[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Amendment No. 567 Withdrawn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substitute amendment be withdrawn.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Without objection, the amendment is withdrawn.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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