Political Quotes

“I deeply appreciate the comments of my good friend, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, with whom I have enjoyed working for 8 years now on the committee. I appreciate his commitment that we will have a hearing on transportation finance in September. I welcome that. I absolutely agree that people are all over the map. Some people want to get us out of the transportation system on a Federal level-- devolution--some want more resources, some want just to limp along. I look forward to having that conversation, but I would just make three brief observations. One is that it is true we are not scheduled to be in business in October. I think that, frankly, is wrong. I don't think we should recess to campaign when there are all these questions about transportation, and we could roll up our sleeves and actually be doing something. I, for one, would be happy to be here in October, working to avoid a cliff next May. Second, there is a $2 billion drafting mistake on the part of the Senate. These things are not unforeseen or unexpected. We have had experience with them in the past. I am quite confident, in a matter of minutes, we could work with the Senate and put the right language in, and we would be able to avoid that problem.…”