Jim Inhofe: “Later on we are hoping we are going to have larger charts to be able to show one for every State, but this one which I…”

“Later on we are hoping we are going to have larger charts to be able to show one for every State, but this one which I will hold up--I hope everyone will be able to see it--if we take under TEA-21 the average in the State of Texas was $2.1 billion. That is the average of each year for a 6-year period. Starting in 2004, they would go up to $2.6 billion; 2005, $2.8 billion; 2006, $2.9 billion; and going on up at the end of 2009, it would be $3.6 billion, almost $3.7 billion, which is a huge increase, of course, over previous years. I recognize there will be a lot of States that are not going to be happy with their formulas. It is those people who try to find a better formula, after we put all of our resources together and spent a year doing this, who have had a very difficult time coming up with something that is going to be any better. Quite frankly, I spent some time in Texas. I held a field hearing in Texas. I talked to them and hopefully they are going to be very pleased with the massive increases, the percentage increase. For the State of Texas under this bill over TEA-21, the previous 6-year authorization bill, is 42 percent. Now the average increase is 35.6 percent. So Texas is way above the average increase and way above the average amount of the average States. I recognize there are problems with any formula, but those are some facts we are dealing with and things we had to consider. It is always difficult when representing 50 States, as we were in the committee.”