[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HIGHWAY BILL EXTENSION

  (Mr. RAHALL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we passed a fourth extension of 
the highway bill that expired last fall. That is all fine and good, but 
no longer can we leave the States holding the bag because of a veto 
threat from the Bush administration and a reluctance by the Republican 
leadership to lend the necessary investment that industry, commerce and 
the workers of this Nation want in our infrastructure.
  Investment in our infrastructure spells jobs. Tell me what is wrong 
with a bill that creates jobs. One would think that Mr. Cheney and Mr. 
Bush would jump on a chance to create jobs.
  Since the first day the Cheney-Bush leadership took over in 
Washington, 9.9 million private sector jobs have been lost. Today, 8.2 
million people are looking for work, and 4.7 million people are working 
part-time for economic reasons.
  Unfortunately, this highway bill has fallen victim to political 
differences within a divided Republican party. Even though we have had 
enough support to pass this bill since last year, the divided 
Republican party has held up passage of a fully funded bill for months.
  The President opposes congressional Republicans from both the House 
and the Senate. House Republicans are divided against each other. The 
President has even gone against his own Department of Transportation 
when they say what is necessary for investment in infrastructure in 
this country.

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