Harry Reid: “first of all, to show how unrelated the statements are to reality, we couldn't have gone to conference 11 weeks ago. The…”

“first of all, to show how unrelated the statements are to reality, we couldn't have gone to conference 11 weeks ago. The House didn't pass the bill until the first part of April. The bill has been passed for 3 weeks. So there is no 11 weeks. That is certainly not a valid statement. I repeat: We need to pass this 2-month extension in an effort to get this bill moving. If we don't pass a 2-month extension, 5,000 people are going to be laid off starting Saturday. This is no joke. This is not hyperbole. This is a fact. People will be laid off and construction projects around the country will come to standstill. We can talk about the fact that in previous months we have enacted into law many pieces of legislation. We have entered into law 60 pieces of legislation without a conference. We have preconferenced them. We can do that on the highway bill.”