[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1285-1289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   WATER INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, earlier today I was on a call with 
Tony Parrott, executive director of the Metropolitan Sewer District of 
Greater Cincinnati. We talked about how communities in Ohio are 
struggling to afford the necessary upgrades to improve sewer systems. 
In parts of the State with something called combined sewer systems, 
every time there are heavy rains waste and storm water overflows, the 
sewers overflow, and the water is dumped into our rivers and creeks and 
lakes.
  The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 800 billion 
gallons of untreated wastewater and storm water from these combined 
sewage overflows, these combined sewer systems, are released into our 
rivers, lakes, and streams each year. It poses a threat to public 
health and the environment, and it undermines the competitiveness of 
our businesses. So not only do building these water and sewer systems 
and upgrades create jobs, but we also know if we don't, local 
businesses aren't going to expand. If they are not certain they are 
going to have good, clean water available at a decent and reasonable 
cost, they are not going to expand their businesses, especially if it 
is manufacturing.
  The cost of addressing these combined sewage overflow systems in Ohio 
is some $6 billion according to the EPA, $1 billion in northeast Ohio, 
and $2 billion in the Cincinnati area.
  So that is why today, because there are 81 Ohio communities requiring 
water infrastructure improvements, I am reintroducing the Clean Water 
Affordability Act. In previous Congresses I introduced this legislation 
with our Republican colleague from Ohio, Senator Voinovich. This bill 
will protect ratepayers, lead to cleaner water, and promote economic 
development. It would invest $1.8 billion to be distributed over the 
next 5 years through a grant program for financially distressed 
communities administered by EPA Administrator Jackson. I have spoken to 
her conveying the concern of Ohio's CSO communities. The program 
provides a 75/25 cost share, similar to what we have done on highway 
issues in the past: 75 percent Federal Government cost, 25 percent 
local government cost.
  It is estimated that every $1 billion invested in infrastructure, 
similar to the highway bill that Senators Inhofe and Boxer are working 
on, will create--that for every $1 billion invested, upwards of 20,000 
jobs would be created.
  It will promote green infrastructure. Cities such as Bucyrus or 
Steubenville should be encouraged to use green infrastructure if it 
costs less than traditional construction and produces the same 
environmental benefits.
  I will continue to work with mayors such as Dave Berger of Lima and 
Bob Armstrong of Defiance, county commissioners, and others such as 
Tony Parrot, who explained to me how years of reduced infrastructure 
investments have eroded their water and sewer systems.
  When we were kids in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s and into the 
1980s, the U.S. infrastructure was the envy of the world. Whether it 
was the interstate system, whether it was the Federal, State, local 
partnerships on water and sewer systems, whether it was the building of 
community colleges and the beginnings of technology and wiring for our 
telecommunications systems in the 1950s and 1960s, we were the envy of 
the world.
  Today, because so many in this government think we need to cut 
spending at all costs on everything, we simply have not kept up with 
the infrastructure. That is why countries such as China that are 
investing so much money in infrastructure--we run the risk of them 
passing us by in manufacturing and all the things we care about that 
build a solid middle class.
  This legislation is an economic development imperative. This 
legislation is an imperative for citizens of our country--having clean 
drinking water, safe drinking water, predictable access to water at a 
reasonable cost. It is important for our families. It is important for 
our communities. It is important for business development. It is 
important for a strong middle-class manufacturing country, which we 
still are.
  I ask my colleagues to support this important legislation I am 
introducing today.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. 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.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I take this time to urge my colleagues to 
let us proceed on the reauthorization of the surface transportation 
act, S. 1813. This is a critically important bill, and I am proud to be 
on two committees that have had jurisdiction over this bill. One is the 
Environment and Public Works Committee, where Senator Boxer and Senator 
Inhofe have worked together to bring out a bill that received the 
unanimous support of our committee. I also serve on the Senate Finance 
Committee, where Senator Baucus and Senator Hatch have worked together 
so we have the sufficient revenues in order to be able to finance the 
reauthorization bill during its 2-year reauthorization.
