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.
“HIGHWAY BILL” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S2949-S2950 on May 18, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HIGHWAY BILL
Mr. REID. ``America is one big pothole.'' Those are not my words. They are the words of former Republican Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, a longtime Member of Congress and a Republican from Illinois. That is how he described America's crumbling infrastructure: ``America is one big pothole.''
It is hard to argue with Secretary LaHood's assessment. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 50 percent of American roads are in disrepair. Half of the roads we drive on are in disrepair. What are State legislatures around the country doing? Raising the speed limit.
There are a number of places in America where the speed limit is 80 miles an hour. That means that this weekend--Memorial Day weekend--as American families load up their cars and head to the beach or the lake or to visit loved ones, half of the highways they travel on are in dire need of repair.
If that were not troubling enough, 64,000 American bridges are structurally deficient. As each day goes by, these roads and bridges get a little worse--one big pothole.
It is not just our roads and our bridges. Our Nation's infrastructure affects every means of travel. We are all distraught by last week's Amtrak train derailment in Pennsylvania. Eight people were killed. Hundreds were injured. It has been reported that the horrible derailment might have been prevented if speed control safeguards had been installed on this particular section of track.
What we have here in this Congress--my Republican friend, the senior Senator from Kentucky, is talking about the Senate running better than ever. I think not.
The story of our Nation's infrastructure woes is very clear. We have the technology. This great country has the resources. But my friends will not appropriate any money to do this. Stunningly, time and again, we have failed to fix the problems--one big pothole. Fifty percent of our roads are deficient, and 64,000 bridges are structurally deficient. Specifically, Republicans in Congress have refused to work with Democrats in making an adequate long-term investment in our country's service transportation.
What we have here time after time are short-term extensions of the highway bill. Before the Republicans hit town here, we used to do long-
term highway bills--they have stood in the way of doing that--so that the Department of Transportation and leaders in all 50 States could plan ahead. That is why we did these long-term bills. The way it is now, a 2-month extension or a 6-month extension does not work. It is terribly inefficient and very, very expensive.
The highway trust fund runs out in about 8 or 10 weeks. The authorization for the Federal highway program expires later this month. Later this month, if we have not extended the highway bill, there could be no money spent on highways.
The fact that these programs are expiring is no secret. Our Republican colleagues have known about this deadline for months and months. Yet here we are at the end of May, and Republicans are no closer to crafting a long-term investment in our roads, bridges, and railways. They have not had a markup in the four committees of jurisdiction. In fact, Republicans are trying to do the opposite. They are going to the extreme of gutting our already inadequate transportation.
Look at what happened with Amtrak. The House Republicans chose to cut Amtrak in the hours just after the derailment by a quarter of a billion dollars. Who could help but be astonished by this act of carelessness?
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who knows quite a bit about Pennsylvania, speaking of the Republicans in Congress said: ``Normally, after a tragedy, a pipeline bursts, a bridge collapses, everyone for a couple of weeks says `we've really got to do something.' Here, less than 12 hours after seven people died''--of course, now it is eight--
``these Republicans in Congress didn't even have the decency to table the vote.''
They went right ahead and did it, cutting a quarter of a billion dollars from Amtrak.
In addition to what it does and does not do to highways, our bridges, our dams, is the fact that it stops job creation. Every billion dollars we spend on highway construction, infrastructure development, we create 47,500 high-paying jobs. Instead of slashing Federal funding or putting critical transportation infrastructure on the back burner, we should be crafting a long-term plan to boost our Nation's investment and infrastructure.
With precious little time before the Federal highway program expires, there is no hope for anything but a short-term authorization longer than a few months. We understand that. We are not happy about it, but that is the reality of the situation that the Republicans have forced us to be in.
The U.S. highway system is crucial to our Nation's economic well-
being. It is how we move goods and services. It is central to American families who use our roads and bridges every day.
The American Society of Civil Engineers predicts that our economy will lose $1 trillion without adequate infrastructure investment. That is almost 3.5 million jobs, and some say more than that.
Congress must invest in working families and businesses by addressing our Nation's transportation needs. I invite congressional Republicans to work with us in building bipartisan consensus to ensure a strong and robust investment in our Nation's infrastructure. What is being done as we speak is that they are trying to patch together a 2-month extension. A 2-month extension or a 6-month extension, I think, is the wrong way to go. It is not good for our country.
Would the Chair announce the business before the Senate today.
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