[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S664-S665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I wish to claim 10 minutes to speak on 
behalf of a bill which I hope will return to the Senate today, which is 
the surface transportation reauthorization bill. I hope we take it up. 
I hope we actually vote on it, and I hope there are not a lot of 
extraneous amendments that are not relevant to getting America moving 
again, creating jobs that result in public safety, a better 
environment, and people actually working. What I like about the surface 
transportation reauthorization bill is that, in effect, this could be 
the only vehicle we have that is a version of the infrastructure bank, 
a topic on which I know the Presiding Officer has worked assiduously.
  We need an infrastructure bank. We need to have jobs in construction 
to build highways, byways, subways, and we can do it, but it looks as 
though it will be difficult to do. In the meantime, we have a regular 
order bill, the surface transportation reauthorization bill. This is 
the bill that Congress reauthorizes every couple of years to do 
construction on highways, byways, and beltways, and at the same time in 
the very important area of mass transit, something the gentlelady from 
New York knows is important since she has one of the busiest subways in 
America. We have a busy subway called the Metro, and I am going to talk 
about that in a minute.
  Right now we must pass this long-term transportation bill to put 
people back to work, repair our aging roads and bridges and tunnels, 
keep the public safe, and lower our carbon footprint. This is a 
bipartisan bill, and it is

[[Page S665]]

actually paid for and meets a sense of a frugal government but smart 
spending. It is time to show the American people that we can govern, 
that we can actually pass legislation in a regular order, conducting 
ourselves with civility as we debate our amendments.
  We have to keep America rolling. This is a jobs bill. One of the best 
ways to put people to work is through infrastructure projects. It 
builds America and builds our economy. This bill will contribute to 
saving over 1.8 million jobs and actually creates new jobs in 
construction, in the supply chain, and in design and engineering, and 
all the vendors it supports.
  In my own home State we estimate that 10,000 jobs will be created if 
we pass this bill. I cannot speak about this in a more firm and 
insistent way. When I met with the building trades guys, it was a bleak 
conversation with the unemployment rate in construction still sky-high. 
This bill will jump-start the economy. All the people who analyze this 
type of data say that for every dollar we spend on infrastructure 
construction, we get $2 in economic output back into our economy 
through the multiplier effect.
  Let's do an inventory of why this is a compelling need. We know we 
have a high unemployment rate and that we are running big debts and we 
are running deficits. One of the ways to reduce the debt and the 
deficit is to have people working where they are paying revenue in to 
the government. We also have an infrastructure deficit. Do you know 
that right now 700,000 bridges are structurally deficient? That is not 
a fact, that is a danger zone. Fifty percent of our roads are in need 
of serious repair. More than 4 million people travel over these bridges 
every day. This would address that kind of problem.
  Then there is this whole issue of, again, roads, highways, byways, 
and beltways. There is also the issue of mass transit. One of the parts 
of the bill I am most proud of is creating Federal safety standards for 
the metro systems nationwide.
  On June 22, 2009, there was a terrible accident in the national 
capital region. Nine people were killed and 50 more injured in a 
terrible metro transit accident when a red line train struck another 
train. The woman who was the conductor on that train tried valiantly to 
save her passengers. She died as a result. Well, we went to the 
funerals, we listened to the people, and we always say: We will never 
forget, but we do. Well, I didn't forget and the Maryland delegation 
didn't forget. Ben Cardin didn't forget, Chris Van Hollen didn't 
forget, and Donna Edwards didn't forget. We worked very hard in 
creating legislation. The first thing we did was listen to the National 
Transportation Safety Board that gave us recommendations and said there 
was not only a failure of Metro being fit for duty, but all of the 
transit systems in America face this kind of risk where there is a 
failure of technology, the failure of cars to be crash resistant, the 
failure to have exit doors, and the failure to have a black box.
  When you look at the Congress, we are the failure. Give us an F 
because we have safety standards for how you open a bottle cap but not 
how you open a subway car in a disaster. So it wasn't Senator Barb 
making up safety rules on her own; we went and listened to the National 
Transit Safety Board. I put in legislation to give the Federal Transit 
Administration the authority to establish and enforce national safety 
standards for Metro. We had aggressive oversight hearings. Metro 
leadership initially was dragging its axles, but I wouldn't take no for 
an answer. We shook up the management, we shook up the board, and now I 
want to shake up the Congress.
  I want to thank Senator Bob Menendez. He had a parallel bill. I want 
to thank Tim Johnson, the chair of the committee. They have taken my 
ideas and have actually done a version of their own, and working 
together we have come up with a great solution that has bipartisan 
support. This checklist for change that I insisted on would replace the 
oldest cars in the fleet. It would develop real-time automatic controls 
so that technology would have redundancy in it. It would develop a 
training and certificate program so that the personnel not only know 
how to operate their cars but what to do in the danger zones. Runaway 
cars make a great movie. Denzel Washington did that one, but I don't 
want to see another movie where there is another transit system that 
went through the horrific accident here in the national capital region.