  This bill is so important to our country. First, it gives 
predictability to our State and local governments. It gives 
predictability to the highway engineers. It gives predictability to 
contractors to know the funding will be there in order to advance our 
transportation programs. When we do these short-term extensions, it 
really does cause significant problems for planners. If you are trying 
to plan a transportation project, you need to know the funding is going 
to be there for more than just a few months. You need to have some 
degree of predictability. This legislation will allow us to give that 
predictability to those who are involved in the decisionmaking. It has 
been 2009 since we last reauthorized the surface transportation act. It 
is time for us to act.
  This bill will also help us as far as American competitiveness is 
concerned. We need to have modern transportation infrastructure, 
whether it is our highways, our bridges, or our transit systems. We 
need to make sure we can meet the challenges to today's society.
  I could talk about just in this region our needs in the transit area. 
We have one of the most congested communities in the Nation in 
Washington, DC. Many of my constituents who live in Maryland go to work 
every day in Washington, DC, working for the Federal Government, using 
the mass transit system. That system is aged and needs attention. We 
need to provide the financing nexus in this area in order to be as 
competitive as we can with transportation options for the people of 
this country.
  This bill is important for jobs. You hear that over and over. In 
Maryland, the passage of this bill will preserve or expand 10,000 jobs 
for its people. I expect the Acting President pro tempore would have 
similar numbers in New Mexico. It is important in every State in this 
Nation.
  It is also important for safety. I will give you one number in 
Maryland that really has me concerned. There are 359 bridges in the 
State of Maryland that have been rated structurally deficient and 4.6 
million motorists travel over those bridges every day. The State of 
Maryland is taking steps to make sure the motorists are safe, but we 
need to fix those bridges in a more permanent way. The longer we wait, 
the more it costs. Deferred maintenance means we are not doing what we 
should to protect the future needs of our communities. This legislation 
puts a heavy priority on maintaining our transportation infrastructure 
so it is safe and we can move forward into the future.
  The legislation is balanced between transit and highway. I know that 
in certain regions of this country, highways are the principal means of 
transportation, and their interest in transit is not quite as great as 
it is if you represent the people of New York or you represent the 
people of Maryland or

[[Page 1286]]

you represent the people in an urban center where public transit 
becomes a very important part of our transportation needs. This 
legislation is balanced to take care of the needs of our highways and 
the needs of our transit systems. I think it is a credit to that 
balance that in the Environment and Public Works Committee and in the 
Banking Committee--the two committees that have principal jurisdiction 
over the highway program and over the transit program--we had unanimous 
support on bringing this bill forward. That is how we should be 
proceeding to consider legislation. We have that type of bipartisan 
cooperation because this bill is properly balanced.
  Let me also point out that we have received hundreds of letters from 
organizations that support the passage of the surface transportation 
reauthorization act. We have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we have the 
AFL-CIO, we have businesses, we have labor groups, we have local 
communities, we have national groups.
  This bill has been put together in a way where we can get it done 
this year, and it would be very important for the people of this 
country and for our economy.
  Let me talk a little bit about my State of Maryland and the Maryland 
department of transportation. They have given us a list of projects 
that will move forward if we can get this bill reauthorized, from the 
beltway around Baltimore, to critical roads in Montgomery and Prince 
George's Counties, to our rural areas. I could share some of those 
specific examples. But this will affect the ability of Maryland to move 
forward with critical roads and transit needs, and we need to get that 
done.
  I want to talk a little bit about some of the specific issues that 
are in the bill that I want to highlight.
  The Appalachian Development Highway System is one for which we have 
put a separate provision historically in the code because we recognize 
that in bringing economic opportunity to that part of our Nation, which 
includes West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania--and it also 
includes some of our Southern States that are in the Appalachia highway 
region--it is tough to get jobs there. I was just recently in the most 
western part of Maryland up in Garrett County, and I can tell you it is 
difficult to get companies to move into that region. One of the 
problems is that you have to go over the mountains. It is not easy to 
get over the mountains.
  We have a real opportunity around Cumberland, MD, to be able to 
expand dramatically the economic opportunities and jobs by completing 
the north-south highway that goes through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
West Virginia. Now there is reason to celebrate that in this bill that 
can become a reality. There is an amendment I had offered that is 
included in this legislation that provides the toll credits so we can 
advance this project. It was a major issue needed, particularly in the 
Pennsylvania part of this north-south highway.
  So we do have reason to celebrate that in this legislation we have a 
way of completing the Appalachian Development Highway System in my part 
of the country.
