David Thomas: “I want to, first of all, congratulate the chairman of the committee and the Senator from Montana, the ranking member, at…”

“I want to, first of all, congratulate the chairman of the committee and the Senator from Montana, the ranking member, at having done what I think is an excellent job with a most difficult issue, an issue where you take a vast amount of money that comes in from gas taxes and seek to put it into a formula that is fair to all the States, and yet adheres to the purpose of the thing, which is an interstate highway program that runs from coast to coast, that runs from Mexico to Canada, and that does all the things that an interstate program is supposed to do. So there does need to be some adjustment, in terms of the dollars, with respect to the various States. It is most difficult. I am here to support the bill. I think it is well done. Also, to remind Members that this committee has been working in this area for more than a year. This bill was brought to the Senate more than 2 months ago and passed, I think almost unanimously, and this proposition that comes before us today is very similar to what was passed here in the Senate.”