  In this checklist for change legislation, working again with Senator 
Menendez, my colleague Senator Cardin, whom I cannot give enough credit 
to, our new bill gives the Transportation Secretary, Mr. LaHood, 
authority to establish and enforce safety standards, and allows Federal 
funding for these safety improvements. I am pleased that this was 
inculcated.
  The story goes one step farther, and this is an example. Last year, 
through the appropriations, I was able to get funding, working with 
Senator Murray, to be able to replace the Metro cars, the ones that are 
old, dated, and cannot withstand all the problems I just enumerated.
  I am going to tell you the rest of the story as if Paul Harvey were 
on the floor. A couple of weeks ago during one of our work weeks when 
we were visiting our constituents, I went to a place called Knorr 
Brakes in Carroll County, which was once very rural. Knorr Brakes 
actually makes the brakes for these Metro cars and makes the brakes for 
Amtrak and makes the brakes for many transit systems in the United 
States of America. Because of the improvements at Metro, they have been 
able to hire more people.
  I wish you could have walked that factory floor with me. It is not 
your grandfather's factory floor, which was often dark and dangerous. 
It is clean, uses the best of engineering, a few robots, engineers, 
with skilled blue-collar workers who are machinists who are working on 
this very specialized equipment. These brakes have to work, and they 
are the best in the world. Workers in Maryland are the best in the 
world. Yes, they are part of a German holding company, so we are ready 
to be global, and at the same time they are fixing not only 
Washington's Metro but they are working on transit systems.
  My whole point is smart funding in the area of infrastructure and in 
transportation safety creates American jobs. Every time we modernize 
our transit fleet, we are building railroad cars in the United States 
of America. Many of those brakes that will go on that car will be made 
in Maryland by Maryland workers, competing with other American 
companies. And you know what. That is what it is all about. That is 
smart funding that creates safety and creates jobs.
  I want to thank the Banking Committee for including this, and I also 
want to thank all three committees: Banking, Environment, and Public 
Works, under the leadership of Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe, 
Senator Baucus, Senator Grassley, Senator Tim Johnson, and my colleague 
from Alabama, Senator Shelby.
  This could be a great day. This could be a great day or a great week. 
But, yes, while we are working on the payroll tax and its temporary 
holiday, the real thing we could get done this week is to pass this 
legislation. America will be safer, our economy will grow, and it will 
be a win-win situation.
  Madam President, I want to thank you for your kind attention. I want 
to thank all my colleagues who worked on a bipartisan basis. We 
actually listened to each other. I had a set of ideas. Others had as 
well. Some had flashing lights about costs, we went back and forth, and 
that is the subject of negotiation, and we were able to do it. I think 
we have come up with a great bill for surface transportation. We have 
come up with a great bill for transit safety, and I am going to be 
happy to vote for it. Let's get Congress rolling so we can get our 
economy rolling.
  I yield the floor. I note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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