[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 15 (Monday, February 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S695-S715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SAFE, ACCOUNTABLE, FLEXIBLE, AND EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT OF
2003
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of S. 1072, which the clerk will
report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 1072) to authorize funds for Federal-aid
highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and
for other purposes.
Pending:
Modified committee amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Dorgan amendment No. 2267, to exempt certain agricultural
producers from certain hazardous materials transportation
requirements.
Gregg amendment No. 2268 (to amendment No. 2267), to
provide that certain public safety officials have the right
to collective bargaining.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me thank all the Members who had their
staff come down, and some Members came down over the weekend, brought
their amendments, and met with my staff and met with Senator Jeffords'
staff and I believe with Senator Reid's staff. We got into a good
discussion on the various amendments. We discussed with them our
amendments. I am pleased with the response of those Members who
understand how important it is to pass this legislation and have come
to us in the week that this bill has been on the floor.
To date, I believe we have met with about 30 Member offices. We are
all looking forward to working hard to accommodate the needs of these
offices with as many amendments as possible. I encourage anyone out
there who has amendments to bring them down, talk about them, and let's
get some of this debate started.
The chairman, ranking member of the full committee of the
Transportation Subcommittee--we are all ready to work with those
Members.
I wish to take a moment to congratulate Senator Grassley and Senator
Baucus for their work on the finance portion of this legislation. They
have done a tremendous job in meeting the financial needs of this bill
without increasing taxes or deficit spending. They have also brought
integrity back to the highway trust fund and to the commitment we made
to the American people.
The trust fund is, in essence, a user-fee-based program. You pay a
gas tax and that money is then used for transportation purposes.
Unfortunately, the trust fund has been used for many years for other
purposes, including shifting the burden of tax policies from the
general revenue to the trust fund. These tax policy benefits have
nothing to do with highway use and should not burden the trust fund.
I look at this, and I have said it many time before, as a moral
issue. We tell people when they pay--and they don't mind paying new
taxes, even higher taxes. They are willing to pay the taxes because
they want to have better roads and they assume that money is going to
go into building roads. But it is not. They have been raiding the
highway trust fund now for as long as I can remember.
So the Finance Committee sought to fix this unfairness to the
taxpayer and has come up with a proposal to right this wrong.
Included in these proposals is a repeal of the partial exemption for
ethanol-blended fuels. The tax benefit for ethanol, like nearly all
energy production incentives, is transferred to the general fund
through a tax credit. The same effect is applied to refunds for special
categories of users such as State and local governments. These are
changes that never should have been necessary. We should no more raid
the highway trust fund than we should raid the Social Security trust
fund. These are commitments made to the American people.
However, by bringing integrity back to the trust fund, the general
fund lost a source of revenue, albeit a source that never should have
been used in the first place. So in order to avoid deficit spending,
Chairman Grassley closed a number of loopholes in the Tax Code and kept
the general fund whole--in other words, no deficit spending.
There are those who have questioned the manner in which this was
done, but I trust the chairman and the ranking member of the Finance
Committee and take them at their word. They should be congratulated. I
am here to thank both of them.
Because of the work of the Finance Committee, we have a bill before
us that will provide over 2 million new jobs to repair our Nation's
infrastructure and do so without deficit spending.
I think it is very important to keep talking about this. There is not
a Member in here who cannot remember at
[[Page S696]]
one time or another raiding the trust fund, to take some of this money
to put it in toward reducing the deficit. That was done in the 1990s.
This is an opportunity we have, not just to pass a very aggressive
highway bill and provide the jobs that go with that but also correct
this wrong that has been out there for a long period of time.
Let me emphasize, we invite Members to come down and bring their
amendments. While we cannot be introducing them and voting on them
right now, we can still get a lot of the discussion out of the way. I
think it is very important we do so, now.
Let me defend the formula. There have been a lot of people coming
down and objecting to the way it was put together. I remind my
colleagues what happened in TEA-21. I was here for TEA-21, here in the
Senate, here in the committee working with my good friend, Senator
Jeffords. We watched the way that formula worked.
In that, they had a minimum guarantee program. A minimum guarantee
program is nothing but a chart; it is called section 1104. It took all
the States and put a percentage down. As soon as they got 60 people
happy, they figured: there is our 60 votes--and this is no way to do
it.
Instead of that, we looked at donor status. We have several States
such as my State of Oklahoma that have been in a donor status for many
years. We looked at States that are fast growing States. We put a
ceiling in there, so they could not get so much of the money there
would not be anything remaining for other States. We have a floor in
there. I think we have done something that is very good.
I guess you could say there are four goals that interest a lot of
people, one being the donor States, those of us who have been donor
States for so long we can remember when we were 70, 75 percent donors.
ISTEA came along and brought the floor up to 80. Then TEA-21 brought it
to 90.5. This is going to bring every State, all 50 States, at the end
of this 6-year period, or by the end of that period, up to 95 percent.
That is very reasonable. It is a very ambitious goal but one with which
I think most of us, I am absolutely convinced, agree.
We have introduced streamlining measures in this bill that will allow
us to use the dollars we have and use them to build more roads, to do
more in a shorter period of time.
We are concentrating on safety. We have not concentrated on safety as
much as we should have in the past. I know the senior Senator from
Virginia is one who has been concerned about safety for a long period
of time and is very pleased with a lot of the provisions that we have
in this bill.
We haven't really focused on freight movement until this bill came
along. So we are getting into all of these areas.
I just hope our colleagues understand that Senator Jeffords, Senator
Reid, Senator Bond, and I have been working on this bill for over a
year. That is a long time. Obviously, you will never have a formula
that makes everybody happy but you can certainly have one that is fair.
And we have achieved for the first time in the history of this process
what I consider to be a very fair formula.
I would like to ask if Senator Jeffords has any comments he would
like to make at this time.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I do.
Mr. President, S. 1072 will send billions of dollars to the States.
It provides the resources to maintain the transportation infrastructure
that we use and enjoy every day. Literally hundreds of thousands of
jobs are at stake. It is imperative that we pass this bill this week.
Our staff has worked diligently for many months to prepare this
comprehensive proposal. They have addressed concerns raised by various
Members. It is time for us to complete this bill and send it to the
House.
I would like to continue the discussion I began last week and speak
for a few minutes about some of the key provisions of the
transportation bill. As I have mentioned in earlier statements, our
Environment and Public Works Committee conducted a very thorough
hearing process as part of our preparations of S. 1072.
A consistent theme from those hearings was that the national
transportation program has worked well over the last 12 years,
following the principles set forth in ISTEA and enjoying the funding
guarantees established in TEA-21.
We therefore sought to refine rather than revise the program. A key
reflection of that decision is the pattern of resource allocation in
the bill.
We grew each of the core programs--interstate maintenance, national
highway system, bridge, surface transportation, and congestion
mitigation and air quality improvement--in proportion to its funding in
current law. We could have played politics with these funding
allocations, but we chose to maintain the overall balance of the
program.
Also based on consistent testimony from our many witnesses, we
retained the flexibility that has become a hallmark of the surface
transportation program.
Rather than make political adjustments in Washington to suit the
needs of an individual State or region, we yield to State and local
officials, working through an open planning process, to move funds
among the core programs as best fits their unique and individual needs.
Further, under current law and reinforced in S. 1072, we permit money
to be ``flexed'' among the various transport modes--highways, transit,
bicycles, pedestrians, intermodal transfers, and rail.
By maintaining balance among the core programs along with flexibility
on program and modal spending at the State and local level, we seek to
foster a more balanced and ``right fit'' outcome on the ground.
The right combination of investments will vary from place to place.
And a single solution--roads only or transit only--is likely to be a
poor fit for a diverse and dynamic modern American community.
As I traveled our Nation over the past 2 years, I saw intermodalism
on the rise. In place after place, the solution to traffic congestion
and the solution to freight mobility combined roadway and rail
investments with improved operations.
The balance and flexibility in S. 1072 will be essential to support
these complex and ambitious solutions.
I yield the floor.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, first let me thank the ranking member of
the committee for all the hard work and effort he has been put into
this bill.
I remind Members that we spent the weekend working on amendments. We
actually had an office in the Hart Building that was open and staffed
by both the majority and the minority. They waded through a lot of
amendments.
To move this bill along, I again encourage Members to bring their
amendments down. I will not mention the names of the Senators because
it may not be appropriate. I encourage Members to come down to speak on
the amendments which are going to require some discussion.
We have an amendment to clarify the travel reimbursement for troops
retroactive to September 25. We have an amendment on seatbelts which
imposes sanctions on States that don't have primary seatbelt laws. We
have amendments such as one on sanctions relating to drunk drivers, an
amendment on changes to the Indian roads program, an amendment to
clarify the new highway safety core program dollars which can be used
for additional lanes or two-lane roads, and one to grant exemptions for
90,000 pounds on Federal aid highways--to a higher level to allow for
lumber trucks and garbage trucks going to landfills.
We have a lot of amendments. I think there are about 35 amendments
because staff came down and worked over the weekend on those
amendments. I think it would be appropriate for them to come down right
now, and not to offer their amendment but to discuss their amendment.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
[[Page S697]]
Mr. THOMAS. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 10 minutes as in
morning business.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I will discuss a subject other than what
is before the Senate, but before I do that I am pleased we are moving
forward with the highway bill. I am on both committees, the Environment
and Public Works Committee, as well as the Finance Committee, and we
have spent a great deal of time on this. Taking care of our
infrastructure and seeking to provide more jobs in a short period of
time is one of the most important issues we have. I certainly hope we
can move forward and do so quickly.
Endangered Species Act
Today I will comment on an issue in which I have been very
interested, and as a matter of fact, I have a bill pending regarding
the Endangered Species Act. I suppose most everyone favors the idea of
protecting endangered species. That is something we all like to do.
However, it has been in place now for more than 20 years, and frankly
it has a different impact in different parts of the country.
I come from a State where 50 percent of the State belongs to the
Federal Government. We have a lot of conflicting issues, both with the
Federal Government and with the State government. It becomes quite
difficult from time to time. Like many programs that are in place, I
wish, when we pass them, we would say it has to be reviewed again in
another 8 or 9 years to see if it is working and make necessary
changes. This program needs some changes. It has not worked the way we
would like to have seen it work. We need to review programs after there
has been time to try them out and see how they will work.
What has happened, to a large extent, the emphasis has been on
listing, rather than the recovery aspect. As a matter of fact, we have
listed nearly 1,500 various species, plant and animal. We have
recovered about 12. So the idea and emphasis ought to be, it seems to
me, on the recovery of these species and not simply on the listing of
them and letting them go on forever being endangered and having to be
managed in that way.
Part of the problem, of course, has been the idea that anytime
somebody is making decisions or regulations with regard to natural
resources--in this case, endangered species--they end up in court.
Instead of doing it on the basis of science and what is the best
decision to be made, we end up in court and then letting the court
manage it. It becomes a very difficult situation.
I sympathize with those people who are involved in the management of
these programs. In everything they do, they can think about what is
good for the program--in this case, what is good for endangered
species--but, wait a minute: We have to take a look over here to see
how we are going to get by the court.
I might add as an appendix, one of the difficulties in our case is,
we are in the Tenth Circuit Court, and when things happen in Wyoming or
Yellowstone Park, or wherever, then they go to court in Washington.
There ought to be some sort of limitation to where the issue can go. If
the issue occurs in a particular circuit, that is where the judge ought
to be, that is where the court case ought to take place. At any rate,
that, again, is one of the problems.
One of the other problems for States such as ours, where we have lots
of public lands--and we have some unique problems that follow along the
Rocky Mountain Ridge; and there are 10 or 12 States that have a lot of
things in common. And I understand if you are on the east coast or even
on the west coast, you don't have much interest in what is happening in
our area, but our issues are sometimes unique, so there needs to be a
good deal of local input into these kinds of issues to make them
workable because there are different kinds of circumstances that
appear.
One of the listings we had some experience with recently is the so-
called jumping mouse in part of the southern part of our State and part
of Colorado. It turns out, after about 5 years, that they really did
not have the scientific basis for listing these critters at all, and
they were not even in the same family of mice that they thought they
were. Now we are in the process of going away from that whole thing
after this whole problem of people having to manage their lands
differently. So obviously there needs to be something done differently.
One of the issues we are dealing with at the moment is grizzly bears.
What you generally do with an endangered species listing is you try to
figure out how many there are, and then you put forward some goals as
to how many you would like to achieve in the recovery. We have passed
the recovery numbers for almost 10 years in Yellowstone Park--and, of
course, the grizzly bears do not stay in Yellowstone Park--but still we
have not gotten them delisted. It just seems as if it takes forever to
do this.
Actually, however, the current specie we are dealing with is the gray
wolves. Wolves, of course, were there years ago; then they were not
there for a while; and they came back in the 1990s. There was a
reintroduction of wolves from Canada into Yellowstone Park. Again,
nobody would have guessed they were going to stay in Yellowstone Park,
and surely they did not.
So now we are in a circumstance where the wolves have moved into
Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as the park, and there finally has
come a time when they have exceeded the numbers substantially to where
there is a plan in effect, and hopefully moving into effect, where the
three States would set up their own management plan, and then the
wolves would be delisted and managed by the States, with certain
agreements in there.
What we have now is Wyoming has put together a plan--as have Idaho
and Montana--and they have been really very tough to deal with. I think
last year we had 47 cattle that were proven to be killed by the wolves
and at least that many that were suspected to have been killed by the
wolves. But the Fish and Wildlife Service does not agree with the plan
Wyoming has, so now we are waiting to see if we can get some agreement
on that. As a matter of fact, part of the plan was passed by the
Wyoming Legislature, but it does not seem to be acceptable. We have met
with the Secretary and with the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service
to see if we can find some flexibility there, and it is mostly over the
semantics of what is in the plan. But the fact is, we do need to get
them delisted so the State can have control over their management. That
is really where we are.
I guess my point is, we have a program that all of us would like to
maintain. We like the idea, but it is not working very well, and yet it
seems to be very difficult to do anything about it. Sometimes it seems
to me when we pass a bill, we ought to say it ends in 5 years and has
to be renewed so that we can take another look at it at that time.
First of all, times change; secondly, sometimes it is not managed
properly and it could be changed. Anyway, we have not done that.
I have a bill introduced--introduced for several years, as a matter
of fact which we have not been able to move. Oversimplified, it simply
says when you list a critter or a species, you have to have scientific
information. You have to have a real basis for doing it, and the people
who list it have to provide some scientific data so that a jumping
mouse is really a jumping mouse. And the second part is that at the
time of listing, there also has to be a plan for recovery. That really
has become the problem.
It is easy to list. People can send in recommendations for listing,
and suddenly it happens, but there is no real plan as to how the
recovery is going to take place, there is no area that it is designed
to cover, and those kinds of things, and it becomes really very
difficult to get this done.
I am going to push once again to get this done. Senator Craig and
Senator Hagel are cosponsors of the bill. We are going to try again to
see if we can get this done. This is designed not to do away with the
Endangered Species Act but indeed to strengthen the program so that it
will work in more places than it does now. So that is an issue in which
I am very much involved.
In closing, we have a lot to do this year. It seems a little
frustrating sometimes that we have difficulty in moving forward. I wish
we could really take a look at where we are, to try to
[[Page S698]]
set some priorities as to the kinds of issues with which we want to
move forward.
We end up with endless debate, which really keeps anything from
happening. We end up with unrelated amendments being put on bills that
keep us from moving forward. I think everyone here would say: Hey, our
job is to accomplish some objectives. I understand there are different
views, and that is why we vote. But the idea of just simply resisting
moving forward, the idea of resisting going to conference, for example,
certainly is not a good way to manage here in the Chamber.
Of course, politics in this place is not a brand new idea, but we
have gotten so that everything we talk about is related to the 2004
Presidential election. Well, that is not really why we are here. We
have different views. We ought to reconcile those views or at least
decide what the majority seeks to do here and do that.
