Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

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

Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend because she has been such a leader. I was listening to every word she said, as well as Senator Inhofe talking about the mother who was killed because of a bridge collapse. This touches our hearts as family members. Yes, as Senators, but as family members we know those families will never be the same--the family, the children of that mother, the families of those who are grieving the loss of their relatives. I ask my friend, who was so early on a supporter, is she aware that seven States have either canceled projects or completely shut down their highway and transit spending? Is she aware of that?

Mrs. BOXER. I wanted to say that I have a chart here that shows the States that have either canceled or delayed highway projects. These projects are valued at over $1.6 billion. Think about the jobs and the businesses that are suffering. They are in Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Montana, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming. I have a further question. I know my friend has heard me say this. Is my friend aware that the Associated General Contractors of America came out with a new study? They were just in the New York Times stating that because of our, I will use the word ``dithering''--because we haven't come up with the long-term bill, which we are now attempting to do--25 States have lost construction jobs just in the last month. Is my friend aware of this study?

Mrs. BOXER. I will just say before I yield that the States that lost construction jobs last month, according to the general contractors, are Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. I wanted to read those off. I will talk about that later, but I wish to thank my friend because the point--when she talked about what happened on this bridge, my friend didn't have to read one word of any statement. This was a heartbreaking memory she will always have. We all go through this in our time here, when there are earthquakes, floods, fires, and bridge collapses. I would ask my friend this last question: Does the Senator think this is important enough that the House should stay an extra week or even a few days to take up our bill, pass it or if they don't like it, amend it, send it back, and let's get this done for the American people.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, before the Senator leaves the floor, I would like to thank her again. What I want to say to her is something she has said to me over and over; that is, the importance of finding common ground when we can. We all know we cannot give up our principles, but we have to search for common ground. And everyone knows--and Senator Inhofe and I kind of joke about it-- we could not be different in terms of our ideology. We really could not. But on this one, on this piece, the need to have a strong infrastructure, we are as one, as progressives, as conservatives. Frankly, I think everyone in the Senate and in the House should come together around the principle that you cannot have a strong economy if you cannot move goods. That is why my friend Senator Inhofe put together a great new freight title in our bill this time, part of the formula. It is hugely important. If we cannot move goods, if we cannot move people, we are going to fall behind. Clearly, when bridges collapse, there is devastation. I have shown this particular bridge collapse, along with the one on which Senator Klobuchar was so eloquent. This is a bridge in my great State. We have 40 million people. We take in about 40 to 50 percent of all the imports into our Nation; they go into trucks and trains and planes. They use our roads, and they go across the country to deliver goods to everyone. Well, the bridge that collapsed in California a few days ago--maybe a week or two ago now--was deemed to be obsolete because it was built for very light traffic. It is the bridge between California and Arizona. There was very little traffic at the time it was built. Now we have a huge amount of traffic. This bridge collapsed. Thank the Lord no one died, so I can stand up here and say that. This, to me, is the poster child of the work we are doing together. This is the poster child. There is a list of bridges--there are more than 60,000 deficient bridges in America. This is America. They are deficient--some worse than others, but they are deficient. I have listed just a few here--just a few: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin. This is just a handful--a couple of handfuls of the 60,000-plus bridges that are deficient. Senator Inhofe, in your State we have listed as an example the I-40 bridge over Crooked Oak Creek. As I was saying yesterday, when I was a country supervisor a very long time ago, we found out as supervisors-- and we were a very bipartisan group--that our civic center was at risk of collapse in an earthquake. In those years, we did not know that much about how to reinforce. It was just coming to light. It is a Frank Lloyd Wright building, a gorgeous building, a historic building. We were told that if we did not fix it, there was a possibility that we could be held personally liable if something happened. Clearly, no one here is going to be personally held liable if a bridge collapses, but morally we need to understand that now that we know we have 60,000-plus bridges in bad condition and that 50 percent of our roads are not up to par, we have an obligation to fix it. It is very clear that we must do so. I am proud that almost half of the Democratic caucus has come together