[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13624-13625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ADDRESS OUR TRANSPORTATION NEEDS NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday afternoon, I stood at the back 
of the Senate Chamber and watched a critical debate. Under the 
leadership of Chairman Ron Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee, his 
partner, Ranking Member Hatch; Chairwoman Barbara Boxer from 
California, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, Bob Corker from Tennessee, 
and Senator Tom Carper from Delaware held forth on critical legislation 
to be able to help America deal with our infrastructure crisis.
  America--it is no secret--is falling apart and is falling behind. It 
is well overdue for us to have a robust, important 6-year 
reauthorization to deal with our transportation needs.
  We can't do that unless we resolve the funding conundrum. We have 
been limping along. We can't even get through the current 27-month 
extension without a summer slowdown, cutting back on critical Federal 
funding for contracts around the country.
  What the Senate did was tackle this issue head on. They had a funding 
proposal that was fairly debated, where they were able to provide 
enough funding to get us through the end of the year, but not so much 
that it allows this Congress off the hook to slide into the next 
Congress, and probably the Congress after that, but instead, face up to 
our responsibilities now.
  Mr. Speaker, the presentation of Senator Corker from Tennessee urging 
us to be grownups and move forward, and Senator Boxer talking about the 
critical needs and not to be waylaid by this fantasy that somehow the 
Federal Government should abandon its commitment to a National 
Transportation Highway System that we initiated under President 
Eisenhower, that somehow that is a thing of the past, turn our back on 
it, slash transportation funding, and just kind of wait and see what 
happens around the country--she was eloquent and forceful. Again, we 
have watched Senator Murphy and Senator Carper be focused on that which 
we need to do.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to address and embrace the bipartisan Senate 
vote yesterday: 79 bipartisan votes to be able to do our job, avoid the 
summer shutdown, and do so in a way with a funding approach that is 
much more sustainable and reasonable, not the so-called pension 
smoothing that is ill-advised on so many levels.
  Two weeks ago, Democrats in the House of Representatives were united: 
99 percent supported what is, essentially, the Senate outcome. That 
didn't prevail on the floor of the House in a motion to recommit that I 
offered. But Democrats didn't pick up our marbles and quit. We actually 
provided the votes necessary to keep the issue alive and send the 
suboptimal Republican approach across to the other body. There weren't 
enough Republican votes to pass it, but we kept it alive hoping that we 
could see what happens on the Senate side, that we might have a 
stronger more reasonable proposal.
  That optimism and cooperation on the part of the Democrats in the 
House was rewarded because we have this bipartisan proposal, which is, 
in fact, better, supported by 79 Senators.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for the House to be able to address this 
bipartisan approach from the Senate. Allow us to vote on it. It ought 
to be the first step in our being able to avoid the summer shutdown and 
be able to get on with the 6-year bill.
  Rarely have we seen the stakeholders so united. The American Trucking 
Association, the road builders, the U.S. Chamber, building and 
construction trades, the bicyclists, and the engineers. We watch across 
the country the people who build, who maintain, and depend on our 
infrastructure united, supportive of the approach that has emerged from 
the United States Senate. Even as we speak, they are contacting 
congressional offices, urging Members support the bipartisan Senate 
approach.
  I respectfully urge the Republican leadership to allow those voices 
to be heard, to heed the stakeholders, heed the American people, give 
them a bill worthy of voting on. It will pass overwhelmingly, and we 
will be doing our job.

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