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Cmte Financial Services (R)
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Hensarling Statement on Highway Bill

Washington, Dec 1 -

WASHINGTON – Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who served on the Conference Committee for H.R. 22, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, released the following statement:

 “I want to commend Chairman Shuster for his dedication to an open process both in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and on the House floor. His efforts to streamline existing federal highway programs and provide states with more flexibility are a step in the right direction.

“Our nation’s highways shouldn’t be funded out of the functional equivalent of a tax on Americans’ bank accounts or on the backs of home buyers, particularly those who are forced to backstop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  But those were two of the Senate’s bad – and completely unacceptable – funding sources we started off with.  Chairmen Neugebauer and Huizenga offered an alternative that, while far from ideal, is far superior to the Senate’s new taxes on bank accounts and home buying.  

“As a stand-alone bill, I would not support using the Federal Reserve’s surplus account to pay for transportation funding.  However, I voted for it in the House because it was the preferable alternative to the Senate’s new taxes.  And that’s the key point not reflected in the conference report:  the House approved it only as an alternative, not as an addition to the Senate’s bad pay-for.  We started off with two bad pay-fors from the Senate unrelated to transportation and, regrettably, we ended up with two bad pay-fors unrelated to transportation despite the commendable efforts of Chairmen Neugebauer, Huizenga and an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the House.”