Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Oh, that is nice. Thank you.

Mrs. BOXER. I say to Senator Hatch, that means a lot to me. I so remember that the Senator from Utah set the pace for bipartisan cooperation when he worked with the late great Senator Ted Kennedy. People looked at the two of you and said: This is impossible. But my colleague was able to find the common ground and build on it, and I watched that. Senator Inhofe and I have been able to do our best to also find the sweet spot where we could come together and work together. I just wanted my colleague to know that the teamwork I watched between himself and Senator Kennedy from time to time on very important issues made an impression on me and certainly on the Senate and on the whole country.

Mrs. BOXER. Of course.

Mrs. BOXER. That is right.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes. I say to Senator Hatch, we are going to have some tough votes coming up, and some people aren't going to like this amendment or that amendment, but all I want to say is this: Let's keep our eye on what the prize is. Before the Senator leaves the floor, I want to share with him a photo. Last week, on the California-Arizona border, a bridge collapsed. Now, this bridge had been rated as structurally obsolete because so much traffic was going between California and Arizona--so much more traffic than was anticipated. We are so fortunate there were no deaths involved. To me this is the reason why we are doing what we are doing. We just can't sit back and wait for some great, wonderful future promise to come down from the sky and say: We have solved the funding problems. We want to find that solution. It is not at hand. So what the Senator did, which was so important--working with all the members of the Committee on Finance and across party lines with leadership and everybody else--was to put together sources of funding that he felt the Senate could live with. As it turned out, there were a couple of things that were a bridge too far--talking about bridges--for a couple of Members, and we are fixing those. We are fixing those, and it is good. But none of these pay-fors are delightful. They are all hard. But this is what we are trying to turn around. So I say to my colleagues on both sides--and I have said it to my own caucus over and over--nobody is going to love every page of this bill because that is the nature of legislating. If we each could write our own bill, we would love every page. We would be thrilled. We would blow kisses at every page. But we don't write it ourselves. We have to step back, and we have to allow the process to work. Yesterday, that process worked. It was tough, but we got more than 60 votes to begin work on a long-term surface transportation bill. That bill is going to give certainty to our States--3 years of certain funding and a 6-year authorization, with the hope that in the coming months we can figure out a good way to look at international tax reform and other ways to pay for the final 3 years. But let me be clear. It has been more than 10 years since we have had more than a 2-year extension. This is a 3-year bill, and it makes great improvements in the Environment and Public Works title. We really did compromise, Senator Inhofe and I, and he and I really worked well together in this area. This cloture vote was so key and so important to business and labor and all the people who know they don't want this to happen to them in their State, in their commute. How many more bridges have to fail before we recognize that we can't be patching up this highway trust fund little by little? It is just not working. I often say this--and I hope it doesn't bore people because I have said it a lot--if you wanted to buy a house and you found a house and you went to a good banker and he or she looked at you and said ``I have great news for you, Mr. or Mrs. America--we have checked your credit rating, your credit rating is great, and we are going to give you a mortgage'' and you said ``That is wonderful news'' and then they said ``But it is only for 6 months or 5 months or 1 year,'' you are not going to buy that house. That is what we have been doing to our States and local entities. They can't build anything new. They can't make investments that are important because they don't have a guarantee that the funding will be there. The beautiful thing about our funding system is it is Federal, State, and local, and there is even sometimes some private money that comes in. So the Federal Government is the spark. I don't know what the Presiding Officer's ratio is in Louisiana, whether it is 50/50 or 60/ 40. In my State, it is about 50/50. We have 50 percent local State dollars to 50 percent Federal dollars. Some of our States rely on the Federal Government for 90 percent of their transportation dollars, and one State, 100 percent. So this isn't a question of having the States do this by themselves; they really can't do it by themselves. It was President Eisenhower--a Republican President--so many years ago who said if we are going to have a strong country, if we are going to protect our national security, we have to be able to move people and move goods. He took a tour across this great Nation, and he came up with the notion of a highway trust fund and a national transportation infrastructure. Well, the EPW Committee--which I am the ranking member of and Senator Inhofe chairs--provides about 70 percent of the spending in this Transportation bill. We came together in a 20-to-0 vote and voted in favor of the DRIVE Act. This is going to support millions of jobs--not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of jobs across our great Nation-- and it will provide economic security. If we don't do this and we wind up with a patch, believe me when I tell you that our States will shut down their programs because they just can't move forward. It is imperative that we act now--I agree with Senator Hatch--because we have come so far. If we don't do this, we will be looking at another extension. Somebody told me it was the 34th extension--the 34th extension. That is not right. We need to do our work. The committees have done their work. I was happy to hear that Senator Brown now says that the transit funding is good. It is very good, as well as the highway funding. So I want people to keep in mind the picture of this bridge. It means that when there are goods moving through from Arizona to California or California to Arizona, the cars and trucks have to go 400 miles out of their way--the cost of that to our Nation's business, the difficulty of that to those who drive the trucks and the vans. I will say that this link is closed indefinitely. That is a terrible thing to say. They don't have a plan to fix this because it is so complex, and we need the funding so that they can. We have emergency funding in this bill--$100 million per year--to look at situations like this and come in and help. How many more bridges have to collapse before we do our job? We cannot be economically competitive when truckers delivering goods have to drive 400 miles out of the way to get goods from one State to another. Here are the facts: There are 61,300 bridges that are structurally deficient in America. Fifty 50 percent of our roads are in less than good condition. We have no excuses. We need to move forward. I will show a list of supporters of our work. I just implore those 38 or so Members who voted no on going to this bill--I ask you to take a look at these groups and tell me in your heart of hearts how you can say no to them. These are hard-working