In the week leading up to the annual August District Work Period, Congress passed one of the most significant pieces of domestic legislation of the past several years, a $286.5 billion Transportation Bill. The Transportation Bill will provide much needed dollars to upgrade and expand our Nation's infrastructure and will do much for southern West Virginia.

This bill was a long time in coming. As a senior Member of the Transportation Committee, I worked on this legislation for more than two years. Congress was forced to pass 12 extensions of the previous highway bill before we could put the finishing touches on the current bill.

One might rightly ask: "Why did it take so long? Why does a bill that has so many obvious advantages take more than two years to be passed by Congress?" Those are good questions, and the answers are more than a little disturbing.

The main reason this process took so long was the debate over the amount of funding the bill would provide. The U.S. Department of Transportation believes our highway infrastructure requires $375 billion for needed maintenance and upgrades. However, the Republican leadership originally proposed spending only $256 billion. Clearly, the Republican figure is woefully short of what transportation experts believe is needed.

Eventually, the Republicans decided to up their ante to $284 billion. When the Transportation Committees in the House and Senate agreed to a figure of $286.5, it took literally months to convince the Republican leadership in Washington to agree to the additional $2.5 billion-all the while our infrastructure is moaning and groaning under the weight of overcapacity.

Now compare the relatively small figure of $2.5 billion (which hung up the Transportation Bill for months) with the amount of money we are spending a MONTH in Iraq. Some estimates suggest the American taxpayers are spending $5 billion or more each month in Iraq, while at home we're reaping little of the benefits. Some GOP leaders in Washington have even proposed building a new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad-at a cost of $1.3 BILLION to the American taxpayer! And these are the same people who balked at spending an additional $2.5 billion on important and needed domestic priorities like the Transportation Bill.

This is disturbing, to say the least. It is time for the Republican leadership in Washington to wake up and smell the coffee. If they continue to shortchange America's domestic priorities while pumping money into Iraq, we will certainly suffer here at home. Continuing to dump more than $5 billion a month in Iraq while shortchanging domestic priorities here at home is a policy we cannot-and should not-long sustain.