[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 34 (Friday, March 2, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1372-S1373]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MOVING AHEAD FOR PROGRESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY ACT

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of S. 1813, which the clerk will 
report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1813) to reauthorize Federal aid highway and 
     highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       Reid amendment No. 1761, of a perfecting nature.
       Reid amendment No. 1762 (to amendment No. 1761), to change 
     the enactment date.
       Reid motion to recommit the bill to the Committee on 
     Environment and Public Works, with instructions, Reid 
     amendment No. 1763, to change the enactment date.
       Reid amendment No. 1764 (to (the instructions) amendment 
     No. 1763), of a perfecting nature.
       Reid amendment No. 1765 (to amendment No. 1764), of a 
     perfecting nature.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want to make sure the record is very clear 
what the vote will be on Tuesday morning.
  Before the day is out, I am going to file cloture on a work product. 
It is a bill that has the approval of Barbara Boxer, a progressive 
Senator from California, and Jim Inhofe, a conservative Senator from 
Oklahoma. We have now added to that something that came out of the 
Finance Committee, something that came out of the Banking Committee, 
and something that came out of the Commerce Committee. All these 
measures have been relatively without any challenge. I can't understand 
why people wouldn't approve this. And what we added to this is 37 
approved amendments. The staffs, with their respective Senators, have 
been working for days to come up with agreement on amendments that have 
been filed but not offered, and these amendments have been approved by 
the respective chair and ranking members of the committees, 37 of them. 
So we will be voting on Tuesday on that product--all of it bipartisan, 
all of it noncontroversial--so that we can complete work on this bill.
  If we did nothing else, nothing else on this highway bill, then what 
we are going to vote cloture on, on Tuesday, would be really a good, 
strong legislative day for this body. Then we could have conference 
with the House. The House has already announced they can't do their 
senseless piece of legislation. Even tea party-driven Republicans in 
the House recognized that was something that was a figment of someone's 
imagination that they could get done. Now they are going to do a 2-year 
bill, like us. It will be easy to conference something like that. They 
may have some difference in some of the policy efforts, but that is why 
we have conferences.
  This legislation is critical. At the end of this month, the end of 
March, the highway bill is no more. Projects that are being worked on 
in Hawaii and Nevada and around the other 48 States will come to a 
stop. There will be no money. New projects won't be able to go forward. 
This is a very important bill involving billions of dollars of badly 
needed construction.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Rockefeller). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                        Senior Members Presiding

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as I indicated to the Acting President pro 
tempore this morning, the junior Senator from Hawaii, how fortunate I 
was to have one of the senior Members of the Senate preside, that 
doesn't happen often, and here it is again with the Senator from West 
Virginia.
  I was commenting to my friends on the staff who don't know the 
Senator from West Virginia very well--and they don't know a lot of us 
because we just whip through here. In a brief synopsis I was telling 
them what a wonderful man the Senator is and what he has done to 
contribute to a better society. I have such gratitude to know the 
Presiding Officer, to know his background and the sacrifices he has 
made for his country. He has done so much for his State. When the 
history books are written, there will be a big chapter on what has 
taken place in West Virginia during the Presiding Officer's service 
there.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the Reid amendment 
     No. 1761 to S. 1813, a bill to reauthorize Federal-aid 
     highway and highway safety construction programs, and for 
     other purposes.
         Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Christopher A. Coons, Robert 
           P. Casey, Jr., Tom Harkin, Mark Udall, Richard 
           Blumenthal, Debbie Stabenow, Patrick J. Leahy, Herb 
           Kohl, Frank R. Lautenberg, Max Baucus, Tom Udall, Kent 
           Conrad, Robert Menendez, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Jeff 
           Bingaman.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a second cloture motion at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on S. 1813, a bill to 
     reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety 
     construction programs, and for other purposes.
         Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Christopher A. Coons, Robert 
           P. Casey, Jr., Tom Harkin, Mark Udall, Richard 
           Blumenthal, Debbie Stabenow, Patrick J. Leahy, Herb 
           Kohl, Frank R. Lautenberg, Max Baucus, Tom Udall, Kent 
           Conrad, Robert Menendez, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Jeff 
           Bingaman.


[[Page S1373]]


  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the clerks be 
authorized to modify the instruction lines on any amendments currently 
filed in order to match the page and line numbers on the pending Reid 
of Nevada amendment No. 1761, and that those amendments and instruction 
line modifications be considered timely filed under rule XXII; further, 
that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived for the two cloture 
motions that were just filed; finally, that the cloture vote on the 
Reid amendment No. 1761 occur at 12 noon, Tuesday, March 6.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________