people. They are Republicans. They are Democrats. They are Independents. They are people of every political stripe--the American Highway Users Alliance, the American Public Transportation Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Trucking Associations, equipment distributors, general contractors, equipment manufacturers, metropolitan planning organizations, the National Asphalt Pavement Association. I have four of these charts. These are the people who want us to vote yes: The National Association of Counties--I started off as a county supervisor--they know the bridges and roads are in disrepair; the National Association of Manufacturers; the National Association of Truck Stop Operators; the National Governors Association; the League of Cities; the ready mixed concrete people; the sand, stone, and gravel people; the independent drivers; the Portland Cement Association; the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Here is another one, the last one: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Now, I ask you, when do we see the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters--when do we see all these on the same side? The answer: When we write a highway bill. America is coming together around our efforts. We should be unanimous even though there are parts of the bill I don't like and you don't like. Colleagues, we cannot have a perfect bill. It is an imperfect bill in an imperfect world. But unless we wrote it ourselves, we would never be thrilled with every provision. I will finish. The AAA--remember those people we call when we break down? The AAA said: Pass a bill. They are tired of coming out to start up cars that aren't running well because they get caught in some kind of sinkhole. The U.S. Conference of Mayors; the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; Mothers Against Drunk Driving-- and I want to say that at first Mothers Against Drunk Driving opposed this bill. Now they support it. There is also the American Council of Engineering Companies. This is a list of people who are begging us to pass this bill. Democrats stood here, and we called on the Republicans to please come up with a bill, and they did. There were reasons to say we didn't love it, and we sat down and we worked hard. I have to say that Senator McConnell and his staff, my staff, Senator Inhofe's staff, Senator Durbin and his staff--we have been working hard. We are still working to get more votes. We need more votes. We need this to happen. Today my plea is that the clock is ticking. We have 8 days, colleagues, until the highway trust fund goes bust. Guess what. We can solve this problem, get a strong bill that increases funding in the first year by 6 percent and after that a couple percent a year for 3 years. It scores well. It doesn't add a penny to the deficit. I am so glad we are moving forward, but we need more support. Here is my last plea to everybody who might possibly be listening-- maybe my relatives, but in addition to that, anyone who might be listening: There are going to be amendments that I don't like and that you don't like. Could we try to keep our eye on the prize? This is the prize. We don't want this happening anyplace in this country. It brings devastation. We have a good bill before us. Is it perfect? No. Are the pay-fors perfect? No. Are we continuing to improve it? Yes. Can we always do more later? Yes. Let's say yes together, Republicans Democrats. Let's deliver this for the American people. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I do. As I shared with Leader Reid today, we have 68 organizations, from labor, to business, to general contractors. I have the list. They are asking us, begging us to move forward--the National Governors Association. It is really a broad-based number of organizations that don't agree all the time. I mean that the building trade doesn't often agree with the Chamber of Commerce, but they agree on this. So I think there is enthusiasm.

Mrs. BOXER. They agree with those of us who have said that is a death by a thousand cuts. We just can't keep on doing these short-term extensions. I would say this to the Republican leader. If you or I went to the bank to get a mortgage and the banker smiled and said that you get that mortgage, but it is only for 6 months or 5 months, you wouldn't buy the house. No one is going to build a new project or fix a bridge that has multiyear costs if they know the money could run out in 5 months or in the short term.

Mrs. BOXER. I think there will be huge momentum if we are able to pass this in a bipartisan way; yes, I do.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, if I could say to both leaders, whom I respect tremendously--and I agree with Leader Reid 99.9 percent of the time--this is the situation: We have a highway trust fund expiring, going bust, going broke, and, yes, we have to spend some time. You know, we have a lot of staff; we can divide this up--250 pages, 4 people. We have a summary. We have a summary of the bill out there for everybody, and we can just say we need 4 weeks or 6 weeks to look at it. The EPW piece, as my friend Senator Inhofe knows, has been out there for 3 months--not that long; at least 2 months. We haven't changed much in that. It has been out there, so that has been reviewed. All I want to say is this: If we could just keep our eye on the prize--and I understand that the way we proceed over here is important. That is why I voted no, not to go to a bill I wrote with Senator McConnell, because I agree with my leader completely. We need a chance to look at it. But I would submit that this isn't the first time we have ever done a highway bill. This is a little different from a health care bill in the sense that it is a highway bill. Most of it is very similar. I would say EPW builds off the old bill we had before, and most of the bills track older bills. I don't think it is going to be that hard for us to detail our staff to read it because--here is the problem--if we don't, we have 800,000 construction workers who are still not back to work, and we have 7 States that have stopped doing anything. So if we could just keep our eye on the prize, which is businesses being able to do what they want to do: build--I had a bridge collapse 2 days ago. You can't get from California to Arizona. So I hope that tomorrow we will be able to join with our friends and vote to proceed. If we don't like the bill, we will have three more opportunities to vote no. But I would love to get on this bill, get moving on it, and see if we can keep this economy moving in the right direction and not take a chance, as many economists said we will, if we don't do a long-term bill. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes, I will.