Also, I think most of us generally have the notion that we ought to
try to make the Federal Government smaller rather than having it
growing. Yet that does not seem to be what we do. We resist talking
about competitive outsourcing, doing any of these kinds of things. We
need to have some rules related to our spending so we are limited in
what we do. We are facing a deficit now that none of us like. I think
it is justifiable because of all the emergency things we have been in,
but now is the time to do something about that.
We need to do something about adding issues to bills when they go to
conference committee that have not been passed by either House. This is
not the way things ought to be done.
So I hope--and I know our leadership is working on this--we can see
if we can move forward some more on the priorities of things we ought
to be doing and ought to have done. We are in the midst of one now that
everyone agrees we need to do. We need to move forward and do the
things that are before us that we all want to do, and that is to make
this a stronger country, and not have an overbearing Federal Government
but have an equal division of responsibility in determining what the
role of the Federal Government is as opposed to local and State
governments.
So, Mr. President, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak
as in morning business.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chafee.) Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, as Senator Inhofe has already stated, our
staffs worked hard over the weekend on amendments people have to this
most important legislation. We have gone over many amendments, but have
approved 34 amendments we would accept. These are good amendments. They
have been reviewed closely by both the majority and minority. A lot of
progress has been made. We hope people who have problems with the
substance of this legislation, who want to offer amendments, will come
and talk to us about it today. We are arriving at a point where there
is not going to be a lot of time. Tomorrow we hope to be in a position
to do the managers' package--the finance, transit, and EPW aspects of
the legislation--and move forward, but we hope Senators who have
concern about the legislation will come forward so we can move more
quickly. We are running out of time on this very important legislation.
Medicare and Prescription Drugs
Mr. REID. Mr. President, in 1965, when Congress created Medicare to
provide health care security for our senior citizens, it took less than
a year for that to be considered and then put into full operation; in
fact, 11 months. That was back before we had computers. All we had then
were slide rulers and some adding machines.
On the legislation with which we are dealing now, the new Medicare
prescription drug benefit, the new Medicare revision, we have a
different situation. We are told this legislation we passed--and that
was signed by the President and deals with our senior citizens--is
going to have to wait for more than 2 years before it can be
implemented. Today our senior citizens need help with soaring drug
prices. They deserve the security of knowing they will be able to buy
the medicine that can keep them healthy and happy. The American people
want to know that when their Government wants to get things done, it
can act quickly.
This law is a bad deal for senior citizens. That is why the main
provisions of this legislation won't take effect until after the
election. That is wrong. I suppose the administration thought our
senior citizens would be grateful a bill passed, no matter what was in
it, and that they wouldn't bother to find out what was in it. But they
did find out. They already know. The President has underestimated our
seniors.
I have met with seniors throughout the State of Nevada, and they know
what is in this law. They don't like it. I read on the floor last week
a meeting that was held by people from the State of Nevada to describe
what is in this bill.
More than a hundred people showed up and all hundred were there to
complain about this legislation. They don't like the fact that this
will make many of them pay more for their drugs than they already have
to pay. They don't like the fact that many who have drug coverage under
private plans could lose their benefits because of this legislation.
They don't like the provision in the law that forbids Medicare from
negotiating with drug companies to get better prices. Insurance
companies can do it and HMOs can do it. But Medicare--the largest
health care delivery unit in the world--cannot negotiate with the drug
companies to get lower prices.
Instead of working with Congress to address these and other concerns,
the President has threatened to veto any change. Then he turned to his
reelection campaign and asked them to help polish the image of this new
Medicare law. So a company that is part of the President's reelection
campaign is now doing the ads even with Medicare.
Fair enough, you might say. That is politics. Except the President is
waging this ad campaign at taxpayers' expense. Simply, that is not
fair. I am told he is planning to raise $200 million for his campaign
this year. But apparently that is not enough because the administration
is spending as much as $22 million of the taxpayers' money for this
publicity campaign.
I have no doubt that senior citizens need information about this new
Medicare law, and education and awareness about a new program is a
legitimate use of taxpayer dollars; but these ads they are pushing are
misleading. They don't tell seniors what they need to know about the
bill. These ads don't shoot straight with the American people. They
give our senior citizens false assurances, not facts.
For example, the ads reassure seniors that they can keep their
Medicare coverage and the right to choose their own doctor. But the
fact is many seniors, including many in Nevada, could be forced into
demonstration programs that will make them pay higher premiums if they
want to stay in traditional Medicare, and they will not be able to
choose their own doctor.
In the same fashion, the ads don't mention that seniors will be
prohibited from using their own money to purchase supplemental coverage
to fill the gaps in the new law.
As part of this advertising campaign, the administration is also
running print advertisements. I was surprised and perplexed when I saw
an ad in the newspaper that runs on Capitol Hill, Roll Call. This
newspaper is aimed at Senators, House Members, and Capitol Hill staff,
and it is also aimed at lobbyists and so-called Washington insiders. If
the President is trying to educate senior citizens about this new law,
why would they place ads in Washington newspapers where less than 3
percent of the readership is over age 65? It is for obvious reasons.
The last straw was when I learned these ads are being produced by the
same company that makes President Bush's campaign commercials. But that
makes sense because they are simply campaign commercials--except his
campaign isn't paying for them; you are, the American taxpayers.
These ads are political and that is clear. They are not intended to
help seniors understand this complicated
[[Page S699]]
Medicare law. They are intended to offset the negative public reaction
to this bad law.
The President has every right to defend this law, which he urged
Congress to pass, but he doesn't have the right to make the taxpayers
pay for it.
Mr. President, again, I see my friend from North Dakota, who has an
amendment, and he has been waiting to get a vote on it. I hope the
Senator from North Dakota will get a vote on it soon.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DORGAN. 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. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have just talked to the managers of the
bill. My understanding is there is nobody waiting to speak on the bill.
As a result of that, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning
business for 15 minutes, with the understanding that I will relinquish
the floor if the managers have Senators who wish to offer an amendment
to the bill. I don't want to delay the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Trade Agreements And Jobs
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I wanted to speak for a moment about the
issue of jobs. There has been an especially vibrant debate recently
about the number of jobs that are being created in this country and the
number of jobs that are moving overseas from the U.S. to other
countries. I wanted to talk about jobs specifically today because there
was an announcement that the U.S. has finished a trade agreement with
the country of Australia.
We have already had the completion of the Central American Free Trade
Agreement, CAFTA; we have had NAFTA, the North American Free Trade
Agreement with Canada and Mexico; we have had GATT, the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; and the WTO. We have all of these
agreements and the fact is they are not working out well.
Despite that, instead of correcting the problems in previous trade
agreements, our negotiators are continuing to move ahead to negotiate
new trade agreements.
Let's consider NAFTA. NAFTA was negotiated with Mexico and Canada.
Prior to NAFTA being negotiated, and then approved by the Congress, the
United States had a very small trade surplus with Mexico, nearly a $2
billion trade surplus with Mexico. Now, 10 years later, we have a $40
billion deficit with Mexico. I will say that again. In 10 years, with
the North American Free Trade Agreement, we took a small surplus with
Mexico and turned it into a very large deficit.
Again, when we negotiated the trade agreement with Canada--it was
with Canada and Mexico--we had a $10 billion trade deficit with Canada,
and that is now $50 billion.
With Mexico, we took a small surplus and turned it into a big
deficit. With Canada, we had a modest deficit and quintupled it, from
$10 billion to $50 billion. We still have people walking around this
town thumbing their suspenders, between puffs of their cigars, and
saying this trade agreement was wonderful for our country, it has
worked well.
I decided to check which companies certified to the Federal
Government the movement of jobs, or the loss of jobs, as a result of
NAFTA. I have just received the information from the Congressional
Research Service. It is the first time anybody has catalogued this job
loss, in this level of detail, as far as I know. But here is what you
have.
Now, NAFTA allows for transitional trade adjustment assistance. That
is a fancy way of saying, if you are going to lose your job because of
this trade agreement, we will give you some supplemental income to help
you over the tough spot. The anticipation was people would lose their
jobs, and we would try to provide some help, transitional trade
adjustment assistance.
In order to get transitional trade adjustment assistance, the
employer has to certify that jobs are going to be lost in their company
as a result of this trade agreement. That certification goes to the
Department of Labor, which keeps track of those certifications.
Let me describe what we found with this Congressional Research
Service study, based on Department of Labor data. This is the first
time a study has been done in this level of detail.
It says the No. 1 company that certified jobs certified they had
16,095 jobs that they lost either because they moved the jobs to
Mexico, in most cases, or because of additional imports from either
Mexico or Canada that displaced their workers here.
No. 2, Levi Strauss: 15,676 jobs over this nearly 10-year period.
Levi Strauss, now, that is everything that is American, right? Just go
buy some Levis. Levis used to be made in the United States. Not
anymore. Levis left, and the workers who used to make Levis in this
country were able to get some transitional trade adjustment assistance.
That is a fancy way of saying: By the way, we are going to sew those
Levis in Mexico, and we will give you a few bucks as your job leaves
and goes to Mexico. That is what it said to American workers.
There is a whole series of companies, as one might imagine. Fruit of
the Loom is seventh on the list, 5,350 jobs. I remember when I saw the
actual notice in the paper that Fruit of the Loom was shutting down its
U.S. manufacturing plants. I spoke on the floor of the Senate. I said:
It is one thing to lose your shirt, but Fruit of the Loom is gone. They
are making shirts and shorts and underwear in Mexico. I understand even
now that labor costs are too high, and now it is moving to Asia, in
some cases.
How about Fig Newton, Kraft Foods? Eat a Fig Newton and you think you
are eating a Fig Newton cookie from the U.S. I am sorry, think again.
It is Mexican food; Fig Newtons made in Mexico. It left this country,
and the resulting layoffs of U.S. workers meant they received
transitional trade adjustment assistance.
What does that mean? It means they got laid off. They made a good Fig
Newton cookie, but they don't make it here anymore. American employees
lost their jobs, and Fig Newtons are now made in Mexico.
This is a list of 100 companies from the Congressional Research
Service. This list can be derived from Labor Department data because
the companies had to certify job loss. This is slightly over 200,000
employees who lost their jobs. In fact, if you included in the list all
who certified, it would be over 400,000 American workers who lost their
jobs because of NAFTA, the free trade agreement with the United States,
Canada, and Mexico.
Some say other jobs were created. Maybe so. Ask yourself this: If we
took a small trade surplus with Mexico and turned it into a very large
deficit, and a modest deficit with Canada and turned it into a very
large deficit, isn't it inevitably the case that we will have lost a
lot of jobs? The answer is clearly yes. It doesn't matter what all the
other folks say. We have lost a lot of jobs, and all of these folks--
these are just numbers on a chart, but of these 200,000 people, every
one of them had to come home, perhaps some evening after work, and say
to their spouse: Honey, I lost my job. I did good work. I had good
evaluations all of my career with this company, but they have decided
to shut the doors in this country and move to Mexico.
The reason I wanted to point this out is to say there is precious
little attention paid these days to the question of what is happening
with jobs being so-called ``outsourced.'' I recently visited with a
fellow who is founder and CEO of a very substantial company. He said to
me: All of my competitors have now moved offshore. All of my
competitors have moved offshore, and I have not. He said: I am not
going to at this point, but I want you to know it puts me at a dramatic
competitive disadvantage because I am paying American wages, and they
are in India or Bangladesh or Sri Lanka or China, and they are paying
pennies on the dollar for those wages and it makes them much more
difficult to compete with.
I said: Good for you for keeping your jobs in this country.
He said: Yes, but somebody has to do something.
The question of this globalization is not just about whether we are
globalizing, whether the economy is becoming increasingly global,
because it
[[Page S700]]
is. The question is, Are there rules attached to globalization? What
will the rules be for globalization? Is it OK to move jobs to a country
where you pay them 16 cents an hour and work them 16 hours a day and 7
days a week? Is that something we should aspire to have American
workers and American companies compete with? Yet that is exactly the
case today. The answer so far has been, yes, that is fair trade.
It is not fair trade where I come from. This economy will not be the
economy that produces jobs and represents the economy of the world's
biggest and most vibrant economic engine if it does not retain a strong
manufacturing base. No country will remain the dominant economy in the
world without a dominant and strong manufacturing base.
For 42 straight months, we have had reductions in the manufacturing
job base. Why? Because of outsourcing; moving jobs overseas where you
can hire people for pennies on the dollar.
Let me go through a couple of charts that show where we are with
trade.
This chart shows trade with Mexico. We can see where we were just
before our trade agreement. What has happened since that time? A flood
of red ink every single year; more and more trade deficits with Mexico.
This chart shows our trade deficit with Canada. I mention both of
these only because this is NAFTA, the North American Free Trade
Agreement. There is a flood of red ink. We negotiated the trade
agreement in 1993, and we can see what is happening. And we still have
people saying this has been a great free trade agreement.
This chart shows our trade deficit, which is completely out of
control. The President's budget last week asked the Congress to approve
a budget that has a dramatic budget deficit. In it, he predicts in the
fiscal year in which we now work, the budget deficit will be roughly
$530 billion, roughly $530 billion. But in order to get to that, he had
to take the Social Security trust funds for the year and use them as
other revenues to make the deficit look lower than it really is.
The budget deficit this year is going to be about $660 billion. That
is the budget deficit. Add to that a nearly $500 billion trade deficit,
and we can see where this is going--higher, higher, and higher. We have
a Government with a combined budget deficit and trade deficit that is
over $1 trillion, and people walk around as if nothing is going on.
This is serious for this country. This is a burden that must be repaid.
Let me talk for a moment about a couple of specific trade issues to
show the absurdity of what is happening. This chart shows cars to
Korea. Korea sent to the United States 620,000 cars to sell in our
marketplace, and we sold to Korea 2,800.
Let me say that again. Mr. President, 620,000 Korean cars came to the
U.S. We were able to sell 2,800 in Korea. Why? Because the Korean
government doesn't want U.S. cars sold in Korea.
Beef? We can't sell beef in Europe. Why? Because $100 million of beef
is banned from the EU each year due to bogus reasons, and we have a
very large trade deficit with the EU. Here is the way they characterize
U.S. beef: A cow with two heads because of growth hormones.
Guess what. We said to Europe: If you are going to take that action
against us, we are going to take action against you. And in the first
small semblance of direct action on trade, the U.S. Government decided
to take action against Europe.
What did we do? We are going to slap Europe around. We decided to
slap Europe around by imposing duties on Roquefort cheese, goose liver,
and truffles.
That will strike fear into our trade adversaries, and I say
adversaries because when they take unfair action against us, we have a
right to take action against them. What do we do? We slap import duties
on truffles and goose liver. I am sorry, that does not seem to me to be
the kind of action that is very effective against trade partners that
are engaged in unfair trade.
I could go on at great length about the issue. The issue, to me,
comes down to the subject of jobs. This is a BusinessWeek article of
February 3, last year. It talked about U.S. jobs moving offshore. They
talked about the official estimate of 3.3 million white-collar jobs
moving offshore in the near future. They are talking about in the
coming 10 to 12 years an additional 3.3 million jobs. These are not
factory jobs, manufacturing jobs. These are white-collar jobs that will
be moving offshore.
On the cover of BusinessWeek Magazine recently, it states: ``Is Your
Job Next?'' A new round of globalization is sending upscale jobs
offshore. They include chip design, engineering, basic research.
Recently, in the last couple of weeks, a Wall Street Journal article
talking about documents from the IBM Corporation gives a rare look,
they say, at ``sensitive plans for offshoring.''
They got ahold of IBM documents that show the company is acutely
aware of the sensitivities involved when they ship jobs overseas. These
are white-collar jobs. They say:
Do not be transparent regarding the purpose/intent, and
cautions that the terms ``onshore'' and ``offshore'' should
never be used. The memo--
Which talks about moving jobs offshore--
suggests that anything written to employees should first be
``sanitized'' by human-resources and communications staffers.
In the draft prepared for managers at IBM they suggest workers be
told:
This action is a statement about the rate and pace of
change in this demanding industry. . . . It is in no way a
comment on the excellent work you have done over the years. .