with a larger percentage of the Republican caucus to put together a transportation bill. I am proud of that. It is on the road to passage. Last night, at a crucial moment late in the evening, we got 62 votes. That was not an easy thing to do because, as the Presiding Officer knows, there were things she wanted in that bill, and there were more things I wanted. I wanted things out of the bill and other things added. Each one of us, of course--we are people who are passionate about these issues. We would have written the bill differently. I would say that anyone in America, having the chance, would write it differently. But the art of compromise is something we should not be afraid of. You are not compromising your principles; you are seeing where you can find a sweet spot. I believe we did that. I am urging the House not to leave on their summer break and to stay and work on this bill. We have done a lot of the heavy lifting. We have done a lot of the heavy compromising. They can do more. They can take out things they do not like, add things they want. We can sit down in a conference. We can get this done. My opinion: They should take it and pass it. When a bill has 62 votes here, that is pretty darn good. If they want to tweak it, they can do it. But I think they need to stay. I served proudly with my friend Senator Inhofe in the House. I served for 10 years. It has been 10 years since the House has had this long of a break. They have not left before August for the August recess. I think they should stay. They should stay. You know, the average American, when they are about to go on their summer break, the boss says: Clean up your desk, please. Finish your work, please. Don't just pile everything on one side of the table, please. Take care of it. The House ought to finish its work. Take up our bill, amend it, send it back, and we will get it done. Most of the work is done. Most Americans have to tie up loose ends before they take a long break. I might add, I think it is a 5-week break--a 5-week break. Do your work. Maybe you can only go on a 4-week break. That would still be twice the time most Americans get. Do your work. When I say bridges are in poor condition, that is not hyperbole, that is fact. This is not some study put out by a Democrat or a Republican; it is put out by the engineers. Our infrastructure is rated--I believe it is a D overall. If our child came home and said ``Mom, I have a D,'' we would not be happy. Well, taxpayers are not happy that our infrastructure is rated a D. So I ask the House: Please stay and do your job. Roll up your sleeves. We will work with you. We can resolve these things. You have had time to look at our bill. I will close with just two more points. I want to give the highlights of our Transportation bill on which we worked so hard across party lines--Senator Inhofe; myself; the Banking Committee, chairman and ranking; the Commerce Committee, chairman and ranking; the Finance Committee, which paid for this bill. Some people are voting against it because they do not like the way it is paid for. They say it is better to find some long-term answer in international tax reform. Personally, I think that is a great idea, but you have time to pay for the last 3 years in that fashion. We have paid for 3 years; this bill is 6 years. Pay for the last 3 years. As for me, I am a lonely voice here. There are about five of us who say: A penny a month for 10 months on the gas tax. We don't have the votes. So what do I do? Go in my corner and cry? I don't have the votes. No, we have to put a bill together. So this is a $50 billion-a- year bill for 6 years. Three years are paid for. Every State gets more formula funding for both highways and transit. There are two new programs: a formula freight program that my friend Senator Inhofe, working with Republicans and Democrats, put together; and a new grant program for major projects called the AMP Program. Senator Whitehouse worked across the aisle for that program. All of our States are eligible. It includes the McCaskill bill. It is the McCaskill-Schumer bill that says rental car companies cannot lease out cars that are under recall. I think this is important because we see a lot of the problems with the Takata air bags. Because Senator Nelson has worked so hard on that, we have tripled NHTSA fines. We have used that money in the bill to help put positive train control on the commuter rails. This is important. People are dying because we do not have positive train control. Is the bill the perfect bill on safety? In my view, it is not. In somebody else's view it is. It is a compromise. But I think, overall, it is solid. Every State will see an increase in their highway dollars, in their transit dollars. In closing, I wish to thank Senators on both sides of the aisle, including the Presiding Officer because we did work together. We did a good job. It was hard to do. I know my friend had one provision she wanted. She had to scale it back. It is hard to do that. I had a program I wanted. It got scaled back. We all have to give and take, but that is what the people expect of us. Whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, it does not matter--they want us to get something done. I am proud of the Senate. We are not done yet. We still need some more votes on this, so everyone stay tuned. But if the House will stay an extra few days and take up our bill, we can get this done for the American people. We can save businesses, we can save jobs, we can keep this recovery going, and we can feel proud that we fixed our bridges, that we fixed our highways, and that we did the work we are supposed to do. I yield the floor.

