[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 2, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HIGHWAY TRUST FUND EXTENSION

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I cannot express how frustrated I am with 
Washington politics, as a result of, I believe, irresponsible behavior 
on the part of Democrats and Republicans, in the House and in the 
Senate. The Federal Highway Administration shut its doors on Monday, 
furloughing 2,000 employees, putting projects across the country at 
risk and stopping the highway program from paying States the money they 
are owed.
  I have been in constant communication with Gary Ridley, Oklahoma's 
transportation secretary--I think the best one in the country. He flew 
here this week to help resolve this crisis. He told me if it is not 
worked out by Friday, there will be very serious consequences in my 
State of Oklahoma. There will be jobs that will be shut down, work that 
has already been contracted out that will be under default. I 
understand some of the Democrats are trying to make political hay out 
of this, but I want to set the record straight that a lone Republican 
Senator is being singled out for the blame, but in reality there is 
plenty of blame to go around.
  Last week the Senate passed a jobs bill that included a number of tax 
cuts and long-term extension for the highway program. The House 
Democrats were divided on the bill and their leadership could not pass 
the bill. Given the chaos in their caucus, they passed a 30-day 
extension of the highway bill late last week. Because of this 30-day 
extension, it would add about $10 billion to the outrageous $13.2 
trillion national debt.
  A Republican Senator said he would only agree to it if it was offset. 
Senate Democrats refused to offset the package. Nobody was willing to 
back down. We find ourselves in this situation today.
  Not only is there ample blame to go around on why Congress allowed 
the highway program and the FHWA to shut down, I think there is equal 
blame to go around on why it has taken us 6 months to pass a long-term 
extension.
  We tried on numerous occasions to pass the extension. Frankly, this 
should not come as a surprise to anyone. I have been sounding the alarm 
for this ever since last July. We learned in July that there are a 
couple of Senators who are, frankly, opposed to the Federal Highway 
Program and want to see it underfunded, as has been the case this 
fiscal year.
  I often said--there is no secret to this, even though I am considered 
to be quite a conservative--in some areas I have been a big spender. 
One is national defense. The other is infrastructure. That is what we 
are supposed to be doing here.
  On the last day of the fiscal year before the 2005 highway bill 
expired, Senator Boxer and I, right here on the floor, attempted to 
pass a long-term extension of the highway program. Unfortunately, we 
were not successful. The same group of Senators who opposed the highway 
program demanded that the bill be offset. They suggested unobligated 
stimulus funds, but the Democrats objected to this. The chairman, that 
is Barbara Boxer, and I were working hard to find offset. Senator Boxer 
got Democratic leadership to agree to use TARP as an offset.
  I was very excited about this. I remember I thought that night--it 
was a Wednesday night, it was getting close to midnight. We had to do 
something or everything was going to fall apart. I thought we had it 
resolved. Unfortunately, many Republicans and some Democratic Senators 
object to this offset. As a result, we were stuck with a 30-day 
extension on the continuing resolution which funded the program at $1 
billion a month more than 2009 levels.
  I have to say--and I now blame Republicans for this--I have often 
said one of the bad things that happened to this Senate happened on 
October 1 of 2008, when they passed the $700 billion bank bailout bill. 
That is the TARP funds we are talking about. A lot of conservative 
Republicans objected to offsetting the TARP because that would be an 
admission that that money probably was not going to be repaid anyway. I 
think a lot of Republicans were trying to tell people back home--I 
didn't vote for this, by the way, but they did. Those who did--don't 
worry, everything is going to get paid back. It is all going to get 
paid back. I think we all should have known better. All you had to do 
was read that bill and that would have been the case.
  So then it was the Republicans who refused to use that. The money was 
there. It could have been used and we wouldn't be facing this dilemma. 
We could have the 1-year loan extension. We would have time to put 
together a highway program, which is what we--we--want to do.
  Unfortunately, some do not. So it is clear the only way to get a 
long-term highway extension done is for Senator Reid to dedicate a week 
of floor time to overcome the objections of two or three Republicans 
who opposed the highway program. To that end, all the chairmen and 
ranking members of the committees involved sent a bipartisan letter to 
Senator Reid pointing out the problem we were facing and asking for 
floor time to overcome the objections. Senator Reid ignored this 
request until 2 weeks ago when he abandoned the bipartisan Baucus-
Grassley jobs bill in favor of his own bill that included a long-term 
highway extension. I wish to point out that this maneuver cost the 
highway extension the bulk of Republican support.
  I wish to caution that it is very dangerous to turn a bipartisan 
issue such as this into a partisan one. Because the highway bill was 
included with a number of other issues, it got caught up in the House 
Democratic and second stimulus bill politics unrelated to the highway 
program. This just reinforces that it should have been done as a stand-
alone measure.
  Let me conclude by reading an excerpt of a Tulsa World editorial--
that is Tulsa, my hometown. It states:

       What's up with those geniuses in Congress? First they 
     scurry around to get massive stimulus funding in the pipeline 
     in an effort to quickly jump-start the economy, and then they 
     fiddle around and let regular transportation funding that 
     would further aid the recovery lapse. Not a good recipe for 
     ensuring that the recovery will continue.

  The editorial concludes:

       Inhofe blamed the funding snafu on politics, which comes as 
     no surprise. Apparently it was just too much to ask of our 
     leaders to put politics aside for once in favor of rescuing 
     the economy and thousands of jobs.

  Let me tell you that editorial was from October of last year. It is 
amazing that Congress has allowed the months to go by since that time.
  Right now, what we are facing in my State of Oklahoma is about $415 
million a week that is going to cost us. We have contracts that are 
already let, and we are in a dilemma now to know what to do. We are 
going to have to resolve this problem by, I would say, Thursday or 
Friday or it is going to be chaotic. I suggest it is not just my State 
of Oklahoma that has this problem; many other States do. I hope people 
set everything aside and try to get this thing done and do one of the 
things we are elected to do and do something about the infrastructure. 
Right now, it is in crisis. We are going to have to resolve it.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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