. . For the people whose jobs are affected by this
consolidation, I understand this is difficult news.
It is a rare look at companies that are now moving high-skilled,
high-wage, white-collar jobs overseas.
We have some serious problems to deal with. This issue of the
movement of American jobs overseas is a very serious issue. We can talk
about the issue of globalization, and I am somebody who believes this
is an increasing economy--I understand that--but I also believe there
needs to be standards: What is the admission price to the marketplace
of a developed country, a country that fought, for example, for the
right of workers to organize, a safe workplace, the ability to prohibit
the dumping into streams and waters and the air, poisons and effluents?
We fought for years about those things: Child labor laws, fair labor
standards, minimum wages. Now, with just an airplane ride and a
decision memo by a company which said we will just pole vault over all
of that, we do not have to worry about that, they move our jobs to
Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, or to a place where they can hire 12-year-
olds, pay them 12 cents an hour, and work them 12 hours a day, 7 days a
week. And they do. Then they will ship the product back to Toledo,
Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Fargo. They say that consumers will be
advantaged by that because they will get lower priced commodities.
I conclude by telling one story that I have told previously. It is
about Huffy bicycles. Most people are familiar with Huffy bicycles, 20
percent of the American marketplace sold at Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart.
They used to have an American flag as a decal between the handle bar
and the front fender. That was when they were made by workers in Ohio
who made $11 an hour producing a Huffy bicycle.
I do not know any of those workers, but I am sure they were proud
because they had good jobs and produced a good bicycle. They were all
fired. Huffy bicycles are now made in China. The workers in Ohio were
making $11 an hour. That was too much, according to the company. So
Huffy bicycles are made in China for 33 cents an hour by people who
work 12 to 14 hours a day for 7 days a week.
No, there is not a flag anymore. That little tin decal between the
fender and the handle bar is not an American flag. It is now a picture
of the globe.
The question for this country is: Are we going to have any
manufacturing jobs left? Is it fair competition to ask an American
worker to compete against 33-cent-an-hour labor? We have to answer
these questions.
I am not suggesting it is not an increasingly global world, but we
need rules for globalization. What is fair competition for the American
worker and for American businesses? That is something the Congress has
been unwilling to deal with and recent trade agreements have ignored.
In fact, the
[[Page S701]]
trade agreements have been fundamentally incompetent, the ones with
China, NAFTA, and others.
I have spoken about those agreements at great length previously.
Today, what I wanted to do was simply show the chart that shows the 100
companies that have exported jobs, and they have certified that the
export of these jobs came about as a result of our trade agreement.
This certification is not some speculation on my part. This is
certification by each of these companies about the number of jobs that
no longer exist in this country because they either moved to Mexico or
they displaced imports coming into this country.
This certification that has been made and the CRS has compiled for me
is on my Web site, Dorgan.Senate.gov, if someone wants to see the list
of companies. I think it is important for people to understand this is
what is happening. The question is: Does it matter? For me, it does.
If we are going to have a strong manufacturing base, we have to worry
about this. No country will remain a dominant economic power without a
strong manufacturing base, in my judgment.
I have more to say about trade. I will do it at a more appropriate
time. I understand my colleague wishes to speak on the bill, and I
yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. First of all, I thank the Senator from North Dakota for
yielding. He will have ample time to come back and do that. I
appreciate him allowing us to get back to the bill.
The Senator from Ohio has an amendment to talk about, but I encourage
all Members to come down to the floor. We have time now. Later on, time
is going to become very precious. As I said last Friday, come to the
floor. We stayed open all weekend to work with Members on their
amendments. We are doing that as we speak. We would encourage Members
to come down and talk about their amendments--now that we have worked
out amendments--so when the appropriate time comes, if they wish to
file those amendments and to debate them and get votes on them, they
will be light-years ahead if they come down now.
I want to issue that as a very strong suggestion to those members who
have amendments. I thank some 30 Members who brought their amendments
down over Saturday. A lot of those have been accepted in the managers'
amendment.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. INHOFE. I will be glad to yield.
Mr. JEFFORDS. I have been here a long time, as the Senator from
Oklahoma has. Have we had anybody come down?
Mr. INHOFE. Senator DeWine is waiting to speak now on his amendment,
although I think the Senator is making a very good point. We have been
talking about this since Friday, and we encourage people to come down.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Well, I hope the Senator from Ohio will get such
enthusiasm created with his speech that we can spend the rest of the
time making some progress.
Mr. INHOFE. I can assure the Senator he always does.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Yes.
Mr. INHOFE. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to thank the
leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Chairman Inhofe,
Ranking Member Jeffords, as well as Senators Bond and Reid, for all the
hard work they put in to produce this transportation bill. This is
really a transportation bill that does a number of different things,
but one thing it does do is stress the importance of safety programs.
The bill before us today is a revolutionary bill. It is known as
SAFETEA. That is what we are calling it. In many respects it certainly
deserves this title. I salute my two colleagues, whom I see on the
floor, and thank them for their fine work in this area.
A strong emphasis on safety programs is vital because in the year
2002, the last year for which we have complete records, over 42,000 of
our fellow citizens--in fact, the exact number is 42,815--were lost in
this country. That is how many fellow citizens were killed in auto
fatalities.
The No. 1 killer of Americans between the ages of 4 and 34 in this
country is auto fatalities. That is an amazing thing when you think
about it. Think about all the other diseases and problems there are in
this country, whether it be cancer, all the other things someone could
die from, but the No. 1 killer of our young people today is auto
fatalities.
If you look at the age group of 16, 17, 18, 19, the figures go off
the charts for that age group. That is what is killing our young people
today--automobiles.
In the next 12 minutes, to be precise, at least 1 person will be
killed in an automobile accident in this country, while nearly 6 people
will be injured in just the next 60 seconds. Tragically, within the
last 2 weeks, in my home State of Ohio, two of our soldiers were killed
in automobile accidents, one of whom was just back from Iraq on a 2-
week pass.
Sadly, though, it seems these deaths are something we as a society
take for granted. We tolerate it. We put up with it. Frankly, we don't
pay much attention to it. How many times every night when we turn on
the news do we hear about someone being killed? Unless they are from
our local community, unless we know them, we don't think a thing about
it. We tolerate it.
If a foreign enemy were doing this to us, we would not tolerate it.
We would be up in arms. Someone has said these automobile deaths are
the equivalent of a 747 going down every 2 days in this country. If
that were happening, it would, of course, be on CNN. It would be
breaking news. We would be literally up in arms. We would be demanding
the President of the United States and this Congress do something about
it. Yet these auto fatalities that occur hour by hour, day by day,
minute by minute, go on and on and for some reason we have become
immune to it, hardened to it, really. Tragically these deaths just
continue.
That is why I am so pleased the bill before us does go a long way to
help to address several safety concerns that can make a difference and
can save lives on our roads. The EPW Committee leaders deserve praise
for elevating safety programs to core status among highway programs. In
the past, safety programs were of a derivative nature, drawing their
funding as a percentage of one of the core programs. This framework
enabled some States to overlook safety and focus funding and efforts on
other areas. With the new core designation, safety will take its proper
place at center stage. The EPW Committee leadership deserves praise for
taking this quantum leap forward.
Let me again thank Senators Inhofe, Jeffords, Bond, and Reid for
making their staffs available this weekend for work on my amendments. I
am pleased with the progress that has been made so far, trying to work
on these amendments. One of my amendments has already been accepted. I
thank them for that. That amendment has been integrated into the
proposed managers' package.
I have another amendment relating to traffic signals that I believe
we will have cleared in the near future.
I wish this afternoon to take a few minutes to share with the Members
of the Senate what these amendments will do, because I believe they
will help put us even further down the field in terms of saving lives
and promoting greater emphasis on safety.
I have further additional safety-related amendments I will be
offering to the Commerce Committee portion of the highway bill, and I
will be offering those in a future speech when we get to that section
of the bill, we hope later in the week. I thank Senator McCain for his
leadership. I look forward to working with him and the Commerce
Committee on that section of the bill.
The first amendment the EPW Committee has accepted contains two
parts. First, it would require the States to identify and rank and
disclose their most dangerous intersections. That might not sound like
a revolutionary thing to do, but not every State is doing that now. It
is the right thing to do: to rank them, to identify them, and then to
make that information public so the consumers, the citizens will know
what that information is and will then be able to act upon it.
A second part of our amendment we are still negotiating with the
leadership would increase the timely and efficient expenditure of
Federal safety dollars by the States.
[[Page S702]]
Let me first talk about the dangerous roads and intersections
amendment. The Environment and Public Works Committee bill focuses some
resources on these problem areas and this amendment builds on the
committee's fine efforts. Most States, fortunately, do take steps to
identify and track the dangerous roads and intersections. They keep a
list of the bad ones, the ones with high fatalities and high accident
rates. But, amazingly, there are many States that keep this information
secret and do not tell the public or, in some cases, do not even keep
this information at all.
My amendment is very simple. It requires States to systematically
rank and disclose their most dangerous roads and intersections. It
requires them to do so in terms of dangers to human beings, in other
words, in terms of the number of deaths and the number of injuries that
occur on these specific roads.
Further, my language asks the States to disclose at least the top 5
percent of the most dangerous roads and intersections in their States,
and that they identify to the Secretary of Transportation this
information and therefore ultimately to the driving public.
We need to get information on dangerous roads and intersections out
to the public and to the people we are charged to protect. My amendment
would help assure that this in fact happens.
Consumers have a right to know this information. As a parent, I might
tell my 16-year-old or 17-year-old not to go a certain way to a movie.
Don't go on that dangerous intersection. Don't go by that dangerous
curve. At least, if I had that information, I could make an intelligent
decision about it. It is wrong for a State department of transportation
to have that information and to deny me, as a citizen of that State,
that same information. I should be able to tell my child, ``Don't go
that way. It may take another 10 or 15 minutes, but go a different
way--be safe.''
I would like to briefly tell my colleagues about a woman by the name
of Sandy Johnson and her mother Jacqueline. On October 5, 2002, Sandy
and Jacqueline were killed. They were killed in a car crash at a
dangerous intersection near Columbus, OH.
What they did not know as they drove into that intersection--and what
countless other area residents who used the roads that cross through it
did not know at the time--was this particular intersection was known at
that time by the State department of transportation to be a very
dangerous area. In fact, the State department of transportation had
indeed known that information for quite some time. Perhaps if Sandy
Johnson had known that she would have taken a different route that day.
We will never know. Perhaps she might have slowed down to see traffic
coming from the other direction. Tragically, we simply will never know.
This particular intersection was dangerous because of the close
proximity of a house to the intersection, making it difficult for
drivers coming from each direction to see those approaching from the
other way. The fix to this problem, the installation of four-way stop
signs and ultimately removal of a house to improve sight lines, took
quite some time to be implemented. But eventually, these steps were in
fact taken.
Following the tragic death of his wife and his mother-in-law, Dean
Johnson initiated a campaign to tackle the issue of dangerous roads and
dangerous intersections, not just in Ohio but across the country. He
has tried with varying results from State to State to get information
on dangerous roads and intersection locations out to the public so
tragedies like the one involving his wife could be prevented.
Today on the Senate floor, I thank Dean Johnson for his dedication to
this very important public safety issue and for the progress he has
made in my home State of Ohio and elsewhere in terms of getting
critical lifesaving information out to citizens through the Sandy
Johnson Foundation. I must say to him that his work is a real tribute
to his love for his wife and for her memory.
Clearly, tragedies like the one involving Sandy Johnson can be
prevented in many cases through means as simple and as inexpensive as
disclosure to the public of what State departments of transportation
already know--the disclosure of where the dangerous roads and
intersections are located. The States should provide this information.
They already know it. They simply should provide it.
The second part of our amendment focuses on how States spend their
safety money. In this respect, my staff is working with the committee
to develop additional mechanisms for the timely and efficient
expenditure of Federal safety dollars. In the past, there have been
problems with getting States to spend their safety money on safety. The
EPW Committee bill goes a long way towards helping ensure those safety
dollars do in fact get spent on safety. My efforts in this area are
aimed at further strengthening this portion of the bill. It is simply
so very important that these dollars be spent on safety--to straighten
the road that is killing people or to change a dangerous intersection.
This money can be very well spent and should be spent on things that
will save lives. It is very cost effective.
Let me talk about another amendment. My staff and I are continuing to
work with the managers and their staff on accepting the second
amendment that has to do with keeping our intersections safe with
regard to the safety of first responders as they engage in their daily
work. This amendment is derived from legislation I introduced last year
called the Safe Intersections Act of 2003, S. 1825.
This amendment would prohibit the unauthorized sale or possession of
traffic signal preempting devices, commonly known as MIRTs. This type
of device is a remote control for changing traffic signals. Members of
the Senate may have read about these. They have been used for years by
ambulances, police cars, and firetrucks, allowing them to reach
emergencies faster. As an ambulance approaches the intersection where
the light is red, the driver engages a transmitter. That transmitter
then sends a signal to a receiver on the traffic light which changes
the light from red to green within a few seconds. It is a very useful
tool when properly used in emergency situations by someone in an
emergency vehicle.
In a 2002 survey, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that in
the top 78 metropolitan areas, there are 24,683 traffic lights equipped
with these sensors--in other words, equipped with sensors that can be
triggered by emergency vehicles.
In my own home State of Ohio, there is a joint pilot project underway
by the Washington Township Fire Department and the Dublin Police
Department to install these devices. Other areas in Ohio where they are
in use include Mentor, Twinsburg, Willoughy, and Westerville. In Ohio
and across the country, law enforcement offices, fire departments, and
paramedics are investing in this technology to make their communities
safer.
So what is the problem? Recently, it has come to light that this
technology is being sold to unauthorized individuals--who use this
technology in their own private cars and private vehicles to bypass red
lights during their commute to and from work or just in their everyday
driving. Clearly, preemptive devices were never intended for this type
of use. This technology in the hands of unauthorized users could result
in traffic problems such as gridlock or, much worse, accidents in which
people are injured or killed. We know of at least one incident in
Modesto, CA, where paramedics on an emergency run used a preemptive
device to clear the way through a busy intersection only to see the
light change back to red in their direction due to use of a MIRT by a
nearby driver.
My amendment is simple. It would restrict the sale of preemptive
devices to government-authorized users such as ambulance drivers,
firetruck drivers, and police. Clearly, these devices should not be
available to casual drivers wishing to make a total end run on civil
order by changing traffic signals to make their commute a little bit
shorter. It is a very simple amendment.
The two amendments I am offering will go a long way towards improving
transportation safety. They are commonsense, they are practical, and
they will in fact make a difference.
These efforts are a continuation of my work in this area--something I
have been interested in for many years,
[[Page S703]]
going back to a time in the early 1980s when I was in the Ohio State
Senate. A little boy named Justin--I think Justin was 7--was killed
right outside his school in my home county of Greene County. We decided
at that time that Justin had been killed by a driver who had been
drinking, a driver who had a very bad previous record of drinking and
driving. We decided, frankly, we had had enough of this and we had to
do something about it. I introduced a very tough drunk driving billing
in Ohio. I researched the law and saw what other States and foreign
countries had been doing. Ultimately, the bill became Ohio's tough
drunk-driving law. I have been interested in highway safety issues ever
since. I have worked in the Congress with many of my colleagues. I have
worked in the State Senate. I saw this firsthand when I was county
prosecutor. I used to go into county courts and prosecute drunk
drivers. I saw the carnage and horrible tragedy drunk drivers cause. I
have been interested in highway safety issues for many years. I know
many of my colleagues are as well.
I again thank Senator Inhofe for his great work in this area to make
this a very strong highway safety bill. It has some very strong highway
safety components.
I think the amendments I have talked about today will go a long way
to help make this an even better bill in regard to highway safety. I
will be back on the floor later this week as the bill continues to
progress with some additional amendments in regard to highway safety. I
will be talking more about them.
