The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ENERGY AND THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S8152-S8156 on Sept. 9, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENERGY AND THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I note that Senator Murray will be coming, and I am hopeful she will arrive shortly and then I will yield, after 5 minutes, my remaining time.
Senator Dorgan is very eloquent on the issue of energy and the issue of renewables. We have no more excuses. How many filibusters do we have to have around this place before we get the other side to relent?
In my State, we are on the cutting edge of alternative energies. We have part of our coastline that is drilled upon, but part of it is preserved because it supports a very robust tourist and recreation industry. So we have found a balance in our State. But we are going to lose a lot of momentum if we don't get on with at least going after the speculators and renewing these important tax breaks to alternative energies, and also, if I might say, tell the oil companies they need to drill.
Mr. President, I note Senator Murray has come to the floor, and I want to inform her that I took 15 minutes and I am going to take 5 and leave her 10, if that is all right with her, unless she needs more time.
All right. So, Mr. President, if you will tell me when 5 minutes has expired from this point.
I am so pleased Senator Murray has come to the floor. She works so hard to fund the transportation priorities of our Nation over in the Appropriations Committee, and my work is at the Environment and Public Works Committee, where we authorize the highway bill every 5 years.
We know today, because we have been informed by Secretary of Transportation Peters, that there is a dangerous shortfall in the Federal fund that helps our States pay for critical highway construction. We have tried to fix this problem many times--
unfortunately, without the help of the Bush administration. Now we get an SOS: Thursday they are going to start reducing the funds to the States.
Happily, they have awakened to the reality, but, unhappily, they have not talked to Republican Senators because last night, when Senator Reid tried to solve this problem so we can keep our construction going, keep our funds flowing to the States, there was an objection from the Republican side. Mind you, we are talking about an $8 billion sum of money that was taken from the fund years ago--in 1992, I believe it was; is that right? Or later than that? I am sorry, 1998. We borrowed
$8 billion from the trust fund. Now all we are saying is we need to pay it back so we can make sure we can continue to build these important highways, fix our bridges, and help our transit systems. The fact is, if we do not do this, we are looking at tens of thousands, if not millions, of jobs lost.
Mr. President, I know you come from a State that is struggling economically, desperately needing change. I come from a State that is in a recession. We have horrible problems. The housing bust has affected us, and what is keeping us going, frankly, are solar energy projects, the wind energy projects, the highway projects. If, in fact, the Republicans continue to stand in the way of replenishing the highway trust fund, my State will be in big trouble. What will happen is that funds that were set aside for my State for important projects will not be forthcoming. My State of California, with more than 35 million people, receives more than $3 billion for Federal funding for highways per year. According to the California Department of Transportation, if no action is taken to avert the shortfall, California would experience a potential revenue reduction of $930 million. We are talking almost $1 billion to my State.
California is not alone. My Republican colleagues who come here and say: No, don't worry, forget it, who cares--I don't hear one word about any trouble spending American taxpayer dollars overseas. I never heard one of them say: We are spending $5,000 a second in Iraq on the war, let's bring some of that home--oh, no. But they are willing to make our people suffer here at home.
Enough is enough is enough. The other day, the President announced he is sending $1 billion to Georgia. For a minute, I thought: Gee, Atlanta is in need of some help. Oh, no, it is the country of Georgia. Why? They had a war, as we all know, and we are compassionate toward them. But the war cost them $1 billion. I ask rhetorically, are there countries in Europe that can help the country of Georgia? I don't mind doing our part. We say we had nothing to do with the war that started there. We are certainly angry at Russia for the way it responded to the incursion of Georgian troops. We believe it was overkill. We all agree on that. We all want to help. But $1 billion to the country of Georgia while Atlanta, GA, and Los Angeles, CA, and all our other cities and towns and States are struggling and suffering and losing jobs? Enough is enough.
I am going to work with my colleague and my dear friend, Senator Murray, who is such a leader on the funding of these programs we painstakingly authorize every 5 years. We are going to be on this floor as often as we can to move this, to ask unanimous consent. We will let our Republican friends know. This is not a sneak attack. We are not going to do it when they are not aware of it. We are going to move to fix this problem every day, maybe several times a day, until our Republican friends relent.
I have used the 5 minutes. This is just the start of a battle I am happy to be engaged in on behalf of the American people.
