Political Quotes

“Today is a historic day, as we are voting for a five year surface transportation reauthorization bill that provides critical investment to our roads and bridges. This will help keep America competitive and provide certainty to states and communities planning infrastructure projects. However, it is irresponsible that neither the House nor the Senate has worked on serious reforms. We have not adjusted the user fee for our infrastructure in 20 years or considered new, sustainable revenue streams. Instead, we have spent valuable time searching for short term gimmicks. Make no mistake; I am disappointed with the offsets in this bill. We should not be robbing the banks or Customs to pay for our roads and bridges. This is fiscally irresponsible. At some point, we have to say enough is enough. That time has come. We need a long-term, robustly funded bill. We missed an opportunity with this legislation, but we in Congress must work together to continue finding common ground on innovative ideas to ensure the Highway Trust Fund has a sustainable revenue source. We cannot allow our children and grandchildren to pay for the investments we should be making now. As a Conferee, I was happy to work with Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, and my Senate Colleagues on important roadway safety issues, such as preventing heavier trucks from driving on our local roads.…”