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

Mrs. BOXER. I would love to get this done in 5 minutes. So let me be clear about where I stand. But has my friend received confirmation from Speaker Boehner that he would take up the bill tomorrow? My understanding is that they moved up their--this is what I heard. I can't swear to it, I don't know exactly, but what I heard is they are actually moving up their adjournment from Thursday to Wednesday so they can escape from having to take up our bill. Does my friend believe that if we could get this bill done, they would stay 24 hours and deal with our bill?

Mrs. BOXER. OK.

Mrs. BOXER. That is right. (Mr. CRUZ assumed the Chair.)

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I appreciate the presentation by my friend. He is absolutely right and my colleague Senator Feinstein is absolutely right on this point. I think the American truckers are saying, I say to my friend from Mississippi, that this is a modest extension, a 5-feet extension, but it is 5 times 2, as my staff pointed out, so this is a 10-foot extension. And many of our States are already in trouble. Many of our bridges are structurally obsolete. So the American truckers are pushing hard for this. But I think my friend is right. I think States ought to be able to decide the condition of their roads, the condition of their bridges, and if they feel this type of increase is going to jeopardize safety, I don't think Uncle Sam ought to be telling them what to do.

Mrs. BOXER. Yes.

Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend, and I agree with him. If each of us had written the bill that is before us, it wouldn't look the way it looks. Clearly, if my friend had written it, this wouldn't be in there. If I had written it, this wouldn't be in there and a lot of other things would. I am so happy Chairman Inhofe has arrived. I am the ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Our title is responsible for 70 percent of the spending in this legislation. We knew that everyone had a wish list. We knew that if one Senator got everything he or she wanted, we wouldn't have a bill, and if I got everything I wanted, we wouldn't have a bill. We had to meet in the middle, and we had to withhold on some of the items on our wish list. Frankly, I think that is the story of legislating a huge and important bill such as this, and it is an important bill. Before I came over here, I say to my friend Senator Inhofe, I read that the whip over in the House, who comes from California, said: The Senate should not send the bill over to the House. My response to that is, if we have a bill, we are sending it. He said: We are leaving, and that is it. If the House chooses to go out on vacation, a work period, or whatever they do, that is their business, but it is our job to fix the problems we are facing. With the help of my friend Chairman Inhofe, I have a couple of pictures to show everyone. The first picture is my photograph of the bridge collapse on Interstate 10 at the Arizona-California border. Years ago they said this bridge was functionally obsolete. In other words, when it was built, nobody thought so much traffic would be traveling on it. Later they gave it an A, but it was determined to be obsolete. The reason bridges like this aren't getting fixed is we just haven't had enough funds to do it. In this bill, it is true--we stayed away from a tax gas increase, and we found a way to get enough for what I consider to be a very solid funding bill. I will show everyone some other bridges that have collapsed, and there are so many. Here is Washington State. The Skagit River Bridge collapsed. Look at this. It is unbelievable. There are cars down below that have crashed. This is pathetic. This isn't a third-world Nation; this is America, and a Washington State bridge collapsed. How are we going to get the money for it? We need to pass a long-term bill. If we pass a 5-month bill the way some of our opponents are calling for here and in the House, we won't have a dime to fix any bridge. All we are doing is, at the bare minimum, extending the program. Nobody is going to undertake any type of long-term fix on these bridges. This is the Arlington Memorial Bridge. It was built in 1932. We know about it; it is right here. It is deteriorating. It is in trouble. We are trying to avoid a collapse. We need this bill to do that. So when I talk about this bill--these bridges are in trouble. Here is a picture of another bridge that actually did collapse. This is in Minnesota. This