[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 52 (Thursday, March 29, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2209-S2212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SURFACE TRANSPORTATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2012

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed 
to H.R. 4281, the Surface Transportation Extension Act, which was 
received from the House and is now at the desk; that the bill be read 
three times and the Senate proceed to vote on that matter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. There are several of us who reserve our right to object. 
What the House has done is guaranteed job losses for this country. They 
are already dithering on the Senate bill. Their not taking it up for a 
vote has cost us about 100,000 jobs. Thousands of businesses are at 
stake, and eventually we are talking about 3 million jobs at stake. The 
fact that they would do this without any commitment to get to 
conference, without any commitment to finish their job and run off on 
vacation is the reason I am reserving the right to object.
  I ask that the unanimous consent request be modified so an amendment, 
which is at the desk, the text of S. 1813, the surface transportation 
bill, passed by the Senate on March 14, 2012, by a large bipartisan 
majority vote of 74 to 22, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read 
a third time and passed; and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the 
table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request for 
modification?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. The problem with accepting the Boxer amendment is that 
it would shut down the Federal-Aid Highway Program, which means States 
wanting reimbursement for projects will not get paid. It will cause 
already nervous State Department of Transportation directors to cut 
back further on the work because there will be no reimbursements on 
Federal projects, and it would cost the highway trust fund $100 million 
per day for any day the gas tax is not collected, thereby adding to the 
deficit.
  Therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Is there objection to the original request?
  Mr. CARDIN. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Reserving the right to object, and I was listening to the 
distinguished Republican leader, let me challenge some of the 
assumptions so maybe we can get to a consent. In talking to Members of 
the House of Representatives, I am very confident there is ample 
support to pass not only the bipartisan surface transportation bill 
that passed this body by an overwhelming vote but a consensus bill that 
came out of our committees by unanimous vote in both the Environment 
and Public Works Committee and the Banking Committee. There is general 
agreement that this bill should be enacted into law.

  I am confident that if the Speaker of the House brings this bill to 
the floor of the House of Representatives, it will be passed. There are 
adequate votes for it.
  To my friend, the distinguished Republican leader, here is the 
problem: If we pass another short-term extension, we are going to lose 
jobs. In my own

[[Page S2210]]

