[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1678-1679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, we are here today as a result of stalling 
by my Republican colleagues. We have a judge for whom the vote was 
overwhelmingly in his favor. It was 89 for him, with 4 or 5 against him 
on a motion to proceed. But now we are being forced to eat up 30 hours 
of valuable time, just sitting around and doing nothing. It is really 
unfortunate.
  We have not confirmed the judge yet because under the rules I have 
had to file cloture on this noncontroversial judge. After I file 
cloture, and cloture is invoked, and then the Republicans get 30 hours 
under the Senate rules. This has happened scores of times--scores of 
times--during the past year, all last year, and certainly it is already 
happening this year. We can't move to anything unless we file cloture.
  Early in this Congress, Senators Tom Udall of New Mexico, Merkley of 
Oregon, and others suggested the rules be changed, and in good faith a 
number of Senators believed: Well, let's see how the system works if we 
make a few minor changes--hoping things would get better because they 
were told they would get better. We were told the other side would not 
make us file motions to proceed to every piece of legislation that came 
up. Absolutely untrue. We have virtually had to file cloture on 
everything. We have wasted weeks of this Congress, months of this 
Congress, on dilatory tactics.
  We have a bill before this body that is so very important, creating 2 
million jobs. Is it something that Senator Boxer, the chairman of the 
committee, and Senator Inhofe, the ranking member, just dreamed up and 
said let's try something new for a change? No. The legislation allowing 
us to have a highway system expires at the end of March. So we have to 
do something.
  This isn't something where Senator Boxer said: Well, I think this is 
a great idea. Her idea is not unique, nor is Senator Inhofe's idea 
unique. It goes back to when Eisenhower was a major in the Army, and he 
was asked to bring a caravan of vehicles across the country. He was 
struck with this idea when he saw that the roads were awful. So after 
his successful tour of duty in the military and he became President of 
our country, he decided he wanted to do something about it.
  Here is what President Eisenhower did: He got the Congress to 
appropriate $50 billion. In today's dollars, that would be $\1/2\ 
trillion. He got that through Congress. He wanted to build about 50,000 
miles of roads in this country so that when another young major was 
directed to bring military vehicles across the country, he would have 
roads, highways, and freeways to do that. Eisenhower said it would free 
the Nation from the ``antiquated shackles of secondary roads.'' That is 
what General Eisenhower said. It would give America a modern highway 
system for moving people and goods across the country.
  Presidents since that period of time have recommitted to this idea. 
Johnson did it. Someone who spoke about it as much, if not more, than 
anyone since Eisenhower was President Reagan. Reagan said:

       Common sense tells us it will cost a lot less to keep the 
     [transportation] system we have in good repair than let it 
     disintegrate and have to start over.

  Since those 8 years of President Reagan, here is where we are today. 
We have 70,000 bridges in this country that are in a state of 
disrepair. They are unsafe.
  I was in a meeting yesterday where they talked about a bridge in 
Reno, NV, that was built during the Depression by the Works Progress 
Administration. I was meeting with a flood control district from Washoe 
County, NV, and they said they have a bridge--a beautiful bridge--that 
is so unsafe they will not let schoolbuses drive over it anymore with 
kids in it. The bus can go without kids in it. There are hundreds and 
hundreds of bridges in our country in this same state of disrepair.
  It is time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and this bill 
does it in a good way. We talk about this system as if it didn't have 
any bearing on individuals, but people's lives depend on it--not only 
on the bridge I just talked about, but the highways I talked about and 
the sidewalks. We have a person injured or killed as a pedestrian every 
7 minutes in the United States. Why? Because they are walking in unsafe 
conditions. There are lots of roads back here in Washington and lots of 
them in Nevada where there are no sidewalks. So investing in our 
infrastructure, as I have said, and I continue to say, will create 2 
million jobs.

[[Page 1679]]

