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.
“TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT: A LEGACY FOR USERS--Continued” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S4639-S4640 on May 9, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT: A LEGACY FOR USERS--Continued
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we resume the highway bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 567 Withdrawn
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending substitute amendment be withdrawn.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, the amendment is withdrawn.
Amendment No. 605
(Purpose: To provide a complete substitute)
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I now send a substitute amendment to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The bill clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Oklahoma [Mr. Inhofe] proposes an amendment numbered 605.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of Amendments.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, finally, after much laboring, this massive new substitute, or managers' amendment, is before us.
This reflects the tremendous amount of work our staffs have done over the recess as well as the many long weeks and months our committees worked on it. It is not what anybody would say is a perfect bill. Everybody would like more money, and many would like more money in different places. But given the constraints under which we operated, this is the best we have been able to produce. Obviously, we hope that after the Senate may complete action on the supplemental, which I understand may be coming up, we would like to move as quickly as we can on this bill.
The leadership on both sides has told us they want to finish the bill by this week. That is an ambitious schedule but, frankly, the current extension of the highway transportation bill runs out at the end of this month. The only hope we have of meeting that deadline and getting a bill to the President is to get it to conference this week. The conference is going to be difficult because of the different approach taken by the House than the approach we have taken.
The approach we have taken, and the EPW Committee, on highway funds is one of bipartisan cooperation, to use formulas to assure that the highway money goes to States on the various indicators of need built into the formulas. I happen to think the formulas undercut the crossroads of the United States. I will be showing, when people talk about needs in other areas, a map by the U.S. Department of Transportation showing the level of heavy traffic on the roads in America. It is no surprise that that heavy traffic goes right through the middle of America, through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana. We are the crossroads States. We are not doing as well in our States as many of the other States that are asking for more money.
When people say they want more money, my response is: I do, too. But we have attempted to follow the pattern established in previous formulas. And if people want to change it, I have some changes I would like to make as well and include the crossroads where the traffic is the heaviest and where, in my State and in Oklahoma, we now recognize the fact that deaths caused by inadequate highways is a legitimate concern for a bill called SAFETEA.
I am delighted, through the leadership of Senator Inhofe and the cooperation and leadership of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Senator Jeffords, Senator Baucus, Senator Reid, who worked very closely with me on the last highway bill, we brought our section to the floor as well as the sections from the other committees. We look forward as soon as we can to going back to work on it. We would ask any of our colleagues who have amendments, particularly to our section, you have had a chance to look at it, we have had a chance to work on it. I hope we can move quickly because the time will be short and the bill is important.
With that, I thank the chairman of our committee and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I thank the senior Senator from Missouri. He has worked tirelessly, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation of the Environment and Public Works Committee. You always hear that working with Senators is like herding cats. I think we have learned that on this bill. It is very difficult. Of course, by the very nature of the Senate, one person can hold things up. But I don't think there is anything this year we are going to be dealing with that is more important than our highway reauthorization bill.
Last year we passed a good bill out of committee. We were unable to get it out of conference last year. This year I am sure that situation will change.
As we work on it this week, I agree it is an ambitious schedule to get it done, but I am anticipating we are going to have to at some point file cloture. I would certainly tell any of the staff and Members who might be listening that we are open for business. We now have the substitute amendment on the floor so we know what we are working with. We would ask them to bring their amendments down. We can't do anything with an amendment unless we see it, unless we have it before us.
I know what is going to happen if we don't do that. When we come up against some deadlines, trying to get this passed out of here at the end of the week, people are going to be saying they didn't have time. You have time now. We are waiting for you. We want you to bring them down.
The substitute amendment we adopted has some changes in it. We did increase some highway funding by $8.9 billion. That would be the highway funding portion. That was over the EPW bill that we passed out of the committee that we chair. And it includes a 5.1-percent increase in both the apportioned and allocated programs. It also includes the minimum rate of return for donor States to 91 percent and working up to 92 percent. This is not as ambitious as it was last year, but last year we were dealing with a bill that was $318 billion over a 6-year period. This is going to be about 251 over the remaining 5 years of the 6-year reauthorization.
Last year's bill, the donee status was improved more dramatically so that for States such as my State of Oklahoma and the State of the Presiding Officer, we would have that up to a minimum of 95 percent. That means we would get back at least 95 percent of that which is collected in our respective States. We can't quite do that with the smaller amount, but certainly it is enhanced a little bit with the amendment we just agreed to consider.
So we have a lot in here, and they are going to be a part of this bill. Again, the only thing that needs to be done right now is for amendments to be brought to the floor. By the way, Senator Bond is right when he says there are a lot of Members who are not happy, and they won't have enough money in their States. I am not happy about the amount of money in Oklahoma. There was a lot of compromising over a 3-
year period to get us where we are today. However, if you are not happy, offer an amendment. We will consider it and we will vote on it. That is what the process is all about.
We have a lot to be done in the next 4 days. We expect that we are going to be doing it. We are encouraging people to come down with their amendments.
I chair the EPW committee, but we also have some titles in here by the Banking Committee, the Commerce Committee, and the Finance Committee. We have been talking to those chairmen. I believe they are ready. So we could entertain amendments on any of these sections or any of the titles of the bill.
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