State of Maryland, we cannot let the contracts on major maintenance 
projects with a 90-day extension. We cannot move forward with the 
planning of our highways, our bridges, our transit systems with another 
short-term extension. This takes us to the middle of the summer. We 
lose the construction season on getting transportation work done.
  I urge the distinguished leader that we do have the opportunity to 
pass the bill right now, and if we stand firm and tell the House of 
Representatives we want to do what is right for the American people, 
that in the Senate we had a bipartisan bill, a consensus bill--what's 
happening in the House is extremely partisan. Let's get together on the 
most important jobs bill we can pass. It is thousands of jobs in 
Maryland, and it is millions of jobs in this Nation that are affected 
by passing a surface transportation bill.
  With that, I am hoping I convinced the distinguished Republican 
leader.
  I ask unanimous consent that the request be modified so that an 
amendment, which is at the desk, the text of S. 1813, the surface 
transportation bill, passed by the Senate on March 14, 2012, by a large 
bipartisan majority vote of 74 to 22, be agreed to; the bill, as 
amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motions to reconsider 
be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I will spare the Senate the repetitious repeating of 
my remarks with regard to the initial Boxer modification, but the 
principles remain the same.
  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. Is there objection to the 
original request?
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I would like to join my colleagues in 
trying to find a way to attach the Senate bill which passed this body 
better than 3 to 1, with a huge bipartisan majority, which is a good 
bill. It was paid for and had weeks of collegial work, back and forth, 
with bipartisan amendments, which is a serious bill that every major 
business group in the country, every major labor group in the country, 
and even environmental groups are supporting.
  As the Senator from Maryland has said, it would certainly virtually 
be passed by the House if the Speaker would only bring it up, but for 
partisan reasons the House has refused to even bring it up for a vote. 
Instead, they sent us this extension which will cost 100,000 jobs.
  It is my view that if we can send it back in this form, we will not 
experience the parade of horribles that the distinguished Republican 
leader has suggested because it will not come to that point. They will, 
in fact, pass the Senate bill and we will have a real highway bill and 
not a partisan extension that kills 100,000 jobs.
  It is 1,000 jobs in my home State of Rhode Island. We have over 10 
percent unemployment. This is a self-inflicted wound that hits Rhode 
Island, that hurts my home State. It makes no sense. Therefore, I ask, 
again--and I apologize for coming back to this, but I think it is 
important that we try to defend this body, which has worked well 
together, which has made a sensible, serious bill and is being infected 
by the dysfunction that is presently taking place in the House. This 
extension is a representation of that dysfunction.
  So I again ask unanimous consent that the majority leader's request 
be modified so the amendment at the desk, the text of our highway bill, 
S. 1813, be added to the bill, that the text be agreed to; the bill, as 
amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motions to reconsider 
be laid upon the table.
  I thank both the majority leader and minority leader for their 
patience.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Is there objection to the original request?
  Mr. SCHUMER. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I am not going to object, but I wish to 
reiterate the comments of my colleagues from California, Maryland, and 
Rhode Island. I know my colleague from Louisiana will do the same. We 
have a broad bipartisan bill. Transportation and highways are a 
linchpin of our economic recovery, not only in the jobs they create 
now, rebuilding and building highways, but in making our economy more 
efficient.
  China is building four times the infrastructure we are. India is 
building more infrastructure than we are, and in the Senate--to the 
credit of both sides--we have a broad bipartisan bill that moves us 
forward. It is not everything I would want or any of us would want. It 
was put together masterfully by Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe, who 
are political opposites.
  The House, in its paralysis--because there is a small group who, 
frankly, don't believe the government should be an infrastructure at 
all--ties it in a knot and forces us with the awful choice of either 
shutting things down because they are not going to budge or just 
renewing an old bill which needs updating, which throws people out of 
work. They are creating paralysis in this country in the case of 
infrastructure and in many other cases.
  If the public wants to know why the country is not growing at a 
greater rate, wants to know why there is such high unemployment in the 
construction industries, look at the ideologues over there and their 
refusal to face reality, to deal with their colleagues, and to put this 
country--not us--in a take-it-or-leave-it position. This 90-day 
extension is not the way to go. The way to go is to pass the Senate 
bill, and I hope those on the other side of the aisle, pushed by 
outside folks from business management and others all across the 
country, will see the error of their ways and change their ways over 
the next few months.

  I thank my colleague, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the original request?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. And I might object, because I think this is a very 
serious matter. I am reserving the right to object because, as the 
majority leader well knows, if we would follow Senator Boxer's 
leadership, sending the Senate bill back to the House, we would not 
only not lose any jobs, we would create 1.9 million jobs, and for the 
Restore Act, which is very important to the gulf coast, it would create 
another 300,000 jobs.
  The only action that is going to cause job loss is the action we are 
basically being forced to accept right now, sent over by a partisan 
House of Representatives, to go to another short-term extension. This 
country doesn't need short-term extensions, it needs long-term answers, 
and it needs jobs they can count on.
  Every business in America relies on this Transportation bill. We have 
now been going to short-term extensions for 3 years. It is time to 
stop.
  I want my leader, who is on the Senate floor, to know I may object in 
the next few minutes, but I absolutely will object to any other short-
term resolution on this bill for as long as this Congress is in 
session. This is enough.
  Now, had this bill gotten out of here with just Democrats on it, I 
would say we don't have a leg to stand on because we don't have a 
balanced bill, and we can't jam this through on the other side. But 
this bill got out of here with 75 or 76 votes. Now, 2 years is not 5 
years, but it is better than 3 months. It is a bill we could pass and 
build on. It is a bill that assures people can go to sleep tonight 
knowing they have a job tomorrow.
  So I object to the minority leader's comments about this bill, that 
our action is going to lose jobs. No, we have been here working hard to 
save jobs. I hope when the Republicans go home they will hear from the 
business community, from the right, the middle, and the left; I hope 
they will hear from environmental groups: What are you guys doing?

