Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the transportation reauthorization conference report, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act or ``MAP-21'' (H.R. 4348). Madam Speaker, I was honored to be appointed as a member of the conference committee, and I was ready to negotiate in good faith to craft a bill that we could all be proud to support. Unfortunately, the process by which this conference was conducted over the last couple of weeks is a cause for concern and was tarnished by a lack of transparency and bipartisan collaboration. House Democratic conferees were shut out of the final negotiations. Our committee staff was not even allowed in the room. The bill text wasn't made available until 4 a.m. yesterday morning, so we have had a very limited amount of time to review the details of this legislation. Yesterday morning, I declined to sign the conference report simply because I could not endorse a product without an adequate understanding of all of its contents, and of the full impact to New York. Our Senate counterparts appear to have struck a compromise including some important victories, as well as concessions of concern. The final package will provide at least $105 billion over the next two years for highway and transit programs, putting thousands of people to work at a time when we desperately need jobs.…”