I thank my colleague for his great work on this bill, and Senator
Jeffords, as well, for his great work.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Dole). The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I appreciate the comments of the Senator
from Ohio and his interest in safety issues. I share his concerns. When
you have lost a loved one in an automobile accident--in the case of my
father, because of a narrow, two-lane road--and you know that such a
tragic accident could have been avoided and lives saved through things
such as safety striping, laws, or additional safety devices at railroad
crossings, you can fully appreciate the need for the attention the
Senator has given to this important issue.
I also thank Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma, chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee, for his leadership. Producing a
highway bill is not an easy process. I have dealt with transportation
issues closely as a Member of the Senate for several years now. I can
remember when TEA-21 was on the floor how difficult it was to pull
together the bill with the divergent committees--the Finance Committee,
the Appropriations Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Banking
Committee all had a say in the outcome of the bill. All the Members of
the Senate had their oars in the water and we had to have bipartisan
meetings in the various committees to produce a bill that could get
through the process and be signed into law.
It is not easy to get the reauthorization bill to this point. I
commend Senator Inhofe for the work he has already done on SAFETEA, the
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of
2003. Coming up with that good title alone deserves commendation.
I also thank the Senator from Vermont for his efforts. As a member of
the Finance Committee, as well as the Environment and Public Works
Committee, he has worked with Senator Inhofe to try to get this bill
done. He has made it a point in the Finance Committee that we need to
complete action on this legislation because it is important for our
country.
We do need to come up with an acceptable financing plan for the costs
of this bill. It will take cooperation and teamwork to get it done. I
know Members of the Democratic leadership support this legislation and
I believe we are getting off on the right foot. But we spent a week
positioning and making speeches. I hope now the Senate will begin to
have some votes and conclude action on the bill as soon as possible so
that we are not faced with another extension. We need to move this
legislation through the Senate, show leadership, and be prepared to go
to conference with the House of Representatives.
In my opinion, there may not be a more important bill we can pass
this year. This is not going to be a prolific year in terms of
monumental legislation. Frankly, that is not all bad. Some of what we
passed last year we should have left unpassed. Sometimes we should get
credit for what we do not do. But this bill is one we need to complete
this year for a variety of reasons.
First of all, SAFETEA is about jobs. Very few bills we pass in the
Senate actually produce something. This is a bill that is actually
going to produce jobs, not just next year but year after year. There
are projects in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont, Mississippi, and all
over this Nation, ready to go right now. We need to get this
legislation passed as soon as possible so that the funding it provides
can be fully utilized during the construction season. If we wait too
long and let this drag out, if we get stuck in the Senate or get stuck
in conference, we will lose another construction season.
This bill will create jobs. Not all of the jobs will be high-paying,
but they will be jobs just the same. There are very few Federal
programs that create more jobs, from engineers down to the guy
shoveling the gravel or moving around the dirt, all of which are very
important.
We need to pass this legislation for its job creation impetus. We
talk about how we need more jobs in this recovery; this is one way to
get them.
SAFETEA is also about infrastructure. When you get through, you have
something you can see--an interstate highway, a bridge, a safety
device. Maybe even mass transit facilities in some of the larger
cities. But we have a product we can look at.
I found out through my 31 years in Congress, there are few things we
do for our constituents that are more important than highways and
infrastructure. If you do not have roads, if people cannot get there,
they will not come. That is a brilliant statement when you think about
it, but if companies do not have access to good roads and bridges,
railroads, airports, ports and harbors, they will not locate a plant
and create jobs anywhere in this country. When you are dealing with a
major international corporation, they want to know: Are we going to be
on an interstate highway? Are we going to be close to an international
airport? Do you have good schools? It starts there. Then you work from
there to questions such as: Is the geology good? Will we have water and
sewer systems? Do we have access roads or existing buildings?
My poor State of Mississippi has been making some progress. Why is
that? Because we finally figured out that we were trying to fix
everything and we were actually fixing nothing. We were shooting
shotgun blasts and trying to do good things up and down the economic
spectrum to help our State. It was not working because the money was
disappearing. People were not getting better off. So we decided to
focus. And we focused on education, particularly higher education and
community colleges, to create workforce training programs for local
communities. And we worked to improve our elementary and secondary
education systems, as well.
Second was highways. Highways is a code word for infrastructure. It
is the whole package: The industrial site, water, sewer, railroad spur.
If a community does not have good highways, economic development will
not happen. We have a major industry right now in my State, Viking
Range Corporation, that makes the best ranges and some of the best
kitchen equipment in the world. But to get to their manufacturing
plant, visitors actually have to travel on a dirt road. This is
severely hampering the company's growth.
The third thing we focused on in my State is economic development. We
decided to aggressively go out and pursue jobs. This bill is an
important component of that effort. SAFETEA is about jobs, it is about
infrastructure, it is about quality of life, and it is about safety.
I don't want to demean this title. We talk about safety on the
highways, safety on the roads, safety on our bridges. We have bridges
all over America crumbling and being shut down. I admit, some of them
are local or county bridges, which, in an ideal world, should be
maintained by the counties. But at a minimum, shouldn't we continue the
policies that started way
[[Page S704]]
back in the 1950s--actually back in the 1800s, with Henry Clay, to
develop and federally maintain an Interstate Highway System.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and to give the
leaders of this committee the support to which they are entitled.
Someone asked last week: We have all these problems, what do we do? I
said, support the chairman and ranking member. They have a tough job,
an important job. We should help and support them and try to shape the
legislation with them, not just because we want projects in our State.
Yes, we all do. But if we did not get one earmarked project in our
States, we ought to support this legislation because of what it means
for our country.
Now, there is a lot of pontification developing, as often happens
with the highway bill, but even more so this time. People are showing
up, all of a sudden, worried about the costs of this bill. Lots of
people are saying: Wait a minute, this may add to the deficit. Where
have they been over the last 2 or 3 years? Where were they on the
prescription drug bill when we were developing a bill that would cost
$600 billion or $800 billion or who knows how many billions of dollars?
They were not worried about the deficit until the highway bill came up.
And they said, wait a minute, the highway bill may cost too much.
The Finance Committee has struggled with how to pay for this bill. Is
it perfect? No. But it was a major effort and we are within a close
enough range where we can continue to make some adjustments as we go
through the legislative process. Some people say: Once it goes through
the process, we may have to vote. That is exactly right. And we will
have to look at the final product. Is it something the Republicans,
Democrats, Senate, House, labor unions, the White House can live with?
We will never know until we move forward on it.
So we have people now saying that after ignoring the amount of
spending last year--in bill after bill after bill--we are going to
plant our flag on this hill, and we are going to fight excessive
spending on the highway bill. They picked the wrong bill. This is a
positive bill, and we will make it work as the process goes forward.
People will say: Well, wait a minute. There may be some earmarking in
some of these bills before it is over. Yes, there may be. Fine. And I
am going to fight for my own State to get its share because I do not
necessarily believe that all wisdom reposes in the Department of
Transportation in Washington, DC. I happen to know a little bit about
some of the real crises, projects, and problems in my own State, and I
trust Senators--men and women--from their own States to identify some
of the needs that must be addressed in their home states.
Then there will be those who will say: This bill doesn't put enough
funding into mass transportation or it doesn't put enough funding into
one project or another. Let me point out a couple of things we are
dealing with.
Our Interstate Highway System is nearly 50 years old. Thirty-two
percent of our major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Twenty-
nine percent of our Nation's bridges are structurally deficient or
functionally obsolete. If we do not complete action on this
legislation, we will wind up with a 1-year extension and we will be
back next year. Some people would say, maybe we could do a better job
in a nonelection year.
But I believe we need a carefully thought out, multiyear,
multifaceted federal highway and transportation program, and we need it
now. We are having difficulty on other bills, such as the energy bill.
We are trying to decide, what bills can we get done this year? Well,
there is one thing we should not leave undone this year, and it is this
highway bill.
I urge my colleagues to work together to try to come to a conclusion
this week. If we have to have a cloture motion filed in order to make
progress, let's do that. I believe it will pass with a bipartisan vote.
It should. And then we can make progress on this bill and be ready to
go to conference with the House of Representatives where we can get the
job done.
I know we are going to be getting calls with suggestions of delays.
Some people do not like the formula. It is tough to come up with a
formula that is fair to everybody, especially if you have been a big
donee State. If you are a small State or a big State that has been
getting back $1.21 for every $1 you pay into the highway trust fund,
you don't want to lose any funding. But if you are from a poor State
that has been getting only 50 or 75 cents on the dollar that your
constituents pay into the Highway Trust Fund, you want a fairer deal.
But it is not easy to try to come up with a formula that is fair to
Texas and New York and Rhode Island and Oklahoma all at the same time.
It is really a balancing act.
I looked at the formula. I don't think the formula is as good as it
ought to be for Mississippi. We are just kind of in the middle. And
when your state has been neglected for 138 years it needs to do a
little better than being in the middle. But I prefer the progress we
make on this bill, to nothing. It is progress. So I do not think I have
any more room to complain than anybody else.
But, again, we have some people who do not want to move toward a
fairer formula for everyone. They do not want to give up anything they
have. But I think the formula Chairman Inhofe and Senator Jeffords have
come up with is good enough. Can they still tweak it a little bit as
the bill moves forward through the process? Yes, they can; and I am
sure they will.
So I hope my colleagues will not start blocking this bill with
procedural motions because they do not like the formula. I hope they
will keep working with the chairman and ranking member, as I will. I am
going to curry favor with the chairman of the committee until the last
dog dies to try to complete action on this bill in a way that will be
fair to my constituents and good for the country. But I hope my
colleagues will not use the formula as an excuse to block the bill. I
hope they will not use this newfound fiscal responsibility to hammer
out the worst possible bill. If we will proceed together, working with
the chairman and ranking member, we will complete action on this bill,
and it will be one of the best things we can do this year.
I thank the Senate for the opportunity to comment on this bill. I
thank the leadership for what they are doing. I was growing concerned
that too many people were possibly trying to conjure up some way to
block this legislation.
So let's keep the process moving. It is not just for the sake of the
process, no. It is for better and safer infrastructure in this country.
It is for jobs. I wish the leadership of the committee the best, and I
am going to be here trying to help them every step of the way.
I yield the floor, Madam President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, that was a great statement by the
Senator from Mississippi. I appreciate it very much. It is a
recognition that a lot of people will think all of a sudden we came up,
last week, with a bill and a formula. They don't realize we have spent
a year--a year of our lives--working on a formula, looking into the
same things the Senator is talking about.
I am from a donor State. We have been a donor State as long as I have
been up here. The Senator talked about working on TEA-21. You also
worked on ISTEA in the beginning because I was there with you. Those
formulas were not as good because they were based on minimum
guarantees. A minimum guarantee is you figure, how do I get 60 votes,
and then we don't care what happens to the rest of you. We did not do
that.
We considered the donee States, donor States, the fast-growing
States, because there is a ceiling in there for them, and then there is
a floor for some of the States that have either a low population or are
low-yield States. All these things were taken into consideration.
So anything that is as complicated and long as this is, you can pick
it apart. But I can tell you right now, we spent a lot of time on it.
There are people who are interested in the transit part of it. There
are some, such as the Senator from Ohio, who have been very much
concerned about and made great contributions to safety. Some of them
are concerned about freight and the obstacles that are out there. But
we have it all in this one.
I feel good about this bill. It has taken a year to get where we are
today. Frankly, you just cannot start
[[Page S705]]
readjusting a formula of which you took every consideration in putting
together. You have something that is fair. You cannot then start
readjusting it. If you change one State, it changes all the other
States, and then you have to go back and start all over.
I think there are those who would prefer we would have to do that
because they don't want to have a bill. But we are not going to operate
on extensions, and I have every expectation we will get a bill this
week.
People say: What about the House? They are going to want an
extension. They are not where we are. Well, you are not going to get
them to do anything until we do something, in my opinion.
I appreciate very much the Senator from Mississippi making his
comments about this bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Madam President, I also add to the accolades to my good
friend from Mississippi for putting in perspective where we are and
what we must do to make this a reality. This Nation cannot wait much
longer to have the funds that will be available under this bill in
order to enhance the employment growth as well as the needs of this
Nation to be more efficient and effective in all categories of life. We
must work together. We must work quickly. And we should start today.
I thank the Chair.
Mr. INHOFE. 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. McCAIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, while the Senate began debating S. 1072,
the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity
Act, known as SAFETEA, nearly 1 week ago, I am not sure some of my
colleagues have been informed about how this bill would impact their
State's highway funding. While perhaps we have all taken a look at the
tables distributed by the committee of jurisdiction a few weeks ago,
these tables omit some very important facts, including the fact that
the number of donor States would actually increase under the pending
legislation compared to the last reauthorization bill, TEA-21.
Instead of giving greater parity, it appears to be going in the
opposite direction, as I will explain in a few minutes. Before I go too
much further, I understand that after my colleague from Arizona was on
the floor last week in opposition to this legislation, the Senator from
Oklahoma went through some routine about how Arizona would do well
under this legislation. Rather than subject my colleague from Oklahoma
to that again, I would suggest we swap formulas between Oklahoma and
Arizona. If the Senator from Oklahoma is not willing to do that, then
please don't waste my time and his in trying to convince me this is a
good deal for the State of Arizona.
First, I think it might help to put the bill in context by quickly
reviewing the history of the Federal highway program, which I briefly
mentioned on the floor last Monday evening. Nearly 50 years ago, the
Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was enacted. As you can see, it was a
deceptively inconspicuous-looking piece of legislation. It was 29
pages, but what it accomplished truly changed this country. The 1956
act created programs that constructed the interstate highway system,
the largest civil works project ever undertaken by the United States.
The act established the highway trust fund, financed by taxes paid by
motorists--financed by taxpayers, not by general revenue--which is an
important aspect to look at as we consider this legislation. It
required that the interstate be built using a uniform design that would
be safe within most U.S. highways in existence at that time.
The program to construct the interstate was first proposed by
President Eisenhower in 1954 and signed into law in 1956. Today we are
all the beneficiaries of the foresight of President Eisenhower and a
Congress that helped to shepherd this bill through to enactment. The
interstate system is 47,000 miles long, comprised of 62 superhighways
crisscrossing the Nation in a grid. Twenty-four percent of all travel
occurs on the interstate, and it has obtained a record being twice as
safe as other highways.
Unfortunately, when people look back 50 years from now at the highway
legislation currently before the Senate, I don't think history will be
as kind. We reauthorize the multiyear highway transit safety programs
about every 6 years. We last reauthorized these programs in 1998 with
enactment of TEA-21, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century, following extensive debate in the Senate. The highway program
reauthorization measure is a bill second to none in terms of attracting
Members' interests. We all want to know how much our States will
receive in highway funding under the byzantine formula distribution
being proposed during each authorization debate. Therefore, because of
its significance, it is important that each and every Member have an
opportunity to know what the bill would do and how it would do it.
At this point, what exactly do my colleagues know about the real
impact this bill would have on their States? I recognize the
difficulties this reauthorization poses for the bill managers. I would
prefer to be in a position to support their legislation. But in its
current form, I cannot.
The bill would increase highway funding by over $60 billion over the
TEA-21 enacted level, again, over $60 billion, for a total of $255
billion. At the same time, the bill not only perpetuates the donor/
donee discrepancy that we donor State representatives have battled
during every highway bill reauthorization, but it actually expands it.
The 28 donor States under TEA-21 will have the company of another three
States--New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wisconsin--if this proposal is
approved.
I guess I could say something about misery loving company, but I
don't want more States to be shortchanged. Instead, I want all States
to be treated more fairly. It amazes me that an additional $60 billion
still can't enable the authorizing committee to develop a fairer
formula but, as demonstrated by EPW's funding tables, they cannot or
perhaps simply will not. Where will this extra $60 billion go?
While the EPW Committee argues its bill would get every State to a
95-percent rate of return by 2009, the sixth year of the authorization,
I remind my colleagues that under TEA-21, the formula increased the
minimum rate of return from 85 percent to 90.5 percent in the first
year, and it continued throughout the authorization period. Yet, again,
the EPW bill we are considering doesn't raise the floor to 95 percent
until the sixth year. So, again, where exactly will this $60 billion
go?