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, before my leader leaves the floor, I wish to thank him because he and Senator Durbin, Senator Schumer, and the rest of the leadership team have been pushing hard for a bill. As my leader knows, I have been negotiating in good faith with the Republican team, headed by Leader McConnell, for a long-term, robust bill. I agree with Leader McConnell that we have an agreement in principle. I also agree with my leader that we have to look at the details. So my work now turns to getting those agreements up on the Internet so people can read for themselves the various titles. It is my understanding that we will start to see that language momentarily. I know we are working hard with my Chairman Inhofe to make a couple of changes to EPW. But I have to say we have reached an agreement in principle on a 6-year bill with 3 years of funding, and the text will be printed shortly. I believe it is a breakthrough. The highway trust fund goes bust in 10 days. This is what is happening across the country. It is unreal that in my State we would have this bridge collapse, I say to my friends, and now commerce can't move between California and Arizona because we have had this collapse on Interstate 10. How strange this would be if this-- thank God no one lost their life in this accident. But this bridge was rated structurally obsolete, so we knew it couldn't bear all the traffic. It is a huge amount of traffic. So this is my poster child for why I am working so hard on this. I thank my Republican friends because they have really worked hard. Of course, I am looking at Bettina and Neil. I was talking to them at 11:30 last night, and in the leader's office we resolved the last couple of pressing issues, with his help. But we have to see the text. My friends on the other side want to see the text of the Iran agreement. This isn't exactly the same, but we do need to see the text. So I am urging everybody to get the text up as fast as possible so we can vote as soon as possible. This is a breakthrough, but we need to see the details. I thank Leader McConnell because this has been a difficult negotiation but I think one that is going to bear fruit in terms of millions of jobs and thousands of businesses in much better shape. Thank you very much.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I also thank Senators Alexander and Murray for including my provisions on a dangerous product that is gaining popularity among our children, e-cigarettes. The language in the bill allows schools to use their same Federal funding that goes toward alcohol, drug, and tobacco education to teach children about more novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes. According to the CDC, youth use of e-cigarettes has tripled in 1 year from 2013 to 2014. Let me tell you, our kids are not getting accurate information. There is advertising that is aimed at them that makes it sound like this is just a wonderful opportunity for them. What are our children being exposed to? It is not just nicotine-- clearly, e-cigarettes are a nicotine delivery system--but even more. Now the Surgeon General has said nicotine has a negative impact on adolescent brain development. So for God's sake, let us stop our kids from being able to smoke e-cigarettes on campus. I have an amendment that would do just that, and I hope it will be unanimously accepted because these e-cigarettes also contain benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde, propylene glycol, and nanoparticles that are present in traditional cigarettes, according to the California Department of Health. So we need the FDA to finalize their rule on e-cigarettes. But in the meantime, youth use is soaring. We finally are making progress on reducing smoking among teens, and yet this e-cigarette situation is out of control. That is why I am pleased that in this bill schools will be able to teach kids about the dangers of e-cigarettes. In conclusion, again I thank the bill's managers for helping me get the afterschool language in, protecting our kids after school, getting some language in to make sure we can educate our kids against the dangers of a new nicotine delivery system called e-cigarettes, but I also have three more amendments that are pending and I hope will pass. The first one I talked about was clarifying that a ban on smoking in schools includes all tobacco products such as e-cigarettes. The second amendment would prohibit advertising e-cigarettes to children. When you see this--I am sorry I didn't bring the charts to the floor--they are using cartoon characters, the same kind of thing that was done by the big tobacco companies. Big Tobacco is behind this, let's be clear. We don't need another epidemic that starts killing our people before we finally turn the corner on regular smoking.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I want to take this time to thank Senators Alexander and Murray on the bill that is before our body, the Every Child Achieves Act. It is so important that we focus on this area of education. Two important provisions I asked to be included have been included in the bill. I want to specifically talk about those and again thank both Senators for including those important initiatives in this important bill. One of them is the reauthorization of afterschool programs--something I have worked on my entire life in Congress. It goes back a very long time. Another one is on e-cigarettes, which I believe are endangering our Nation's youth. Senator Murkowski was very instrumental in the committee, working with Senator Murray to make sure my bipartisan After School for America's Children Act was incorporated in the bill. I thank her. In the Senate, I first introduced my afterschool bill in 1997. I worked with Senator Ensign at that time. The Federal Government at that time only funded small afterschool pilot programs. When we got to 2001, I saw an opportunity to take that pilot program and turn it into a real, funded authorization for afterschool programs. The bill we have on the floor today and next week will modernize that afterschool program. It is the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, which incorporates afterschool. It will help States support quality afterschool programs. It encourages parental engagement and involvement and ensures that afterschool activities complement the academic curriculum. Our kids don't stop learning just because the clock strikes 2 or 3 or 4; they keep learning. So the afterschool activities are very important. Most important to me is that this bill preserves the stream of funding that is necessary to protect the afterschool programs because, to be quite honest, we have had a lot of issues with people trying to grab those funds and use them for something else. Let me tell you why we cannot do that. We now serve more than 1.6 million children of working families every year through this afterschool program. That is progress. Think about 1.6 million children. Think about all of their parents and the relief it brings to them to know they have their children in a quality afterschool program. But there are still 11.3 million children left unsupervised when the day ends. In other words, one in five children is unsupervised from 3 to 6 p.m. Those are the hours where juvenile crime peaks and risky behaviors are most likely to occur. Law enforcement and mayors have been telling us for years that afterschool programs reduce crime. It truly is a no-brainer. Our kids need a safe place to go after school. Our parents need to make sure their kids are safe after school because most parents work in today's world. No matter what leading candidates for the Republican nomination say, today my understanding is Jeb Bush said our workers don't work hard enough. He said that our workers don't work hard enough. Just talk to the parents of these kids. They are working hard, sometimes multiple jobs. They need to know their kids are safe. I want to talk about one student, Gerardo Rodriguez, who grew up in poverty in Los Angeles. He dealt with the threat of violence and the allure of gang life. While he was at Carson Middle School, he chose to join an afterschool program that was run by the Boys and Girls Club instead of a gang. Gerardo went to an afterschool program instead of joining a gang. In statistics, he would be told he was likely to be a dropout. Instead, he graduated from Carson High. In 2012, he obtained $3,000 in college scholarships. He is in his second year at California State University, Long Beach, and he is majoring in engineering. We need to save kids like this. Yes, the parents are working hard, many hours, and they need afterschool help. This bill helps those kids. I would like to do more for more children, but I am thankful we are preserving this program. Our working families need to know their kids are safe because there are more than 28 million parents of school-age children who are employed, including 23 million who work full time. These parents miss an average of 5 days of work a year because they don't have afterschool care and their child gets sick. We all know that. We have all gone through that. Our children have gone through that. So it was 30 years ago when I started to work on this issue. I again thank Senators Alexander and Murray for preserving afterschool care for our children.