Posted on 03/13/2004 5:07:18 AM PST by MurryMom
Transcript of Remarks by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert at Pen and Pad Today
3/11/2004 1:08:00 PM
Contact: John Feehery or Pete Jeffries, 202-225-2800, both of the Office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert; Web: http://www.speaker.gov
WASHINGTON, March 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a transcript of remarks made today by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert at a pen and pad with reporters:
Speaker Hastert. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here this morning. It is a beautiful spring morning. A spring morning means we must be moving the budget. We will be marking the budget up today, pretty much the balance. We certainly, with young men and women in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are doing everything we can to meet our defense needs. With threats in this country and still in homeland defense, we are going to do everything we can in making sure that our homeland defense support is there, and we will have a pretty stringent budget on all other budget needs. So that will be marked up today and hopefully on the floor next week.
We will also be working as diligently as possible on a highway bill, and we hope to have that moving along pretty quick. If you are from a northern State, highway bids will be let this spring so we can get highway work done. We need to get the highway bill done. My druthers is to get a 6-year bill done so there is a certainty. Also, I think it is an advantage for us to go to the Senate if we have a 6-year bill. I think it is easier for us to negotiate that in conference. So we are working on that process as well, and the numbers have to be something that we can get passed in the House that won't get vetoed and that we can negotiate with the Senate. So those are the parameters that we are working on in that respect.
We have the highway bill that I said, we talked about the jobs, American Jobs Creation Act. That is a thing I am trying to get the votes to pass it. It is a controversial bill, it deals with jobs, it deals with our dealing with our corporations spread around. We are being forced to do this because of a World Trade Organization lawsuit brought about by the European Union trying to tell us how we should tax. We need to address it and we will.
Q Mr. Speaker, on the highway bill, how tough is it for your Members who promised the folks back home new roads and bridges and are being told by the administration it is just too expensive?
Speaker Hastert. Well, we can still do a lot. I mean, when we started talking, some people started talking about $375 billion. It wasn't sustained by the revenues coming into the highway fund. And that was talking about probably what they perceived as needs, but it wasn't sustained by revenue. We always have been able to sustain a highway bill with the revenue that came into it. The White House has laid out the parameters that we have to sustain it with the revenue. That has always been where we are at in principle, and we will have a highway bill that is sustained by revenue.
So we will take care of roads and bridges. That is an increase, about a 25 percent increase over what we had the last time, and so, you know, it is increased. I think Members will have their needs met, maybe not quite as fully as they would have hoped, but they will have their needs met. We need to get a bill done. I think it is important to have that certainty of letting of those contracts over a 6-year period of time. We need to move forward and get that work done.
Q You met with the administration yesterday. Did they say they would support the target number? Speaker Hastert. We need to go forward, we need to go to conference with the Senate, and then if they want to be involved in that conference, they certainly will be able to be involved in it.
Q But did they say they would sign?
Speaker Hastert. They didn't make a commitment.
Q Did they say they would veto it?
Speaker Hastert. They didn't say they would veto it.
Q Is that with the President or with the people?
Speaker Hastert. That is with the President. I don't deal with his people anymore.
Q Mr. Speaker, do you anticipate the assault weapons ban renewal? It expires in September.
Speaker Hastert. The Senate was going to go through the bill first. It kind of fell away over in the Senate. I am not sure what is going to happen.
Q Sir, what did you mean by that last comment: That was with the President; I don't deal with his people anymore?
Speaker Hastert. Well, we weren't getting straight numbers from his people, and they changed their mind in the middle of the process. So we are going to do what we feel we need to do.
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