[[Page S2211]]

  The final comment I want to make as I am objecting is, if the House 
had a bill, then this would be a negotiation between two bills. The 
problem is they don't even have a bill. How do we negotiate with a 
group that doesn't have a bill? They have ideas, they have 
philosophies, they have platforms, and they have speeches, but they 
don't have a bill. We couldn't negotiate with them if we wanted to. 
There is no bill.
  This is why we are telling the country: Look, we don't know what 
their problem is--they have many--but we have a bill. So if they can't 
get their bill together, take the one we put together. But, no, that is 
too simple for them.
  So I am reserving the right to object. I am going to listen to what 
my leader has to say, and I might object. I know everybody wants to go 
home. I know we want to have this unanimous consent agreement. But my 
State not only has its transportation money wrapped up in this, it has 
its hope for the future wrapped up because the Restore Act is in that 
bill.
  For the first time, this Senate stood up since I have been here and 
said: You are right, gulf coast. You do a lot. You have been injured a 
lot, and we are going to help you. So that bill is in there too, which 
is why I am hard-pressed to say I will vote for a 90-day extension.
  So reserving the right to object, I ask unanimous consent the request 
be modified so an amendment, which is at the desk, the text of S. 1813, 
the surface transportation bill, passed by the Senate on March 14, 
2012, by a large bipartisan majority of 74 to 22 be agreed to; the 
bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Is there objection to the original request of the majority leader?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 4281) to provide an extension of Federal aid 
     highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and 
     other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund pending 
     enactment of a multiyear law reauthorizing such programs.

  The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill, having been read the third time, the 
question is on the passage of the bill.
  The bill (H.R. 4281) was passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this has been a difficult time for everyone, 
and we have what none of us wanted. Our bill was passed in the Senate 
by a very nice bipartisan margin. I hope during the Easter recess, the 
House will be able to come back with something they can--as Senator 
Landrieu mentioned, at least have some piece of legislation they can 
give to us and try to work toward a conclusion or accept our bill, 
which is our preference.
  So I appreciate very much the comments of my colleagues, and I 
appreciate their patience and understanding of the situation we find 
ourselves in, which is not a good one.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I know my colleague Senator Collins is 
waiting to speak. I will be very brief.
  Let's be clear what just happened. What just happened is the House 
sent us a 90-day extension of our transportation programs with not one 
dime of revenue in there to fund those, and the highway trust fund is 
on the road to bankruptcy. So they are the first in my memory--the 
first legislative body in the Capitol--to ever extend for this period 
of time without a dollar, which means an acceleration of bankruptcy of 
the trust fund.
  What else did they do? They just guaranteed 100,000 people are not 
going to get their jobs, and they guaranteed hundreds of businesses are 
not going to get jobs. They sent out a signal that America should be 
ready for hardship because they didn't even have the decency to put in 
that extension a written commitment to produce a bill, to get to 
conference with us, and to get a bill to the President. No, they run 
off on their vacation and leave people twisting in the wind.
  Well, I want it to be known I am one of the chairs who worked on the 
bill. There are many other people who were fantastic on this bill from 
both sides of the aisle. I know--I spoke to Senator Inhofe today about 
this--we want this bill done. I am going to use every tool at my 
disposal as one Senator to keep the pressure on the Republican House.
  Speaker Boehner: You are not Speaker of the Republicans, you are 
Speaker of the House. Reach your hand across the aisle, as Senator 
Inhofe reached across the aisle to me and I reached across to him; and 
Jay Rockefeller reached across to Senator Hutchison and she reached 
across; and Tim Johnson reached across to Shelby and he reached across; 
and Max Baucus had an array of Republicans work with him in the Finance 
Committee. We know we can do this.
  But what the House has done is send a very clear message of job loss 
and hardship. It is unacceptable. I look forward to working on this 
every single day. Now we have 90 days. Tomorrow it will be 89, and then 
88. We are going to count down, and we are going to keep the pressure 
on, and we are not going to let this transportation program go up in 
smoke because it has been in place since Dwight Eisenhower was 
President.
  It is a sad day for America today, a very sad day. But we will never 
give up over here, and James Inhofe isn't going to give up, and we are 
going to fight hard to get a bill.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the revenue title to the 
highway bill that the Senate passed earlier this month.
  Gandhi said: ``Truth quenches untruth.''
  I rise to quench untruth. I understand some of our colleagues in the 
House have mischaracterized the Senate's highway bill by saying that it 
wasn't paid for.
  Nothing could be further from the truth.
  The Senate highway bill is fully paid for and supports more than 1.6 
million jobs across the country. It will also ensure there is still 
money in the Highway Trust Fund at the end of the bill's 2-year 
authorization.
  I want to explain exactly how we fund this bill so everyone is clear.
  As chairman of the Committee on Finance, I worked very hard with 
members of both parties to put together a funding package that would:
  First, pay for a reauthorization bill through September of 2013;
  Second, not add a single dime to the deficit or the debt; and,
  Third, not leave the Highway Trust Fund bankrupt at the end of the 
proposed reauthorization.
  According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the 
U.S. Department of Transportation, the Highway Trust Fund needs $5.6 
billion to pay for the Senate's proposed reauthorization.
  In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation said we need a so-
called ``cushion'' of extra money in the Highway Trust Fund at the time 
of the bill's proposed September 30, 2013 expiration.
  I am pleased to report that Senate Republicans and Democrats 
ultimately came together to put $9.2 billion into the Highway Trust 
Fund within the next two years, paying for the bill and leaving a 
sizable $3.6 billion cushion at the end of the authorization period.
  Actually, in total, we put $14 billion into the Highway Trust Fund 
within the budget window of the next 10 years.
  Focusing on the nexus to transportation and energy, we were able to 
transfer an immediate $3 billion surplus in the Leaking Underground 
Storage Tank trust fund--the so-called ``LUST Fund''--into the Highway 
Trust Fund. This was an idea offered by a number of Finance Committee 
Republicans. Like the Highway Trust Fund, the LUST Fund relies on the 
fuel tax for funding.
  In addition, Finance Committee Republicans also proposed routing a 
third of the future fuel tax revenues intended for this storage tank 
fund into the Highway Trust Fund. This raises nearly another $700 
million over 10 years.
  Next, we transferred into the Highway Trust Fund revenues that the 
general fund would receive from fees on cars that don't comply with 
fuel efficiency standards and the tariff on foreign automobile imports.
  Together, these provisions provide nearly $5 billion for the Highway 
Trust