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the last amendment I have is a different subject, and it deals with college campus sexual assault. It would simply say that every college campus should have a confidential, independent advocate to help sexual assault survivors every step of the way. I am proud to say that my legislation has been voluntarily adopted by universities in my home State of California, including the University of California, the State college system, and the community college system, to the extent they can deal with it, because there is a lot of discretion in that particular group of colleges. But I haven't heard from the private colleges in California. So all we are saying in this amendment is let's make sure every college campus that gets Federal funds sets up a confidential advocate for women--for men as well who are also victims of sexual assault--so that from the beginning of their complaint they have a friend, they have a confidant, and they have someone who knows their rights with them every step of the way. I would be so proud to see this included. I thank the Presiding Officer for his endurance on this little talk.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, next week I hear Senator McConnell may be coming forward with a highway bill. I pray it is a 6-year bill. Republicans and Democrats voted one out of the EPW Committee--I am proud to say not one dissenting vote--a 6-year robust bill. I hope we will fund it in a way that doesn't cut other jobs, while we are trying to create jobs in the transportation industry, but in fact looks at international tax reform, where we can actually help our businesses and have a tax system that is reformed. The funds that come in to us go to the highway trust fund so we can take care of those bridges that are falling done and insufficient--60,000 of them--the highways that need help, and the roads, 50 percent of which are in disrepair. We need help. Our businesses need that help. They call for that help. They are the concrete people, the granite people. They are the general contractors, they are the engineers, our workers, and the construction workers. We still have 200,000 of them out of work since the great recession. We need a 6-year highway bill. We need it now. We need it funded in a smart way that helps our economy keep on growing. So there is a lot of work ahead. I wish to take this opportunity to say thank you to Senator Alexander and Senator Murray--and a hopeful request to Senator McConnell that the bill that comes to the floor on the highways is one which we can all embrace, and we can take care of this great Nation because, I will tell you, there isn't a great nation on Earth that doesn't have an infrastructure to match. You have to move goods, you have to move people, and if you can't do that, we simply can't keep up in this global economy. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am pleased to take this opportunity to recognize the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. As World War II came to a close, representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to sign the United Nations' founding charter, officially establishing an international forum to prevent war, support human rights, respect international law, and promote social progress. These delegates hoped the creation of this new organization would prevent another devastating global conflict by addressing diplomatic challenges and humanitarian crises around the world. Over the past seven decades, the United Nations has engaged in peacekeeping operations throughout the world, with more than 120 nations contributing military personnel, police, and civilians to these humanitarian efforts. Although there continue to be areas where armed conflict is all too prevalent, I am proud of the many successes achieved through this global mission. The United Nations has also played an important role in addressing the needs of the world's most vulnerable populations by promoting health, nutrition, and education. Through the work of the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, and many other bodies, the United Nations has led efforts worldwide to reduce poverty and save lives. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and leaders from around the world gather in San Francisco on June 26 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, I want to congratulate the United Nations for its incredible achievements and dedicated commitment to fostering consensus, partnership, and unity among the nations of the world.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator, and I welcome his remarks. We are in a space in the Senate where there are some people who still say climate change isn't happening, even though, as the Senator and I know, 98, 99 percent of the scientists in this country say it is obvious. I am also so pleased my friend is here today because he is talking about cap and trade, and that leads us into my question. I will ask two questions. One question I have for the Senator from Hawaii is how he feels about the Pope and the encyclical, where the Pope is basically stating it the way it is, and it needs to be heard by everyone. I wonder how my friend responded to that. Also, I wanted to make sure my friend knew in California we have a cap-and-trade program, and I thought it was so good that you reminded people that this was a creation by a Republican President dealing with acid rain and it was so successful and the public health benefits so outweighed the costs. So I wanted to make sure my friend was aware we had this cap-and- trade system in California that is working well. We balanced our budget in large part because of this, and businesses like it. They liked the certainty of it. Also, will the Senator respond to the issue of the Pope entering into this debate.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Presiding Officer. Mr. President, I am very proud to team up with the good Senator because this is a very modest amendment that just puts us in line with our colleagues: the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Canada, France, Australia, and others who already are directly arming the Kurds. Now, the President's policy that I absolutely support is we are going to take this fight to ISIS, but we are not going to have combat boots on the ground; we are going to help strategically with airstrikes. These are the people who are taking it day after day--deaths and blood and wounds. The least we can do is support this amendment.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you so much. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business until I conclude.

