Jim Inhofe: “as I was saying, we do have a lot of people who want to be heard on this bill. I believe I have said several times this…”

“as I was saying, we do have a lot of people who want to be heard on this bill. I believe I have said several times this could very well be the most significant vote we will have this year. It is a vote that we actually had last year. Senator Jeffords and I worked for 3 years on this bill, along with Senator Bond and Senator Baucus. The four of us have been shepherding this bill. Now it looks as if we are very close to getting a bill. Last year, our bill was funded at $318 billion. It was passed on to conference, and we lacked one signature of getting a conference report, so it did not happen. As a result, we are operating on our sixth extension. I know the occupant of the chair understands the significance of this. It means all the reforms we have in here, streamlining reforms, will not be a reality if we are not able to pass a bill, if we have to operate on a seventh extension. It means we are not going to have any help for the donee States. We will not have any help for the sparsely populated States. We are not going to be able to have the commission that is going to look into new ways of funding highways. We started off back in the Eisenhower administration. Since he started the national highways program, we have been funding them essentially the same way ever since, but this bill appoints a commission that is going to be creative and do a lot better job than we have done before. The formula--you always find someone objecting to the formula.…”