[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10013]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FEDERAL HIGHWAY PROGRAM FUNDING

  Mr. REID. Madam President, the Senate also faces another looming 
deadline manufactured by Republican leadership. At the end of July, 
Republican funding for the Federal highway program will expire. In 5 
days, we will lose the Export-Import Bank. In just a few weeks, we are 
going to lose the highway program.
  Our Nation's roads, bridges, highways, and transit systems are in 
desperate need of repair. Some 64,000 bridges are structurally 
deficient. This isn't 6,400; it is 64,000 bridges. Fifty percent of our 
roads are dangerously in need of repair. Still, Republicans in Congress 
have refused to work with Democrats in making an adequate long-term 
investment in our country's surface transportation programs.
  Delaying and stalling has become their normal practice. Republicans 
are content to take a page straight out of their playbook. That 
playbook is called ``Republican Manufactured Crisis Playbook.'' They do 
this day after day. They just go to that playbook that has been used 
over and over again. We have seen it before, and we are seeing it again 
with highways. We are seeing it with Ex-Im Bank. Instead of working 
with Democrats to create long-term solutions to our Nation's woes, the 
Republican leader will wait until the deadline is imminent--and on 
highways, we can see it coming--and he will offer another short-term 
extension to stave off a disaster of his own making. That is 
unacceptable. We have already had 33 Republican short-term fixes--33. 
We don't need a 34th.
  Governing by crisis is a reckless strategy that leaves the well-being 
of Americans and our economy hanging in the balance. The Republican 
leader should abandon this policy and stop dragging our country from 
one crisis to another crisis. Republicans can get started today by 
bringing up reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank for a vote before the 
charter expires in just a few days. It will pass. Certainly he could 
focus on long-term, bipartisan reauthorization of the Federal highway 
program, which, as I have indicated, expires in a few weeks.
  The American people should not be forced to endure manufactured 
crises at the hands of Republican leadership. I urge the Republican 
leadership to change course and govern with the well-being of the 
American people in mind.
  Madam President, will the Chair announce the business of the day.

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