 19-percent increase. We are not talking about cutting spending.”