[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 76 (Thursday, June 3, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6394-S6395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE HIGHWAY BILL

  Mr. REID. Madam President, today many people in the Chamber came to 
work extremely early. The reason is they wanted to avoid being stuck in 
traffic. They got up early in the morning. They came to work earlier 
than they were required to come to work because they were afraid of 
being late for work because of the traffic jams in the Washington, DC, 
area. You may say, well, Washington is a unique place. But it is the 
same in Las Vegas, Reno, or anyplace else in our country. We have 
traffic jams, highway problems, too few mass transit systems, and those 
we do have need renovation and replenishment.
  To mention a road in Las Vegas or here on the capital beltway as 
being a place to stay away from during rush hour, certainly everybody 
understands that. Is there going to be an accident in the morning? 
Maybe there was an accident. Maybe it is just routine congestion that 
creates difficult problems. People sit, losing precious time they could 
be spending with their families or getting to work and getting things 
done. But they are stuck in traffic.
  As the Senator from New Jersey and I have talked about on the floor 
of the Senate a lot of times, the price of gasoline is tremendous. You 
sit there with your car idling, wasting precious fuel. In Nevada, there 
are places now where you are paying $2.70 a gallon for gasoline. People 
are locked in these traffic jams that are unbelievably difficult. They 
keep us away from our families and our work, and that also adds to the 
stress of the individual involved.
  But while Americans are stuck in traffic all over America, a bill to 
get America moving again is stuck in Congress. The highway bill is 
stuck in Congress. Why? Where is it stuck? It is across this great 
Capitol in the House of Representatives. They have refused to appoint 
conferees so that we can go to conference.
  We were able to work out an arrangement in the Senate where we 
appointed very good conferees. The Republicans have 11 and the 
Democrats have 10. They are anxious to go to work and do something 
about the comprehensive 6-year surface transportation bill on which we 
have to work.
  The House passed a version. The Senate passed a version. We like ours 
better, but they are both bills on which we need to work out the 
differences.
  During the Memorial Day recess, staffs held bicameral meetings to 
begin a dialog between the two bodies. But because the House has not 
appointed conferees, these meetings mostly dealt with procedural 
matters. In effect, we did not do much.
  I cannot imagine why the House is taking so much time to appoint 
conferees. We are losing weeks of valuable time. Before we can get to 
the meat of this bill and sit down with members of the conference to 
take votes on issues, staffs have to spend weeks going over this very 
complicated bill. It is a 6-year bill. It is a bill of hundreds of 
pages dealing with problems we have with our highways and problems we 
have with our transit systems all over America. We need to have 
something done yesterday. We need to meet this country's growing 
transportation needs which are improving safety and relieving 
congestion.
  In 2003, the last year for which we have statistics, more than 43,000 
people in America lost their lives on our roads, the highest number of 
fatalities since 1990. In addition to the personal tragedy associated 
with these accidents, they cost an estimated $137 billion each year in 
property losses, productivity, and medical costs. There is not an 
amount you can put on the loss of a life. In addition, we have a 
situation where we talk about 43,000 people--more than 43,000 people--
being killed, but hundreds of thousands of people are injured. People 
become paralyzed. People lose eyes. I have visited a facility in Las 
Vegas where they deal with head trauma. The vast majority of people in 
that facility are the result of automobile accidents.
  This year, Americans will lose more than 3.6 billion hours to traffic 
congestion. That is 3.6 billion hours they will not be able to spend 
with their families, their friends, or at work. The cost of wasted fuel 
will be about $70 billion.
  The bipartisan Senate bill--and it was bipartisan, led by the 
distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator Inhofe, and the 
ranking member, Senator Jeffords--this bipartisan Senate bill invests 
$318 billion over 6 years, allowing States to improve safety and reduce 
congestion on roads.
  Even this big bill is only an effort to keep a level playing field. 
We do not make any advancements, as we probably should, but at least it 
allows us to tread water in most places to keep from drowning with the 
problems we have with traffic in our country. The $318 billion 
represents an investment in our transportation infrastructure, protects 
our economy and quality of life, and it creates hundreds of thousands 
of jobs. Why the President would pick this vehicle to flex his muscles 
is something I do not understand. There have been other issues that 
have come out of this Congress that maybe he should have taken a look 
at, but certainly not the highway bill. It creates hundreds of 
thousands of jobs.
  We need to move forward on this legislation. I think we need to let 
everyone know that the House of Representatives is the cause of our not 
moving forward on this bill. If the House appointed conferees today, we 
might be able to complete this conference by the end of the Congress, 
but it is going to be a close call. There is so much work to do, and we 
need the House to work with us, not against us.
  There are some reports that the chairman of the full committee in the 
House--and I have not talked with him; he is my friend--does not want a 
bill; that he is so disappointed with what has happened with the White 
House that he just says: I don't want a bill.
  I hope that is wrong. I am confident the Members of the Senate and 
the House can work out the differences on this legislation, and we will 
do it with the number that will be appropriate to take care of the 
needs of this country. I think $318 billion is a good figure. If the 
President vetoes the bill, it will just be overridden. I have spoken 
with the leadership in both the House and the Senate, and they 
acknowledge that would happen. But please let the Members vote to do 
this.
  Again, all the Senators who have come to me and asked what is 
happening to the highway bill, I say we

[[Page S6395]]

have done everything we can in the Senate. It is now up to the House to 
appoint conferees. Once that is done, we will move as quickly as 
possible to solve the differences we have with the House of 
Representatives and move forward on this bill.
  I yield my time back and urge we move to the legislation. I suggest 
the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant 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. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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