  Senator Rockefeller has been working very closely on this issue, and 
I really applaud his leadership. We are going to be looking to see 
whether we might be able to strengthen it more, through amendments to 
this bill, to make sure these projects get the priority to which they 
are entitled.
  For the sake of flexibility, we have combined many of the specific 
programs into more general programs. That is part of the balance in 
this legislation--to give greater flexibility to local governments. 
That is important. But we also want to make sure the national 
priorities receive the attention they need, and the Appalachian 
Development Highway System is a national priority. We want to make sure 
that is, in fact, done.
  I wear another hat as chair of the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee on 
the Environment and Public Works Committee, and I want to do everything 
we can to make sure the Federal Government, as a partner in developing 
highways and roads and transit systems, does what is important for 
clean water in our communities. A large part of the pollutants that 
enter into our waters comes from storm runoff. In the Chesapeake Bay 
region, the largest growth source of pollutants going into the 
Chesapeake Bay comes from storm runoff. Well, highway construction can 
help or hurt storm runoff. If you do it the right way, you actually can 
help keep pollutants out of our streams and rivers and bays. So I am 
hopeful that during the discussion of this bill on the floor of the 
Senate, we will look for ways we can make this bill helpful in the best 
practices being used in order to deal with storm runoff, as we deal 
with major transportation programs in this country.
  One of the programs I have spent a lot of time on is the 
Transportation Enhancement Program, the TE Program. That has been used 
by local governments to do what is critically important to our 
communities. I could talk about bicycle paths. I could talk about paths 
that have connected communities, which has allowed us to take cars off 
the roads. This is a small amount of money, but it becomes very 
important for getting motorists off the roads. We have the use of the 
Transportation Enhancement Program so it is safe for motorists who want 
to pull off to the side of the road to see the vistas. We have used 
funds for that. That is a safety issue.
  So transportation enhancements are important programs. We want to 
make sure the flexibility and funding opportunities remain. Chairman 
Boxer has been very careful to work out an arrangement so we can 
advance that, and I thank her for it. I have been working with Senator 
Cochran, and we are hoping to offer an amendment that will make it 
clear we need to work with the local governments as we look at how the 
transportation enhancement funds are being used.
  Let me tell you about another opportunity I think we could have in 
the consideration of this bill, and that deals with our veterans.
  There is a way we could use the training veterans receive while in 
military service to help when they come back here as far as 
truckdrivers are concerned. We are looking for an amendment in regard 
to that area where we could advance that issue.
  There are many areas in this bill that we think are extremely 
important to advance our needs. It is a bipartisan bill. We have to get 
this done.
  I know Senator Boxer is on the floor. Once again, I compliment her 
for her patience and leadership in working through each of these 
issues.
  We are looking forward to a robust debate on the floor of the Senate. 
I hope Members who have amendments will allow us to proceed. Let's take 
a look at amendments, but let's proceed in the spirit in which the 
Environment and Public Works Committee, the Banking Committee, and the 
Finance Committee reported the bills to the Senate; that is, listen to 
each other, do not lose sight of the prize of getting this bill done, 
and be willing to compromise so that we can maintain the type of 
bipartisan cooperation we need in order to get this bill enacted. If we 
do that, we will be doing something so important to our country.
  This bill will create jobs. This bill will help our economic 
recovery. This bill will help our future. I am proud to be part of the 
group that has brought this bill forward to the floor of the Senate.
  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.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. 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.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to speak in favor of 
moving ahead for progress in the 21st century, something that most 
Americans--almost all Americans--have to be in favor of, and if a lot 
of them knew about this legislation, I think they would be in favor of 
it too.

[[Page 1287]]

  It has been 862 days since SAFETEA-LU expired--862 days. That 
legislation was written in 2003, passed this body and signed into law 
in 2005. We have extended that legislation, SAFETEA-LU, eight times 
since it expired in 2009, brought it back from the dead eight times.
  John Chambers, who is the CEO of a big technology company called 
CISCO, likes to say that the key to global economic competitiveness is 
having the best workforce and the best infrastructure in the world. He 
has said that is where the jobs will go in the 21st century--best 
workforce, best infrastructure, you will get the jobs. We must continue 
to modernize--in the spirit of those words--modernize and maintain our 
infrastructure if it is to remain the best.
