Political Quotes

“I am pleased that after 55 months in control, my Republican friends have scheduled their first hearing on transportation and finance. This is a very important, very welcome development, as welcome as it is long overdue. I appreciate my friend, Paul Ryan, the chairman of the committee, keeping his word that we would actually have a hearing. Now, the question is whether this is going to be one that is more or less perfunctory, sort of a plain vanilla, or whether it is going to be the start of a critical dialogue involving not just ideologues, but the people who do more than just study the issue, hear from the vast army of people who plan, build, maintain, and use our transportation infrastructure. Theirs is a unique, shared, forceful vision. Congress should spend the time not just to listen to those stakeholders, but to understand how they got to where they are and what we need to do. We shouldn't settle for half steps to just get past the next transportation deadline, which is looming next month, which would be the 34th short-term extension. Just as bad or worse, we would fail to give the country the bold transportation investment that is so sorely needed. The next hearings are even more important following next Wednesday's effort. That is the time to actually follow regular order, to debate real options. I have introduced a path. After 20 years of working on transportation funding, it is still the simplest, the best, and the most widely supported.…”