Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, I came earlier today and offered the amendment that just failed to the leadership on the majority side in…”

“Mr. Chairman, I came earlier today and offered the amendment that just failed to the leadership on the majority side in an effort to try to work with the majority leadership to improve this bill. There is not a person in this House who believes that this money should be used to build streets, roads or highways. There is not a Member of this House who believes that the funds under this bill ought to be used for highways, roads or streets. And I tried to offer this amendment in such a way just to clarify that issue. And I won the voice vote. During the course of the debate on the rule, I pointed out to the Members of this body and to the American people that the time required to come over here and vote on an amendment is included in the 10 hours of public debate time that is allocated for this bill. Immediately before I had offered my amendment, the other side had just agreed to an amendment similar to this. So I am beginning to wonder here what is going on in this body.”