Political Quotes

“this has been an illuminating discussion to an admittedly complex question. So, without being redundant, I will step back to see if we can sort out what are the issues in agreement and what are the issues upon which we disagree. One area in which there is agreement, agreement both in the underlying supplemental appropriations bill and in the amendment that is offered by my colleague from Virginia, myself, and others, is that the $139 million, which was an admitted error of arithmetic basis in the Department of the Treasury, should be corrected. There are States which received less funds than they should have received because of that admitted error. I think there is virtual unanimous agreement that we should correct that error. We will do so. Whichever position we take on this amendment, $139 million will flow to those States which were the object of that inadvertent omission. The second question upon which there is agreement is that the total funds for surface transportation should be increased in this supplemental appropriations bill beyond the $139 million, and there is basic agreement that the amount of that increase should be approximately $800 million.”