Capitol Words a project of the Sunlight Foundation

Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Mr. Speaker, as Congress adjourns for the week for the Presidents Day Recess, I'm hopeful that Members will go back to their districts and talk to them about the failed transportation bill that has mercifully been pulled back from the floor.

My Republican colleagues decided, for the first time in history, to put forth a partisan transportation bill, never had a hearing, that would have gutted transit. It would have reversed 20 years of transportation reform. It would have even eliminated the wildly popular Safe Routes to School program.

I would hope that they go back and they talk to their contractors, their local government officials, parents, and the PTA to understand why those programs are important, why that bill is flawed, why America deserves a better, bipartisan, visionary transportation bill to rebuild and renew America and put our people back to work.