I yield my time to Senator Murray, the remaining 10 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California for coming and talking about an absolutely critical issue this Congress should be focused on like a laser beam, and that is the issue of our highway funding for construction projects across this country and the highway trust fund. I and my Democratic colleagues have been telling the Bush administration repeatedly that we face a looming disaster across this Nation. We have proposed a solution that would enable this trust fund to stay solvent. We have warned that without action this year, we are going to face a financial disaster. We warned that it was coming very fast. But, as we have seen with a lot of problems in this country this year, President Bush and our Republican colleagues have, unfortunately, chosen to hide their heads in the sand and just avoid the problem. They told us earlier this year that the trust fund would have more than $3 billion in the bank at the end of this month. They have worked to block our proposed solution.
I rise today because last Friday, President Bush's Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, finally acknowledged what we have been warning about for months now, and that is that the highway account of our highway trust fund is broke. The administration has taken a closer look at the real receipts they are getting in from the Federal gas tax and discovered that their estimates have been off by some $3 billion just since May. The Bush administration is now preparing to default on its bills to every one of our States. Right now, instead of reimbursing our States twice a day, as the Federal Government has always done, Secretary Peters has told the States that they are only going to get paid now once a week. That is happening right now in every State in this country.
This coming Thursday, 2 days from now, may be the last time the Federal Government will be able to reimburse 100 percent of their expenses. The Department of Transportation has told my Transportation and Housing Appropriations Subcommittee that on Thursday, September 18--just 9 days from now--reimbursements could drop to as little as 64 percent of the funds that our States are due. They will have to offer our States an IOU for the rest of that money. The result of the administration's failure to act on this is that we are now faced, in this country, across every single State, with an emergency situation. If we do not pass a solution very fast right here in the Senate, our States, every one of them, are going to be forced to cancel critical highway construction and repair projects that are ongoing right now that ensure our roads and our bridges are safe and secure.
Not only does this threaten the safety of our transportation infrastructure, it could bring about massive layoffs in the construction sector in this country. That is an area of our economy that has suffered one of the biggest hits in recent months, and this is going to have a huge impact across the country.
As we all know, this news is coming just as the unemployment rate has now reached the highest it has been in nearly 5 years. We are talking about a scenario in which ongoing highway projects could be stopped dead in their tracks if we do not take action in the next day or two. Across the country, thousands upon thousands of workers are going to be told to go home and not to come to work the next morning. These are critical safety and congestion relief projects that are ongoing right now across the country, and they could be halted--by the way, right in the heart of the construction season.
Fortunately, we do have a solution. It is ready to go, if only the Republicans would put their partisan ideology aside just for this event and work with us to get this passed. Earlier this year, we proposed returning, as the Senator from California talked about, $8 billion that was taken out of the highway trust fund back in 1998. Contrary to what some people have said about our proposal, it is not a bailout from the general fund of the Treasury. That $8 billion was collected from gas taxes for the purpose of being deposited into the highway trust fund. At the end of 1998, that money was taken from the trust fund because at the time the fund was flush and we didn't think we needed it. We definitely need it now, so we have proposed restoring to the trust fund the $8 billion that was borrowed and not a penny more. All the money that was borrowed, we propose putting it back into the highway trust fund.
This situation is extremely serious. After months of blocking our legislative solution, the Bush administration did a 180 and is now asking all of us please to get this bill on the President's desk by the end of this week. You would think that would be enough for his Republican allies. You would think they would finally see how dire this problem is and work with us to avoid the thousands of layoffs that are coming across the country if we do not act. Instead, last night, as we saw, they blocked our efforts to bring this bill to the floor and get it to the President.
Senator Bond and I--he is my ranking member on the Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee--included this proposed transfer in our Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill this year. Democrats tried to press this proposal in June, in fact, as part of the FAA bill. Democrats included it in the tax extender package. We were blocked. We tried to pass it as part of the stimulus bill. We were blocked. We have seen this blocked by Republicans at every turn as this crisis has gotten larger and larger. Now it is on us.
The final effort we needed was just 60 votes. Do you know how many we got? We got 51. Only 5 Republicans voted to move that bill forward, while 42 Republican Senators voted against it. Now we are here in a crisis mode. But we have another chance, a final chance. The House has passed a similar bill by a 10-to-1 margin. It is not partisan over there. They know the emergency. That bill is here in the Senate. We could pass it by unanimous consent today. But, as we saw last night, Republicans are blocking it.
We literally cannot afford to tread water like this. I came to the floor yesterday to urge my Republican colleagues to see how important this legislation is. We are here again today making the case. I hope our colleagues across the aisle will listen and work with us. The obstruction and failure to take action has now gotten our country into a crisis, and we do not need another one. We have a housing and mortgage crisis. We have an economic crisis. We cannot afford, in this country right now, to have a transportation construction crisis in every one of our cities and communities across the country.
