[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 186 (Thursday, December 6, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H14449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE ENERGY BILL

  (Mr. MICA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, not only will the Americans 
receive a great surprise with a tax increase with the so-called energy 
bill that was just passed by the House of Representatives, and higher 
fuel costs; I want to announce, as the Republican leader on the 
Transportation Committee, you've also depleted the highway trust fund 
by some $2.1 billion in this measure.
  The Congressional Budget Office is already predicting a $5 billion 
deficit in the highway trust fund by 2009.
  Now, my friends in Congress, we can't keep this game up. 
Unfortunately, in the full year 2007 appropriations resolution that 
passed the House, we knocked another $3.47 billion and rescinded that 
from the highway trust fund, and another $3 billion recession from the 
highway program in the 2008 bill that passed the House recently.
  Unfortunately, the game being played with our Nation's highway trust 
fund has consequences, and we will pay.

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