[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 76 (Monday, May 18, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2949-S2950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HIGHWAY BILL

  Mr. REID. ``America is one big pothole.'' Those are not my words. 
They are the words of former Republican Secretary of Transportation Ray 
LaHood, a longtime Member of Congress and a Republican from Illinois. 
That is how he described America's crumbling infrastructure: ``America 
is one big pothole.''
  It is hard to argue with Secretary LaHood's assessment. According to 
the Federal Highway Administration, 50 percent of American roads are in 
disrepair. Half of the roads we drive on

[[Page S2950]]

are in disrepair. What are State legislatures around the country doing? 
Raising the speed limit.
  There are a number of places in America where the speed limit is 80 
miles an hour. That means that this weekend--Memorial Day weekend--as 
American families load up their cars and head to the beach or the lake 
or to visit loved ones, half of the highways they travel on are in dire 
need of repair.
  If that were not troubling enough, 64,000 American bridges are 
structurally deficient. As each day goes by, these roads and bridges 
get a little worse--one big pothole.
  It is not just our roads and our bridges. Our Nation's infrastructure 
affects every means of travel. We are all distraught by last week's 
Amtrak train derailment in Pennsylvania. Eight people were killed. 
Hundreds were injured. It has been reported that the horrible 
derailment might have been prevented if speed control safeguards had 
been installed on this particular section of track.
  What we have here in this Congress--my Republican friend, the senior 
Senator from Kentucky, is talking about the Senate running better than 
ever. I think not.
  The story of our Nation's infrastructure woes is very clear. We have 
the technology. This great country has the resources. But my friends 
will not appropriate any money to do this. Stunningly, time and again, 
we have failed to fix the problems--one big pothole. Fifty percent of 
our roads are deficient, and 64,000 bridges are structurally deficient. 
Specifically, Republicans in Congress have refused to work with 
Democrats in making an adequate long-term investment in our country's 
service transportation.
  What we have here time after time are short-term extensions of the 
highway bill. Before the Republicans hit town here, we used to do long-
term highway bills--they have stood in the way of doing that--so that 
the Department of Transportation and leaders in all 50 States could 
plan ahead. That is why we did these long-term bills. The way it is 
now, a 2-month extension or a 6-month extension does not work. It is 
terribly inefficient and very, very expensive.
  The highway trust fund runs out in about 8 or 10 weeks. The 
authorization for the Federal highway program expires later this month. 
Later this month, if we have not extended the highway bill, there could 
be no money spent on highways.
  The fact that these programs are expiring is no secret. Our 
Republican colleagues have known about this deadline for months and 
months. Yet here we are at the end of May, and Republicans are no 
closer to crafting a long-term investment in our roads, bridges, and 
railways. They have not had a markup in the four committees of 
jurisdiction. In fact, Republicans are trying to do the opposite. They 
are going to the extreme of gutting our already inadequate 
transportation.
  Look at what happened with Amtrak. The House Republicans chose to cut 
Amtrak in the hours just after the derailment by a quarter of a billion 
dollars. Who could help but be astonished by this act of carelessness?
  Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who knows quite a bit about 
Pennsylvania, speaking of the Republicans in Congress said: ``Normally, 
after a tragedy, a pipeline bursts, a bridge collapses, everyone for a 
couple of weeks says `we've really got to do something.' Here, less 
than 12 hours after seven people died''--of course, now it is eight--
``these Republicans in Congress didn't even have the decency to table 
the vote.''
  They went right ahead and did it, cutting a quarter of a billion 
dollars from Amtrak.
  In addition to what it does and does not do to highways, our bridges, 
our dams, is the fact that it stops job creation. Every billion dollars 
we spend on highway construction, infrastructure development, we create 
47,500 high-paying jobs. Instead of slashing Federal funding or putting 
critical transportation infrastructure on the back burner, we should be 
crafting a long-term plan to boost our Nation's investment and 
infrastructure.
  With precious little time before the Federal highway program expires, 
there is no hope for anything but a short-term authorization longer 
than a few months. We understand that. We are not happy about it, but 
that is the reality of the situation that the Republicans have forced 
us to be in.
  The U.S. highway system is crucial to our Nation's economic well-
being. It is how we move goods and services. It is central to American 
families who use our roads and bridges every day.
  The American Society of Civil Engineers predicts that our economy 
will lose $1 trillion without adequate infrastructure investment. That 
is almost 3.5 million jobs, and some say more than that.
  Congress must invest in working families and businesses by addressing 
our Nation's transportation needs. I invite congressional Republicans 
to work with us in building bipartisan consensus to ensure a strong and 
robust investment in our Nation's infrastructure. What is being done as 
we speak is that they are trying to patch together a 2-month extension. 
A 2-month extension or a 6-month extension, I think, is the wrong way 
to go. It is not good for our country.
  Would the Chair announce the business before the Senate today.

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