Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), a member of the joint U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate conference committee on the Highway Bill, made the following statement after signing the conference agreement:

“Ensuring that states, cities and towns have the resources and certainty necessary to meet their infrastructure needs is vitally important.  However, given the current fiscal challenges facing our country, we must ensure that meeting those obligations does not further hamper an already weak economic recovery.  I am pleased that this bipartisan agreement rejects nearly $7 billion in tax hikes proposed by the Senate and reinforces the fiscally conservative belief that Washington must live within its means.

“This agreement also adopts necessary reforms to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation that will result in greater accountability to the workers who depend on this insurance program for their retirement needs.  Importantly, these reforms will also protect taxpayers from being on the hook for future bailouts.”

NOTE: Camp, who is Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, was responsible for tax and pension-related matters during the conference committee.