Within just a few days--take note--we are going to be seeing consequences across the country. This Thursday, as I said, could be the last day our States will be fully reimbursed by the Federal Government for the construction work that is ongoing. By this time next week, States are going to have to start doing without.
The stakes could not be higher. Mr. President, 84,000 jobs in this country were lost last month alone. We cannot put another American job at risk, and we cannot afford to play Russian roulette with our country's highway construction effort. That is what is happening right now. We have to act. We need to act now. I plead with our Republican colleagues, put your partisanship aside. When it comes to our country's safety, infrastructure, construction jobs, economy--all at risk--can we take care of that today, please? Can we move forward and fix this emergency that is upon us?
Mrs. BOXER. If the Senator will yield, I would like to engage in a colleague.
I ask for an additional 10 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the reason I want to engage my friend in a colloquy--I know she has other important hearings and so on--is I want to be specific here. I have just looked at a chart of loss of jobs if we do not fix this shortfall. I wanted to make sure my friend in the chair understands that if we do not fix this, the State of Arkansas will lose almost 5,000 jobs.
I say to my friend, Senator Murray, I looked at Washington and if we do not fix this problem, 7,211 jobs--in the State of California, given our size, 32,315 jobs--will be lost if we do not fix this problem.
Now, as I calculated, that is six times more people than who live in Wasilla, AK, who would lose their jobs in California alone. So we are talking families, families who need good-paying jobs. I wanted to ask my friend a question, because I see that she has her chart that says,
``Democrats sounded alarm, Republicans pressed snooze.''
This was true in the early days. But I would urge her to change what they have done. Now they have turned the alarm into a siren in our State. I mean, my friend knows the calls that are coming into our committee, to her committee. People are concerned that these jobs will be stopped midway through or slowed down. And when you slow down the work, it is terrible for everybody. It is inconvenient, it is money lost to corporations, it is jobs lost. There is no excuse.
I say to my friend, does she agree now that, yes, in the beginning they snoozed, they also, according to my records, launched five filibusters against fixing this problem? So even then it was a little more aggressive than snoozing. And if we put that into the context of five filibusters, that is 5 of 92 filibusters the Republicans have launched this Congress.
So when we come back and we debate change versus the status quo, I say to the American people and ask my friend if she agrees: Are not we facing more of the same on obstruction, more of the same filibusters, more of the same: I do not really care about middle-class workers, you lose your job, too bad, as we spend our money abroad?
I ask my friend if she has this deep sense of where we are?
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I share with my colleague from California a real sense of frustration. The people across the country know we are in political season. They understand politics. They understand all of that. But this is beyond politics. This is about severe consequences. I do not understand putting partisan politics, more filibusters, an effort to not let anything happen, on the backs of every single community across this country.
These are specific dollars that go to keeping our construction projects moving along. Now, I get frustrated like everyone in the summer when you come across a project in progress and you have to wait. But I want that construction process done because I know that highway needs to be repaired.
We saw a bridge collapse not that long ago. Not that long ago deaths occurred. A huge community in Minnesota was impacted. That can happen across the country. We are attempting to fix those construction projects and they are going to be halted if we do not fix this trust fund problem.
This has dire consequences.
This is not about politics. It is not about a Presidential election. It is not about who is going to stop what. This is about real consequences in our community, jobs lost in the construction sector to families who will not have a paycheck next month in the middle of an economy that is already struggling.
In some of our States, as we know well, the construction season is short; it ends in a few short months. And those projects, if they are halted now, will not begin again until next March or April. The long-
term consequences are real.
Our Governors had better wake up and start calling all of our Republican colleagues. Our community leaders who want these projects completed had better start calling our Republican colleagues. We have a solution in hand. It is easy to do. We can do it today. The President now has turned around, finally, and asked for this solution.
I do not understand why it is being blocked. It makes no sense to me. I can tell you, to those families who wake up 2 weeks from now without a job, and to those families who are trying to drive to get to work and all of a sudden they see a critical construction project stopped in their State, they are going to be asking all of us: What are you doing back there?
I heard Senator McCain say recently: Watch what happens in Congress over the next several weeks. Well, I hope the American people are watching. What we see is obstruction and filibusters with dire consequences. It is going to be felt in every one of our communities if we do not put this aside for once and at least get this highway trust fund fixed.
Mrs. BOXER. In the remaining time we have, I want to thank my friend. We work very closely, because I am the Chair of the committee that authorizes these programs and she is the one who funds them. We work very closely with our ranking members. Those are bipartisan measures.
I want to be clear one more time, because pretty soon we are going to come back here and we are going to ask unanimous consent to fix this problem. We are going to be back here pretty soon.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a document called ``State Federal Highway Funds in Jeopardy.''
