Political Quotes

“This is a clerical error that had to be corrected. The Appropriations Committee corrected it as related to the $139 billion. But the distinguished Senator from Alaska said, we had to take and change the law so that the balance of the money--money not requested by the administration or anyone else--could be distributed accurately and fairly. So we really have law No. 1, which is the 1991 law, and which we have been acting under for these several years, 5 years, under the ISTEA, 1991. We now have a proposed new law by the Appropriations Committee, a law arrived at without any participation in the normal process of drawing up an important statute like this--no hearings on it, simply cobbled together by the appropriators, hastily, not in consultation with the authorizers. And then we have a third law which, not in existence, is to be devised by this body after careful deliberation on a bill that will be forthcoming from the full Committee on the Environment and Public Works. That debate, which you have seen parts of today, will be extensive, as it should be. It will be thorough. And all Senators will have the opportunity equally to shape the third law, which will control the distribution for the next 5 years. Mr. President, my amendment simply says to the U.S. Senate: Let us follow the existing law in 1991, not accept a hastily put together law by the Appropriations Committee without participation by the full Senate.”