Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy, and he is absolutely right. The passage of this rule and it's approach is not the only way to avert a shutdown. And, in fact, the bill moving forward here is precisely the wrong approach because, sadly, what's going to happen is it's going to bifurcate the construction cycle. There is work going on around the country that people want to move forward, and the approval of a 90-day extension means that people cannot plan for the entire construction cycle. If they take the gentleman's suggestion and approve the bipartisan Senate bill, there will be certainty, not just for this construction cycle, but the next year's construction cycle. It's frustrating to watch our friends on the other side of the aisle play chicken. Remember the FAA shutdown where the Republicans in the House refused to accept a bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly, 89 votes for the FAA? Instead they choose to leave town, putting out of work 70,000 construction workers and laid off 4,000 others in the FAA. {time} 0930 We don't have to play this sort of infrastructure chicken. Later today, we are going to consider the worst budget for transportation in anybody's memory. The Republican budget that will be decided later today calls for a 46 percent reduction in transportation funding. There isn't enough money in the Republican budget to even pay for the areas that are already obligated.…”