[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 67 (Friday, May 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ISTEA

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I rise for a moment to congratulate all 
of those Senators who have had so much to do with the success that we 
have just demonstrated with the passage of the Interstate 
Transportation Efficiency Act, the so-called ISTEA II bill. Senator 
Baucus, Senator Chafee, Senator Warner, Senator Byrd, and Senator Gramm 
deserve our accolades and our commendation for a job extraordinarily 
well done.
  This represents the single biggest investment in our infrastructure 
in our Nation's history. It represents an effort to recognize the 
importance of infrastructure and the array of challenges that we face 
in an information age, as well as at the turn of this century and the 
entrance into a new millennium.
  It also recognizes the importance of regional balance--the West, the 
South, the Northeast, the Midwest--all with our disparate challenges 
and problems that we face with infrastructure, all with the needs, all 
with the recognition that our States are vastly different as those 
needs are reflected in public policy. This not only represents the 
greatest investment, in my view, it represents as well the best 
regional balance that we have been able to demonstrate.
  Finally, I think it recognizes the importance of something the 
distinguished Senator from Louisiana and the Senator from West Virginia 
have said on the floor many times: We must recognize the critical 
nature of the trust fund itself and restore the practice that this 
country had at one point and was religious in adhering to, and that is 
that we use the funds that are designated for particular trust funds as 
they should be used. When this legislation is fully implemented, that 
is exactly what will happen; the trust fund will be used as it must be 
used.
  Today, we spend approximately $32 billion from the trust fund on an 
annual basis, but only $21 billion goes to highways and infrastructure 
needs; $11 billion, roughly, goes to needs that are not highway 
designated, that are not related to infrastructure. Mr. President, the 
time has come for us to make a change in that practice, and this 
legislation does it.
  There has been a great deal of concern expressed on both sides of the 
aisle about the veterans' offset. Frankly, I am very disappointed and 
discouraged about the fact that we are using a veterans' fund for 
purposes of offset, but this is not the last word. I must say, if we 
were using the trust fund for which it was designed, we wouldn't need 
the veterans' fund because the highway fund is more than adequate to 
cover our needs for infrastructure in this country.
  We will revisit the veterans smoking issue, and, in my view, we will 
revisit it in a successful way. We must recognize there is a dependency 
created in large measure because of past practices in the Armed Forces 
that we must address. Whether it is in the smoking bill, whether it is 
in some other legislation in the future, we will not ignore the fact 
that veterans need the same consideration as every other smoker in this 
country; in fact, in some cases you could clearly say more.
  There are two issues to be resolved: One is the offset; the second is 
the policy. I believe in the longer term we will deal with both 
successfully. But that should not in any way dissuade us from taking 
great satisfaction today with this accomplishment, for the tremendous 
job that was done in bringing us to this point; that, in fact, at long 
last--a month overdue--at long last we did what the Nation was waiting 
for us to do: Pass a meaningful infrastructure bill that represents the 
needs, challenges, and demands that must be put on this Nation as we 
enter a new era.
  I yield the floor.

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