[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRANSPORTATION BILL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before I start the closing script, I want it 
to be spread on the record that we have tried all day to come up with 
an agreement to move forward on this legislation, and we have been 
unsuccessful.
  This is a piece of legislation that is as bipartisan as is humanly 
possible. We have one of the most progressive Members of the Senate, 
Senator Boxer, and one of the most conservative Members of the Senate, 
Jim Inhofe, who are cosponsoring this legislation. It is a piece of 
legislation that continues the highway program, the surface 
transportation program. It is so needed.
  Yesterday, I had the director of the department of transportation in 
Nevada, Susan Martinavich, come in. I am confident that most Senators 
have had someone from their States here and had a conference. It will 
bring construction in Nevada to a standstill on our highways and 
bridges and some of the mass transit programs if we don't move forward. 
But we can't even get on the bill.
  I have agreed to do this unrelated amendment. My caucus agreed we 
will do these. We don't want to; they are not productive. They are 
message amendments, and they are not germane or relevant. But we will 
do a limited number of these bad amendments. There have been over 100 
of them filed.
  I am at a loss for words as to what the Republicans expect me to do--
stand around for another week and look at each other?
  We started moving to this bill on February 7. The amendment we are 
going to vote on tomorrow, out of nowhere, on a transportation bill, is 
dealing with contraception. We have agreed to have votes on it. They 
will not let us have votes. Yesterday, I had to bring up a Republican 
amendment they didn't even bother to file. They just wanted to talk 
about it and hold press conferences on the issue.
  Unless something changes, I am going to have to file cloture on this 
bill, and we are going to have to find out if the Republicans really 
want destruction all across the 50 States and have another hit to our 
economy by not doing highway construction, especially as the weather is 
getting better. In the Presiding Officer's State of Oregon, which is 
just like Nevada, where unemployment has not been good, a lot can go 
on. I have no alternative but to file cloture to stop the filibuster. 
It is one of these roving filibusters where all these phantom people 
will not let us move forward on this legislation.
  I am almost embarrassed to be saying this in front of the Presiding 
Officer. I say that because at the beginning of the year the Presiding 
Officer, along with the junior Senator from New Mexico, thought maybe 
we should change how this place operates. A number of us, in good 
conscience, believed the few changes we had made would be sufficient to 
establish a better working situation. It hasn't been better. In fact, I 
am sorry to say, it is worse.
  So we are going to--unless something happens--have a vote tomorrow. 
Can you imagine, I created a vote because they would not allow us to 
have a vote? So I don't see what choice I have.

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