Michael Burgess: “Madam Speaker, it is somewhat ironic that here we are, almost poetic, like a line from a Robert Frost poem: on the…”

“Madam Speaker, it is somewhat ironic that here we are, almost poetic, like a line from a Robert Frost poem: on the shortest evening of the year, here we stand in the darkened wood, two roads diverge in front of us. This Congress should be over. This Congress should have been over a month ago. But here we still are, continuing to pass legislation that is going to affect the lives of Americans well into this decade. And you have to ask yourself: Why is it that we are here doing this at this time? Now, the bill before us is not necessarily bad policy. In fact, it was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. I voted in favor of that bill in 2005, and this reauthorizes a segment of it to deal with diesel emission reductions. And, all in all, it has been a good program. The chairman is right; the amount of appropriations that are being authorized has been reduced from what was originally prescribed under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and, all in all, that is a good thing. It is attributable to the fact that this has been a successful program and that its need going forward is less than what it was in 2005.”