Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to speak to the highway bill today, legislation before us that hopefully by tomorrow we will report out of the Senate favorably and send it to the House of Representatives. My understanding is that the House will, sometime in September, report out their own version of the highway bill, hopefully a multiyear bill, in which case we would go to conference with them and hopefully get something we can get to the President on his desk that would be more than a short-term extension, but instead be something that provides the certainty that those who are involved in building roads and bridges and making sure that freight and people move across this country will have the infrastructure in place to do that, and that we can get about the process of creating jobs and growing our economy, which is what infrastructure is all about. I want to speak specifically to some of the rail provisions in the legislation. I want to say that thanks to the leadership of Senators Wicker and Booker and the bipartisan contributions of the members of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the legislation before the Senate today includes critically important provisions from the bipartisan Rail Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act that our committee passed by voice vote last month. This bill reauthorizes Amtrak through fiscal year 2019, while increasing rail safety, improving infrastructure, cutting redtape, and empowering local officials.…”