David Obey: “I intend to oppose the conference report and, if I have the opportunity, I intend to offer a motion to recommit. I do so…”

“I intend to oppose the conference report and, if I have the opportunity, I intend to offer a motion to recommit. I do so for the following reasons: Number one, this bill is a budget buster. It is a veritable pork bonanza. It now contains not the 1,500 special projects which we were told about yesterday. I am told that it now contains about 1,800 special projects. That is 80 percent more projects in 1 year than was provided by the Congress in the previous 42 years of the history of the Highway Act combined. There are projects in here that have been scrutinized by no one other than the Member who requested them. There are a number of projects that have nothing whatsoever to do with transportation. There is funding for museums, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, grants to medical schools, direct subsidy payments to private corporations, money paid to trade schools, renovations for historic buildings. A lot of that may be worthy, but it has no business in a highway bill. This bill actually authorizes a $120 million project for a highway in a foreign country, $120 million for a highway in Canada, paid for by U.S. taxpayers.”