"I am saying that is why as soon as practicable physically and, you know, not something that meets their convenience or their capital outlays or whatever."
"Now earmarks got a bad name. I won't go into that for various reasons. And they were banned. Well, that was stupid."
"this was an attempt to restore what I always thought was a good principle, which is those who were elected from local areas better understand the needs of their constituents and their infrastructure t..."
"Last time I checked--and someone on the panel can probably correct me--the Corps had more than a $40 billion--``b,'' billion--backlog of critical infrastructure that needed repair or replacement. That..."
"Congress has not been forthcoming. How are we going to deal with the commuter railroads?"
"OK. So Congress denied you the money?"
"In fact, on the day of the accident, they cut $290 million from the capital budget of Amtrak."
"I certainly agree with you about the extraordinary importance to the concentrated population on the east coast of the United States on the use of this corridor on a daily basis in terms of the number ..."
"But the bottom line is, were you allocated the money or not?"
"Unfortunately, that is not shared by your Republican colleagues on the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee."
"If we are better prepared, if we invest in resilience, if we invest in the case of the west coast and an early warning system, we can save potentially thousands of lives and billions of dollars in inf..."