Mrs. BOXER. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Highway Bill I come to talk about something different than the pending legislation--I have a number of things to say about that, a number of amendments I am supporting, many of them bipartisan. At this point, I want to talk about the crisis we are facing in terms of our highway bill. We now have 51 days until the highway trust fund is empty. For all of us, this is a terrible prospect because a lot of our States rely on the Federal Government for up to 85 to 90 percent of their funding. Some States rely on less. My State relies on about 50 percent, but it is still huge. When this trust fund goes under, we are going to be in a lot of trouble. What we have seen in this particular Senate since our Republican friends took over--and they are my friends--are a number of self- inflicted crises. Lord knows we have enough of them coming our way, we don't have to invent them--but we have seen several. In the first crisis we had, we were headed toward a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security over an unrelated immigration issue. That was ridiculous. There was a lot of angst and finally it was resolved. The second self-inflicted crisis ended last week, and it was brought about because the Republican leader didn't like the USA FREEDOM Act the House had passed overwhelmingly. As a result of his opposition, he, for several days, turned away from 57, 58, and more Senators who actually supported that bill, and he brought the surveillance of terrorists to a screeching halt. That wasn't what he wanted to do, but as a result of that self-inflicted crisis, we had a couple of moments there where we were dark. That problem luckily ended after a couple of days. And now we are headed for another self-inflicted crisis, although I must say, from conversations I have had, I have some hope we can avert this crisis. We have known about this since last December, when Democrats said: Let's stay in until we solve the highway trust fund. And Republicans said: Oh, no, let's just take care of it in May. Then, in May, the Republicans said: Let's just take care of it in July. That is no way to run a country. It is no way to run a transportation system. It is ridiculous, and our States, as I will point out later, are starting to cut way back on transportation projects--highways, bridges, and transit systems--because they are scared we are not going to reach agreement. So, 51 days, and I am here today to talk about it. I want to show you a photograph of a bridge collapse in Minneapolis, MN, that happened in August of 2007. This bridge collapsed because there was a design flaw. It went undetected because there were not enough inspections made of the bridge because there wasn't enough being spent on ensuring that our bridges are safe. To me, as I look at this, it is a metaphor for the current status of the highway trust fund, which supports thousands of businesses and millions of jobs and is on the verge of bankruptcy. You can see on this photograph the chaos, the danger, the disaster. Even though there are no people you can see, you can imagine the shock that occurred from this collapse. Now, you might think this is an isolated incident, but I want to tell you we have 61,300 bridges in the United States which have been cited as being structurally deficient by engineers. The fact that we don't have a multiyear plan in place to fix these bridges is a shame upon our Nation. It is a shame upon our Nation. If you had your loved one in one of these cars, you would know this is unacceptable. My message today to both sides of the aisle and to the House and the Senate is simple: We cannot afford to pass yet another short-term extension because that doesn't give us the certainty or the funds to fix bridges such as these--the 61,300 bridges that need repair. The continued inaction by Congress to enact a long-term bill is a disgrace and we need to meet this challenge head-on. Now, I have heard rumors that we are making progress, and I know we are in the Environment and Public Works Committee. I serve on that committee with my friend Senator Inhofe. He and I have agreed we will go forward with a multiyear bill. This is wonderful. It is a little late in the day--we should have done it a long time ago--but I am proud he and I have agreed this is a priority. We have a date set of June 24 to mark up the bill. That is only about 35 days before the collapse of the trust fund, but if all the other committees did their job as our committee did, we would be OK. So, yes, I am encouraged, but there are three other committees that haven't set up dates to mark up anything, as far as I know. Unless a miracle occurs, I believe my Republican friends are going to ask us for yet another short-term extension. Now, if you went out on the street and stopped anybody--Republican, Democrat, whatever age--if you asked: Is it controversial for the Federal Government to fund transportation projects? They would say no. Maintaining and improving our roads, bridges, and transit systems is a necessity. It is a necessary investment in our future that was recognized at our country's founding in the Constitution. That is why Senator Inhofe, who is one of the leading conservatives in the Senate, and myself, a very strong progressive Member, agree. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution gave Congress the authority ``to establish Post Offices and post Roads,'' and that has continued throughout our Nation's history. Legislation authorizing Federal investment in our highways dates back 100 years to the passage of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. I quote one of my favorite Presidents, Dwight Eisenhower. In 1956, he established the highway trust fund to serve as the major source of funding for our Nation's highway systems. This was significant because it was a large increase of Federal infrastructure investment. President Eisenhower knew we needed modern, efficient transportation systems to ensure our security. I say ``security'' because this is what President- elect Eisenhower said, a general and a hero from World War II: ``A network of modern roads is as necessary to defense as it is to our national economy and personal safety.'' He viewed a network of modern roads as a necessity to our defense. And I would add the word ``bridges,'' because you can have a convoy going over our bridges, too. So General Eisenhower and then President Eisenhower knew how important an efficient system of roads is to our military and national defense. While serving in the Army way back in 1919, he joined a convoy of approximately 80 trucks and other military vehicles to cross from Washington, DC, to San Francisco to test the military's motor vehicles. This trip took 2 months, averaging 6 miles an hour. From this experience, plus his countless other experiences with the military, both home and abroad, he understood how important a reliable transportation system is to a First World nation. Again, he said, ``A network of modern roads is as necessary to defense as it is to our national economy and our personal safety.'' Today, our economy still relies on interconnected transportation systems to move goods out of major ports of entry. I want to talk about my own State because at the Port of Los Angeles, we take in about 40 percent of the Nation's imports. We know they go straight out onto those roads and they deliver goods all over our great Nation. We know there is a universal understanding that we have to maintain that road system so we can move people and goods efficiently. These surface transportation systems, which used to be the envy of the world, remain the foundation of a strong U.S. economy and enable us to compete in the global marketplace. I hope you heard that I said our transportation system used to be the envy of the world because it is no longer the envy of the world. It is our fault. This has to be a