Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) chastised House Republican Leadership for another missed opportunity to work in a bipartisan manner to help the American people.  He voted against the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, because the House and Senate need to be working on a badly-needed long-term solution instead of these temporary patches.  The highway bill – the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA_LU) – was originally enacted in August of 2005, and has been reauthorized nine times in a series of temporary extensions over the last three years.

“We had a chance to accomplish something today by passing the Senate transportation bill, which would have at least given us two full years.  An even more responsible course of action would have been to work together to pass a long-term transportation bill to provide more jobs on transportation projects and ensure our roads, bridges and tunnels are not falling apart, as we witnessed in Minnesota in 2007 when a bridge collapsed.  Instead, the GOP has been paralyzed by infighting as their Tea Party members hold yet another important piece of legislation hostage to their ideological fanaticism.   A long-term transportation bill would not only improve our infrastructure, but it would put more Americans back to work and improve our economy.  It’s just more collateral damage from the Tea Party’s shortsighted agenda,” said Rep. Engel.

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