Judd Gregg: “I rise again as we proceed on the bill to present my concerns about where we are in the process relative to the highway…”

“I rise again as we proceed on the bill to present my concerns about where we are in the process relative to the highway bill and relative to the management of the Federal budget. The bill before the Senate with the proposed amendment which I believe has been offered, the substitute, creates a significant increase in funding and spending in the area of highways. Many Members support transportation improvements. I have always supported having a strong transportation program because it is critical to our infrastructure. But in doing that, we have to do it within the context of managing the budget correctly. We cannot simply put money into programs because we like them without doing it in the context of what the budget limitations are and what the various income is in the trust fund that would pay for these activities. The highway bill has always been a trust fund--not always--a trust fund-generated event, where the gas tax and other taxes that are highway related and transportation related are collected and spent for the purposes of building infrastructure.”