[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9240]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    LET'S PASS A TRANSPORTATION BILL

  (Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. The American public deserves better. They 
deserve more from their Congress. The sacrifices that so many millions 
of Americans have given, whether it's in military service or service to 
this Nation, to allow us to stand here and self-govern ourselves needs 
to be repaid with maybe the words of Daniel Webster above us up there: 
Let's do something great in our time. The differences this Nation has 
is what makes us strong--differences of opinion. But compromise and 
common purpose is the glue that hold us together.
  If there's anything that we can agree upon, it's that this Nation 
should have a world-class transportation system to move people and 
goods in an efficient, effective manner. And we're sitting here not 
passing a transportation bill. We have never had this problem in this 
Congress. The last five transportation bills have passed with an 
average of 375 bipartisan votes. We have a bill that passed the Senate 
100 days ago that passed with a 74-22 vote. I'm not sure they can agree 
it's Tuesday in the Senate, and they compromised on a transportation 
bill.
  I urge my colleagues here, either get the compromise done this week 
or bring the Senate bill forward and let us vote up or down to put 
America back to work and do something great in our time.

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