Don Nickles: “I wish to speak on the issue in the highway bill on which Senator McCain raised a budget point of order. I am not sure I…”

“I wish to speak on the issue in the highway bill on which Senator McCain raised a budget point of order. I am not sure I would have made it at this point, but a point of order is legitimate. Frankly, if you believe in sustaining the budget, if you believe in a budget, this bill isn't paid for, and the budget point of order is well made. I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of the budget point of order even though I am relatively certain it will not pass. I have tried to restrain myself on making budget points of order. I think it is important that points of order be sustained. I thank my colleagues because almost every time last year--about 60 times--budget points of order were sustained. As a result, we saved hundreds of billions of dollars in spending. Now we find ourselves confronting a highway bill. I compliment Senator Jeffords and Senator Inhofe for their leadership. They have worked very hard to put together a bill with allocations and formulas which are fair in meeting our Nation's highway and bridge needs. I understand those needs are great, indeed. I understand they want to increase employment. I concur with the objectives. They have worked long and hard to make that happen and to come up with the funding formulas. I don't think Congress has worked as long and hard on how to pay for it.”