On the recordDecember 3, 2015
As I was saying, Federal bureaucrats divert at least 25 percent of State gas tax dollars to nonhighway projects, including mass transit, bike paths, and other boondoggles such as vegetation management. Federal Davis-Bacon price-fixing regulations then artificially inflate construction costs by at least 10 percent, and Federal environmental regulations, such as those issued under the National Environmental Policy Act, add an average of 6.1 years in planning delays to any federally funded project. I understand that Washington is not ready for a more conservative approach to infrastructure funding--at least not yet--one where States get to keep their transportation dollars and decide how and on what they will spend those dollars, free from interference by Federal regulators. We can have honest disagreements from policy, and I know there is more work to do in making the case for conservative transportation reform, but what I refuse to accept is the toxic process that produced this bill--the backroom deals, the about-face on crop subsidies, and the Export-Import Bank. The American people deserve better than this, and I won't stop fighting to ensure that we do better than this in the future. I thank the Presiding Officer. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
