[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATIONS AND HIGHWAY BILL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have heard so much about how great the 
Republicans are doing here, about how well things are working now. We 
are doing no nominations--none. We are 5 months into this Congress, and 
we basically approved virtually no one. It is interesting to say there 
are not many names on the calendar to bring up. Why? Because they are 
not even holding hearings on all the nominations. We always hear about 
the need for jobs--but not from my Republican colleagues. We hear from 
us. One of the prime examples of that is the highway bill. It is about 
to expire. What are we going to do? Nothing. There is no program to 
extend this bill. It has already been extended short term 33 times. 
Think about that. We used to do bills here for 5 years, 6 years so that 
the directors of transportation and all of these States around the 
country could plan ahead.
  We are being penny-wise and pound-foolish. We are having these short-
term extensions, which are very expensive, creating no jobs. For every 
$1 billion we spend on these highway programs, we create 47,500 jobs. 
My Republican colleagues are ignoring this.
  What is the business of the day, Mr. President?

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