[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 182 (Tuesday, December 15, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8660-S8661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, from voting to repeal ObamaCare to passing
the first long-term Transportation bill in a decade and the first joint
balanced budget in 14 years, Senate Republicans have worked hard this
year to fulfill our promise to get Washington working again for
American families.
While some of our efforts have been blocked by Senate Democrats or by
the President, we have still managed to get a lot done. I am
particularly proud of some of the legislation we passed this year that
will benefit South Dakota families and businesses as well as families
and businesses across the country. One bill that I have been working on
for a long time--a bill that will mean a lot to South Dakota's farmers
and ranchers--is the legislation the House passed last week, the
Surface Transportation Board reauthorization bill.
The Surface Transportation Board is responsible for helping to ensure
the efficiency of our rail system by addressing problems and
adjudicating disputes between railroads and shippers. Unfortunately, it
has been clear for several years now that the Surface Transportation
Board needs to work better. This became particularly apparent in 2013
and 2014 when a sharp increase in shipping demand and harsh winter
weather conditions combined to create massive backlogs in the
availability of railcars for grain shipping which, in turn, caused
storage issues for farmers across the Midwest.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the rail backlog
lowered the price of corn, wheat, and soybeans in the upper Midwest. It
forced shippers to pay record-high railroad-car premiums--in the
neighborhood of 28 percent to 150 percent above the previous average
levels--for roughly 65 consecutive weeks.
The Surface Transportation Board legislation that Congress sent to
the President last week will help prevent another situation such as
this in the future. The bill, which I spearheaded, makes a number of
significant reforms to the Board. For starters, it establishes the
number of Board members and establishes a more collaborative process
that will allow members to work together to identify and solve problems
as they emerge. The bill also provides the Board with the investigative
authority to address rail service issues even if an official complaint
has not been made. This will allow and encourage the Board to be more
proactive when it comes to addressing problems in our Nation's rail
system.
The bill also increases transparency by requiring the Surface
Transportation Board to establish a data base of complaints and to
provide quarterly reports with key information to facilitate the
effective monitoring of service issues. Finally, the bill improves the
current process for resolving disputes between railroads and shippers.
Right now, disputes can take multiple years and literally millions of
dollars to resolve, putting a tremendous burden on shippers and on
railroads as well. The legislation we developed improves this process
by setting timelines for rate reviews, expanding voluntary arbitrary
procedures, and requiring the Surface Transportation Board to study
alternative rate review methodologies to streamline and to expedite
cases. It requires the Surface Transportation Board to maintain at
least one simplified, expedited rate review methodology. These changes
will increase efficiency throughout the rate review process.
South Dakota farmers and ranchers depend on our Nation's railroads to
bring their goods to market. They also depend on our Nation's highways.
This year I was proud to work with my colleagues in the Senate on the
first long-term Transportation bill in a decade.
Over the past several years, Congress made a habit of passing
numerous short-term funding extensions for Federal transportation
programs. Over the past several years of short-term extensions, the
latest, I think, was No. 38. That was an incredibly inefficient way to
manage our Nation's infrastructure needs, and it wasted an incredible
amount of money. It also put a lot of transportation jobs in jeopardy.
When Congress fails to make clear how transportation funding will be
allocated, States and local governments are left without the certainty
they need to authorize projects or to make long-term plans for
addressing various transportation infrastructure needs. That means
essential projects, construction projects, get deferred. Necessary
repairs may not get made, and the jobs that depend on these projects
and repairs are put at risk.
The Transportation bill we passed this month changes all that. It
reauthorizes transportation programs for the long term, and it provides
5 years of guaranteed funding. It means States and local governments
will have the certainty they need to invest in big transportation
projects and the jobs that they create. That, in turn, means a stronger
economy and a more reliable, safer, and effective transportation
system.
As chairman of the commerce committee, I spend a lot of time working
with committee members on both sides of the aisle to develop the
Transportation bill's safety provisions. Our portion of the bill
includes a host of important safety improvements, including
enhancements to the notification process to ensure that consumers are
informed of auto-related recalls, and also important reforms at the
government agency responsible for overseeing safety in our Nation's
cars and trucks.
Another important success for South Dakota this year was the final
approval of the expansion of the Powder River Training Complex--the
military training airspace over South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana,
and Wyoming. The expanded airspace approved by the Air Force and the
Federal Aviation Administration will allow our air men and women to
carry out critical training in conditions that more closely resemble
combat missions. After working with the Air Force on this project for
nearly 9 years, I was proud to see this expansion finally completed and
even more delighted to see the first large-force training exercise take
place at the expanded Powder River Training Complex just this month.
Forty-one aircraft took part in the exercise, including the B-1 bombers
from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
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The expanded training complex will save Ellsworth $23 million per year
in training costs by reducing the need for the B-1 bombers to commute
to other places, such as Nevada and Utah, for training.
Supporting our men and women in uniform--like our airmen at
Ellsworth--is one of the most important jobs we have as Members of
Congress.
This year I am proud to report that the Senate passed a national
defense authorization bill that incorporates a number of critical
reforms that will expand the resources available to our servicemembers
and strengthen our national security. The National Defense
Authorization Act for 2016 tackles waste and inefficiency at the
Department of Defense and focuses funding on our warfighters rather
than on the Pentagon bureaucracy.
The bill also overhauls our military retirement system. Before this
bill, the system limited retirement benefits to servicemembers who had
served for 20 years or more, which means huge numbers of military
personnel, including many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
retired after years of service without having accrued any retirement
benefits. The National Defense Authorization Act replaces this system
with a new retirement system that will ensure that the majority of our
Nation's servicemembers receive retirement benefits for their years of
service to our country even if they have not reached the 20-year mark.
The bills I have discussed today are just a few of the
accomplishments of the Republican-led Senate. Over the course of this
year, we have passed a number of significant pieces of legislation that
will benefit Americans for years to come.
We have worked hard to help our Nation's veterans by expanding access
to mental health resources, reducing wait times for medical care, and
increasing the number of providers who can serve veterans. We voted to
repeal ObamaCare and start the process of moving toward the real health
care reform Americans are looking for: an affordable, accountable,
patient-focused system that puts individuals in control of their health
care decisions. We passed legislation to contain the out-of-control
bureaucracy at the EPA and legislation to begin the process of
safeguarding Medicare and Social Security by putting them on a more
sustainable financial footing going forward. We passed cyber security
legislation to protect Americans' privacy and a major education reform
bill that puts States, parents, teachers, and local school boards--not
Washington bureaucrats--in charge of our children's education.
While we may have accomplished a lot this year, we know there is
still a lot more that needs to be done. Americans are still suffering
in the Obama economy, and our Nation continues to face terrorist
threats at home and abroad.
Whether it is enacting pro-economic growth policies at home or
ensuring that our military has the resources it needs to protect us
from threats abroad, Republicans will redouble our efforts to make sure
Washington is meeting the needs of American families and addressing the
American people's priorities. We plan to spend the second year of the
114th Congress next year the way we have spent the first: fighting to
make our economy stronger, our government more efficient and more
accountable, and our Nation and our world safer and more secure.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 20
minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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