  I wish to start today by congratulating Senators Boxer and Inhofe for 
pulling together--and their staffs and subcommittee staffs as well--I 
wish to start by congratulating them for pulling together a bipartisan 
Transportation bill that begins to address America's infrastructure 
needs. This comes on the heels of our passing earlier this week a 
conference report, a compromise on the FAA reauthorization to bring the 
air traffic control system of our country into the 21st century and to 
also begin rebuilding and improving our airports as well. This is a 
pretty good one-two punch in the period of 1 week.
  This legislation before us today makes key reforms to our Federal 
transportation policy that will help make the best use of our 
taxpayers' dollars. The legislation sets clear national goals for 
transportation investment. We do not just throw money at these 
problems; we actually strive to achieve a number of specific goals. And 
this bill asks State transportation departments to do their part to 
achieve those national goals. It accomplishes this by implementing new 
performance measures that will help to hold States accountable for the 
outcomes of the investments we are prepared to make. This will ensure 
that we are building the most effective multimodal transportation 
network we can by putting our dollars to the most productive use.
  Passing this legislation is critically important to America's 
economic health at home and our competitiveness abroad. We have heard 
that here today, and we will hear it for the next several days. This 
legislation, if adopted and signed into law, will create or save 
several millions of jobs, in a day when we need every job we can save 
or create, in States such as New Mexico, States such as Delaware, and 
48 other States as well.
  In my State of Delaware, for example, we are planning significant new 
transportation investments. We already have a bunch of them underway, 
but new ones will contribute to our State's productivity. Some of those 
will help to relieve the congestion along important corridors such as 
I-95. We have already done some good work in putting in highway-speed 
E-ZPass on I-95 through the toll plaza to expedite and move the flow of 
traffic. We are now working on a big intersection where I-95 intersects 
with State Route 1, a major north-south highway. That has been a big 
bottleneck for years. We have some good work going on with that. We 
want to be able to finish that. Other improvements will allow shippers 
to move freight more quickly and reliably down roads such as Route 301, 
which comes up through Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula into 
Delaware on its way to I-95.
  Each of my colleagues could no doubt talk about similar efforts in 
their State. Each of these projects is part of our national 
transportation system. Taken together, the system is greater than the 
sum of its parts. Having a world-class transportation system has helped 
to make America what it is today. This bill will ensure that we have a 
transportation system that allows America to return to prosperity and 
to grow that prosperity.
  I am looking forward to debating this bill on the Senate floor. I 
appreciate the time to get started on that here today. As a Senator and 
as a recovering Governor, I know that everything I can do I can do 
better, and as good as this legislation is I think there is always room 
for improvement.
  I have never introduced a perfect bill. My friend who is presiding 
over the Senate may have, but I am not sure. As good as this 
legislation is, there is room for improvement.
  I plan to bring forward a couple amendments that I think will improve 
the bill. We talked about a few in the markup in the full committee. 
For example, I believe we need to do more on the issue of traffic 
congestion. I go back and forth on the train about every day and night, 
and in the morning I see traffic lined up for miles, trying to get from 
north to south and parallel to the Northeast corridor of Amtrak, as we 
zip along. This city is recognized as maybe the most congested city in 
America.
  In 2010 I am told that drivers in the United States in the more urban 
and suburban areas wasted some 1.9 billion gallons of fuel due to 
traffic congestion. That is almost 2 billion gallons of fuel. 
Congestion is a major challenge in larger U.S. cities and increasingly 
even in smaller cities and towns too.
  The burden and the cost of traffic congestion is felt by both 
travelers and freight shippers, diminishing our quality of life and 
costing us money. According to the Texas Transportation Institute--they 
come up with this study that is announced every year--the average 
commuter across the country spent 34 hours sitting in traffic--not 
moving at 40, 30, 20, or 10 miles an hour but sitting in traffic. That 
is up from 14 hours in 1982. This burden lowers productivity and 
results in wasted fuel and cost Americans more than $100 billion in 
2010, or nearly $750 wasted for every commuter. Traffic congestion is 
also increasingly hurting the reliability of the transportation system, 
which is particularly important to freight shippers, where the value 
each minute can be as much as $5. It is about $300 an hour. As 
America's economy continues to recover, we must make sure that traffic 
is not a drag on job growth. According to that same Texas 
Transportation Institute, by 2015--3 years from now--the cost of 
gridlock will rise from $101 billion to something like $133 billion.