The committee proposes a new so-called formula. I say that because it
is not actually a formula but instead is a series of five calculations
consisting of funding caps and floors. This Rube-Goldberg-like funding
contraption is grossly unfair and would result in 31 States getting
back significantly less funding than they contribute to the highway
trust fund. Further, while a number of the current bottom-of-the-barrel
donor States would receive an immediate step up from the smallest of
90.5 percent rate of return, including a number of donor States with
members on the committee, six States would receive almost no percentage
increase until the last year of the authorization in 2009.
Under this formula, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland,
and Texas would be held at the very bottom, while many other States
also would continue to get shortchanged.
This is not the right approach. It is unfair. We should do everything
we can to try to ensure that any bill voted on is more equitable for
all States. Again, it isn't just these six States that I mentioned that
are being asked to contribute more to the highway trust fund than they
will get back. I asked the Department of Transportation to provide an
analysis of the formula. I thought it would be revealing to first learn
how much each State would receive if the formula funds in the EPW bill
were distributed proportionately back to each State based on their
contributions to the highway fund.
According to the Department of Transportation, 31 States are donor
[[Page S706]]
States under this formula, while 19 get back more than they pay in,
according to this chart.
Let me give some examples. The people of California are being asked
to send almost $2 billion to Washington, DC, so that it can be
redistributed through some arcane funding scheme to the lucky 19 States
that would get back more than they put in.
For Arizona, $364 million of its contributions would be sent away to
the 19 States. You know, it is interesting, Arizona and California,
neighboring States, have something in common that, frankly, neither
Vermont nor Oklahoma have, which is high growth. Obviously, it puts on
greater pressure when you have a high-growth population, which actually
argues for increased funding. Instead, we are being shorted.
But here are other examples of funding. Florida, another high-growth
State, would send away a billion dollars; Georgia would send away $643
million; Illinois would send away $403 million; Kentucky would send
away $304 million; Michigan would send away $383 million; Missouri
would send away $286 million; New Jersey would send away $547 million;
Ohio would send away $517 million; and Texas would send away $1.7
billion.
The list goes on and on. It is remarkable.
I fully realize that during the era when the Federal Government was
building the Interstate System, a redistribution of funding between the
States may have made sense. Clearly, it would have been difficult for
Montana, for example, with fewer than a million people, to fully pay
for building its share of the Interstate System. But that era is over.
Congress declared the construction of the interstate complete in
1991. Yet here we are, 13 years later, and donor States are still being
expected to agree to the redistribution of hundreds of millions, if not
billions, of dollars to other States, regardless of the already
enormous transportation needs in donor States. Why?
I am sure we will hear about the great transportation needs of the
States that receive more than they contribute. I have no doubt that
those States do in fact have such needs. But how is it determined that
California should have nearly $2 billion of its funding redistributed?
Why aren't California's transportation needs as worthy of receiving the
same percentage of Federal funds as provided to meet the transportation
needs of New York, for example, which will receive $989 million more
than it contributes over 6 years? Where is the logic? I am afraid there
is none.
Let's consider New Hampshire and Vermont. These are two very similar
sized neighboring States. Both have about the same total road and
street mileage--around 15,000 miles. But under this EPW formula, New
Hampshire is a donor and Vermont is a donee, getting a windfall of
almost $500 million, or almost 190 percent of what it contributes. In
fact, Vermont would even receive more in total dollars than New
Hampshire. There can be no policy rationale for that--none.
I will admit that I have a certain affection for the State of New
Hampshire--a great deal of affection for the State of New Hampshire.
But to have this kind of disparity between two States is rather
remarkable.
Madam President, this bill is suspect. In fact, the tables that have
been circulated by the EPW Committee actually raise more questions than
they answer. For example, what affect will new air quality standards
have on State allocations? The new formula included in the EPW bill for
the congestion management and air quality improvement program, a
program totaling $13 billion, is not reflected in the tables.
What happens to State allocations if the bill is not fully funded?
The promise that your State, if you are a donor, will finally achieve a
95-percent return by 2009 may be empty. In order to achieve a 95-
percent rate of return for all States in 2009, it would require a 1-
year increase of $5.5 billion in 2009. How likely is that to occur,
taking into consideration the projected fiscal year 2005 budget deficit
of $\1/2\ trillion continued budget deficit projections well beyond
2009?
Here is a fundamental question, one I think the President is
seriously considering: Are we really paying for this bill? The Finance
Committee has proposed what many of us consider to be accounting
gimmicks to make the highway bill appear to be fully paid for. But
appearances are often deceptive, as several colleagues have already
discussed on the floor. How will the Finance Committee's proposed
accounting changes for gasohol taxation impact your State's share? I am
told it will be dramatic for some States. Should the EPW Committee's
funding tables not be updated to reflect any and all changes so that we
all know the real impact of what we are being asked to vote on?
What affect will provisions in a potential managers' amendment have
on your State's funding? Last Friday, on this floor, the chairman of
the committee announced that Members' staff should bring all of their
amendments to the committee staff on Saturday to determine if they will
be incorporated into the managers' amendment. Today, it was announced
that the EPW Committee staff met with 10 Members' offices over the
weekend. The Democratic bill manager announced this afternoon that 34
amendments have been accepted by the managers. What amendments are
being accepted? I am sure we will know when we read the Congressional
Record. Should we not all be informed? Clearly, the managers' amendment
needs to be made available for review prior to us being asked to vote
on it. And will the EPW Committee distribute tables showing the impact
of any funding changes that will occur under the managers' amendment?
Again, we should all want to know exactly what is being proposed and
how it will impact our State's funding.
I strongly support a long-term reauthorization of the Nation's
surface transportation programs and understand the vital nature of this
funding to our States. This legislation only comes before the Senate
every 6 years. I urge my colleagues to start asking some questions and
ensure that they fully understand how the safety legislation would
impact their State before it is allowed to pass the Senate.
We also have been told that at some point in the next few days,
before we vote cloture on this bill, we will add a ``slimmed down''
energy bill to the highway bill. Now, I will freely admit--in fact, I
will testify to the fact--that many times in our Nation's Capital we
either are immune to, or insensitive to, the concerns of the American
people. Here we are looking at massive deficits, massive overspending,
massive growth of Government, unseen in the history of this country,
and what are we going to do? We are going to add a ``slimmed down''
energy bill.
I understand that it has gone from $31 billion to $18 billion or $13
billion--you know, only in the teens of billions of dollars. This is a
remarkable exercise. Adding an energy bill that was basically
rejected--thank God--by this Senate, because of its hooters, looters,
and polluters provisions, and now we are going to stick it on to the
highway bill.
What does the energy bill have to do with the highway bill? Nothing.
Do we have no shame? Is there no embarrassment whatsoever about the way
we are doing business around here?
Madam President, I will continue to struggle and fight to see that
for these 19 States, the percentage of what they are getting, as
opposed to what they donate, is also important, as opposed to the 31
States which will be donating, and that we try to correct this
inequity. Really what we should do is have a 1-year extension of the
existing legislation and go back at this again next year. I think that
would probably be of benefit to the taxpayers of America, who are
deeply concerned about our overspending.
I also point out that I think the attention of the President of the
United States is on this issue. I have heard--not directly but
indirectly--that he would contemplate a veto of this legislation. I can
think of no single act that might be more important or popular with the
American people than for him to veto this bill, because at least the
funding should come out of users fees, which was the fundamental
principle behind the original highway bill.
If this Congress, in its wisdom, because we need more money for
highways, thinks we need to increase the gas tax, I think that is a
subject for
[[Page S707]]
discussion and debate. The American people are getting a little weary
of this smoke and mirrors of passing a $400 billion Medicare
prescription drug bill and finding out within weeks that it is $130
billion more expensive, to see our deficit skyrocket from surpluses of
several trillion dollars and deficits of several trillion dollars. And
no one--no one--no economist believes we are going to have the deficit
within the next several years because, guess what, Madam President. We
are going to be coming back--among other overspending, including this
one--we are going to be coming back next year for another emergency
supplemental for our operations in Iraq which will probably be in the
range, at minimum, of about $50 billion.
I am hopeful that the American people will call a halt to this
overspending. I am hopeful that the American people, particularly in
these 31 States, will recognize that for every dollar in taxes they are
paying when they go to the fuel pump, they are getting less than that
back because it is being funneled through Washington, DC, to the
benefit of States for which no rational argument can be made that it
would be more beneficial to them than other States, including those
that are experiencing very rapid growth.
I will continue, as some of my colleagues will, as long as we can to
prevent the passage of this legislation. It is not only our obligation
to our individual States that are not getting their money back for the
funds they send, but also to all the taxpayers of America who are being
victimized by this back-room, porkbarrel spending process which is
really remarkable.
Again I want to show my colleagues, in 1956, this was the highway
bill, and now we all know what rests on our desks.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I was in this Chamber just a few days ago
singing the laurels of my friend from Arizona and saying what a fine
man I thought he was, what great work he did on campaign finance
reform. I was basically talking about my deep respect and admiration
for the senior Senator from Arizona.
Having said that, it does not mean I have to agree with everything he
says. I have to say, with the deepest respect, that on this issue he is
simply wrong.
There are certain things we have to do in this country that are
logical and, over the long term, make a great deal of sense. We have a
national highway transportation system started by President Dwight D.
Eisenhower. The simple fact that the interstate system has been
completed, meaning all of the interstate system is finished, all the
connecting points have been made in this great puzzle, does not mean we
have obligations that cease with highways in this country.
We not only have a national highway transportation system, we also
have a national security system. The State of Nevada contributes
greatly to the security of this country. We have Nellis Air Force Base,
which is the largest and most important fighter training center in the
world for our Air Force. We have in the northern part of the State the
Fallon Naval Air Training Center, which is the most important part of
the fighter training facility for our U.S. Navy. It is so important.
People in that desert learn to fly landing on carriers.
We started in Nevada the great work that has been done on unmanned
vehicles, military vehicles, the drones, at Indian Springs. We store
thousands of tons of ammunition at Hawthorne Ammunition Depot. People
from all over the country--the State of North Carolina, the State of
Arizona, the State of Vermont, the State of Oklahoma, all over the
country--contribute to taking care of those military facilities. The
State of Nevada cannot afford to do it all. The taxpayers in Nevada do
not pay for those bases even though there is a cyclical spinoff that is
important to the State of Nevada. The State of Nevada depends on the
American taxpayers to make sure those civilian and military employees
at those most important bases are taken care of.
I am the only Member who is in the Chamber who is on the
Appropriations Committee. When we work for military construction
projects at Nellis Air Force Base, Fallon, and other bases I mentioned,
those construction projects are paid for by American taxpayers. People
from all over the country make their tax payments. It comes to this
Congress, and it is decided that Nellis Air Force Base needs new
hangars or needs to buy some new land so that the people around the
base are not bothered. That is all paid for by American taxpayers. It
doesn't come equally from Nevada. The Congress does not say: As soon as
you get enough money in taxes to come from the State of Nevada, we will
build that new hangar for the F-20s. That isn't how it works. The same
applies to our National Highway System.
I am disappointed that the staff of the good Senator from Arizona did
not at least listen to what I said, Senator Inhofe said, Senator
Jeffords, and Senator Bond said last Monday. I talked at that time
about how this bill is so much more fair than bills in years past.
Just a few years ago, there were some States that were only able to
keep 75 cents out of every dollar they contributed into the highway
trust fund for their own States. The rest of it went to other places.
But a decision was made, and it was not an easy decision--the Senator
from Arizona knows around here you count votes, and when you have
enough votes to get something passed, you pass it. In years past,
people counted votes around here. When they found they could get to 60
votes, sometimes 51, the legislation was jammed through this body. That
is why some States wound up not getting very much on the money they
paid into the highway trust fund.
When the Senator from Arizona talks about this being pork--and we
have talked about that here quite a bit--this bill is basically paid
for by the highway trust fund. It is paid for by the fact of when
people go to buy a gallon of gasoline, they put money into a trust
fund, and we are using those moneys now to distribute among the States.
We were a little bit short to cover everything that needed to be done
in this bill, so in conjunction with the majority and the minority and
members of this administration, we said, we are not going to raise any
taxes but we are going to readjust some of the taxes that are already
in existence, and we did that to make up a small part of our highway
bill.
To talk about pork and people are sick of money being spent--I didn't
vote for the Medicare bill. I agree with him, that was a bad deal. You
cannot come out here with one big paintbrush and paint everything the
same. Why is this country in such deep trouble with deficit? It has
very little to do with domestic discretionary spending. We could today
eliminate the FBI, close all the prisons in the country, close the
Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, close the
Congress, close the Supreme Court, close the Executive Office of the
President, and we would still be in deficit. We simply do not have
enough money coming into the Government to cover the expenses. Domestic
discretionary spending--you can eliminate it all, and we still could
not balance the budget.
The fact is, because of the tax cuts that have taken place over the
years, we don't have enough money coming in to cover this. That is why
last year we had a budget deficit in excess of $500 billion. This next
year will be higher than that. It is not domestic discretionary
spending. Especially don't pick on the highway trust fund, don't pick
on the highway bill.
From everything I have understood, all of the President's statements
about not liking the highway bill have nothing to do with the Senate
version of the bill. It is what they are talking about doing in the
House. They want to spend more money than what we are spending. The
President has not directed any of his comments to the Senate version of
the bill, as far as I know, and I think I pretty much know.
I know the good Senator from Oklahoma was on Fox News today
explaining that point.
Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. REID. I will yield for a question.
Mr. McCAIN. I think it is well known that the President sent over
three criteria, one of which was funding has to come strictly from the
trust fund and not from general revenues. It is well known. It is
published everywhere. I am sorry the Senator from Nevada missed it.
Mr. REID. Was that a question?
[[Page S708]]
Mr. McCAIN. Yes.
Mr. REID. I am sorry. I missed the question.
Mr. McCAIN. Does the Senator know that the President sent over very
explicit principles concerning the bill?
Mr. REID. Absolutely. I would respond to my friend, yes. I have been
in on the negotiations, yes. This is not something that has taken place
over the last 2 weeks. This committee--Senator Inhofe, Senator
Jeffords, Senator Bond, and Senator Reid has spent months working on
this bill. Of course, the administration was in on every one--not every
one of them but a lot of those conversations. Yes, we originally wanted
a bill much bigger than this one, but because of the pressure we got
from the White House and other places we have the bill now the number
that it is.
So I absolutely have followed this very closely. This bill is
extremely important. This is the fourth or fifth highway bill I have
worked on.
Before I was interrupted, I was talking about how much better this
bill is than the bills in the past when States gave away 25 percent of
the money that came into their States. It was determined, when the so-
called four managers started this, what we would like to do with
legislation. What we wanted to do was to try to work it out so that
every State of the 50 States would get 95 cents out of every dollar
they put into the trust fund.
Keep in mind this was a big leap forward because some States were
getting less than that. Let me just briefly go over, so that people who
are watching this--staffs, Senators--understand how difficult this bill
has been. Let's go back to the bill of 1982 called the Surface
Transportation Assistance Act. This bill established the mass transit
account of the highway trust fund. What this is all about is a
determination was made to do everything we could do to keep people off
of our highways, which saves the highway trust fund money. Therefore,
we would work to help with mass transit because if we had good bus
service, if we had monorail like we have in Las Vegas, if we have
subways like we have in various places, including Washington, DC, it
keeps people off the streets and saves us money out of the highway
trust fund. So that was the first time we established that. That was in
1982, the first year the Senator from Arizona and I came to Congress.
It contained an 85-cent minimum return provision, meaning that all of
those States were getting in the seventies before they would get a
minimum of 85 cents for every dollar they put into the trust fund. The
Federal gas tax was increased from 4 cents to 9 cents back in 1982. So
that took care of that bill.
