[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 7, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1440-S1441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise to address the surface 
transportation bill that is on the floor. It has been a mark of the 
challenges this body faces in deliberation that we have now been on 
this bill for 3 weeks, and we have not had a debate over transportation 
amendments. But hope does spring eternal.
  In that spirit, I wished to come to the floor and share some thinking 
about the amendments that we should be debating and should be approving 
in this process. Certainly, the underlying Transportation bill is a 
great step toward our No. 1 goal of passing legislation that would 
create jobs, put people back to work in the hardest hit sectors of our 
economy.
  Building and repairing our transportation infrastructure will create 
or save 2 million jobs nationwide, good-paying jobs that would provide 
a huge boost to our struggling construction industry, the families, to 
the workers, and to our economy. This infrastructure we would be 
building is a downpayment for the success of our future economy.
  China is spending 10 percent of its GDP on infrastructure. They are 
preparing for a stronger economy in the future. Europe is spending 5 
percent of their GDP, but in America we are spending only 2 percent. 
Indeed, it was not but a few months ago that our colleagues on the 
House side of Capitol Hill said we should cut transportation spending 
by 30 to 35 percent, which would devastate the infrastructure efforts 
that are underway, even within the existing 2 percent, the small amount 
we are spending.
  Is it any wonder our communities are struggling to repair the bridges 
and roads we have, let alone to solve the challenges, the bottlenecks 
in the transportation lines that need to be addressed for the future. 
We have made a good start in committee on this bill, despite the 
paralysis on the floor of the Senate. We had elements of this bill go 
through four different committees and incorporate good ideas from both 
sides of the aisle in each of those committees and come to the floor in 
a bipartisan fashion.
  I wish to share a couple other thoughts to build on this groundwork 
that came out of our committees, commonsense fixes, cutting redtape, 
and closing loopholes. The first amendment, No. 1653, is one I am 
sponsoring with my colleagues Senator Toomey and Senator Blunt. Right 
now, farmers are exempt from certain Federal regulations when they 
transport their products in farm vehicles, as long as they are 
transporting these products inside their own State. But should they 
venture across State lines, even by just a short distance, then the 
Federal regulations are triggered. So we have farmers who are simply 
trying to get their products to market, to the local grain elevator, if 
you will, and they have to cross a State border and suddenly their 
challenge becomes very complex indeed.
  For instance, Oregon farmers who live just across the border from 
Idaho, in these cases, the best market might be the nearest processing 
facility just across the State line. These farmers are exactly the same 
as their counterparts elsewhere, except for one small fact, the 
processing facility is across the border. This arbitrary distinction 
can mean major differences in how these farmers and ranchers have to do 
business in the form of additional burdensome regulations, regulations 
such as vehicle inspections for every trip the vehicle makes, even if 
the farm vehicle is simply driving from the field to the barn or having 
to adhere to reporting requirements for things like hours of service 
rules, even though the farmer is just driving an hour down the road; or 
obtaining medical certifications meant for commercial truck drivers.

  This amendment would simply make life a little easier and more 
logical for these farmers by exempting them from these regulations 
designed for interstate transport, not designed to intervene or 
interfere when a farmer is attempting to take his product to market. We 
have put limits on mileage and limits on purpose to make sure it serves 
the intended function--to get rid of that arbitrary boundary that 
creates a regulatory nightmare.
  A second amendment is related to freight. The underlying bill has a 
freight program to improve the performance of the national freight 
network. That is a proposal that will help make desperately needed 
improvements. There are a few technical improvements that would further 
improve the bill; that is, to recognize that funding should be used in 
the most efficient and effective way to ensure that high-value goods 
are being moved quickly to market.
  We often think of freight in terms of volume or tonnage. But when we 
start looking at the high-tech sector, we can have enormously high-
value content such as that produced by the microchip industry in Oregon 
and the roads necessary to make sure that high-value freight gets to 
market, which drives a tremendous number of jobs. It is just as 
important to address as are the routes that involve high tonnage and 
volume.
  Let's turn to a third issue, which is ``Buy American.'' I salute my 
colleagues, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders, for working on these 
issues. We already recognize the principle that if we are paying to 
complete a public infrastructure project in America, it only makes 
sense for American businesses and workers to do as much of the work as 
possible.
  Unfortunately, there are several loopholes that have undermined this 
basic premise in recent years. My amendment No. 1599 is an amendment 
that addresses one of these loopholes.
  This summer, construction of a rail bridge in Alaska to a military 
base will

[[Page S1441]]

be undertaken by a Chinese company because the Federal Rail 
Administration, unlike the Federal Transit and Federal Highway 
Administration, doesn't have the ``Buy American'' provision. An 
American company was ready to build this bridge, but because of this 
loophole the contract went to a Chinese company using Chinese steel. 
Isn't it frustrating that the infrastructure to provide access to a 
military base involves jobs and the steel going across the Pacific 
Ocean?
  Then I wanted to note that a related amendment led by Senator Sherrod 
Brown, No. 1807, addresses another ``Buy American'' challenge. States 
have been using a project segmentation loophole to avoid putting 
Americans to work, to avoid the ``Buy American'' seal.
  The Bay Bridge in California put in 12 separate projects so that 
Federal funds would only apply to a couple of those pieces. This allows 
the bulk of the bridge to be built--you guessed it--with Chinese steel, 
by Chinese workers. My amendment is modeled after a Republican 
amendment in the House Transportation bill, by Representative Cravaack 
of Minnesota, to close this loophole and ensure that the spirit of the 
law is upheld. These provisions were incorporated into the amendment 
led by Senator Sherrod Brown.
  I urge my colleagues to support these amendments to make these 
commonsense fixes to our transportation program. We must have debate on 
the amendments on the Senate floor. This room should not be empty. The 
conversation should not be quiet because transportation is at the heart 
of our economy.
  We have a construction industry that is flat on its back. We have 
interest rates that are low. We have infrastructure that needs to be 
built. This is a win-win for our future economy and our current workers 
and our current economy.
  Let's get to work. I ask my colleagues to continuously object to 
amendments being debated--for those listening in, the Senate has had a 
rule that any Senator can block an amendment. We have to get 100 
percent of the Senators to agree to bring an amendment to the floor. 
The social contract that allows this to happen on a regular and orderly 
fashion in the past has been broken. So while families across this 
country look to us to put a transportation plan into place for our 
future economy and to put America back to work now, we are sitting here 
fiddling. Let's end the fiddling and do our work so America can do its 
work of rebuilding our highway infrastructure.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. 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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