Political Quotes

“Madam President, thank you for allowing me to offer this amendment today, and I thank my colleagues from Maine and Washington State for agreeing to work with us on this important amendment. I also thank them for the way they are conducting this appropriations bill by allowing amendments to come forward and having debate. This amendment is one that I think will be relatively noncontroversial. This is an amendment to the underlying Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. It simply says that our nation's bridges that need repairs the most ought to be prioritized. There are bridges that are classified by the Federal Highway Administration as ``functionally obsolete'' or ``structurally deficient,'' and we want to be sure they receive priority consideration under the section of the bill that provides for Bridges in Critical Corridors. This is a fund that is established under the appropriations bill. In this way, we are helping to ensure that fund in question actually accomplishes its objective. We all know the Federal Government's highway trust fund dollars are stretched very thin and, frankly, there are not enough dollars that are making their way to the core infrastructure needs we have in this country. In fact, in 2008, the fund got in trouble, and since that time it has been bailed out four times from the Treasury's general fund, and a fifth bailout is now scheduled for fiscal year 2014.…”