Mr. RAHALL. Reclaiming my time, Madam Speaker, I've said many times during this debate that that's not the position of this gentleman that we roll over and play dead to the other body. I've said the other body is not the perfect bill. I've said that there are technical corrections we can change once we get a conference underway. Once we pass a conference committee bill, we can come back and make technical changes. That's not unprecedented in this body.

The important point here to remember is: no longer can we play these political games; no longer can we add extraneous stuff on a jobs bill such as this transportation bill to score political points for a certain wing of our party.

What we need to do, and the American people are demanding, this is the time that contracts are let for work-- [Page: H2106] not 90 days from now, not 180 days from now. This is springtime. This is time when the highway projects are let, and the American worker is waiting to know whether he or she will have a job this summer.

That's why I think every move should be made to get to conference expeditiously, to have that conference conclude its work and bring a bill back for both Houses of Congress to enact in order to provide that certainty to the American small businesses, to the American economy, to the American worker that he or she will have a job this summer. And that certainty should not wait around for us to decide whether we're going to roll over and play dead or not. That bill can be corrected, as we've done numerous times in this body, through technical changes once we have given that certainty to the American worker and to the American people.

It's for that reason that I urge that the House today approve this motion to instruct conferees as we go to conference on the transportation bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.