[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S286-S287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISTEA

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, there is an urgent necessity for the Senate 
to turn immediately to the consideration of the Intermodal Surface 
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997, ISTEA. That is the highway bill. 
That bill was reported unanimously by the Environmental and Public 
Works Committee on October 1, 1997. However, due to our inability to 
enact a comprehensive 6-year ISTEA reauthorization bill at the close of 
the last session, our State highway departments and transit providers 
are currently operating under a short-term extension bill that provides 
roughly one-half year of funding which is needed for our Federal 
highway construction, our highway safety, and our transit programs.
  That short-term extension bill, Public Law 105-130, signed by the 
President on December 1, 1997, includes the following text, and I hope 
that Senators will listen carefully:

       A State shall not obligate any funds for any Federal aid 
     highway program project after May 1, 1998.

  Let me repeat this provision that was in the law enacted and signed 
by the President on December 1 of 1997. Listen to these words:
  ``A State,'' that is my State, the State of the distinguished Senator 
who presides so efficiently over this Senate, that is the State of each 
of 99 other Members, ``A State shall not obligate any funds for any 
Federal aid highway program project after May 1, 1998.''
  That is just 42 legislative working days away--42 days.
  I want to take a moment to explore the practical impact of that 
sentence. That sentence means that on May 1 of this year, just 87 days 
from today, with just 42 legislative calendar days--session days, we 
might say--away, our State highway departments and our transit 
providers across the Nation will be prohibited, by law, from spending 
any Federal highway or transit trust fund dollars. This provision does 
not apply just to the funding that was part of the short-term extension 
bill; it applies, equally, to any other unobligated funds that States 
may have left in their accounts for highway or transit projects 
currently in progress.
  Mr. President, this provision, prohibiting the obligation of highway 
or transit funds after May 1, is a doomsday provision. It is a 
provision that says, beginning 3 months from this past Sunday, all 50 
States in the union will begin to hit the same brick wall and feel the 
same pain--the pain of a Federal highway program coming to a halt, the 
pain of workers being put on the unemployment line, the pain of urban 
mass transit projects stopping in midstream, the pain of gravel 
quarries shutting down, the pain of construction equipment 
manufacturers closing their doors, the pain of our citizens sitting in 
ever-worsening traffic jams due to the inability to progress on 
desperately needed projects, the pain of unnecessary accidents and 
deaths on our highways--all of these because those roads cannot be 
brought up to modern safe standards. Make no mistake about it, May Day, 
May the 1st, May Day, will certainly elicit a cry for help from our 
States and our people.
  You will hear the Governors, you will hear the mayors then, you will 
hear the highway agencies then, from all over this country.
  Mr. President, when the Congress put that doomsday provision into 
law, we did so at a time when the Senate majority leader was telling 
the Senate that we would turn to a comprehensive 6-year ISTEA 
reauthorization bill as our first order of business early in the second 
session of the 105th Congress. Back in November we knew that, if we 
took up the ISTEA bill at the end of January, we would have sufficient 
time between then and May 1 to move an ISTEA bill and go to conference 
with the House and present a completed bill to the President for his 
signature. It was an ambitious schedule, but it was achievable.
  Mr. President, today, that picture appears to have radically changed, 
and it does not appear that we will be taking up the highway bill any 
time soon. I say this from the inferences that I draw from newspaper 
reports and the reports that I receive by word of mouth and various 
other communications, electronic and so on. There are exceedingly few 
legislative days available to us prior to May 1, as I have already 
indicated, about 42 session days. I am not counting Saturdays and 
Sundays. These are session days. Although the priorities of the Senate 
leadership may have changed regarding debating ISTEA, the doomsday date 
of May 1 remains in the law. While it may be the desire of the Senate 
leadership to debate a budget resolution prior to the consideration of 
ISTEA, let's realistically face what that means. While the law requires 
that the Senate pass a budget resolution by April 15, the fact is that 
we miss that deadline far more often than we meet it. And if we just 
listen to the statements that have been made in the last few days 
regarding the President's budget, it is apparent that the debate over 
the substance and the direction of the budget resolution promises to be 
a long and contentious one.
  So what is the real possibility of our enacting a comprehensive 6-
year ISTEA reauthorization bill prior to May 1, if we do not turn to it 
immediately? Not good, at best.
  Mr. President, some observers have looked at the calendar and 
concluded that the Senate, along with the House, will just have to pass 
another short-term ISTEA authorization bill. Well, Mr. President, I am 
not a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. But, I am 
told by both the chairman and ranking member of that committee's 
Surface Transportation Subcommittee that the chances are very slight, 
indeed, that we will be successful in, again, passing a short-term

[[Page S287]]

ISTEA extension bill. Over 200 amendments were filed to S. 1173, when 
it was brought before the Senate last fall. Several Members are anxious 
to offer their amendments. Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, has seen 
his shadow, but we here in the Congress cannot seem to see the 
handwriting on the wall.
  I again urge the leadership to bring forward and take up the ISTEA 
bill now and let the Senate get on with debating and voting on the many 
amendments that have been filed in connection with this bill.
  There is simply no other way that we can hope to complete action on 
this critical legislation prior to the May 1 drop dead date that 
presently is hanging over the heads of all of us like Damocles' sword. 
All of us are responsible for ensuring that the Nation's highway 
programs continue without undue interruption and uncertainty. The time 
for dithering and delaying is over. We need to keep our commitment to 
the States and to our people and act now to avoid this doomsday 
scenario.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry. It is my 
understanding that the next hour of deliberation is under my control or 
that of my designee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. Under the previous 
order, the time between 10:30 and 11:30 shall be under the control of 
the Senator from Georgia or the Senator's designee.

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