  The Republican caucus is not doing this all in one big band. There 
are a few Republican Senators over there who are ruining it for 
everybody. No one can accuse Jim Inhofe of being some radical liberal. 
He represents the State of Oklahoma. So what do we have here? We have 
100 amendments that have been filed already on this bill. Very few of 
them are related to the bill. We have an amendment that some refer to 
as an abortion amendment, we have some referring to an amendment 
dealing with contraceptives, and we have an amendment to cut off aid to 
Egypt.
  Now, tell me, what in the world does aid to Egypt have to do with 
this highway bill? We have a Foreign Relations Committee. They have TV 
cameras there. Let them have a hearing in that committee, and the 
person offering the amendment can make his speech before the Foreign 
Relations Committee. There is no chance of this amendment passing. 
None. Zero.
  Senator McCain is going to Egypt next week. Why? Because he is a 
person who is an expert in foreign affairs. He is respected around the 
world, and he is going to go there to try to work with the Egyptians to 
resolve some of these problems. He does not even want this amendment to 
be voted on. He has told me that.
  We have an amendment to keep poisons out of the air. It is called 
Boiler MACT. It is to keep arsenic and mercury and stuff out of the 
air--excuse me, to keep it in the air. I thank the Senator from 
California, chairman of that committee.
  We have an amendment that takes us back to Keystone--building a 
pipeline from Canada to the southern part of our country. I would 
consider that or take a look at it. If they were going to use American 
products in doing that and the oil would be used in the United States, 
I might even consider that. I am not sure, but I would consider it. But 
that is not where we are.
  So we have a handful of Republican Senators holding up what we are 
doing.
  Mrs. BOXER. Would the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I would be glad to yield to my colleague.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank the leader.
  First, I just want to thank the Leader so much for his remarks this 
morning. They are so close to my heart. Frankly, they are close to the 
hearts of the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee and 
all the committees that have done their work in a bipartisan way. It is 
a unique moment when we have four committees complete their work and 
here we sit.
  Before I ask my question, I think the people of this country need to 
understand what is going on. We are wasting, as my friend said, minute 
after minute, hour after hour, day after day because Republican 
Senators, for whatever their reasons, want to bring progress in this 
country to a halt, to a stop. We have to wonder, is this politically 
motivated?
  As my friend said, 2 million jobs are at stake. I would say to my 
friend, it is actually up to 2.8 million because there are 1.8 million 
jobs we protect, and up to 1 million new jobs we would create because 
of the bipartisan cooperation we have had across the board in the 
Senate on the highway bill. So I thank my friend.
  My question is, Is my friend aware we have more than 1,000 
organizations representing millions of Americans who are Republicans 
and Democrats and Independents, who work out there on the roads or who 
are the business leaders from the Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO, 
to the general contractors or the granite people--it goes on and on--
the cement people, to the coal ash people, and the fact is a thousand 
groups are out there and they are watching us, minute after minute?
  I hope this is an opportunity to tell them to activate their people 
and let them know why we are not passing a bill that will save or 
create 2.8 million jobs and help our businesses across the board and 
help our States. When we talk about safety, as my friend pointed out, 
Senator Inhofe tells an eloquent story of a woman killed in Oklahoma 
walking with her child under a bridge and concrete falls on her. She is 
gone, and he is so motivated by that.
  So I hope my friend will address whether he is aware of the broad 
support in America for this bill regardless of party label.
  Mr. REID. I say through the Chair to my friend from California that 
yesterday I gave some remarks, and the outline of the speech mentioned 
there were scores of organizations supporting this bill. I looked at 
that and said to myself: There are hundreds and hundreds of 
organizations supporting this bill. So I recognize that, I say to my 
friend, the chairman of that committee.
  To rub salt in the wound of what we are going through, the House of 
Representatives, led by the Republican caucus--which is overwhelmingly 
tea party--decided they were going to do some legislation.
  That is dandy. Their legislation is so bad that the Congressional 
Budget Office said it would bankrupt the trust fund. We are trying to 
replenish the trust fund; they are bankrupting the trust fund. But as I 
hear on the news this morning, the Republican caucus over in the House 
is fractured, and now they can't figure out what to do with that bill. 
They are thinking, maybe we will break it into three different pieces. 
Even with the power of the tea party, it is so obnoxious and so out of 
control, that piece of legislation, they appear they are not going to 
allow a vote to take place on that bill itself because it is so bad.
  There is a simple way to avoid this headache; that is, Democrats and 
Republicans work together. We are here. We want to do this. Let's 
assume that I decide to file cloture on this bill. What I would do is 
have a substitute amendment. Let's say I decide to do that. I can't 
imagine why the Republicans wouldn't join with us in doing that. If 
there is something in the substitute that I disagree with, the 
amendment process is still there. To not allow the bill to go forward 
is repulsive. I can't imagine how a majority of the Republicans who say 
they want this bill done wouldn't allow us at least to get on the bill 
itself and move forward with amendments.
  I am terribly disappointed where we are. I hope the House will take a 
page out of our playbook over here and work together, as Boxer and 
Inhofe have done, to come up with a bill that is a good bill. That bill 
we are trying to get through was passed unanimously out of committee. 
So I am cautiously optimistic that the American people will see what is 
going on and put some pressure on my Republican colleagues to get this 
bill passed. It is just unfair what is happening on this and other 
pieces of legislation.

                          ____________________