In 1987, this was a difficult year. That year President Reagan vetoed
our bill. We had to override the President's veto. We did that. We did
it by one vote in the Senate and they overrode it by a significant
number in the House. It was a good bill. It was a bill that changed the
speed limit above 55 miles per hour. It included a provision requiring
States to be more concerned about the environment as they were doing
the road work.
Then 1991 was the first so-called ISTEA bill, Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act. Earlier, all of us talked about the
importance of Senator Moynihan and Senator Chafee and having a highway
program in this country that was reflective of the changes to the
Interstate Highway System that had been constructed. What we did in the
1991 act was create the CMAQ; that is the Congestion Mitigation
Air Quality Program. This was extremely important so that there would
be transportation conformity, air quality. With the Interstate System
largely complete, as I indicated, ISTEA shifted the Federal program
from capital construction to focus on people and goods movement. There
were a lot of things we looked at in that bill that simply had not been
looked at before. We realized just building new roads was not the
answer to all of our highway problems, our congestion problems, our
transportation problems in the country. We came to the realization that
we talked a lot about that the whole country suffers when there is a
traffic jam.
Millions of gallons of fuel are wasted as cars sit and idle. They are
the most inefficient when they idle. We also came to the realization,
talked a lot about it, that when people are stuck in traffic they can
no longer be productive workers. They cannot deliver their goods. They
cannot be on their computers at work. They cannot be going to court.
They cannot be taking care of their patients. When traffic is stopped,
it stops people from being productive. So we talked about that in the
1991 ISTEA bill.
We also expanded the transportation decisionmaking process to include
local officials, and even citizens.
Now, in 1998, we did TEA-21 which continued the basic policy
structure established in ISTEA. The reason that was important, from
1982 to 1998 we had not changed the minimum requirements States would
receive. Six years ago when we took this bill up we said every State
will get 90.5 percent of the money they put into a program. That was a
big step forward involving a changing of formulas and billions of
dollars changed. We did that. We thought it was fair.
In the bill we are taking up this year, we have even gone further. We
have said it is important that after we pass this legislation, States
at the end of this bill will get 95 percent of what they put in.
My friend from Arizona is right; States that are getting 90.5 percent
now would rather get 95 percent tomorrow rather than at the end of this
6-year period. But we are moving this ball down the line toward the
goal line, and I think we are scoring a touchdown. Even though the
Senator from Arizona talks about how bad this bill is and how he does
not like it because of all the pork in it, I do not know what his
definition of pork is. I really have some trouble understanding that.
This is a highway bill. There is some money spent for doing work on
bridges. As was stated just a few days ago by the Senator from Florida,
actually 29 percent of all bridges in this country are substandard.
What we have done in this bill, S. 1072, is to try to make sure there
is growth among the core programs of this bill, and we have created a
new program which is called the safe routes to school program. This has
been accepted across the country as being important. We believe
children should walk and ride bicycles to school as much as they can.
In some places they cannot do that because the traffic patterns are
such that they cannot. So part of this money would be spent building
bicycle paths and in effect making it easier for children to walk and
ride to school.
This reduces the rate of return gap between donor and donee States.
So I think we are doing the right thing in this bill. As I indicated, I
cannot envision why my friend from Arizona complains about this being
pork. It is a highway bill. Is building a highway something that is
bad? Is repairing an outdated, dangerous bridge bad? I do not think so.
Is trying to improve air quality while doing construction bad? I do not
think so. So I do not know why my friend from Arizona is so angry and
is talking about all of these bad things. This is a good bill.
As I indicated, the situation in dealing with our national defense
system it is not based upon how much money a State pays into a program.
It is based on where we need the defense program. Using the theory of
my friend from Arizona, what would the State of Idaho do? Idaho is a
big State. It is a bridge State. It helps one get to California. If
they only got back the money they paid into the program, the roads in
Idaho would be a mess. What about Wyoming? What about South Dakota?
What about North Dakota? What about Alaska? If one takes off from
Seattle and goes to Miami, that is how big the State of Alaska is. Now,
they do not have any people there. They do not pay much money into the
gas fund. They need help. Their roads are very difficult to maintain.
Wyoming also has no people in it, basically. My friend from Arizona
wants Wyoming to get the money they pay into the program, and that is
all? This is the United States of America. We are a central whole
divided among self-governing parts, and we have a central government
that helps make these States not independent, saying every penny they
pay into the tax system is all they get out. It will never work that
way.
My friend from Arizona, as much as I respect and understand what
great contributions he has made to the country,
[[Page S709]]
on this debate has added nothing. He has added nothing. He is just off
base. I don't know how else to say it.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield.
Mr. JEFFORDS. I would like to take you back to when the highway
program was started by President Eisenhower. As I remember, one of the
big concerns at that time was the inability of this Nation to defend
itself, some real problems that were created for the defense of this
Nation, because the highway system from East to West and North to South
was so poor that in the event we did get an invasion in different
areas, we would have little or no chance to get the troops there and
mobilize them on the scene. We recognized at that time we had serious
defense problems unless we improved the infrastructure of the United
States. Am I correct in my understanding of that?
Mr. REID. I would say, through the Chair to my friend from Vermont,
yes. Major Eisenhower was asked to bring a caravan of military vehicles
across the country. He did it, but it was not easy because the roads
were impassable on occasions. The people in the convoy had to work on
roads as they came across the country. This young officer decided at
the time if he ever had the ability to change the condition of the
highways in our country, he would do it.
Lo and behold, Eisenhower is elected to be President of the United
States and one of the first things our Republican President does is to
propose this program that is loaded with pork, that builds roads.
President Eisenhower is responsible for the Interstate Highway System
more than any other person, and he did it because it met the needs of
this country.
As we said, the actual construction of the roads has been completed.
One of the last places it was done was in the State of Nevada. Actually
it was in California, but it connected Mesquite, NV with St. George,
UT. But they had to go through this terrible hard rock to finish the
Interstate Highway System. It took a long time and it was extremely
expensive to do that, but there were a few little places like that
which hung on for years until we could say we completed the system. We
did that. Now we have come up with programs that are so important.
There are roadways in the country that are just as important as the
Interstate Highway System. That is why we have a program, the National
Highway System. What this talks about is the offshoots of the
Interstate System.
I have talked about this on the floor today. To get to my hometown of
Searchlight is not easy to do. There are a couple of ways you can get
there. But this bill takes into consideration places such as
Searchlight, NV. They are entitled to good roads also. You are not
entitled to good roads just because you are on the interstate system.
This bill has gone such a long way to making the playing field more
level. I commend my friend from Vermont and my friend from Oklahoma. We
didn't have to do this. We could have gotten enough votes to pass this
legislation without raising it to 95 percent at the end of this bill.
But it was believed by the committee we should do that, that we would
raise every State to a minimum of 95 percent. We have done that. It was
hard to do, but it benefits a lot of States and certainly the American
people and makes a system that is easier to explain and understand.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Do we not have other problems, in the sense of trying
to move freight across the country and making the highways safe? We
took the intermodal transportation systems we had, and a lot of that
takes funds we would normally use, is that not true? Mr. Reid, yes.
That is why it was called intermodal transportation system--ISTEA.
The reason, as I said before, is we learned a few bills ago that just
simply pouring more asphalt is not the way to solve all the problems in
this country. What this bill takes into consideration is ways to more
efficiently move people and products across our country. We have done
the best we can on this.
Again, I don't see how this, in any form or fashion, can be pork.
This is different than our regular appropriations bills. I think people
are overly critical of those, but this is not even in the same
category.
Mr. JEFFORDS. I also go back to some of Senator Moynihan's concerns
years ago. Now looking at what is going on in China and other places,
with the development of intermodal systems or the ability to travel at
much faster rates of speed, to move--in their case--millions of people
who want to travel, is that not also something we are trying to look
at, trying to make sure we will not lose our position in the world with
respect to our transportation methodology?
Mr. REID. Yes. When I served in the House of Representatives, I was
on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I was dumbfounded. We have all this
surplus food and we would take it to other continents, for example, to
Africa, and the food would never get where it was supposed to go. Why?
Simple. There was no way of hauling it to the places where it was
needed. They had an insufficient transportation program in many of
these countries. People were starving to death and they couldn't get
the food where it was needed.
We don't have anything like that, but it does illustrate why we have
to have the ability to move things easier. Each year that goes by, we
have to make it easier because we have competition around the world.
The more people who are tied up in traffic, in trucks and trains and in
personal vehicles, the less competitive we will be. That is what this
bill is all about.
For my friend to suggest let's just extend this for a year, come back
and look at it again--we have already done that once. The State of
Nevada and the other 49 States were grousing when we did that. Why?
Because these highway programs, many of them, are multiyear programs.
If they can't enter into a multiyear contract, it wastes a lot of
money. It wastes money. Something that would have cost $3 million, if
we extend this now for an extra year, by the time we finish it could
wind up costing $6 million, twice as much as it ordinarily would cost.
Without what we have in this bill, we would get a lot less product.
Extending this bill for a year's time is not the way to go.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Also, isn't this a job creation bill and is this not a
time when this Nation is in dire need of improving the employment of
people who desire to have work?
Mr. REID. The former majority leader and minority leader of the
Senate, the distinguished junior Senator from Mississippi, was on the
floor today and that is one of the things he talked about.
We talk about job creation. Here it is actually taking place. This
bill will be responsible for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
jobs in this country--millions of jobs. For every $1 billion we spend
in infrastructure, we create 47,000 jobs.
In addition to those 47,000 jobs we will create spending $1 billion
here, the spinoff of this, according to Senator Frist, the majority
leader of the Senate, is $6.2 billion that flows from that. This bill
is a win-win for everyone.
I am at a loss as to why my friend from Arizona would come and try to
throw this into the same pot as: Boy, we are spending too much money
around here. This is like Medicare.
It has nothing to do with that. These moneys come from the highway
trust fund with the exception, which we have already acknowledged, that
some moneys are coming from the reshuffling of taxes that are already
in existence. There are no new taxes.
I hope the ship is not tilted even a little bit from these statements
made by my distinguished friend from Arizona because they should be
accorded very little weight.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Madam President, I appreciate the contributions of the
Senator in helping us better understand the need for and also the great
benefits of this legislation. I am sure when Members go to a vote--if
we ever get to a vote--we will overwhelmingly accept the Senator's
concept of what should and could be done. I appreciate what the Senator
has done to make this bill as good as it is.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I close by saying again I want the Senator
from Vermont and the Senator from Oklahoma to understand how much I
appreciate their work on this legislation. We have to keep our eye on
the prize. This is, as Senator Lott said, probably the most important
piece of legislation we will pass all year. He said that an hour ago,
and he is absolutely right. This could be the most important
legislation we pass all year
[[Page S710]]
to stimulate the economy, to create jobs, to help States become and
remain competitive, and to ease traffic burdens and congestion which we
have throughout our country.
Mr. JEFFORDS. Madam President, I would like to make one further
statement. The Senator from Arizona indicated we dramatically changed
the highway formula. The bill reported out of the EPW Committee, in
fact, does not change the underlying formulas for interstate bridges,
national highways, and air quality. The only change we made was to
increase the return to donor States while ensuring growth to each and
every State. The EPW Committee wanted to put forth a bill that achieved
fair balance and growth in every State. As in all of our national
programs, we direct resources in our bill to the 50 States in order to
maintain a national system. If we only sent funds to programs on a
State-by-State basis, and then based it only on the ratios of the taxes
paid from each State, we would be balkanized and disunified.
I believe our bill is fair, balanced, equitable, and national in
scope. As States grow, donor States grow. Every State is equipped to
carry the share of the burden it is supporting on the national
transportation system.
This is a good bill. Let us get it done.
Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I believe it is always very difficult
when we get a complicated formula. We have been talking about how
complicated the formula is when you take into consideration the growth
of States. We are dealing with low-population States. We have a floor.
We have donor States and donee States. But the Senator from Arizona is
right when he said we actually have more donor States than we had under
TEA-21. The disparity amount is far less between the donor and donee
States. We are calculating that now. I think the point needs to be
answered, and I think we are going to be prepared to do it.
A State such as New York, for example, has gone from $1.25--in other
words, $1.25 for every dollar that has been put in--down to 99.75. That
is down to getting back everything they have put in, but it is dropping
down substantially from the amount in the previous bill.
I have looked at States to try to defend myself in being fair on
this. If you look at TEA-21--that was Senator Moynihan, Representative
Schuster, and Senator Chafee--Moynihan's State went up to $1.25;
Schuster, $1.20; Chafee, $2.16, and mine--and I am chairman of the
committee--is only going to go up to $.95. And we are still going to be
a donor State. I think that should demonstrate we are being fair on
this.
To suggest that Colorado is getting a raw deal, they have the highest
rate of return of any State. But formulas are complicated. I am not
critical of the Senator from Arizona. There will be others down here
who do not want this bill to pass, and it might not have anything to do
with the formula. No one can argue that this formula is the only fair
formula we have.
How many times on the floor of the Senate in previous years have
Members waited until they got 60 votes and took care of 60 Members and
then turned around and not cared what happens to the rest? We don't do
that. It would be easy if we did that. We talk about countervotes, and
go back and get it passed.
As far as the Finance Committee, I think they have done a good job.
They don't have their final product out. But I know the criteria on
which they are working, and I am very proud of Senator Grassley and
Senator Baucus for the work they have done. It might be that there is
some money being taken out of the general fund which is being put back
into the highway trust fund. But that is replacing money that came out
of the highway trust fund which went into the general trust fund. In
one fell swoop, $8 billion went out of the general fund. These are
raids on the highway trust fund.
I believe this is a moral issue. If a State pays the money, they
anticipate that money being paid because they use their roads. It is
going to go into road maintenance and road construction and bridge
construction.
Our State of Oklahoma is still number 50 in condition of bridges.
There is a lot to be done all around the country. There will be some
people who do not like this bill for reasons having nothing to do with
formula. But you can always take a formula and pick it apart and make
it sound unfair. This is not unfair. This is a fair way to approach it.
I believe it is real equity.
As I say, we are now calculating this. The States that went from a
donee status to a donor status are a very small amount. But it is
closing that disparity between the donee and donor States. This is
precisely what we have been trying to do.
If the Senator from Nevada and the Senator from Vermont were talking
about job values in this bill--look at any State and you can see the
job opportunities. There is not one piece of legislation we are going
to be dealing with during this entire year which is going to have the
effect on jobs this is going to have. Pick out any State. You can see
the total amount of new jobs. It is close to 3 million jobs--and job
opportunities. We have a jobs chart, and then we have a jobs
opportunity chart. We know there will be construction jobs. We know
that is going to happen. But keep in mind every time you hire someone
to do more construction, that person is also going to go out and buy
more goods and services. They will have to manufacture more, and that
is going to employ more people. We have calculated that. That is a very
accurate figure.
I know there are a lot of Members who are going to be opposing this
because they may not like some of the freight provisions. Perhaps their
States are not treated in a way that other States are treated because
they do not happen to be a poor city or they do not happen to be a
terminal city. Nonetheless, I think Senator Reid made a good statement
when he said this is not just one State but it is the United States of
America.
Again, on the particular State of Arizona, that is a 40-percent
increase, which I think is very fair. In fact, that is a greater
increase than the average increase States have.
Let me say to the Senator from North Dakota that he has been very
kind in working into our schedule at times when we were not working on
the highway bill. I do appreciate it very much.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Amendment No. 2276
Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I have just informed the staff
of the managers of the bill that I intend to offer an
amendment. I send the amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from North Dakota [Mr. Dorgan] proposes an amendment
numbered 2276.
Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of
the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To modify the penalty for nonenforcement of open container
requirements)
At the appropriate place insert the following:
SEC. 1409. OPEN CONTAINER REQUIREMENTS.
Section 154 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by
striking subsection (c) and inserting the following:
``(c) Transfer of Funds.--
``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Secretary shall withhold the applicable percentage
for the fiscal year of the amount required to be apportioned
for Federal-aid highways to any State under each of
paragraphs (1), (3), and (4) of section 104(b), if a State
has not enacted or is not enforcing a provision described in
subsection (b), as follows:
The applicable percentage is:
Fiscal year 2008.............................................2 percent.
