Political Quotes

“I recently returned from a weekend visit to the metropolitan areas of Seattle and Miami, where I had an opportunity to visit with a wide array of individual citizen activists, academics, journalists, government officials, health professionals, people who are struggling with a variety of issues to make their communities livable. I was struck, Mr. Speaker, by the fact that those conversations were identical in those two communities, separated by our continent, and in fact would be indistinguishable from conversations that I have in my own hometown of Portland, OR. They are wrestling with notions of public safety, affordable housing, water resources, open space, how to make the most out of scarce land use resources, and, most of all, the defining issue they felt was one of transportation. It was a timely series of conversations, Mr. Speaker, because we are now dealing with the reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Act.”