priority. The United States lags behind its overseas competitors in infrastructure investment. According to the most recent World Economic Forum ranking within the past decade, the United States has fallen from 7th to 16th in the quality of our roads. We are behind countries such as China, Portugal, and Oman. This is ridiculous. The greatest Nation in the world--that is what we are--but we are falling behind on our infrastructure because we do not have the guts to face the fact that we have to fund the highway system. Why are we behind? We only spend 2 percent of our gross domestic product on infrastructure, and that is a 50-percent decline from 1960. So we spend 2 percent of our gross domestic product while Europe spends 5 percent and China spends 9 percent. The Federal Government does provide, as I said, over 50 percent of the capital expenditures for State highway projects nationwide, which means that all of our States and all of our local governments rely heavily on Federal funding to maintain and to improve their transportation. However, this is just a national average. (Mr. SCOTT assumed the Chair.) I see my colleagues have changed places here. For South Carolina, South Carolina depends on the Federal Government for 80 percent of their highway funds and their bridge repair--80 percent. California is 50 percent. North Dakota is 80 percent. Montana is 87 percent. So what I am saying to my colleagues who I hope are somewhere listening is that if we do not act to fill the highway trust fund and to meet this looming made-up crisis--check out your State and how much you rely on Federal funds. I already showed the picture of the Minnesota bridge collapse. I would like to put that up again because I think the Minnesota bridge collapse is a metaphor for where we are. Our whole thing is discombobulated. Our whole thing is disrupted because we do not have the courage to fund the highway trust fund, which, as President Eisenhower said all of those areas ago, is critical to our national security. I am going keep this picture up here for a minute. I want to talk about our States and the bridges that are in disrepair. I hope people who may be listening across the country--if you live in one of these States, give a call to your Senator and ask him or her: What are you doing to fill the highway trust fund? For example, in Kentucky there are over 1,100 structurally deficient bridges--bridges that could look like this. Pennsylvania has more than 5,000 structurally deficient bridges, which accounts for over 20 percent of all the bridges in their State. In addition to the dangerously poor conditions of our bridges, 50 percent of our Nation's roads are in less than good condition. These roads and bridges that are no longer in good working condition span across the country. So I am going to show a chart that I don't think we have ever talked about here. These are examples of deficient highway bridges in need of repair: Alabama, I-65 bridge over U.S. 11 in Jefferson County; Arizona, I-17 bridge over 19th Avenue in Maricopa County; Arkansas, I-30 bridge over the UP Railroad in Pulaski County; California, the Golden Gate Bridge, for goodness' sake; Colorado, the I-70 bridge in Denver; Connecticut, the West River Bridge in New Haven; District of Columbia, the Memorial Bridge. There was a press conference right near the Memorial Bridge by one of my colleagues a couple of weeks ago. People are getting really scared about this. The point of this is not to scare anybody; the point of this is to say to my colleagues that we are responsible. You know, maybe it is me. When I was growing up, my mother and father said: If you know there is a problem, do something about it. You don't have a right to turn your back and walk away. I remember once when I was a county supervisor I found out that the county building we were in was earthquake-prone. Nobody talked about it. As soon as I found out it could collapse in an earthquake, I brought it to my colleagues. I said: Colleagues, we need to do something. Do you know what they said, one or two of them? Don't bring it up. We don't have the money. Excuse me. You have to have the money if you know the building you are in could collapse in an earthquake. You have to have some money if you know all of these bridges are in disrepair. So let's continue. Florida, the Pensacola Bay Bridge; Georgia, a bridge in Fulton County; Hawaii, Halona Street Bridge in Honolulu; Illinois, Poplar Street Bridge; Indiana, the bridge over the CSX Railroad; Iowa, the Centennial Bridge; Kentucky--another one--the Brent Spence Bridge; Louisiana, another bridge there; Maine, the Piscataqua River Bridge; Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge; Massachusetts, the I-95 bridge in Middlesex; Michigan, the I-75 Rogue River Bridge. Remember, if you are hearing my voice and you are hearing your State mentioned, give a call to your Senator and ask him or her, whether they are a Democrat or Republican, what they are doing about the highway trust fund because in 51 days it will go bust. In Minnesota--did I mention that--the I-35 East Bridge over Pennsylvania Avenue; Mississippi, the Vicksburg Bridge; Missouri, the East Bridge over Conway Road; Nevada, the Virginia Street Bridge in Reno; New Hampshire, the I-293 bridge in Hillsborough; New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway in Union County; New Mexico, the Main Street Bridge; New York, the Brooklyn Bridge. If you did not read the book ``The Great Bridge,'' you should read that book by David McCullough. It is an incredible book. That bridge was built so long ago. We don't want to lose the Brooklyn Bridge. In North Carolina, the Greensboro Bridge; Ohio, the John Roebling Suspension Bridge; Oklahoma, the I-40 bridge over Crooked Oak Creek; Oregon, the Columbia River Crossing; Pennsylvania, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge; Rhode Island, the viaduct in Providence; South Carolina, the I-85 bridge in Greenville; Texas, the I-45 bridge over White Oak Bayou; Utah, the I-15 bridge over SR-93 in Davis County; Washington, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge; Wisconsin, the U.S. 41 bridge over a river. I just have to ask my friends on both sides of the aisle, if the roof on your house is about to cave in with your children inside and you know about it, would you find a way to pay for that repair or would you let it collapse on your kids? The answer is obvious. Of course you are going to fix the roof on your house. You have to keep infrastructure in good repair. The roof is caving in on our roads and our bridges. Lord help us if we do not act and someone else goes down in a crisis. We can look at the details surrounding the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, MN, shown in that picture. On August 1, 2007, this eight- lane bridge, which is Minnesota's second busiest bridge, carrying 140,000 vehicles every day, suddenly collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145 people. It is critical that our Nation continue investing in our aging infrastructure. