“The highway bill has traditionally enjoyed support on a very bipartisan basis. Today that isn’t true. This is such a partisan bill and a very inferior piece of legislation.
“I quote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:
“’This is the most partisan transportation bill that I have ever seen.’ And, ‘It’s the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.’
“The highway bill having bipartisan support has done so because it invests in roads and bridges and transit and that means jobs that help build our economy. It was interesting to read what Speaker Boehner had to say, ‘We are not making the claim that spending taxpayer money on transportation projects creates jobs. We don’t make that claim and we won’t make that claim.’
“He then went on, ‘Whether we like it or not, the reality is that dealing with our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is part of the responsibility of governing.’
“What’s happening is the rigid ideology of Republicans, on this and other issues, is tying the Speaker and the House into knots.
“That’s especially unfortunate since we need to move ahead on jobs. We just received this morning the latest numbers of jobs and unemployment. Last month, 250,000 jobs were created in the private sector and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent. We need to keep moving in the right direction.
“What’s happening in this bill undermines the very structure of the highway trust fund by eliminating guaranteed funding for transit and replacing it with monies from the general fund.
“They are also undermining the trust fund structure by using revenue unrelated to transportation, and indeed outside this committee’s jurisdiction.
“Mr. Chairman, what the speaker said about this not being a jobs bill and then saying we have to meet our responsibilities flies in the face of the fact that investing in infrastructure means jobs. Ask the Chamber of Commerce. Ask the National Association of Manufacturers.
“To bring up a bill that as the Speaker claims doesn’t take taxpayer money and doesn’t create jobs is indeed very troubling.
“I think what we need to do is to redo this transportation bill it in the bipartisan tradition once again. I urge that we reject this bill and start over on a bipartisan basis."
