[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 59 (Monday, May 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4639-S4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT: A LEGACY FOR USERS--Continued

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we resume the 
highway bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Amendment No. 567 Withdrawn

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending 
substitute amendment be withdrawn.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, the amendment is withdrawn.


                           Amendment No. 605

              (Purpose: To provide a complete substitute)

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I now send a substitute amendment to the 
desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Inhofe] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 605.

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. 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 printed in today's Record under ``Text of 
Amendments.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, finally, after much laboring, this massive 
new substitute, or managers' amendment, is before us.
  This reflects the tremendous amount of work our staffs have done over 
the recess as well as the many long weeks and months our committees 
worked on it. It is not what anybody would say is a perfect bill. 
Everybody would like more money, and many would like more money in 
different places. But given the constraints under which we operated, 
this is the best we have been able to produce. Obviously, we hope that 
after the Senate may complete action on the supplemental, which I 
understand may be coming up, we would like to move as quickly as we can 
on this bill.
  The leadership on both sides has told us they want to finish the bill 
by this week. That is an ambitious schedule but, frankly, the current 
extension of the highway transportation bill runs out at the end of 
this month. The only hope we have of meeting that deadline and getting 
a bill to the President is to get it to conference this week. The 
conference is going to be difficult because of the different approach 
taken by the House than the approach we have taken.
  The approach we have taken, and the EPW Committee, on highway funds 
is one of bipartisan cooperation, to use formulas to assure that the 
highway money goes to States on the various indicators of need built 
into the formulas. I happen to think the formulas undercut the 
crossroads of the United States. I will be showing, when people talk 
about needs in other areas, a map by the U.S. Department of 
Transportation showing the level of heavy traffic on the roads in 
America. It is no surprise that that heavy traffic goes right through 
the middle of America, through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana. 
We are the crossroads States. We are not doing as well in our States as 
many of the other States that are asking for more money.
  When people say they want more money, my response is: I do, too. But 
we have attempted to follow the pattern established in previous 
formulas. And if people want to change it, I have some changes I would 
like to make as well and include the crossroads where the traffic is 
the heaviest and where, in my State and in Oklahoma, we now recognize 
the fact that deaths caused by inadequate highways is a legitimate 
concern for a bill called SAFETEA.

[[Page S4640]]

  I am delighted, through the leadership of Senator Inhofe and the 
cooperation and leadership of our colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle, Senator Jeffords, Senator Baucus, Senator Reid, who worked very 
closely with me on the last highway bill, we brought our section to the 
floor as well as the sections from the other committees. We look 
forward as soon as we can to going back to work on it. We would ask any 
of our colleagues who have amendments, particularly to our section, you 
have had a chance to look at it, we have had a chance to work on it. I 
hope we can move quickly because the time will be short and the bill is 
important.
  With that, I thank the chairman of our committee and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I thank the senior Senator from Missouri. 
He has worked tirelessly, as chairman of the Subcommittee on 
Transportation of the Environment and Public Works Committee. You 
always hear that working with Senators is like herding cats. I think we 
have learned that on this bill. It is very difficult. Of course, by the 
very nature of the Senate, one person can hold things up. But I don't 
think there is anything this year we are going to be dealing with that 
is more important than our highway reauthorization bill.
  Last year we passed a good bill out of committee. We were unable to 
get it out of conference last year. This year I am sure that situation 
will change.
  As we work on it this week, I agree it is an ambitious schedule to 
get it done, but I am anticipating we are going to have to at some 
point file cloture. I would certainly tell any of the staff and Members 
who might be listening that we are open for business. We now have the 
substitute amendment on the floor so we know what we are working with. 
We would ask them to bring their amendments down. We can't do anything 
with an amendment unless we see it, unless we have it before us.
  I know what is going to happen if we don't do that. When we come up 
against some deadlines, trying to get this passed out of here at the 
end of the week, people are going to be saying they didn't have time. 
You have time now. We are waiting for you. We want you to bring them 
down.
  The substitute amendment we adopted has some changes in it. We did 
increase some highway funding by $8.9 billion. That would be the 
highway funding portion. That was over the EPW bill that we passed out 
of the committee that we chair. And it includes a 5.1-percent increase 
in both the apportioned and allocated programs. It also includes the 
minimum rate of return for donor States to 91 percent and working up to 
92 percent. This is not as ambitious as it was last year, but last year 
we were dealing with a bill that was $318 billion over a 6-year period. 
This is going to be about 251 over the remaining 5 years of the 6-year 
reauthorization.
  Last year's bill, the donee status was improved more dramatically so 
that for States such as my State of Oklahoma and the State of the 
Presiding Officer, we would have that up to a minimum of 95 percent. 
That means we would get back at least 95 percent of that which is 
collected in our respective States. We can't quite do that with the 
smaller amount, but certainly it is enhanced a little bit with the 
amendment we just agreed to consider.
  So we have a lot in here, and they are going to be a part of this 
bill. Again, the only thing that needs to be done right now is for 
amendments to be brought to the floor. By the way, Senator Bond is 
right when he says there are a lot of Members who are not happy, and 
they won't have enough money in their States. I am not happy about the 
amount of money in Oklahoma. There was a lot of compromising over a 3-
year period to get us where we are today. However, if you are not 
happy, offer an amendment. We will consider it and we will vote on it. 
That is what the process is all about.
  We have a lot to be done in the next 4 days. We expect that we are 
going to be doing it. We are encouraging people to come down with their 
amendments.
  I chair the EPW committee, but we also have some titles in here by 
the Banking Committee, the Commerce Committee, and the Finance 
Committee. We have been talking to those chairmen. I believe they are 
ready. So we could entertain amendments on any of these sections or any 
of the titles of the bill.

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