Fiscal year 2009.............................................2 percent.
Fiscal year 2010.............................................2 percent.
Fiscal year 2011 and each subsequent fiscal year.............2 percent.
``(2) Restoration.--If (during the 4-year period beginning
on the date the apportionment for any State is reduced in
accordance with this subsection) the Secretary determines
that the State has enacted and is enforcing a provision
described in subsection (b), the apportionment of the State
shall be increased by an amount equal to the amount of the
reduction made during the 4-year period.''.
Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, this amendment very simply deals with
the question of open containers of alcohol in automobiles and moving
vehicles on the roadways. Some perhaps will not believe this, but there
are some locations in this country where it is still
[[Page S711]]
legal to put one fist around the neck of a bottle of whiskey, use the
other hand to put the key in the ignition, and then with a hand on the
steering wheel and a hand on a bottle of whiskey drive off down the
road. And it is perfectly legal. Some would say that can't be. Yes. It
is. It is the case. In some parts of this country, you can't be drunk
while you drive, but you still can drink while you drive, and you are
perfectly legal.
I don't think there is any intersection in any part of this country
where you or your family or your neighbors ought to meet a vehicle, an
automobile, that is being driven by someone who is drinking alcohol, in
a circumstance where it is legal for them to drink alcohol while
meeting you at that intersection. That is unforgivable, in my judgment.
I have been trying, I suppose for 10 or 12 years, to get this done. I
offer this amendment again. It simply says to the States: You must have
a prohibition on open containers of alcohol in State law. If not, you
lose 2 percent of your highway funds. And for up to 4 years you can get
the funding restored if you pass the prohibition, but you must have a
prohibition of open containers that meets the Federal requirement.
We have that federal requirement. I was instrumental in getting it
passed into law. It says you must have a prohibition on open containers
of alcohol, and if you do not, some of your highway money goes to
hazard mitigation. So we have 36 States that have actually passed
statutes that prohibit open containers of alcohol; 14 States have not
passed statutes that meet this test. A number of them still get the
same amount of highway money, but because money is fungible, they use
it for hazard mitigation and use the money on the other side and there
is no pain involved at all.
The result is that we have States in this country where it is, one,
legal, or, two, illegal but not enforced, where people are driving
while they are consuming alcohol. I don't think it ought to be the case
anywhere in America for it to be legal to drink and drive.
Every 30 minutes someone receives a call in this country that their
loved one has been killed due to a drunk driver. I received that call
at about 10:30 one evening, a moment I will never forget. My wonderful
mother was killed by a drunk driver. She, like so many others, was
driving down the street 30 miles an hour, coming from the hospital at 8
o'clock at night, and a drunk was coming in the other direction,
witnesses say at speeds between 80 and 100 miles per hour, in a high-
speed police chase, and ran into my mother's car and she was killed.
This carnage on America's highways that is caused by someone drinking
and driving is not some mysterious illness or disease for which we do
not know the cure. We know what causes this, and we know how to stop
it. The way to stop it is to say to people all across this country: You
cannot drink and drive. Just that simple. You just cannot do it. Yet
there are still States in this country in which it is legal to drink
and drive. And there are other States in which it is legal, if the
driver does not drink, that other passengers in the car can have open
containers of alcohol.
It is long past the time for us to stop it. We have passed
legislation that tries to coax the States into doing this, and many
have complied by passing legislation that prohibits open containers of
alcohol. Now I say let's go the next step, to say to the States: It
does not matter where you are driving in this country. We expect, as
policymakers, never to have to meet someone at an intersection where
the driver or the passengers in that car are drinking, and doing so
legally. We know better than that.
Again, every 30 minutes someone receives a call that some member of
their family was killed by a drunk driver. That simply means that
someone took a drink of alcohol, took too much alcohol, got drunk, got
behind the wheel, and turned the automobile into an instrument of
murder. We can do better than that in this country. I suggest this
piece of legislation is long overdue.
It is interesting to note that the States that do not have a
prohibition of open containers of alcohol on the books have alcohol-
related fatalities that are higher than the States that do have that
prohibition. So the evidence exists that the prohibition works.
It is true that I grew up in a State that is not going to be affected
by this because North Dakota has never allowed anyone to have an open
container of alcohol in the vehicle. I grew up understanding you do not
do that; no one ought to do that. If you are old enough to drink and
you want to drink and it is legal for you to drink, you do not drink in
a vehicle. There are places for you to drink--in your home or perhaps
in an establishment somewhere, but not in a vehicle, not in a car.
It is also the case that those States that have prohibitions on open
containers of alcohol have a lower rate of hit-and-run accidents. That
is a fact. The Department of Transportation has that information. It is
just common sense for a State to say to people, you cannot do this, No.
1, by law; and, No. 2, in enforcing the law, you will have fewer deaths
as a result of drunk drivers.
Let me finally say something about an organization called Mothers
Against Drunk Driving. It was not too many years ago that a drunk
driving charge by the neighbor had others giving him kind of a knowing
wink and a nod and a grin and a pat on the back, saying: Well, tough
luck, Charlie; you got caught. Not anymore. Now it is serious business.
Drunk driving is not a joking matter. Do you know what changed that?
Mothers Against Drunk Driving--all across this country, that
organization, started by mothers who had lost children and lost loved
ones to drunk drivers and decided they were going to make a difference.
They went statehouse to statehouse, capital to capital, and they put in
place some tough laws. But it is still not enough. I am pleased to say
Mothers Against Drunk Driving have supported what I am trying to do in
the Senate today for some long while.
They have made a difference. We can help them make an even greater
difference by passing this amendment and saying to the States: We are
not fooling around. This is serious business. This is life or death for
thousands of people.
As I indicated previously, I have offered this amendment prior to
this time, I suppose on three or four other occasions. Each time I have
offered the amendment, I have been told: Those sanctions are too tough.
So they got changed, so that it attempts to coax the States to do the
right thing. But the fact is, coaxing is not enough. This Congress,
this Senate, ought to say to every State in this country, ought to say
to every State, reflecting every jurisdiction, there should be not one
corner, not one highway in this country, in which it is legal for
people to drink and drive at the same time. That is the policy that
ought to come out of this Senate.
A mandate? It is a mandate, no question about that. We propose a
number of mandates from time to time on a bill such as this. It is not
a mandate that will hurt any State. No State will lose money if only
the States decide as a matter of common sense that in their State it
shall never be appropriate and never be legal for people to have an
open container of alcohol in the vehicle, it shall never be allowed in
their State for people to be able to drink and drive simultaneously.
People will shake their heads and say it cannot possibly be the case
that that would exist today, but it is, long after the time that should
have been changed in some little corners of this country.
That is the amendment I offer. I know my colleagues from Oklahoma and
Vermont have pleaded with people to come and offer amendments. I hope
they will approve this in 5\1/2\ or 6 seconds, but perhaps it will
require more discussion because, as is always the case, I understand,
there are some who have heartburn when I propose a significant mandate.
And this mandate is 2 percent of highway funds, although no State, in
my judgment, would ever lose it and no State need ever lose the highway
funds if only they decide, as we have decided, that it ought not be
permissible to drink and drive at the same time anyplace in this
country and it ought not be permissible to have an open container of
liquor in a passenger vehicle on America's highways.
That is a devastatingly simple concept and one that I hope before we
finish this highway bill will be approved by this Senate.
[[Page S712]]
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WARNER. Madam President, first, I say to the distinguished
manager and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, on
which I have been privileged to serve some 16, 18 years, I commend him
for his diligence and commitment to try to get this highway bill
through the Senate and hopefully enacted into law. I had much the same
responsibility some 6 years ago. I know the complexity of this
particular piece of legislation.
I have worked with the distinguished chairman and the distinguished
Senator from Missouri in the preparation of this particular measure. It
is badly needed by America. I hope we can work our way through this
situation.
I send to the desk an amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). The amendment is already at the
desk.
Mr. WARNER. I address the distinguished manager of the bill and ask
unanimous consent to have this amendment called up and possibly agreed
to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. INHOFE. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, the distinguished manager had the courtesy
to advise me that he would object. Given the situation which I think I
understand, I would just like to speak to the bill and develop a record
for today and hopefully eventual consideration of this amendment in the
not distant future can be arranged.
This amendment is cosponsored by the distinguished Senator from New
York, Mrs. Clinton, and my dear friend and colleague, the Senator from
Ohio, Mr. DeWine. It is an amendment to increase our national seatbelt
use rate to some 90 percent. This amendment is identical to the text of
legislation I introduced last year, S. 1993.
If my colleagues examine the highway bill and what it means to each
of our States, our foremost responsibility, in my judgment and in the
judgment of many, and in the judgment of the President of the United
States, must be to improve highway safety for the driving public.
Today we had a very impressive press conference. I will give further
details about it shortly. We must have had a dozen or so
representatives who spoke on behalf of their respective organizations
endorsing this bill.
I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record a list of
organizations endorsing this bill.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Organizations Supporting S. 1993, The National Highway Safety Act of
2003--Sponsored by Senator John W. Warner and Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Alaska Injury
Prevention Center, Alaska Safe Kids, Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, Allstate Insurance Company, American Academy
of Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics CT Chapter,
American College of Emergency Physicians, American Insurance
Association, American Medical Association, American Public
Health Association, American Trauma Society, Arizona
Consumers Council, Arizona Emergency Nurses CARE, Association
for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT), Automotive
Coalition for Traffic Safety, Inc., Automotive Safety Program
(IN), Benedict College/Project Impact (SC), Black Women's
Health Imperative, Brain Injury Association of America.
Buckle Up 4 Meghan, Butler County Safe Kids (OH), Cedar
Rapids Police Department (IA), Central Maryland Regional Safe
Communities, Champaign County Safe Kids Coalition (IL),
Chattanooga--Hamilton County Health Department, Children and
Nutrition Services, Inc. (WY), Children's Mercy Hospital
(MO), City of Madison (WI), Coalition for American Trauma
Care, Columbus Health Department (OH), Community Alliance for
Teen Safety, Concerned Americans for Responsible Driving,
Consumer Federation of America, Consumers for Auto
Reliability & Safety, Consumers Union, CRASH--Citizens for
Reliable and Safe Highways, DEDICATEDD--Drive Educated, Drive
Informed, Commit and Totally End Drunk Driving, ``Do Buckle,
Don't Booze'' Campaign (ND).
Downers Grove Police Dept. (IL), Driscoll Children's
Hospital (TX), Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., East Windsor
Township Police Department (NJ), Eastern Panhandle Safe
Community (WV), Eastern Shore Safe Communities (MD),
Effingham County Sheriff's Department (IL), Elizabeth Police
Department (NJ), Emergency Nurses Association, Focus on
Safety (IN), Epilepsy Foundation, Franke Publicity (MN),
General Federation of Women's Clubs, Green River Area
Development District (KY), Hamilton County Health Dept. (TN),
Holmes County Health Department (OH), Houston Safe
Communities (TX), Illinois Traffic Safety Leaders,
Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Injury
Free Coalition for Kids of Atlanta, Injury Prevention Center
of Greater Dallas, Injury Prevention Center (RI),
International Association of Fire Chiefs, Joliet Police
Department (IL).
Keep Kids Alive Drive 25, Kemper Auto & Home Group, Inc., A
Unitrin Company, KIDS AND CARS, Louisiana Safe Kids, Loyola
University Burn & Shock Trauma Institute, Macoupin County
Public Health Department (IL), Mothers Against Drunk Driving
(MADD), MADD (FL), MADD (NY), MAKUS Buckle Up! Drive Safely!,
Maryland Kids in Safety Seats, Maryland State Police,
Massachusetts State Police, Mayo Clinic Hospital (AZ),
Meharry Medical College, Milledgeville Junior Women's Club
(GA), Missouri State Safety Center, Montgomery County Child
Passenger Safety Program (MD).
National Alcohol Enforcement Training Center, National
Association of Professional Insurance Agents, National
Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, National
Black Caucus of State Legislators, National Center for
Bicycling and Walking, National Coalition for School Bus
Safety, National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc. (NCBM),
National Fire Protection Association, National Latino Council
on Alcohol & Tobacco Prevention, National Parent Teacher
Association, National Peer Helpers Association (MO), National
Safe Kids Campaign, National Safety Council, New Kent County
Sheriffs Office (VA), New York Coalition for Transportation
Safety, North Alabama Highway Safety Office, Northeast
Colorado Health Department, 100 Black Men of Augusta, Inc.
(GA), Operation Student Safety on the Move (OR), Office of
Highway Safety (MS), Pennsylvania Traffic Injury Prevention
Program, P.A.T.T.--Parents Against Tired Truckers, Phelps
Memorial Health Center (NE), Preventing Alcohol Related
Crashes (WI), Professional Insurance Agents of Ohio,
Providence Safe Communities Partnership (RI), Public Citizen.
R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland
Medical System, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Remove
Intoxicated Drivers (RID) USA, Richland County Safe
Communities (OH), Riverside County Sheriff's Department (CA),
St. Louis Fire Dept. (MO), St. Mary's Highway Safety (MD),
SADD (NY), Safe and Sober Law Enforcement (MN), Safe
Communities Coalition Augusta (GA), Safe Communities of Miami
County (OH), Safe Communities Salisbury State University
(MD), Safe Communities Southwest Coalition, Safer New Mexico
Now, Safety Council of Southwestern Ohio, SAFE--Seatbelt
Awareness for Everyone, Safe Traffic System, Inc. (IL), State
Farm Insurance Companies, STOP DUI, Surface Transportation
Policy Project, Think First of Ark-La-Tex, Think First
Missouri, Think First National Rehabilitation Hospital,
Trauma Foundation, USAA, Utah County Health Department,
Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, Williams County
Health Department (OH).
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, this is a list of 135 organizations across
America that advocate their support for this particular piece of
legislation.
This chart is an enumeration of those organizations. It is not
readable, but the list is in the Record for all to see.
Simply by increasing the number of Americans who will buckle up is
the most effective step that can be taken to save their lives and the
lives of others. That is the single most important step.
I am privileged to serve on this committee, as I said, that has the
primary responsibility for reauthorizing TEA-21. The bill addresses, as
it should, highway safety measures, such as how to build safer roads or
how to use new technologies to improve safety. But--and I underline
``but''--statistics show that the greatest measure of safety again to
drivers, passengers, and possibly third parties, many of them innocent
third parties, not connected with the bill is through the use of the
seatbelt. It is remarkable the lives that have been saved through the
use of this simple device over the years.
America has about a 79-percent use rate of seatbelts. That has been
translated into the saving of tens of thousands of lives and injuries
in automobile accidents, but we can do better. Those are the facts. Are
we just going to have a standstill or are we going to move forward?
Senators Clinton, DeWine, and myself think we should move forward with
a firmer approach with achievable goals and funding.
[[Page S713]]
We have debated the benefits of seatbelt use on many occasions in
this body and elsewhere across America. Whether it is in the town
forums we conduct, the town meetings, or on the floor of the Senate,
there is always that individual who comes back: Don't tell me what I
have to do. What does it matter to you--they will often say, or to any
other colleague with whom I have had the privilege to serve--what does
it matter to you whether I buckle up? It matters a great deal to me and
to all those who share the joys but often the burdens--the increasing
burdens--of driving and using our road system and the risks.
Let's take a look. No one disputes that the absence of wearing a
seatbelt causes more loss of life and serious injury. Statistics
solidify that assumption. The statistics show that the impact
associated with a crash, to the extent a driver can maintain control of
the vehicle in those fatal seconds, the severity of the crash, and
perhaps the loss of life can be reduced significantly by the use of the
safety belt. It is as simple as that.
Accidents involving unbelted drivers result in a significant cost.
Many people are rushed from the accident scene to various emergency
facilities. All of that has the initial cost of the law enforcement and
the rescue squads that respond, and eventually the cost to the
emergency room or whatever medical facility you might have the good
fortune to be taken to hopefully save your life. That does not come
free. How well we know that.
