Political Quotes

“As the clock ticks down, May 31--18 calendar days and 6 legislative days away--is the expiration of the latest of now 24 short-term extensions that are testimony to Congress' inability to face up to America's transportation challenges. As I predicted last summer, States around the country are now cutting back on their summer construction projects because Congress has not met its responsibility for the transportation partnership. Why is it that five States have been able to raise the gas tax this year, 19 States have raised transportation revenues in the previous 2 years, and we in Congress are confused and in disarray? We have to think of elaborate mechanisms to enact short-term patches and not give America the certainty of a big, bold 6-year transportation reauthorization the country needs. Maybe it is because we never listened to the strong voices with real experience about those needs. It is past time to have that broad perspective. Maybe if we had 2 days of honest-to-goodness hearings like legislative bodies do in the States, like we used to do in Congress, it wouldn't be so hard. What if we invited Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, and Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber, who don't usually agree on much of anything, but do on this? Or, former Kansas Governor Bill Graves, who is not just president of the American Trucking Associations but was a Republican Governor who raised the gas tax not once, but twice.…”