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I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding the customary 30 minutes. I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

M. Speaker, this is one more opportunity lost, one more opportunity squandered, by this Republican-controlled House. We are just days away from the expiration of the laws that authorize our Surface Transportation programs, and yet here we are debating a politically charged, unnecessary and partisan bill that just kicks the can down the road a few months.

Last month, this House began - but could not finish - consideration of the most partisan-drafted, possibly the only partisan-drafted, highway reauthorization bill.

Let me repeat that, the House could not complete consideration of the Republican bill; a Republican bill that would have been considered a joke if it weren't such a serious breach of responsibility.

This is like a bad soap opera - just when the twists and turns can't get more fantastical and crazy, someone comes up with an even zanier idea just to keep the plot lines moving along. I'm waiting for the mysterious twin brother to show up.

And the plot line here is that the Republican leadership keeps manufacturing ways not to do the simple thing, the right thing - and that is to pass the Senate bill; the two-year bill that passed the Senate 74 to 22, clearly and overwhelmingly in a bipartisan fashion.

It's refreshing, and a bit strange, when the Senate can put their ideological differences aside and actually pass a decent bill. It's not every day that Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator James Inhofe agree on a bill, but that's what happened with the Senate bill.

Now, I'm not going to stand here and say that the Senate bill is the bill I would have drafted. To the contrary, I want a five year reauthorization that is fully funded, a bill that results in real jobs, and a bill that invests in important areas like public transit.

While the Senate bill lasts for only two years, it is a good start and is much better than the Republican proposal we have here today. For my colleagues who have a short memory, let me recap where we were last month. The Republican leadership took a thousand page bill - undoubtedly the most partisan transportation bill in Congressional history - and made it worse. They took a bill that was written in secret and jammed through the Transportation Committee and inserted unrelated and controversial provisions like the Keystone pipeline, ANWR, offshore drilling and cuts in federal pensions.

Even worse, they changed the rules in the middle of the game. Specifically, after everyone had submitted their amendments to the original single bill, Speaker Boehner decided to split it into three separate measures which meant that many of the amendments couldn't be considered in the way they were originally drafted.

Of course, the Republicans quickly realized that they didn't have the votes for that bill and yanked it from the floor. It must have been pretty embarrassing because it's been over a month since they gave up on that bill.

And what has the Republican leadership been doing over the last month? Negotiating with House Democrats to reach a bipartisan compromise? Talking with the Senate on ways to properly reauthorize these programs and bring jobs back to the economy?

Of course not.

Over the past month the Republican leadership has been sitting around pointing fingers and complaining that they can't move a transportation bill even though Republicans are in control of this House.

It's the end of March and Republicans can't get their act together to get a real transportation bill passed. You call this leadership?

Give me a break.

Leadership is about governing. Leadership is about doing what's right.

Honestly, M. Speaker, there's no leadership here.

Shame on Republican leadership for bringing us here. Shame on the Republican leadership for putting American jobs on the line just because they cannot manage their own internal politics.

That's right; by refusing to pass the Senate bill today, Republicans are putting American jobs on the line.

With the economy slowly recovering and with more than 2.7 million construction and manufacturing workers still out of work, why do Republicans want to play Russian roulette with this important jobs bill?

We should not be in this position today. This is a manufactured crisis; a crisis that is a product of a lack of leadership. A crisis that is a product of a lack of bipartisan cooperation.

M. Speaker, we had an opportunity to consider the Senate bill today but the Rules Committee - mislabeled by some as the most open rules committee in decades - blocked that bill from consideration. That's right, this new majority put this bill on the floor sight unseen and without any mark up or hearing. They waived their own 3-day layover rule and this is a closed rule. In fact, I can't even seem to find a CBO score for this bill! And this is the open process my colleagues on the Rules Committee are so proud of?

I offered the Senate bill as an amendment to this rule last night. Not in place of the Republican bill, but as a stand-alone amendment. Speaker Boehner is fond of saying let the House work its will, but apparently the Republicans on the Rules Committee don't believe in that philosophy because they blocked my amendment on a party line vote. And why did they block my amendment? As Chairman Dreier is fond of saying, because they could.

Now, I will try one more time today to offer the Senate amendment. Congressman Tim Bishop introduced H.R. 14, the exact same language as the Senate-passed bill. If this House defeats the Previous Question, Congressman Bishop will be able to offer his amendment to this Republican bill. Not in place of, just alongside the Republican bill. The House, like Speaker Boehner promised, would be able to work its will.

It's clear, M. Speaker, that the Republican leadership is more concerned with political victories than with legislating. It's clear that the Republican leadership would rather score cheap political points with their right wing base than promote and create jobs in America.

President Clinton was fond of saying the perfect can't be the enemy of the good.

There's a perfectly good, bipartisan Senate bill that would pass this House overwhelmingly, if the Republican leadership decided to bring it up.

But no. The Republican leadership would rather play chicken with people's jobs on the line instead of actually legislating, let alone legislating in a bipartisan way.

It's clear that when the far right wing of the far right wing opposes something, the Republican leadership crumbles like cheap asphalt.

I reserve the balance of my time.