OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

Date: Nov. 18, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - November 18, 2005)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague, Senator BOND, in supporting the conference report on the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary and Independent Agencies Appropriations for fiscal year 2006.

This bill is the product of many hours of hard work since the Senate passed the bill on October 20. First, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the cooperative spirit that my colleague, Chairman BOND, along with our House colleagues, Chairman KNOLLENBERG and Congressman OLVER, brought to bear during our conference negotiations.

I am pleased to say that the conference agreement, like the Senate-passed bill, restores many of the more punitive cuts that were included in the President's budget for transportation, housing and drug law enforcement.

We have funded airport grants at $3.55 billion rather than accept the President's proposal to cut this program by half a billion dollars.

While the President sought to move the Community Development Block Grant program to another department and cut it by more than a third, this bill restores most, but not all of the annual funding for CDBG.

While the President's budget effectively zeroed out Amtrak and proposed to eliminate rail service in our country, this conference agreement provides Amtrak with a $100 million increase and includes many of the reforms that were agreed to and included the bill reported by the Senate committee.

This is a good bill that addresses many of the urgent needs facing our country. It includes critical investments in our Nation's transportation infrastructure and provides much needed housing assistance to our most vulnerable.

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