Bob Menendez: “the Davis motion to recommit increases the funding in this bill to the Senate level of $318 billion, and it does…”

“the Davis motion to recommit increases the funding in this bill to the Senate level of $318 billion, and it does something about donor-donee issues which we have heard a lot about here. Unlike the previous objection that was originally heard, the Senate bill, which is in essence the way in which the gentleman from Tennessee has constructed this, is a fiscally responsible bill. There is no new gas tax in it, so let us not be deceived. That increase to rise to the 318 is fully offset by what? By cracking down on abusive tax shelters and by preventing American companies from avoiding paying U.S. taxes by moving to a foreign country. It is not only fiscally responsible; it is responsible national economic development policy. It is going to create 1.8 million more additional jobs, and God knows we need those jobs in this country. And it is about national security policy. The bill is supposed to be about a legacy. Do we want it to be a legacy of congestion and deteriorating infrastructure? Or do we want it to be about increased productivity and more good-paying jobs? About a Nation that has the redundancy and multiplicity of transportation infrastructure to respond to national emergencies on the scale of what happened on September 11 where after so many different modes of transportation were shut down, there is still one available to get people out of downtown Manhattan over to New Jersey into hospitals?”