William H. Frist: “I know we will be voting here in a couple of minutes, but I did want to rise in support of the Budget Act point of order…”

“I know we will be voting here in a couple of minutes, but I did want to rise in support of the Budget Act point of order against the pending substitute to the highway bill. I do commend the chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Gregg, for raising it. We do need to exercise fiscal discipline in the Senate. This bill is a good example. We all want to pass a strong highway bill. It will benefit our economy and will create millions of jobs across the country. As I have said on the floor many times, it will contribute to safety on our highways. It is long overdue. The previous bill, TEA-21, expired in September of 2003 and on six occasions we have had to pass extensions. The current extension expires at the end of this month and we need to get this bill to conference as soon as possible, in my mind, so we can resolve what differences exist between the House and the Senate bill and so the President can sign it as soon as possible. It should be clear to all of my colleagues the path to getting a bill signed into law will be smooth only if Congress stays within the spending parameters that have been laid out by the budget resolution we passed last month and by the President of the United States who must ultimately sign this bill. The budget resolution, as Chairman Gregg has noted, allowed for transportation spending over a 6-year period of $283.9 billion. We passed that budget resolution here in the Senate a couple of weeks ago, on April 28.…”