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
STATE FEDERAL HIGHWAY FUNDS IN JEOPARDY--SUPPORT BAUCUS-GRASSLEY TRUST FUND FIX TO PREVENT 34 PERCENT CUT
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Projected FY 2009
State Actual FY 2008 without fix FY09 funding cut Projected job loss
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Alabama........................................... $703,608,862 $490,508,434 -213,100,427 -7,416
Alaska............................................ 392,336,871 290,793,680 -101,543,191 -3,534
Arizona........................................... 667,147,856 438,664,311 -228,483,545 -7,951
Arkansas.......................................... 456,190,231 320,021,084 -136,169,147 -4,739
California........................................ 3,241,415,426 2,312,797,348 -928,618,078 -32,315
Colorado.......................................... 483,871,715 336,831,459 -147,040,256 -5,117
Connecticut....................................... 482,654,710 322,178,744 -160,475,967 -5,584
Delaware.......................................... 151,330,042 105,505,130 -45,824,912 -1,595
Dist. of Col...................................... 144,672,395 98,449,152 -46,223,243 -1,609
Florida........................................... 1,743,482,571 1,170,330,313 -573,152,259 -19,945
Georgia........................................... 1,254,148,068 854,334,154 -399,813,914 -13,913
Hawaii............................................ 161,397,489 108,732,842 -52,664,647 -1,833
Idaho............................................. 265,659,540 186,583,127 -79,076,413 -2,752
Illinois.......................................... 1,226,941,903 860,514,023 -366,427,880 -12,751
Indiana........................................... 883,116,254 613,381,711 -269,734,544 -9,386
Iowa.............................................. 422,814,986 275,671,959 -147,143,027 -5,120
Kansas............................................ 364,702,387 246,228,246 -118,474,141 -4,123
Kentucky.......................................... 614,997,743 424,872,735 -190,125,008 -6,616
Louisiana......................................... 577,720,798 388,222,990 -189,497,808 -6,594
Maine............................................. 178,953,421 124,718,277 -54,235,144 -1,887
Maryland.......................................... 578,678,880 388,200,419 -190,478,461 -6,628
Massachusetts..................................... 609,422,307 398,142,135 -211,280,172 -7,352
Michigan.......................................... 1,007,665,781 762,900,607 -244,765,175 -8,518
Minnesota......................................... 575,827,393 433,242,592 -142,584,801 -4,962
Mississippi....................................... 433,794,557 300,588,496 -133,206,061 -4,635
Missouri.......................................... 829,306,795 577,297,558 -252,009,237 -8,770
Montana........................................... 338,011,659 239,506,863 -98,504,796 -3,428
Nebraska.......................................... 271,341,203 184,454,956 -86,886,247 -3,024
Nevada............................................ 274,821,219 173,608,407 -101,212,812 -3,522
New Hampshire..................................... 160,957,601 108,790,657 -52,166,944 -1,815
New Jersey........................................ 933,422,014 627,578,740 -305,843,274 -10,643
New Mexico........................................ 331,049,059 237,065,570 -93,983,489 -3,271
New York.......................................... 1,652,187,126 1,082,942,105 -569,245,020 -19,809
North Carolina.................................... 982,279,233 690,898,439 -291,380,795 -10,140
North Dakota...................................... 226,404,974 155,931,552 -70,473,422 -2,452
Ohio.............................................. 1,251,880,095 900,869,616 -351,010,479 -12,215
Oklahoma.......................................... 542,557,073 369,868,439 -172,688,634 -6,009
Oregon............................................ 434,153,577 294,969,678 -139,183,898 -4,843
Pennsylvania...................................... 1,607,827,381 1,064,325,708 -543,501,672 -18,913
Rhode Island...................................... 200,252,272 131,121,237 -69,131,035 -2,406
South Carolina.................................... 572,462,981 390,280,157 -182,182,824 -6,340
South Dakota...................................... 245,963,474 174,549,231 -71,414,243 -2,485
Tennessee......................................... 768,763,258 533,198,427 -235,564,831 -8,197
Texas............................................. 2,802,411,108 1,942,990,215 -859,420,893 -29,907
Utah.............................................. 273,508,721 188,070,215 -85,438,506 -2,973
Vermont........................................... 161,725,931 114,413,876 -47,312,055 -1,646
Virginia.......................................... 907,625,718 636,053,577 -271,572,141 -9,450
Washington........................................ 623,821,456 416,592,681 -207,228,775 -7,211
West Virginia..................................... 391,319,504 271,937,690 -119,381,814 -4,154
Wisconsin......................................... 676,542,465 480,036,649 -196,505,816 -6,838
Wyoming........................................... 229,637,435 166,470,893 -63,166,542 -2,198
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Subtotal.................................... $35,312,785,520 $24,406,237,107 -10,906,548,414 -379,537
Allocated Programs................................ 4,127,089,170 1,909,255,590 (2,217,833,580)
Undesignated High Priority Projects............... 1,513,574 1,061,467 (452,108)
Projects of National & Regional Sig............... 410,949,000 230,558,400 (180,390,600)
National Corridor Infrastructure Program.......... 449,988,000 252,460,800 (197,527,200)
Transportation Projects........................... 590,259,516 331,158,586 (259,100,930)
Bridge (Sec. 144(g)).............................. 92,400,000 64,800,000 (27,600,000)
Transfer to Sections 154 & 164.................... 231,066,579 4,468,050 (226,598,529)
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Total........................................ 41,216,051,359 27,200,000,000 (14,016,051,359)
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Source: Federal Highway Administration. Data include apportioned programs plus High Priority Projects. Transportation Construction Coalition analysis of
job impact.
