Thomas Daschle: “I am grateful to them for producing a bill that merits strong bipartisan support. The debate on this bill is long…”

“I am grateful to them for producing a bill that merits strong bipartisan support. The debate on this bill is long overdue. We have already lost 90,000 jobs by our inability to pass the bill last October. At a time when we have lost 3 million jobs over the last several years, we cannot afford to keep losing jobs. We had the first meager job increase just last month with 1,000 jobs across the entire Nation. The importance we can put on job creation with this legislation should not be underestimated. If we ultimately pass a transportation bill into law, it is expected to create 830,000 jobs over the next 6 years. These would be good jobs for Americans, jobs in engineering, in the environment, in construction--good jobs in all States. In addition to jobs, there is another critical reason to be moving forward on this bill. Yesterday, there was a lot of talk about the $520 billion Federal budget deficit, a very troubling figure.”