[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HIGHWAY TRUST FUND

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, May 31--today is May 12. On May 31, the 
Federal highway trust fund authorization expires. What it means is at 
that point in time, the Federal Government will stop sending Federal 
dollars back to our States to build highways and bridges and support 
buses and mass transit--May 31.
  What are we going to do about it? We have 19 days to do something 
about it. Sadly, we know what we are going to do about it. The 
Republicans who control the House and the Senate have failed to come up 
with any means of extending the highway trust fund. What they are going 
to do probably is ask us for a short-term extension--1 month, 2 months.
  The reason we think this will happen is that in the past 6 years, 
there have been 32 extensions of the highway trust fund. We used to 
pass highway trust fund bills to last 6 years, for obvious reasons. You 
cannot build highways a month at a time. You have to know you have 
money that is going to be there for years to build a highway, to repair 
a bridge, to make certain you have new mass transit modernization. But 
the Republicans have been unable to reauthorize the highway trust fund 
for any period of time. They want to extend it 30 days at a time, 60 
days at a time.
  There are some realities that we need to accept. We cannot patch our 
way to prosperity in America. You cannot fill enough potholes to build 
a highway. If we are going to accept our responsibility to be a great 
nation and a great leader in the world economy, we need an 
infrastructure to support it.
  The Republican failure to extend the highway trust fund for 5 or 6 
years, sadly, is going to cost us jobs in America--not just good-paying 
construction jobs but jobs in businesses that count on infrastructure. 
I have them all over Illinois. There are thousands of workers in 
Illinois who depend on them. But because the Republicans have failed to 
come up with an extension of the highway trust fund, we are going to 
limp along here and, sadly, not meet our national obligation to create 
an infrastructure to support our economy.
  I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail and leadership will 
prevail, and that the Republican leadership in the House and the 
Senate--they are in the majority in both Chambers--will step forward 
with a plan to create a highway trust fund for 6 years. The President 
has; he put it on the table. Republicans rejected it. They have no 
alternative--none.
  Let's get down to business. Let's put America back to work. Let's 
create the infrastructure we need to build our economy.
  Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democrats have 5 minutes remaining.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to make a statement on Syria and 
humanitarian concerns in Syria, but it will take longer than that. I 
know my colleague from Vermont is here, and I would like to yield the 
remaining 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDERS. Let me say this, if I might. If I can get unanimous 
consent to speak after Senator Thune, that would be fine, and I would 
yield back to the Senator.
  How is that?
  Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator wants to make that unanimous consent 
request----
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to speak for up to 15 minutes after Senator Thune speaks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I believe the previous Presiding Officer 
suggested I had 5 minutes remaining of Democratic time at this point.

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