Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. The 1-year timeline imposed on the jurisdiction ignored those unique legislative schedules, but the decision to withhold money as a punishment for missing an arbitrary deadline was announced at a time, ironically, when all three jurisdictions were, in fact, moving simultaneously to enact just such legislation, as was requested. This is no good deed going unpunished, Mr. Speaker, and the FTA did not publish its own toolkit, application, or program standard for the oversight program certification process until February 14 of this year, 4 days after they withheld the money punitively from those three jurisdictions. They couldn't meet their own deadline. As the House and Senate move to enact this joint resolution, I hope to renew my request of the Secretary of Transportation to reverse entirely the FTA's bad decision to block safety and maintenance investments that are so desperately and obviously needed here in the Metro system in Washington. I ask my colleagues to support the joint resolution before us today and to recognize that it is a big step forward in the region and in terms of bipartisan cooperation.”