Political Quotes

“I would hope that we may take advantage of revisiting this yet again to have a teachable moment here. My good friend from New Jersey talked about some of the problems of the Metro system. As a practical matter, many of those problems are the result of 40 years of an accumulated maintenance deficit and a lack of a long-term, reliable partnership with the Federal Government, exemplified by the irresponsibility of this amendment that is being proposed. The Federal Government is the primary beneficiary of Metro. Bear in mind these 68 square miles that represent the District of Columbia: 21 percent of the land is owned by the Federal Government, and a much larger percentage of the valuable land is tax-exempt; 30 percent of the jobs are Federal jobs even in these difficult times, and they're not paying taxes to the District of Columbia or to Metro; 40 percent of the rush-hour traffic is of Federal employees, and we suffer some of the worst traffic congestion in the United States in this region. We have a serious accumulated deficit for maintenance, and this was part of a bipartisan, long-term agreement to solve this problem and improve service and meet the Federal responsibilities. I appreciate the advocacy and the eloquence of my friends from Virginia and Maryland who have come to the floor and pointed out this responsibility.…”