[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 133 (Monday, September 10, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11315-S11317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRANSPORTATION APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes to talk 
about the bill that is presently on the floor. It is a good bill, and 
it couldn't be done at a more appropriate time. It is a critical issue. 
We hear many people talking about our decaying transportation 
infrastructure. The bill is focused primarily on the transportation 
side, but it also applies to other important subjects, including 
housing. But when we see the reports about how structurally deficient 
and functionally obsolete our transportation system is, and where we 
stand relative to other countries--even some third world countries--we 
should want to catch up here.
  When flights are taking off and landing on time, when our railroads 
are carrying more passengers and cargo safely, when our roads and 
bridges are in good condition--our economy thrives, and so does the 
well-being of our people. We don't have anything that measures the 
stress factor of motorists, but I am sure if every driver were wearing 
some kind of a meter that recorded stress levels, the needles would go 
off their face. Tempers rise, time is lost, and appointments are not 
kept.
  But when we fail to adequately fund these priorities, our economy and 
our infrastructure falters. That is why this bill is critical to our 
economy.
  My colleague, the Presiding Officer, also from the wonderful State of 
New Jersey, knows we have to get things done. We have to get people and 
cargo moving. We have a tiny State, with lots of people, the most 
crowded State in the country, and transportation is essential. However, 
we don't have a monopoly on congestion, delays, and pollution from 
travel.
  I remember days when I went back and forth to work from the Capitol 
and that the ride used to be 15 minutes. Now sometimes it can take half 
an hour. Look at the bridges and the roads around the Capitol, and we 
see it. Go anyplace that has a thriving population and you will find 
the same problem.
  Our State of New Jersey is a global gateway and a national crossroad 
for transportation--air, railroad, and sea. We have the largest seaport 
on the East Coast. Each year, millions of cargo containers are put on 
trucks and trains at New Jersey's ports, bound for cities and towns 
across the interior of America. Newark's Liberty International Airport 
is one of the busiest, and is the most delayed in the country. We have 
that unfortunate distinction right now.
  Each week, many of New Jersey's almost 9 million residents ride 
trains or buses or drive their cars across bridges and through tunnels 
connecting them to jobs outside the State or within the State. Last 
year, 54 million cars, trucks, and buses crossed the George Washington 
Bridge from Fort Lee, NJ, into New York City, by way of example.
  After the tragedy in Minnesota, I began working with State leaders to 
make sure our bridges in New Jersey could safely and effectively handle 
the increasing volume of cars and trucks. I know many of my colleagues 
did the same thing. Thirty-four percent of the bridges in the State of 
New Jersey are deficient, which is higher than the national average of 
27 percent. Think about what these percentages mean. It is saying that 
one out of three bridges is structurally deficient or functionally 
obsolete and in trouble. That is the way it seems to be in many places 
in the country. Enormous parts of the highway system are not able to 
handle the volume of traffic that passes over these areas.
  Congress understands that bridges in America should not disappear 
into dust and rubble, costing lives and untold economic consequence. 
That is why in this bill we included $5 billion for Federal bridge 
programs, a 20-percent increase over last year. I was pleased to work 
with Senator Murray to add another $1 billion to strengthen our 
bridges.
  As the chairman of two subcommittees overseeing Federal 
transportation programs, I am going to continue to do my part to keep 
our bridges strong so New Jerseyans can get to their jobs and back to 
their families safely.
  We want to strengthen these bridges and give people the assurance 
that when they cross over they are safe. I talk to people who say they 
are reluctant to cross over some of the bridges we have in our area. 
Reluctant. But we take it for granted you have to do it in order to get 
where you must be.
  I want to thank Subcommittee Chairman Murray and Ranking Member Bond 
for building a smart and strong transportation and housing 
appropriations bill. It funds Federal bridge repair programs, airline 
safety inspections, bus and rail transportation systems, and even 
operation of the air traffic control system.
  In particular, I am pleased that the committee agreed to increase 
funds for Amtrak, our Nation's passenger railroad. Between the lines of 
cars on the highway and the long security lines at airports, American 
travelers need and deserve a choice. If one wants to see what a 
difference it could make, travel to some of the countries in Europe or 
Japan where they have world-class passenger rail service, where a trip 
from Brussels, Belgium, to Paris, France, a 200-mile distance, is 
accomplished in 1 hour 25 minutes. If you tried to get an airplane to 
take you that distance, you couldn't. They do not fly that way anymore. 
It is superfluous when you can get from the inside of one city to 
inside the other city and not have to go through the torment of the 
long lines and other inconveniences of getting on airplanes.
  Today I had the experience of getting on an airplane at LaGuardia 
Airport in New York. My home in New Jersey is mid-way between LaGuardia 
and Newark airports. The weather didn't look that bad. We got on the 
airplane at 9 o'clock for a 38-minute flight to be here for a vote at 
11. But due to congestion, we arrived here at a quarter past 11. It is 
somewhat amusing, with an odd twist, when the pilot gets on and tells

[[Page S11316]]

you how many minutes the flying time is because it is almost 
irrelevant. The flying time doesn't tell you how long it is going to 
take. It can take 38 minutes in the air, but it can take an hour and a 
half on the ground, which is pretty much what happened to us this 
morning. As a consequence, Mr. President--and you know how important 
casting your vote is around here--we missed a vote this morning, two 
other Senators and myself who were on that flight.

