Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As for the ideas that are being thrown back and forth here tonight about highway safety and driver safety, the advocates for highway and auto safety who are looking at this bill and evaluating this bill include the Teamsters and the Short Line Railroad Association. My own highway patrol in North Carolina came to see me; they came on their own volition, and they had pictures, Mr. Chairman, of carnage on our highways. It left no doubt that they were not interested in seeing heavier and longer trucks and relaxed rules on our highways. I suggest that Members might want to check in with safety advocates and with law enforcement in their own States and see what kind of assessments they get of this highly irregular effort that is going on here tonight of writing into appropriations bills provisions that haven't had hearings, that haven't had thorough evaluations. In some cases, they overturn evaluations that are already in the process--evaluations that this body has ordered up--prejudging the consequences and the conclusions of those studies and are moving ahead with ill-advised relaxations in truck and auto safety. I suggest that Members will want to take a critical look at that. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time. {time} 1945”