  That is the bad news. There is good news too. Fortunately, we have 
new tools to address congestion. For example, better management of 
accidents, improved timing of traffic signals, real-time traveler 
information, and managed toll lanes--and I will talk more about that 
next week--all provide low-cost congestion benefits. These are just a 
few of the strategies that have been helping passengers and freight 
shippers to better anticipate, avoid, and manage the impact of 
congestion. They are smart and are being successfully used on a smaller 
scale. They are ideas we want to replicate in cities and counties and 
States across the country. I will offer an amendment that would, in the 
States with the worst congestion, target funding for these cost-
effective congestion-relief strategies. My amendment will help to give 
Americans some of their time and money back. It will help shippers grow 
their businesses too. I hope my colleagues will support it.
  Second, I believe that anything worth having is worth paying for. If 
we will not raise user fees at the Federal level, we should at least 
stop prohibiting States from doing so if that makes sense. I will offer 
an amendment to give States more flexibility to use tolls and user fees 
on their roadways. An increasing number of States are looking at tolls 
and user fees as a source of funding, and the Federal Government should 
not stand in their way.
  We have used tolls as a source of revenue in Delaware for years, and 
it has helped us to maintain and improve the critical I-95 corridor and 
to provide a north-south corridor that stretches from the northern part 
of the State past Dover, past Dover Air Force Base and the central part 
of Dover.
  Toll revenue is also often a critical part of forming public-private 
partnerships, which I know many of my colleagues support. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in supporting this amendment.
  In closing, Congress needs to act on transportation legislation. The 
rest of the country is counting on us. The infrastructure of our 
country gets graded

[[Page 1288]]

on an annual basis by, among others, the engineers of our Nation. They 
look at transportation more broadly than just highways and bridges. And 
it is not just railroads, bridges, and ports, they look at all of it. 
Last year, the grade they gave us was a D. That is not as in 
``delightful,'' and that is not as in ``distinguished''--that is maybe 
more in the area of ``derelict.'' We can do a whole lot better.
  We have taken action this week with respect to our air traffic 
control systems. We have taken a step toward beginning to rebuild and 
improve our airports. The legislation will let us, in the next 24 
months, make our roads, highways, and bridges safer, less congested, 
and something we can treasure as a real asset.
  Lastly--and I have said this before and it bears repeating--the major 
job of government--not the only but a major job of government--is to 
provide a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation. 
It is not the only job of government, but it is a big job of 
government. A big part of creating that environment for job creation 
and preservation is a road, highway, and bridge infrastructure that we 
can all be proud of in the 21st century. This legislation will help us 
go in that direction. It is important to follow on the heels of this 
legislation and not just waste 2 years but build on it to do smarter 
things in the years to come.
  That having been said, while the chairman is here, I thank her for 
her leadership. People say: Why can't Congress get anything done? I 
think the way Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe have worked together on 
this legislation, with the staffs, is a great model for the rest of us. 
We thank them for their leadership.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Delaware because 
he and the occupant of the chair are very important members of this 
great committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee. As one or 
our most senior Members, he has taken a tremendous interest in 
everything we do. I look to his leadership on a number of issues, 
including controlling mercury, which is dear to his heart and mine. He 
is a leader on nuclear plant safety and has been extremely helpful. I 
thank him for the good role he plays on that committee.
  We will have a number of amendments. It is going to be delicate with 
the amendment process. That is fine. I encourage everybody, if they 
have an amendment, to go for it. But we have an agreement that the 
leadership on the committee--we are either all going to go for an 
amendment or not. We don't want to stymie this.
  I appreciate the Senator alerting us that he is going to offer those 
two amendments. I urge the Senator to get them to us so we can share 
them with Senator Inhofe.
  We have received another letter of support, which I am proud to put 
in the Record. I ask unanimous consent to have it printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                 February 9, 2012.
       Dear Senator: The twenty nine national associations and 
     construction trade unions that comprise the Transportation 
     Construction Coalition (TCC) strongly urge all members of the 
     Senate to vote for the motion to proceed on S. 1813, the 
     ``MAP-21'' surface transportation reauthorization proposal. 
     This legislation would provide critical investments and 
     policy reforms needed to improve the nation's highway and 
     bridge network.