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Fund, with about $1.6 billion coming in the first 2 years.
  Then, we replenished the general fund for the amounts we moved into 
the Highway Trust Fund. We did this by clamping down on tax cheats and 
unscrupulous Medicare providers, as examples.
  Finally, after accommodating Republican Senators' concerns at markup 
to rework some elements of our proposal, we accepted a widely supported 
idea to stabilize required contributions into pension plans.
  The pension plan beneficiaries will still be able to rely on the 
plans getting funded, but employers will have a more predictable and 
realistic schedule for how much to contribute.
  This provision raised sufficient revenue to enable us to then 
transfer another $4.5 billion into the Highway Trust Fund in the first 
2 years, bringing the 2-year total to about $9.2 billion, well more 
than the $5.6 billion needed to just pay for the bill.
  This pension stabilization provision raised more than $9 billion in 
total, which also enabled us to accept a Republican amendment to put 
additional money into the Highway Trust Fund in future years. This 
brought the 10-year total to approximately $14 billion, as I stated 
earlier.
  My understanding is that this increase in general fund revenue to 
plus up the Highway Trust Fund would be considered acceptable under the 
House Republicans' proposed budget with its ``Reserve Fund.''
  It is also my understanding that the House's proposed 5-year bill 
will leave the Highway Trust Fund at the brink of insolvency by the 
bill's proposed conclusion, unlike the Senate's carefully crafted 
compromise that I have just described.
  The House leadership should not make inaccurate claims about the 
Senate's bill to camouflage their own inability to pass a long-term 
bill and unwillingness to work out compromises.
  We just passed yet another short-term extension to provide funding 
for only 90 days. We can't keep kicking the can down the road. Pretty 
soon there will be no road left to kick the can down.
  The easiest way to work together and forge a solution to create jobs 
and fund our Nation's highway system is for the House to take up the 
Senate's bill. It's a good bill. It provides certainty so businesses 
and communities can plan construction projects and create jobs.
  It is fully paid for. In fact, it ensures the Highway Trust Fund will 
remain solvent even after the end of the bill. It gives us time to 
address the longer-term needs of our national program, and how we are 
going to pay for it.
  The House Republican leadership should set partisanship aside. They 
should realize there are no Republican or Democratic roads or bridges. 
There are only American ones. It is time to work together and not leave 
the Highway Trust Fund insolvent.
  Thank you. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for up to 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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