[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H51]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DON'T TAMPER WITH HIGHWAY TRUST FUND

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, despite repeated warnings yesterday from 
groups as diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Ironworkers, the 
Laborers, the American Trucking Association, even the Motorcycle Riders 
of America, Republicans adopted a new rule which allows Congress to 
tamper with the transportation authorization fund and the highway trust 
fund. And despite the protests from the majority that it wasn't doing 
it, yesterday, UBS-PaineWebber put out a stock advisory that 
transportation construction companies were being downgraded because of 
the damage that the Congress did yesterday.
  Mr. Speaker, the transportation and construction sector of our 
country is in a depression. There is 25 percent unemployment. The last 
thing this country needs is to tamper with the highway trust fund. And 
yesterday, that's what the new majority did.
  The Democrats will fight to restore the transportation authorization 
fund, make sure that America has the transportation system that it 
needs, and get people back to work in the hardest-hit sector in the 
American economy.

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