       The federal highway and public transportation programs have 
     been operating under a series of temporary extensions for 
     more than two years. MAP-21 would end that dysfunctional 
     cycle and restore stability to the federal surface 
     transportation programs. In a very challenging budgetary 
     environment, the legislation would authorize current 
     (inflation-adjusted) levels of highway and public 
     transportation investment. Furthermore, the Senate Finance 
     Committee has developed a bipartisan plan to assure these 
     investments do not add to the federal deficit.
       The TCC has long supported reforming the federal highway 
     and public transportation programs to focus on national goals 
     and deliver transportation benefits faster and at lower cost. 
     Specifically, we support steps to accelerate the 
     transportation project environmental review and approval 
     process through the use of deadlines, flexibility for state 
     departments of transportation, expedited reviews for projects 
     with no significant impact, and greater authority for the 
     U.S. Department of Transportation with other federal 
     agencies. The TCC also supports efforts to increase the 
     involvement of the private sector resources to help meet the 
     nation's transportation challenges.
       We commend all senators involved in developing a 
     comprehensive, bipartisan reauthorization proposal that would 
     continue the strong tradition of federal leadership in the 
     area of transportation policy. We urge all members of the 
     Senate to vote to move the surface transportation 
     reauthorization process forward by supporting the motion to 
     proceed on S. 1813.
           Sincerely,
                            Transportation Construction Coalition.

  Mrs. BOXER. It is from the Transportation Construction Coalition. 
They are urging all of us for an ``aye'' vote on the motion to proceed 
to the Transportation bill. They have said wonderful things about our 
bill--that they like the steps we have taken to accelerate all the 
reviews and flexibility for the States, greater authority for our 
States, and the fact that we did this in a comprehensive way and in a 
bipartisan way. I am very grateful.
  What I would like to do is read the names of these organizations 
because it shows you the depth in America of the support for this bill: 
The American Road and Transportation Builders; Associated General 
Contractors; the American Coal Ash Association; the American Concrete 
Pavement Association; the American Concrete Pipe Association; the 
American Council of Engineering Companies; the American Subcontractors 
Association; American Iron and Steel Institute; American Society of 
Civil Engineers; American Traffic Safety Services Association; the 
Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association; Asphalt Recycling and 
Reclaiming Association; Associated Equipment Distributors; Association 
of Equipment Manufacturers; Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute; 
International Slurry Surfacing Association; International Association 
of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers; 
International Union of Operating Engineers; Laborers-Employers 
Cooperation and Education Trust; Laborers' International Union of North 
America; National Asphalt Pavement Association; National Association of 
Surety Bond Producers; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association; 
National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association; National Utility Contractors 
Association; Portland Cement Association; Precase/Prestressed Concrete 
Institute; the Road Information Program; and the United Brotherhood of 
Carpenters and Joiners of America.
  The reason I read these 29 organizations--there are 1,000 
organizations behind our bill--I want colleagues to understand how 
people have come together from all sides of the aisle--union workers, 
nonunion workers, the businesses and union businesses. Everybody has 
come together--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--on our 
committee. The reason is that we are coming out of a very tough and 
deep recession where housing was hurt deeply, and we are having a very 
tough time coming out of the housing recession. Construction workers 
have a 15-percent or more unemployment rate, compared to an 8.3-percent 
unemployment rate in the rest of the workforce. If you put them into 
Super Bowl stadiums, they would fill 15 Super Bowl stadiums. Imagine 
that.
  We have an obligation to come together on behalf of jobs and the 
aging infrastructure that needs to be fixed. We have bridges collapsing 
and roads that are not up to par. We have problems in this Nation, and 
we can stop them and solve them only if we come together.
  I will end here because my colleague would like the floor, and that 
is fine. I think we will have an opportunity at around the 2:15 hour or 
so to come together united and give a great vote of confidence to this 
bill, to move it ahead with an overwhelming vote. Maybe I am dreaming, 
but I hope for well over 60 votes to go forward. Then let's get to the 
amendment process and let's not offer extraneous amendments that have 
to do with everything but transportation. Let's keep this focused.

[[Page 1289]]

Then we can get to conference and get a bill to the President.
  In closing, if our bill is the law of the land, we would save 1.8 
million jobs and be able to create up to another million jobs. There is 
a lot riding on this bill. I hope we will come together this afternoon.
  Thank you for your indulgence.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________