  With all the problems with our transportation systems, President Bush 
either doesn't get it or just won't do it. He wants to put brakes on 
progress. The day after the terrible tragedy in Minnesota, when rescue 
crews were still searching for missing people, I heard the President 
respond, and he said: I am disappointed the Congress hasn't sent me a 
spending bill. But 2 weeks earlier he said he was going to veto the 
transportation spending bill because it was too much money. Can't have 
it both ways, Mr. President. And the public suffers.
  President Bush's funding request would put Amtrak into bankruptcy, 
but expanding Amtrak is one way to get people off of the highways in 
many cases and out of the skyways. It is unacceptable for the Nation's 
passenger railroad service. Amtrak is experiencing record ridership 
levels, and it is unfair to the traveling public not to put the money 
in there that we have to. The bill before us would provide $1.5 billion 
for Amtrak, providing the funding it needs to survive and to grow. I am 
a frequent user of Amtrak, and I know very well that while the service 
is radically improved from where it was, more needs to be done to 
accommodate the volume of passengers who would use the railroad.
  The funding here includes a new $100 million grant program for States 
to expand passenger rail service. This proposal stems from a plan 
Senator Lott and I have developed to reauthorize Amtrak.
  I also thank my subcommittee leaders for agreeing to my request to 
include additional funding for the Department of Transportation's 
Office of Aviation Enforcement, to be able to protect airline 
passengers' rights. Now it is a small group of people trying to handle 
passenger complaints, and they cannot get to them. It is ridiculous. 
How do we in the Government know what is going on if we cannot process 
complaints that come in? This office is the only place where airline 
travelers can turn when they are mistreated by airline companies, and 
they know very well this mistreatment is frequent.
  Right now this enforcement office only counts most complaints. 
Instead of acting on them, they collect them. It is like a mail 
repository. This includes complaints about overbooked and canceled 
flights, deceptive advertising, failing to process fare refunds and 
adjustments, unfair administration of frequent flier programs, and even 
acts of discrimination upon disabled passengers.
  With this new funding we can make sure that airlines provide better 
service to all their customers and act on the complaints a customer 
files, not just note that they have arrived.
  Furthermore, I am pleased the committee agreed at markup to include 
an amendment I put in limiting pollution by some waste-handling 
facilities near railroads. It is an issue of great significance to New 
Jersey. We have seen fires and pollution emitted from waste-handling 
facilities. The problem is we cannot get at them and correct them 
because of a loophole in the Federal law which lets some solid waste 
processors do business without regulation, allowing unimpeded pollution 
of our water, air, and lands. My amendment will at least temporarily 
close this loophole.
  I have a more comprehensive bill which will close this loophole 
permanently, and I am working with railroads and other stakeholders in 
hopes we can get it passed this year.
  We now have transportation and public housing programs together in 
this bill. Perhaps it is just the way it ought to be to accommodate 
life in better form for our citizens. Public housing programs provide 
homes for some 38,000 people in my State alone. Public housing needs 
have been underfunded by at least $1 billion in the last 6 years. The 
bill also maintains funding for the Hope VI program, instead of 
eliminating it, which President Bush has tried to do. Hope VI has 
generated more than $1 billion to revitalize distressed public housing 
in New Jersey alone, to make sure these families have an affordable 
home.
  At a time when we see problems with home ownership for lots of 
people--bankruptcies in abundance--people will have to find different 
places to house themselves and their families. We have to make these 
investments. The housing stock that we have is often inadequate, 
inadequate not simply in numbers but in quality as well. This funding 
we are getting will be especially important.
  President Bush, as I mentioned before, has threatened to veto the 
bill because it contains $4 billion more for transportation and housing 
needs than he requested. A veto would cause people to lose their homes. 
A veto would cause bridges to go unrepaired--bridges in dangerous 
condition. We have to fix these things to be publicly responsible.
  President Bush is willing to have us spend $3 billion every week in 
Iraq. We want to make sure we provide funding for those soldiers who 
are serving overseas right now, but we also need to fund our needs here 
at home.
  There is an unacceptable problem we see in our country. We do not 
invest our limited funds back into our infrastructure as we so 
desperately need to do, and at the same time we are continuing a war 
that, for many of us, is questionable and ought to be terminated very 
quickly.
  It is about time the President's priorities matched up with the needs 
of Americans at home. This bill will go some way toward helping that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sanders). The Senator from Minnesota is 
recognized.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, the last time I addressed this body was 
before we adjourned for the August recess, and I had just returned from 
surveying the enormous damage that occurred when the I-35W bridge 
collapsed in Minneapolis. It had just collapsed the day before.
  While I spoke, the dust from this tragedy had yet to settle. Well-
trained first responders had arrived at the scene, and they were 
heroically rescuing survivors from the wreckage. The entire country was 
mourning for the victims while praying for the ones yet to be found. 
Everyone was expressing relief that a schoolbus filled with little 
children had miraculously escaped disaster.
  Brave divers, despite mental and physical exhaustion, were working 
around the clock to find loved ones, people such as Patrick Holmes, who 
was driving home to his young wife Jennifer and their two children, who 
was on the bridge when that happened; people such as Sadiya Sahal, a 
pregnant nursing student and her 2-year-old daughter Hannah, who were 
headed to a relative's house when the bridge crumbled beneath them.
  The police, the fire department, the emergency personnel, and 
ordinary citizens all came together. The tragedy of the day was met 
with enormous generosity from the community.
  It was also met with generosity from this body. United in 
bipartisanship, every single Senator agreed that they would help to 
provide the necessary means to help Minnesota rebuild. It was done in 
record time--60 hours.
  Today, as I stand before this body, the dust has finally settled, and 
the promise was that when the dust settled we would provide the 
necessary means to help Minnesota rebuild. On August 20, the nearly 3-
week recovery effort finally came to an end when the last known victim 
was found. The loss of Greg Jolstad, or ``Jolly'' as he was known by 
his family and friends, brings the official death toll to 13.