Mrs. BOXER. This shows in the State of New Hampshire, of Senator Gregg, who was the one who objected yesterday, a loss of 1,800 jobs. It shows in the State of South Carolina, the State of Senator DeMint, a loss of 6,300 jobs.
I say to my friend from Montana, who I know supports repaying the highway trust fund that he is working to support, 3,428 jobs in the State of Montana would be lost. That is big. That is larger than some towns.
Think about more than 30,000 families in my case, 32,000 families being hit by layoffs in the middle of a recession because Republicans continue to filibuster and to filibuster and to do nothing. It is not going to go down well.
I am glad you mentioned that Senator McCain says for the people to watch the Senate. I urge the people to watch the Senate this week where we are going to try to fix this highway trust fund, and we are going to get this done if we can. If we cannot, we know who is stopping us.
We are also going to work on a Defense authorization bill that is so important while there are two wars going on. I hope Senator McCain will keep saying that on the stump: Watch the Senate. And this issue is going to be as clear as a bell. I urge you to go change that sign now, because, yes, the Republicans snoozed earlier, but now they are in fighting mode and they have raised the alarm to a siren.
And all of our Governors, you are right, ought to be calling, and our State legislators as well.
I want to thank you very much for your patience.
I yield the floor.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 3 minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senator from California and I have been on the Senate floor this morning talking about the dire straits we are in in terms of the construction trust fund, the highway trust fund, that provides the money across the country for construction projects and the fact that within a few short days our States are not going to be getting the checks they need to pay for those construction projects, resulting in layoffs across this country and construction projects literally coming to a halt very quickly.
We are going to offer a unanimous consent request to bring up that bill again and pass it and get it to the President, as he requested. We understand, unfortunately, now there is an objection on the Republican side, and we will not be able to do this request at this time. I respect our Republicans' request to be able to discuss this issue at their weekly meeting they are going to be having shortly to determine how to move forward. But I want everyone on notice this is a critical issue, it is not going to go away, and we are going to be asking again this afternoon to move this legislation forward because we believe we have a responsibility as leaders in this country to get this trust fund emergency problem fixed and moving. We hope our Republican colleagues, upon reflection, will join us and we can quietly pass this legislation this afternoon and move on to other major issues of the day.
But to me this is the most important critical issue facing us right now in the Senate, and I hope we can move it this afternoon.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, let me say, I agree with everything my friend said. We are talking about highway construction. We are talking about fixing dangerous bridges. We have all seen what happens when there is neglect there. We are seeing all of this happen in the middle of a recession, where last month alone 84,000 jobs were lost. As we look at the list, we see if our Republican colleagues and friends do not join us in this effort, and they do not fix this shortfall problem, which, by the way, is a reimbursement to the highway trust fund of moneys that were borrowed from it--it is a reimbursement--we are looking at a loss of 379,537 jobs.
Mr. President, I ask you in rhetorical fashion, is this the time where this country can afford to see 379,537 jobs disappear when we are already at the worst unemployment rate we have seen in 5 years? We have to stop business as usual around here. We need to start the change now--the change away from confrontation, everything is political, filibuster after filibuster. The time is now.
So we will be back after the caucuses have their meetings this afternoon in the hopes that they have resolved this issue, that they step out of the way and let us get this work done so our families--our families all across this country who work in the construction trades--
can breathe a sigh of relief. They have enough on their plate. They cannot get good health care; they have problems sending their kids to school; the price of gas. We all know what has happened to our families. This would be one additional slap they simply do not deserve. They do not deserve any of this.
We say to our Republican friends, leave your politics outside the Chamber for this one.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes in morning business.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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