House Republicans Ignore Critical Legislation, Pursue Partis

[admin]

House Republicans Ignore Critical Legislation, Pursue Partisan Messaging Bills

MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
Today marks 100 days since the Senate passed a bipartisan highway bill. This bill would provide much needed certainty to businesses so they can grow and create jobs. This week, I introduced a motion that would instruct the conferees on the Surface Transportation Extension Act to adopt the bipartisan Senate transportation bill. By passing this version of the bill, we would protect 1.9 million jobs nationwide and create an additional 1 million jobs through these transportation funds. With the current highway bill set to expire at the end of next week, we cannot wait any longer. It is my hope that Republicans will work with us to take action next week.
Without Congressional action, we will also see student loan interest rates double at the end of next week. This puts more than 7.4 million students at risk of seeing their interest rates double from 3.4% to 6.8%, which will cost them $6 billion over the next decade. Instead of focusing on this critical legislation, House Republicans spent this week debating controversial, partisan energy bills that do not create jobs. I’m disappointed that they wasted time on these political message bills instead of working to create jobs and grow the economy. I hope that in the weeks ahead, they will put aside partisanship and work with us to pass jobs bills that get more Americans back to work.
Sincerely yours,

STENY H. HOYER