Thomas E. Petri: “I would just like to make several points. First of all, I have watched one-minutes sometimes and hear the spin people…”

“I would just like to make several points. First of all, I have watched one-minutes sometimes and hear the spin people are trying to give to this Congress. Some Members are saying we are a do-nothing Congress. And then Members are stepping forward and saying we should not do something. We are trying to meet a major need of our country by passing this bill at an appropriate time, as asked by the national Governors who wanted us, if we possibly can, to get this done so that they can go forward with their construction seasons and plans this summer by May 1. If we had some assurances that the budgeteers would act in a reasonable and timely way, that is one thing. But knowing how these things work around here, they are not going to, I do not think. We do not have any assurance that we will have a budget resolution passed and ready to guide Congress by May 1 or thereby. We will be lucky, last year I think it slipped into June or July. So that means if we waited for this process, we are into September or October and Congress will be gone. This is saying we do not want to address the needs of the country. We do not want to deal with the donor State question in this Congress. That is what it is saying. They want to be a do-nothing Congress, not a do-something Congress. I think that is just plain wrong. I have some suggestions for our budget friends as they say where we can find this money. We are giving up $9 billion, writing it off the debt of the United States.”