Johanns' objection hurts Nebraska's chances for highway money

[firedupdem]

http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0203dc28-b9e8-11de-89da-001cc4c03286.html

Sen. Mike Johanns singlehandedly stopped $300 million in federal highway funds from moving forward during a U.S. Senate debate in late September.

Nebraska would have received $64.8 million for highway and street construction and maintenance from those funds, including more than $4.5 million for Lincoln streets and $11.2 million for Omaha.

But Johanns says that even without his objection, the funding was dead because the House "wasn't going to approve the funding anyway."

"This was never going to happen. It wasn't a serious attempt," he said of the Sept. 30 move by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., for unanimous consent to put $300 million in federal highway funding into the budget.

"If you really are serious, you work to put votes together. You work to get the House with you. And none of those things had occurred here," Johanns said in a telephone interview Thursday.

"This was really more political theater than a serious attempt to fix the problem."

Johanns objected to the inclusion of the $300 million during Senate debate on the issue as a unanimous consent request, meaning a single objection stopped the item from moving forward.

Johanns supplied that objection, although he said he was speaking on behalf of Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who wasn't present.

:wtf:

[TicketyBoo]

1. I don't believe him.

If "This was never going to happen. It wasn't a serious attempt," then why would he give himself a black eye by voting against it?

I don't believe it.