[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 6, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S3753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FAA AND GAS PRICES

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to respond to some of the opening 
remarks of the Republican leader.
  The Senate is going to vote this afternoon on cloture on the FAA 
modernization bill. This is an extremely important piece of 
legislation. It is bipartisan. We agreed unanimously last week to go to 
this bill. It has been stalled on procedural motions ever since. This 
is a critical piece of legislation that all of us know we need to get 
to. I will be speaking later this morning on that bill. But I wanted to 
address the remarks of the Republican leader in particular, who said 
the Republicans were going to block the motion to invoke cloture this 
afternoon because of ``extraneous measures'' in the bill.
  I remind my colleagues, the majority leader was on the floor of the 
Senate last week offering numerous alternatives to the Republican side 
to allow them to offer amendments, to allow them to move forward on 
this bill, to come to some agreement to move forward.
  It is disappointing to hear they still object. Of the extraneous 
amendments, one has to do with the highway trust fund and the fact that 
we are out of money and need to address that issue. It is addressed in 
a bipartisan way in this bill. It is badly needed for roads, bridges, 
and highway construction, and it is a responsibility with which we 
should proceed. The other one has to do with reimbursing New York for 
money from 9/11. This is not controversial. It was agreed upon after 9/
11.
  The budget the President sent to us says it is necessary, and it is 
in this bill because it is important that we get that done and move it 
forward. This legislation allows us the opportunity to do so.
  These are not controversial issues. It is important that we move 
forward on this legislation. I hope our colleagues will agree to do 
that this afternoon.
  Finally, I heard this morning that our Republican colleagues say that 
Democrats aren't going to deal with the gas tax issue. I assure 
everyone, we understand this issue. When we go home and see gas prices 
nearing $4 a gallon, when we hear from truck drivers and people who are 
trying to get to work or to grocery stores, the price is really hurting 
them. We are doing everything we can on this side--and have been--to 
try to move us forward in a way that addresses this crisis, but we 
recognize there are no short-term, easy, quick fixes. We know the same-
old, same-old of promising drilling that would not produce anything for 
10 years or giving away more money to the oil companies as an incentive 
is not the right way to get constituents to a place where they believe 
gas prices are again affordable. We are in the process of putting 
together a comprehensive piece of legislation that the Democratic 
leader will announce this week. I look forward to having our colleagues 
on the other side move forward with us on that comprehensive package to 
address the gas price issue facing our constituents.
  With that, we will be now moving to a period of morning business. I 
look forward to addressing the Senate later on the FAA authorization 
bill.
  I yield the floor.

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