Political Quotes

“I appreciate that generous comment, which is typical of my friend from Virginia, with whom I was pleased to join as an original cosponsor of what we call step 21. Step 21 had as a central goal to provide that, of those funds which came into the Federal highway trust fund, 95 percent of those funds would be returned to the contributing States, thus leaving 5 percent of the total to be available to meet national needs as determined by this Congress. When we were debating step 21 and the various alternatives for the Federal highway program, it was determined that there was not an adequate amount of money left to meet national needs, if 95 percent was returned to the contributing State. So two changes were made. One change was to lower the percentage from 95 percent to 90 percent, and the second was to change the base upon which the percentage was applied from the amount that each State contributed to the fund to the amount which each State received from the fund for formula programs, which now is that approximately 91 to 92 percent of all of the funds which will be distributed will come through one of these formula programs.”