Ray LaHood: ‘The worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen’
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks to reporters during the White House daily press briefing.
(Chip Somodevilla - GETTY IMAGES)
The New York Times editorial board really doesn’t like House Speaker John Boehner’s (R) energy and transportation bill:
The list of outrages coming out of the House is long, but the way the Republicans are trying to hijack the $260 billion transportation bill defies belief. This bill is so uniquely terrible that it might not command a majority when it comes to a floor vote, possibly next week, despite Speaker John Boehner’s imprimatur. But betting on rationality with this crew is always a long shot.
Yikes. Among their problems:
-It would make financing for mass transit much less certain, and more vulnerable, by ending a 30-year agreement that guaranteed mass transit a one-fifth share of the fuel taxes and other user fees in the highway trust fund. Instead it would compete annually with other programs.
-It would open nearly all of America’s coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, including environmentally fragile areas that have long been off limits. The ostensible purpose is to raise revenue to help make up what has become an annual shortfall for transportation financing. But it is really just one more attempt to promote the Republicans’ drill-now-drill-everywhere agenda and the interests of their industry patrons.
They’re not alone. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood -- who was, remember, a Republican congressman before he entered the cabinet -- told Politico that Boehner’s proposal was “the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.”
For the other side, here’s Boehner making the case for his bill.
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