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it--Congress, States, businesses, American workers. Republicans say they are for infrastructure investment, but they have not acted. Happily, we are having a markup--I am excited about it--in our EPW Committee. Not one other committee has marked up a long-term bill. The highway trust fund is an integral part of how the Federal Government provides predictable, multiyear funding to States so that States can plan and construct long-term highway, bridge, and transit projects; therefore, the highway trust fund should be our No. 1 priority. In 51 days, the fund will go bust. It will be gone. We will not be able to pay all of our bills. So we have to move quickly because otherwise we will face a transportation shutdown. The law that currently authorizes our transportation program is set to expire on July 31, and the highway trust fund will go bankrupt shortly thereafter. The clock is ticking, and failure is not an option. So let's put up that 51-day ticking time bomb, if you will. The highway trust fund is in serious trouble, and much needed transportation projects are in peril. The short fund creates uncertainty, and uncertainty is terrible for business, it is terrible for workers, and it is terrible for the economy. Billions of dollars will be delayed to our States. Many States, including Utah, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Wyoming, have already delayed or cancelled construction projects due to the uncertainty in the funding. We are facing a crisis, and everybody knows it. If we do not act and act quickly, we will see a domino effect that will be felt throughout our economy. I don't think I have to remind people that we came out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. I was here when we saw that happen at the end of George W. Bush's term. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month. I remember standing here on the floor of the Senate feeling that the whole world was collapsing around us. The recovery is taking a long time, and thank God it is moving forward now. Our economy, though, is still recovering, and we must have a strong, modern, efficient transportation system to move goods and people. There are some people who absolutely need transportation to get to work. This is not a game. Either they need their cars or they need to hop on a bus or a subway. And we have 51 days until the highway trust fund will be empty. The amount of money we need just to keep up with the demand right now to fix our roads and our bridges--that amount is $123 billion just to catch up on the nightmare we are facing. So we not only need a 6-year bill, but we need one that is robust so we can start spending some money on these repairs. Millions of jobs and thousands of businesses are at stake here. You know, it is 51 days. And I have stood in several press conferences with business leaders, the chamber of commerce, the AFL- CIO, construction workers, the concrete people, the tar people, the granite people--you name it. They are united as one America in favor of a 6-year solution. I will show you just some of the people whom I have stood with over time in recent days: The AFL-CIO; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--it is hard to get them on the same page, but they are on the same page and they want this fix; the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; the American Council of Engineering Companies; the American Highway Users Alliance; the American Public Transportation Association; the American Road and Transportation Builders Association; the American Society of Civil Engineers; and the American Trucking Association. The truckers have said to me: Senator, we are willing to pay more in our gas tax because we cannot continue to ride on these roads that are falling apart. When was the last time someone came up to you and said ``Raise my gas tax''? It is rare. But the truckers have asked us to do it as long as we use the money to fix the road. The chamber of commerce has asked us to raise the gas tax 6 cents to 8 cents. I mean, this is unusual, and I know there is very little support for that. I have proposed numerous ways to pay for the trust fund, including a refundable gas tax increase. So if you earn $100,000 or less in your family, you get back the tax increase, which is about $40 a year. So I think it is worth $40 a year to know that the bridge you drive on is safe, but we would make it refundable so that you would get that back if you are in the middle class or below. I will tell you, facing a shutdown--and we are already seeing a shutdown in five, six, or seven States--is painful for businesses. I have had business people come before me with their heads in their hands because they do this work. They build the highways. They fix the bridges. They build the transit systems. And they know we have not come together yet. It is a recipe for disaster. What planet are we living on? All of America wants this. I will continue with some more of these names. I just read some of them; I will read some more: the Associated General Contractors; the Association of Equipment Manufacturers; the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations; the International Union of Operating Engineers; the Laborers' International Union of North America; the National Asphalt Pavement Association; the National Association of Counties; the National Association of Manufacturers. The National Association of Manufacturers, the Associated General Contractors, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America--this is all of America. This isn't red. This isn't blue. This is everybody. Everybody wants us to fix the roads. Everybody wants us to fix the bridges. We have the National Association of Truck Stop Operators; the National Governors Association--the Governors are Republicans and Democrats, and they are begging us to get our act in gear and get this done; the National League of Cities, and finally, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association; the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association; the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association; the Portland Cement Association; and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. The list I read is a partial list. The list that I read, frankly, is mostly Republican-leaning organizations. Why have we not done our job? Why don't we already have a long-term transportation bill before us before the fund goes bust in 51 days? Why? It is Congress's responsibility to act quickly to address our Nation's infrastructure needs. Every day that the Republicans fail to move forward with a bill, they are putting people at risk. This isn't about philosophy. This is about bread and butter. This is about getting to work safely. This is about driving with your family and not being fearful that the bridge you are on is going to fail. I am always asked: Well, Senator, that is all well and good, but how are you going to pay for this? Well, I have a lot of ideas, and I will lay them out. There are many ways to pay, and I will give just a sampling of ideas, and I will embrace these ideas. I will work with any Democrat or Republican on any one of these ideas. Replace existing gas and diesel fuel fees with a user fee charged at the refinery based on the fuel price. In other words, do away with the gas tax and replace it with a refinery-based fuel fee. They did that in Virginia, and I think it is working well. Increase existing gas and diesel fuel fees by indexing those fees to inflation, along with a refundable tax credit for low- and middle- income families to offset those costs. So we can have a modest increase of 6 cents, 7 cents, 8 cents on the gas tax and make it refundable to families earning $100,000 or less. Assess a user fee on the sale of new and used vehicles. That is another idea. Use revenue generated from repatriation of corporate earnings currently held overseas. That is international tax reform. We have a lot of money sitting abroad from corporations that have parked it there. They don't like the rate of their taxes. If you lower their tax, that money can come home, and we can use the taxes we collect to fund the highway trust fund. I have a bill on that with Senator Paul. It is bipartisan. Join us. Join us and let's fix the problem. How about this: Borrow money from the general fund, to be paid back from the stimulative effect of transportation infrastructure investments on the economy. When we make these investments, they generate so much employment and so much business that people will pay income taxes because they are working. These are millions of jobs, thousands of businesses. Another way to pay for it: Apply a new, honor-based user fee on the number of miles each individual