[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2078-2079]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              TRANSPORTATION AND PAYROLL TAX NEGOTIATIONS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, thanks to bipartisan cooperation, the 
conference committee reached an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut 
and unemployment insurance. This compromise effort also protects 
Medicare patients' right to choose the doctors who take care of them.
  I commend the members of the conference committee for their diligence 
and dedication--for holding a lot more conference sessions. That is the 
way this place should be. They are hard and difficult, and they are 
representative of this body. It is hard to arrive at a result, but they 
did.
  The Senate will vote on that conference report as soon as we can 
today.

[[Page 2079]]

Of course, we will need Republican support to pass it. But the 
statements made by my friend, the Republican leader, make it pretty 
clear we will get Republican support because, among other things, 
Senator McConnell said Republicans strongly support extending this tax 
cut for the rest of the year, and that is good.
  Americans are waiting and watching what happens here today. With our 
economy gaining steam--though still fragile--it is crucial we prevent a 
tax increase on 160 million Americans, and these are working Americans. 
It is also important to protect the safety net for millions of 
Americans who can't find work. We have 3\1/2\ million people who are in 
some stage of unemployment in this great country, and we must protect 
seniors' access to quality medical care by protecting a drastic pay 
cut--by preventing a drastic pay cut for the doctors who take care of 
them.
  An agreement to solve these issues was possible because Republicans 
learned the meaning of the word ``compromise.'' Both sides gave a 
little to get something done for the American people. We don't have to 
have a fight on everything. I have said that so many times recently. We 
need to work together.
  We have coming up soon this transportation legislation. I am not 
happy with the amendments the Republicans have offered. I don't like 
them. They are not relevant or germane, most of them. But they have a 
right to offer those amendments, so we will have to work our way 
through those. I hope my Republican colleagues will understand when we 
get back that they can't have them all. But I will make an effort to go 
through those. We will have some votes the Republicans will not want to 
take either, but we will work through this and get this very important 
bill done.
  Whether it is the State of Iowa, the State of Delaware, or the State 
of Nevada, it doesn't matter what State we are looking at, this bill is 
important because it means jobs and it is helping our infrastructure.
  Mr. President, we have had thousands of organizations supporting this 
legislation. Well, that is an exaggeration, but more than 1,000--
hundreds and hundreds: AAA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, all the 
construction groups, and labor unions wrote letters to us to get this 
passed. A number of them have written letters saying: Stop offering 
these irrelevant, ideological amendments to this bill. These groups 
believe, as I do, this measure is essential to job creation and 
economic growth. This legislation is too important for more delays.
  Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, their highway bill is so 
bad they had to take it down. The view of the Congressional Budget 
Office was that it would bankrupt the trust fund.
  The highway bill has been paid for with a trust fund. People who buy 
some gasoline or diesel fuel pay a tax, and that goes into this big 
trust fund and allows us to do the infrastructure. But because of the 
economy and people's driving habits being different, the trust fund 
doesn't have enough money. That is why the Finance Committee, on a 
bipartisan basis, had to report enough out to fill up that trust fund. 
But it wasn't much money.
  But what the Republicans have done is, in effect, place a tax on 
Federal employees to do that. That will never sell, Mr. President. That 
just will not work. We have to have bipartisan legislation.
  So I hope the House, during its break period, will understand that we 
have to work together. We are going to send them a bill, and I hope 
they get one that is better than the one they can't now do and put one 
together they might be able to do. Then we will have a conference and 
work this out.
  Mr. President, compromise worked for the payroll tax conference 
committee. It always works. So I look forward to that day and a 
significant accomplishment for this Congress.

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