Political Quotes

“I applaud the Senator from West Virginia for his comments on ISTEA. I note--he may have noted this before I came on the floor--that the Washington Post today had an article by Eric Pianin speaking of the problems specifically, in the State of Vermont in getting this ISTEA money through. In our State--this also occurs in Maine and, obviously, in parts of the beautiful State of West Virginia--we have a very early fall and extremely late spring and heavy snows in between. We have a fairly short construction season. I hope that the majority leadership of both bodies will get this bill up, get it voted on, take the amendments up, vote them up, and vote them down to get it over with so that States--whether it is West Virginia, or North Dakota, or Vermont, or Arizona, or any other State represented by Senators now on the floor--could get on with this. I hate to think of the amount of money that would be wasted if this is delayed much longer, and then we have to scramble to get the contracts out. It is taxpayer dollars that get wasted where interests are not taken care of. The Senator from West Virginia has been on the floor several times already on this. He has certainly been diligent in meetings with other Senators off the floor. And I commend him for doing this. He is doing a service to the country.”