[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 15 (Monday, January 26, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                          SPADE-READY PROJECTS

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, we have some things that are going to 
happen this year that are very significant. In the committee I chaired 
when the Republicans were in the majority--it is now chaired by Senator 
Boxer--we have two major pieces of legislation coming up.
  We have the Transportation reauthorization bill and we have the Water 
Resources Development Act reauthorization bill. In the case of the 
Transportation reauthorization bill, we had a good reauthorization in 
2005. It is scheduled to be reauthorized again, and I would suggest we 
use that as somewhat of a pattern of what we are going to plan to go in 
this coming year, in 2009.
  In spite of all of the things you are hearing about the inauguration 
and about the various confirmations, business is going to continue. The 
WRDA bill, the Water Resources Development Act, is something that 
should be done on an annual basis or every other year. Yet the last 
time we passed it was 7 whole years ago. We had a lot of making up to 
do. There is not one State represented on this floor that is not way 
behind in some of the programs that are dealt with in the Water 
Resources Development Act.
  The reason I mention this at this time is we will be dealing with 
some type of a stimulus bill. When they talk about $800 or so billion, 
I already, in my previous remarks, talked about how big $700 or $800 
billion is to individual families in America.
  We will be dealing with this, and I regret that of the $800 billion, 
only $30 billion has to do with highway construction. We have a great 
need in this country for bridge construction, highway construction, 
and, hopefully--Senator Boxer and I both cosigned a letter to try to 
get a much larger percentage of whatever amount we end up authorizing 
in a stimulus bill.
  So I would hope--and I would ask each Member to look at their own 
States, as I have done in my State of Oklahoma--Senators look at State 
projects that are out there that we call spade-ready: they have had 
their environmental impact statement, they have had their AS 
statements, and they are ready to go. They would employ people 
immediately. For those like me who are conservative, who do not believe 
the ingredients in this stimulus package, or at least do not believe 
what they are looking at in the House is going to really stimulate very 
much, one thing we do know is that there is nothing that puts people 
back to work faster than to get something that has already passed all 
of the environmental prerequisites and is ready for construction to 
start. Then, after it is over, you have something. You have bridges 
that are rebuilt. You have roads that are rebuilt.
  So what I would encourage the Senate to try to do is get as much as 
we can out of the stimulus package that actually does provide jobs and 
provides things that otherwise we would have to do in the 
reauthorization bill.
  There is no way in the world we are going to take care of the real 
need we have with infrastructure in America unless we get a very large 
amount in the front end of the stimulus bill.

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