Political Quotes

“I rise in strong support of the DRIVE Act. I commend Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Boxer for their bipartisan work on this bill that passed out of the Environment and Public Works Committee with a unanimous vote. A long-term highway solution such as the DRIVE Act will provide our States with the certainty they need to advance major road and bridge projects. Passing a 6-year bill would be a great achievement for this Congress, especially in the context of our recent history, and I am hopeful we will seize this opportunity. Several years ago, as a member of the House Transportation Committee, I strongly supported the last long-term highway bill that helped support major roads in West Virginia and around the country. The 2005 highway bill was extended 10 separate times--10 times-- between 2009 and 2012. During that period, States were only assured Federal funding for a period of weeks or months, making lasting improvements to our highway infrastructure difficult, and it shows. As we saw between 2009 and 2012, several short-term extensions resulted in fewer and more costly fixes. In 2012, we passed MAP-21 to reauthorize the highway program for 2 years. I served as a conferee on that legislation. MAP-21 was a strong bipartisan achievement that included a number of important reforms to streamline project delivery and help States complete their projects more efficiently and economically, but ultimately MAP-21 was a 2-year bill.…”