Earl Blumenauer: “They have stepped up, they approved local initiatives. The gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is on the Committee on…”

“They have stepped up, they approved local initiatives. The gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is on the Committee on Resources that has been working with the interesting leadership of the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) to craft CARA, which is currently dead in the Senate, because the Republican leadership will not allow it to be voted on, that passed here overwhelmingly with bipartisan support; but in Texas, the governor appointed a commission to look at it and then would not support that commission's efforts to solve the problems. They wanted to remove a cap on the sporting goods tax to increase their revenues. He did not support the proposal. The measure died. He created this task force and ignored the request for additional funding. A year ago on the campaign trail, Governor Bush did not even know how to respond to a question about the CARA legislation. He did not know whether he supported it or not. He certainly has not added his voice to try and break the partisan gridlock on the part of the Republicans in the Senate right now so he could get CARA through this Chamber.”