drives each year. So when you fill out a form to get your car registered, just tell me how many miles you traveled last year, there will be a modest fee, and we can help the trust fund. By the way, I notice my friends want to use savings from reducing the overseas contingency operations account. They want to use that money. They used it for the military; why not use it for saving the trust fund? And how about the savings of uncollected revenues owed to the Federal Government? If we just collected one-third of those, we would meet the shortfall. So, as I count these ideas, there are eight ideas that I have, and I am sure everybody has their own ideas. There is not a shortage of ideas. There is a bit of shortage of courage to come out and say the obvious. If your roof is about to collapse on your home, it will cost you something to fix it. Admit it upfront. No one is going to do it for free. No one is going to fix these 60,000-plus bridges for free. No one is going to build new highways for free. No one is going to build new transit systems for free. Grow up and pay for it. This is ridiculous. I am speaking for myself. I will support any of these eight ideas or any combination of them. We know our country is in danger. Our people are in danger every day because of these structurally deficient bridges. If we don't do anything about it, we will be liable--maybe not in a court of law, but in my mind it is a moral responsibility. So I can support any of these ideas. Some of them are conservative ideas, and some of them are liberal ideas. I don't care. I want to pay for the highway trust fund. The bottom line is that the only solution is a consensus-based, bipartisan 6-year transportation bill that will provide States and local communities with the funding and the certainty they need to build these multiyear projects and modernize our infrastructure. This isn't rocket science. Choose one of the options. Add one of your own. Do a combination of these options. Let's have the courage and the moral fortitude to do what is our responsibility. We know our Nation's infrastructure is deteriorating. We are responsible for it. This is one Nation under God, and we have to act to protect our people. It is our job. I think the clearest message was from President Eisenhower on this front, and President Reagan, who stepped up to the plate. President Reagan signed into law an increase in the gas tax. He was so proud. He said: I am proud to do this. We have to do this. Let me read his quote. He signed the surface transportation bill, which did increase the gas tax, and he said: Because of the prompt and bipartisan action of Congress, we can now ensure for our children a special part of their heritage--a network of highways and mass transit that has enabled our commerce to thrive, our country to grow, and our people to roam freely and easily to every corner of our land. President Ronald Reagan. I was elected the same year he said this. I mean, I am giving away my age, but I was proud that my President understood this. I didn't agree with Ronald Reagan on a bunch of things. He said once: ``If you have seen one tree, you have seen them all.'' I never agreed with that. But setting all of that aside, I agree with what he said. This is magnificent. Listen to this: Because of the prompt and bipartisan action of Congress, we can now ensure for our children a special part of their heritage--a network of highways and mass transit that has enabled our commerce to thrive, our country to grow, and our people to roam freely and easily to every corner of our land. Another person whom I really admire on this subject is Senator Inhofe, my friend from Oklahoma, my chairman. I was his chairman for a few years--I think 8--and unfortunately for me I am no longer chairman, I am the ranking member. But I will tell you why we will do hand-to- hand combat on the environment--and we did that today. When it comes to infrastructure, we are very close. Do you know what he said? ``The conservative thing is to pass a bill instead of having the extensions.'' Anthony Foxx, our Transportation Secretary, and 11 of his predecessors offered an open letter to Congress expressing their support for passage of a long-term bill. Remember, this was signed by people who worked for--follow me--President Johnson, President Ford, President Reagan, President George Herbert Walker Bush, President Clinton, President George W. Bush, and President Obama. They offered an open letter and said this about the current situation: Never in our nation's history has America's transportation system been on a more unsustainable course. . . . So, what America needs is to break this cycle of governing crisis-to- crisis, only to enact a stopgap measure at the last moment. We need to make a commitment to the American people and the American economy. That is four Republican Presidents and three Democratic Presidents-- people from those administrations. My goodness, there is bipartisanship everywhere but here in this room. I read the list of everybody who wants this bill, and it is very impressive: labor, business--small business, large business. It is extraordinary. A survey by the National Association of Manufacturers of its members--one of our more conservative organizations--found that 65 percent don't believe our infrastructure is sufficient. We know from the Texas Institute study that traffic congestion in 2011 was $121 billion. We are wasting so much time in traffic. The cost to truck goods moving on our highway system--$27 billion in wasted time and diesel fuel. So I hear a lot of talk about passing a long-term bill. I am pleased I am hearing that talk. I say to my colleagues, I hadn't heard of that, and now I am starting to hear my Republican friends say maybe we can do it. I think we need to do it. We still have 1.4 million fewer construction jobs than we had before the recession. The clock is ticking. Failure is not an option. Let's get going. Let's come together and do the right thing. Pass the highway bill. Thank you.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mrs. BOXER. First, before I ask my question, I wish to thank Senator Heitkamp and Senator Cantwell and Senator Shaheen. These three women have been just stalwart on this. We were on different sides on the trade vote, and I remember how hard they pushed for a real commitment, which I think in good faith they believed they got. I am afraid what we saw here tonight is quite cynical. It doesn't do anything. I don't get what the point was. Wouldn't it be far better if we got a commitment from the majority leader to set aside some time right after this bill--certainly before the end of this month, because as Senator Cantwell always tells us, the end of the month is the end of the Bank. So if we could get a commitment, I am asking my friend, would she be willing to agree to a time agreement so we wouldn't have to take up days and days and days to get this reauthorization done?

Mrs. BOXER. Another point I wish to make to my friend is I don't know if she is aware, but California has well over $1 billion of projects on the line. Even in our State, that is significant. I just wanted to thank her and Senators Cantwell and Shaheen and others who have worked so hard. I have been here a long time, and I know a cynical ploy when I see it. I just saw it. I know how easy it is to resolve this problem. You have an overwhelming, filibuster-proof number of people who want this Bank reauthorized. All you probably need is an hour or so. Anytime night or day, we will come in. I would hope and I would ask my friend if she and her colleagues will pursue a meeting or ask directly at some point in time for a commitment to take this up and, within a reasonable time limit, get it done. In my State, many jobs are dependent on this, and all across the Nation, as you have eloquently pointed out, as well as Senators Cantwell and Shaheen. I thank you for your leadership.