There is a cost. It is borne by the local community often or the
county or the State. Regrettably, a number of persons who suffer these
types of injuries are uninsured. Again, the cost often devolves down on
the good old hard-working taxpayers and, in most instances, the
taxpayers who otherwise would buckle up.
That is lost time for your mission on the road, be it for business,
family, or pleasure. That is lost time in productivity. Behind you are
often trucks and other vehicles involved in commerce. That is lost time
in delay due to the serious occasion of injuries and accidents from the
lack of use of seatbelts. It is simple as that. Often the highway is
shut down, and it is just incalculable the inconvenience and cost to
others while your safety and perhaps your survivability is attended to
more often than not by volunteer fire departments or others who come to
the rescue.
The legislation that we three Senators are introducing today will
take an important step for the States to adopt either a primary safety
belt law or take steps of their own devising to meet a 90-percent
seatbelt use rate, not the Warner amendment or the legislative measure
put forth by the administration upon which Senator Clinton and I draw
for concepts of certain portions.
The States can decide for themselves--I wish to underline, we are
challenging the States to decide for themselves how they achieve a 90-
percent goal of the use of seatbelts in their respective States. They
could have a far better idea than we have. That is the purpose of this
legislation, to move every State to a 90-percent use rate for safety
belts.
In a letter dated November 12, 2003, to Chairman Inhofe of the
Committee on Environment and Public Works, on which, again, I am
privileged to serve, Secretary Mineta states:
President Bush and I believe that increasing safety belt
usage rates is the single--
I repeat, the single--
most effective means to decrease highway fatalities and
injuries.
That is explicit and clear. The Secretary goes on in that letter to
say:
. . . the surest way for a State to increase safety belt
usage is through the passage of a primary safety belt law.
I have had this debate with Governors, former Governors, even in this
Chamber with former Governors. I think they would all say that a
primary safety belt law is tough legislation to pass solely on its own
in the State legislatures. Those in this Chamber who have been members
of State legislatures know best. Those of us who have worked with State
legislatures, as I have over the 25 years I have been privileged to be
a Senator, I have some idea of how those legislatures operate.
Certainly, those who have been Governors--and many of my colleagues in
this Chamber have been Governors--know full well the difficulty
confronted at the State level in getting this type of law through.
Frankly, it needs the cover, one might say the political cover, the
impetus, given by the Congress--that is us, Uncle Sam--of the United
States to move that process in the States forward.
So the local politicians can shake their fists at old John Warner,
they can shake their fists, hopefully, at those who will join in
passing this legislation and say it is Washington that has done it
again--more regulation, more direction. We know the arguments. We have
all heard them. But lives and injuries and costs to the community can
be saved.
I think quietly, in the hearts of those State legislatures, is the
thought that we will improve safety in our State. We will improve the
chances of survivability on the roads of our State.
I ask unanimous consent the full text of Secretary Mineta's letter be
printed in the Record following my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. WARNER. As provided in our amendment, States can increase
seatbelt use by enacting, as I said, a primary seatbelt law. Everybody
knows what a primary seatbelt law is and how it works.
I want to explain the basic laws as shown on this chart. The white
State has a primary enforcement seatbelt law. Those are the existing
States. The red State needs a primary enforcement seatbelt law. So my
colleagues can see the magnitude.
Here is my State, Virginia. Twice now that primary seatbelt law has
gone through the legislature up to the point of a final vote, and by
one vote only, twice, the General Assembly of Virginia has rejected
that primary seatbelt law. That is a clear reason that impetus by the
Federal Government can help achieve that one vote and hopefully many
more.
Now, let's talk about the mechanics. It means a law enforcement
officer can literally stop a vehicle if they observe that the
individual is not wearing his or her seatbelt. It is as simple as that.
But a State, if they decide not to enact a primary seatbelt law, can,
by implementing their own strategies, whatever they may be--and there
is a lot of innovation out in the States--that would result in a 90-
percent seatbelt use rate. So that is a challenge to the States.
It can be achieved by other means other than having the officers
under law be given the right to stop the vehicle when he observes that
the driver is not using a seatbelt.
The current national seatbelt use, as I said, is 79 percent. But many
States, those that have the primary law, are sometimes at 90 or even
above 90, but those that do not have the primary seatbelt law are down
somewhere in the 60 percentile. Just think, only 60 percent of the
drivers in some States utilize that seatbelt. It is the weight of the
primary States that carries the percentile and brings it up to 79 from
those States that do not have an effective law. States with their
primary safety belt law have the greatest success for drivers wearing
seatbelts.
On an average, States with the primary seatbelt law have a 10 to 15
percent higher seatbelt use compared to those with a secondary system.
This demonstrates that secondary seatbelt laws are far more limited in
their effectiveness than a primary law.
Essentially, the secondary laws say if a law enforcement officer has
cause other than a perceived or actual seatbelt violation, namely the
driver did not have it buckled, if they have cause to stop that car,
for example, for a speeding offense or a reckless driving offense or
indeed an accident, and they observe there has been no use of the
seatbelt, then in that circumstance, in the course of proceeding to
enforce the several laws of that State as regards speeding and reckless
driving or whatever the case may be, they can add a second penalty to
address the absence of the use of the seatbelt in that State.
Drivers are gamblers, unfortunately, but that is the way it is. They
say: Oh, well, don't worry. I will not buckle up--State law does not
require it--unless they stop me, and they are not going to stop me
today.
It is that gambling attitude that more often than not will cause an
accident. Then it is too late.
[[Page S714]]
So we come forward today to build on our national program. We are
building on what we did in TEA-21. I was privileged to be on that
committee at that time. I was then, as I said, chairman of the
subcommittee 6 years ago. I worked with the late Senator John Chafee.
What a distinguished and able Senator he was, and those who were
privileged to serve with him have fond memories of working with him. He
was chairman of the full committee. We drove hard to make progress for
the seatbelt laws, and we did it. This chart shows the result.
We basically put aside a very considerable sum of money to encourage
States, again, by using their own devices, to increase usage. As a
direct consequence of what we did in TEA-21, there has been an 11-
percent increase in these 6 years in the use of seatbelts. Now, that is
significant, but it could be much greater and stronger.
Sadly, traffic deaths in 2002, just one fiscal year, rose to the
highest level in over a decade. It is astonishing. Of the nearly 43,000
people killed on our highways, over half were not wearing their
seatbelts. Now, that is a considerable number of individuals. That is
according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the
judgment of the people who responded to the accidents, they considered
that 9,200 of these deaths might have been prevented if the safety belt
had been used.
Those are the alarming statistics. Automobile crashes are the leading
cause of death for Americans aged 2 to 34. Stop to think of that, age
2. That means a child. That means a parent neglected to buckle up the
child. Automobile crashes are the leading causes of death for Americans
age 2 to 34. That is our Nation's youth. So many of them are in the
Armed Forces of the United States. Passage of this will be helpful to
the Armed Forces.
Do we have a higher calling in the Congress than to do everything we
can to foster the dreams and ambitions and the productivity of our
Nation's youth? I think not. And this is one of the most effective
means to do it.
Last year, 6 out of 10 children who died in car crashes did not have
the belt on; 6 out of 10. That is over half. I plead with colleagues to
join me, join with the President of the United States, join with the
Secretary who has taken this initiative.
My primary responsibility in the Senate--and this is one of the
reasons I got interested in this subject--is the welfare of the men and
women of the Armed Forces, as I mentioned. I say to colleagues again,
the statistics are tragic. Traffic fatalities are the leading noncombat
cause of death for our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our marines.
They are in that high-risk age category, 18 to 35. I repeat, it is the
largest noncombat cause of death.
Someone even took a look at the statistics and totaled the fatalities
last year and said that represents in deaths the size of an average
U.S. Army battalion. That is a lot of folks. That is one of the
principal incentives I have. I cannot think of any reason why we all
cannot join behind this effort. That alone is the driving impetus for
this Senator.
The time is long overdue for a national policy to strengthen seatbelt
use rates. I said a national policy, and that is what this bill
represents, either through States enacting a primary seatbelt law of
their own conception and devising or passing this law, giving far
greater attention to public awareness programs that result in more
drivers and passengers wearing safety belts. Our goal is 90 percent for
the Nation.
I have been privileged to serve on this committee 17 years and I,
together with many others, notably my dear friend, the late chairman,
Senator John Chafee, addressed this issue. Our committee is rich in the
history of focusing revenue from highway trust funds on effective
safety programs. It goes back through many chairmen and members of the
Environment and Public Works Committee.
With jurisdiction over the largest share of the highway trust fund,
our committee has had the vision to tackle important national safety
programs. The legislation before us does provide more funding to help
build safer roads. That is a step forward. But it does not have, in my
judgment, that provision which represents a step up from what we did in
TEA-21, that provision that would represent a recognition for the
President's initiative.
The President has taken a decidedly strong initiative to increase the
use of seatbelts. It is absent from the bill, and that is why we need a
provision, by virtue of this amendment, to strengthen and move forward
the position of the Congress on the position of increased use of safety
belts on America's highways and roads. That is the purpose of this
amendment.
It is just unfortunate that those with reckless intent quickly
disregard responsible behavior and drive unbelted at excessive speeds,
and many times with the use of alcohol. So no increased dollars for
improving road engineering, which is in this bill--and I commend them
for that, but that alone cannot defy, in many instances, the type of
personal conduct that results in reckless behavior. In other words,
engineering can quickly be overcome by the reckless driving, and
particularly that associated with alcohol.
Automobiles now come equipped with crash avoidance technologies and
are more crashworthy than ever before. But these advances are only a
very small part of the solution. In repeated testimony before the
Environment and Public Works Committee from the administration, from
our States, safety groups, and the highway insurance industry, we are
told three main causes of traffic deaths and injury are unbelted
drivers, speed, and alcohol.
The formula we have devised in this legislation does have a reduction
in the amount which the State receives under the proposed bill that we
will consider next year when they fail to achieve the 90 percent safety
belt use rate. It is as simple as that. But the formula is patterned
directly after the law that is on the books now with respect to the .08
legal blood alcohol content level.
In other words, the formula we have in this amendment is identical,
in terms of that what I call inducement--carrot/stick type of
legislation--that we did for the .08 legal blood alcohol.
The net effect of this legislation is simply to recognize we are
asking the same type of sanction policy with regard to one of the three
major causes of death--alcohol--be equated to a second cause of death
and injury, and that is the absence of the use of seatbelts, bringing
into parallel two of the three principal causes of death and injury on
the highways: .08 and mandatory use of seatbelts.
The administration put forward an innovative safety belt program, as
I said, under the leadership of the President, and that was a major
component of a new core transportation program, the Highway Safety
Improvement Program, submitted to the Congress. Our amendments
incorporate the administration's bill and include additional incentives
for States to increase seatbelt use rates.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record today a deeply
moving statement delivered by the representative of the American
Medical Association, strongly in support of this legislation, and a
letter from the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, strongly in
favor of this legislation. Of course, the letter to the distinguished
chairman, Mr. Inhofe, from the Secretary of Transportation is already a
part of the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
American Medical Association,
February 9, 2004.
AMA Applauds Legislation To Promote Seat Belt Enforcement and Safety
AMA Speaks at Congressional Press Conference to Urge Seat Belt
Amendment Passage
On behalf of the American Medical Association, I'm proud to
stand here with Senator Warner in support of enforcing seat
belt use. Preventing deaths and injuries on our nation's
roadways has been a priority of the AMA for many years. In
fact, over the last seven years the AMA has distributed more
than 16 million brochures on protecting children in motor
vehicles, and just last year we released a physicians' guide
to assess and counsel older drivers. Requiring all states to
enact a primary enforcement seat belt law or achieve a seat
belt use rate of at least 90 percent will help protect
Americans on the road.
We know that wearing seat belts saves lives. Over half of
the 43,000 people killed on America's highways in 2002 were
not wearing seat belts. Tragically, six out of 10 children
who died that year in motor-vehicle collisions were also not
wearing seat belts. Just
[[Page S715]]
taking one moment to buckle-up could make a life-or-death
difference to the thousands who needlessly die on our
roadways every year.
For those lucky enough to survive a devastating auto crash,
the health care costs can be staggering. On average,
hospitalization costs for unbelted traffic crash victims are
50 percent higher than for those who buckled-up. The needless
deaths and injuries that result from not wearing seat belts
cost society an estimated $26 billion annually in medical
care, lost productivity and other injury-related costs.
These deplorable statistics are reversible. We can
significantly reduce deaths and serious injuries from motor-
vehicle crashes by enforcing seat belt use nationwide through
a primary enforcement law like the one Senator Warner is now
proposing.
In my home state of Michigan, a primary enforcement law has
been in effect for three years. In that time, nearly 200
lives have been saved, and over 1,000 serious collisions have
been averted because of this change in the law.
As a physician, it is a rare blessing to be in a situation
where we can easily identify the solution to a public health
threat. Passage of the primary enforcement seat belt law will
save lives. It's that simple.
Ron Davis,
AMA Trustee.
____
Virginia Association
of Chiefs of Police,
Richmond, VA, February 9, 2004.
The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police (VACP)
endorses S. 1993, a bill to create incentives for the states
to enact primary safety belt laws. In 2002 in Virginia, we
had 913 automobile fatalities. Of those 913 fatalities, 438
(62.7%) were not wearing a safety belt. In those 913 fatality
crashes, 9,912 injuries were sustained by unbuckled
occupants.
Under our current secondary enforcement law, Virginia's
front seat safety belt use is 74.6%, which includes drivers
and front seat passengers. Research tells us that front seat
occupants of vehicles involved in potentially fatal crashes
in states with primary safety belt laws have a 15 percentage
point higher belt use than persons in states without primary
laws.
The VACP supports the passage of primary safety belt laws
as a proven tool to increase safety belt usage and reduce
serious injuries and fatalities in the event of a traffic
crash. Public education and enhanced traffic enforcement
efforts have failed to increase Virginia's safety belt usage
rate much beyond 75%. States with primary safety belt laws
consistently experience safety belt usage rates up to 90%.
The VACP believes that the passage of a primary safety belt
law in Virginia will increase belt usage and save the lives
of countless Virginians.
Dana G. Schrad,
Executive Director,
Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.
Exhibit 1
The Secretary of Transportation,
Washington, DC, November 12, 2003.
Hon. James Inhofe,
Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: With almost 43,000 people dying every
year on our nation's highways, it is imperative that we do
everything in our power to promote a safer transportation
system. The Bush Administration's proposal to reauthorize
surface transportation programs, the Safe, Accountable,
Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003
(SAFETEA), offers several bold and innovative approaches to
address this crisis.
President Bush and I believe that increasing safety belt
usage rates is the single most effective means to decrease
highway fatalities and injuries. As a result, SAFETEA's new
core highway safety program provides States with powerful
funding incentives to increase the percentage of Americans
who buckle up every time they get in an automobile. Every
percentage point increase in the national safety belt usage
rate saves hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in lost
productivity.
Empirical evidence shows that the surest way for a State to
increase safety belt usage is through the passage of a
primary safety belt law. States with primary belt laws have
safety belt usage rates that are on average eight percentage
points higher than States with secondary laws. Recognizing
that States may have other innovative methods to achieve
higher rates of belt use, SAFETEA also rewards States that
achieve 90% safety belt usage rates even if a primary safety
belt law is not enacted. I urge you to consider these
approaches as your Committee marks up reauthorization
legislation.
While safety belts are obviously critical to reducing
highway fatalities, so too is a data driven approach to
providing safety. Every States faces its own unique safety
challenges, and every State must be given broad funding
flexibility to solve those challenges. This is a central
theme of SAFETEA, which aims to provide States the ability to
use scarce resources to meet their own highest priority
needs. Such flexibility is essential for States to maximize
their resources, including the funds available under a new
core highway safety program.
I look forward to working with you on these critically
important safety issues as development of a surface
transportation reauthorization bill progresses.
Sincerely yours,
Norman Y. Mineta.
Mr. WARNER. I am pleased to say Senator Murray has asked to join as a
cosponsor and I so request that be noted on the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WARNER. 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. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________