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.
“DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION APPROPRIATIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S6986-S6987 on Nov. 1, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to congratulate the members of the Senate who, by a very large vote today, passed the minibus legislation which, among many other important things, will provide $1.9 billion for the Department of Transportation's emergency relief fund. What that will do is help the Department deal with the backlog of disaster situations around the country that they previously were not able to deal with; and, from the perspective of the State of Vermont, it will help us deal with the devastation we experienced in terms of our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure as a result of Hurricane Irene.
In many communities around the State, we saw washouts, we saw bridges destroyed or damaged, and roads disappear. While Vermont is certainly prepared to do everything it can to come up with funds to help, there is no question but that the Federal Government needs to be there, as it has always been in the past when disaster strikes a community in America.
The name of our country is the United--U-N-I-T-E-D--States of America. What that means is if a disaster hits Minnesota or California, the people of Vermont are there to help. That is what we do as a nation. And when disaster hits Vermont or New Jersey, people in other parts of the country are there.
We made good progress today. I want to congratulate Senator Leahy and the other members of the Appropriations Committee for coming up with this funding. Now the ball goes to our colleagues in the House, and now is the time for the House to stand tall, to support what we have done here in the Senate, and make sure that communities all over this country get the emergency funding they need in transportation in order to rebuild their communities.
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