Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, what are we writing here, a new Magna Carta? They have had 4 years, for crying out loud; and we still don't have legislation in front of us.

It has been 2 months since we were last here. We had a lot of talks 2 months ago about how bad extensions are for transportation planning and policy, how the last extension was going to be the last extension. Nothing has changed.

You keep on talking about the anxiety over tax reform and tax change. What about the anxiety that the American people and the contractors and workers have of getting our roads and highways and airports up to snuff? The bill before us today has the Congress paying for our highways and transit systems with more gimmicks.

Tax compliance--these are the same provisions the House rejected last year. Transportation security administrative fees--Nick Calio at the airlines trade association rightfully criticizes: ``This plan proposes to use tomorrow's dollars to pay for today's problems.''

The international tax can be part of a solution to bridge the gap, but corporate America is counting on those revenues to lower their rates and not pay for highway spending. Using an international tax scheme now will make it that much more difficult to get back to a user fee system. The people who use the system should pay for the system. That is what we should be agreeing on.

The Ways and Means Committee did hold two hearings on renewing the trust fund--and we come to this?

This is the new Magna Carta. I am waiting to see the final results 6 months from now. It has been 10 years since this Congress passed a transportation bill. Neither party has the courage to deal with it.

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