  Much of our massive eight-lane interstate highway bridge is now 
awkwardly draped over the bluffs of the Mississippi River while the 
remaining tons upon tons of steel and concrete lay buried below the 
river.
  As I said that day, a bridge just should not fall down in America. 
But it did. And although we do not know yet why the I-35W bridge 
failed, and while we still mourn those who lost their lives, the 
rebuilding effort has begun.
  With the initial money that Congress appropriated, Minnesota has 
increased transit options to serve commuters, set up detours to restore 
traffic flow, cleared structural debris, and has begun to lay the 
general framework for rebuilding.

[[Page S11317]]

  As Minnesota continues to clear the path for a new bridge, I know 
this body, as they promised that evening, stands ready to ensure that 
the appropriate funding is made available to rebuild it. It is one of 
the most heavily traveled bridges in the State and vital to our 
economy. If anyone would imagine the most major bridge in their 
metropolitan area, the most major highway overpass, suddenly falling 
into a river, you would understand. It is a bridge that takes people 
downtown, that brings students to one of the biggest universities in 
this country, and it brings hard-working Minnesotans to their jobs 
every day. But most important, it is the bridge that connects countless 
people with their families and friends.
  On August 3, this Congress made a promise to the people of Minnesota 
that we would help rebuild the bridge. Today I come to the floor to 
ensure that we make good on that promise.
  I am very happy with and I supported this effort to look at repairs 
across the country. That is what we just voted on today, and it passed. 
But I think we should make clear that appropriation did not include the 
money that Congress promised for the Minnesota bridge. It was used as 
the key example of why we needed to make repairs across the country, 
but it did not include the money to repair our bridge.
  The last time I addressed this body, the day after the bridge 
collapsed, I said the rebuilding effort is going to be a long process. 
It is not just going to end tonight. Today I am here to take the next 
step in that rebuilding process. Our goal is to get this bridge rebuilt 
and to get our metropolitan area moving again.
  The Minnesota Department of Transportation concluded that the loss of 
this critical bridge costs our economy $400,000 per day. This is 
primarily due to lost travel time for commuters, for commercial 
truckers, for businesses closed down. This means our economy has 
already lost well over $8 million since the bridge collapsed.
  As this fiscal year comes to a close, I am dedicated to getting the 
funding for our State and the entire Midwest. We need to rebuild this 
bridge. We would like to rebuild this bridge as soon as possible, as I 
know this country wants to do and this body pledged to do. That is why 
we will work on this bill and whatever other bills we need to work on 
to get this funding for this bridge.
  I applaud the efforts of my colleagues to get bridge repair for every 
State across the country, but we are devoted to ensuring that Congress 
make good on its promise and rebuild this bridge that is the symbol for 
why we need to make infrastructure repairs across this country.

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