February 13, 2012

Rahall Statement on Administration’s Budget

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today released the following statement after the Administration unveiled its Fiscal Year 2013 budget:

“It was predictable that the arrival of the President’s budget on Capitol Hill would be met with partisan rhetoric and finger-pointing.  But given that it comes at a time when the Congress is poised to consider major legislation that could hold vast job-growing potential, I would hope that those negative energies would be invested, instead, in finding common ground.  We should recognize the value to the American public that comes from investing in our Nation’s infrastructure – in terms of job creation, public health and safety, and improving our overall quality of life. Transportation infrastructure should not be the focus of chest-beating budget cutters bent on playing to the Party galleries.  Rather we should join to try to address America’s current and future transportation and infrastructure needs.

“That opportunity is upon us.  The House of Representatives later this week will consider legislation that falls far short of the bipartisanship that has been a bedrock of transportation policy for decades.  Instead of moving our Nation forward, the Republican Leadership has cobbled together a surface transportation bill that will continue to divide Washington with controversial poison pills that serve no other purpose than to score political points with party extremists.

“My hope is that those on the other side of the aisle will put aside the partisanship that has, to this point, marred the surface transportation bill, and instead work with Democrats to make meaningful improvements to the bill to get Americans back on the job building a better future for our Nation.”

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