Newsroom

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn made the following statement Friday regarding the Conference Report to accompany H.R. 3, the Highway bill. Sen. Cornyn voted against the bill: "Although the highway bill makes some progress in greater funding equity for donor states like Texas, and improves our rate of return to 92 percent, Texas deserves better than a slight improvement over current law given the level of new resources included in the legislation. "I worked hard with Sen. Hutchison, Majority Leader DeLay and the entire Texas delegation for that improvement, and we were successful in achieving a 37 percent increase in funding over TEA-21. But this bill simply continues the pervasive and long standing funding inequity—and I cannot support that inequity. "The truth is, Texas remains penalized as a donor state -- that is for every dollar we send to Washington, under this bill Texas only gets 92 cents back. In the end, too much of this highway bill was cut up in special interest projects and pork-barrel spending. "In addition, the bill is not fiscally responsible. At $286.5 billion, the conference report exceeds the funding levels this Congress adopted. Ironically, the budget resolution provided a mechanism for Congress to increase transportation spending above the budget resolution levels if it found real offsets, much like TEA-21 did. This bill didn't and instead busts the budget." Sen. Cornyn is a member of the following key Senate Committees: Armed Services; Judiciary; Budget, Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and Joint Economic. Cornyn was previously Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice and Bexar County District Judge.