Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and ranking member and the conference committee, for what I think is a victory today. I think this reauthorization bill is one of the most important responsibilities we have. It's a jobs bill. It will bring efficiencies to our funding stream for very important projects, and it will remove a lot of uncertainty. As a member of this committee, I'm really, really pleased that we were able to come to a compromise. The efficiencies and the streamlining, when the chairman brought the committee to Yeager Airport, that was one of the resounding complaints about current funding in the transportation sector is it takes too long, it's too expensive, and time is money. And we can do a lot better job with more efficiencies and make our dollars go farther. And with hard deadlines and some exemptions, I think that this bill will do that. There are a couple of provisions in here that I regret were not included, and most specifically, the provision on the coal ash provision. I mean, we're looking at a time where we have scant resources. We have to make smart decisions about how to weave the balance between our environment and our economy; and the coal ash provision would have provided, I think, the certainty to the construction industry and to those surrounding, also, the coal industry that smart use and responsible use of coal ash would be in our future.…”