started the whole thing, and it was in 2007. It was unbelievable what happened there, and we can see the devastation. This is why Senator Inhofe is doing this. It is the reason I am doing this. It is the reason Senator McConnell is doing this. It is the reason Dick Durbin is doing this. It is the reason so many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle are willing to admit that while this isn't a perfect bill, we cannot sustain this. Either bridges are crumbling or they are collapsing. There are other examples. I will keep up the California bridge collapse so everybody can see it. It is the one I know the best because it is in my State. As I have said, and I ask rhetorically, how much business are we losing when we have cars and cargo having to go 400 miles out of the way to get from California to Arizona or Arizona to California? This is a nightmare. As I understand it, we found some emergency funds, and so now we need to try to figure this out. Should we close part of it down or keep part of it open? It is not that safe to do, and there is no reason why we should have a situation such as this. It may surprise everyone to hear how many bridges are deficient and in need of repair. In Kentucky, the Brent Spence Bridge; in Louisiana, the Calcasieu River Bridge; in Maine, the Piscataqua River Bridge; in Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge; in Massachusetts, the I-95 Bridge in Middlesex; in Michigan, the I-75 Rouge River Bridge; in Minnesota, the I-35 East Bridge over Pennsylvania Avenue; in Mississippi, the Vicksburg Bridge; in Missouri, the I-270 East Bridge over Conway Road; in Nevada, the Virginia Street Bridge in Reno; in New Hampshire, the I- 293 Bridge in Hillsborough. When I am done reading this, I will have the whole list printed in the Record. In New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway in Union County; in New Mexico, the Main Street Bridge; in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge. These are iconic structures, and they need to be fixed. They are deficient. In North Carolina, the Greensboro Bridge; in Ohio, the John Roebling Suspension Bridge; in Oklahoma, the I-40 Bridge over Crooked Oak Creek; in Oregon, the Columbia River Crossing; in Pennsylvania, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Do you think we ought to fix the Benjamin Franklin Bridge? In Rhode Island, the I-95 Viaduct in Providence; in South Carolina, the I-85 Bridge in Greenville; in Texas, the I-45 Bridge; in Utah, the I-15 Bridge; in Washington, the Evergreen Point River Bridge; in Wisconsin, the US-41 Bridge; Alabama; Arizona; Arkansas; and California. The Golden Gate Bridge is the hallmark and one of the landmarks of my State, and it is deficient and in need of repair. Colorado; Connecticut; the District of Columbia. I showed everybody the Memorial Bridge. Florida; Georgia; Hawaii, the Halona Street Bridge in Honolulu County; Illinois, the Poplar Street Bridge; Indiana, the I- 65 Bridge over the CSX Railroad; in Iowa, the Centennial Bridge. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the list of deficient bridges in need of repair be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, if ever there were a bipartisan issue, it is this one. When Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was running for office, he was shocked at the condition of our roads and the fact that we really didn't have roads that were in good shape connecting one State to the next. This is the United States of America. We are a large and sprawling nation. He said that ``a network of modern roads is as necessary to defense as it is to our national economy and our personal safety.'' This is Dwight Eisenhower. ``A network of modern roads is as necessary to defense as it is to our national economy and our personal safety.'' He was referring to the fact that we really couldn't move easily between the States if there was some type of national emergency. I was a little girl when Eisenhower ran, and my father was a lifelong Democrat, but he was for Ike. One of the reasons he was for Ike was because he knew we needed this kind of network. It appealed to him. He knew how important it was. If we look at the groups that are supporting us in this effort, I will just say they represent America. They are everyone from the U.S. Conference of Mayors to the Brotherhood of Carpenters; from the Chamber of Commerce to the International Union of Operating Engineers; from AAA--and most of us belong to AAA because we are worried something is going to happen on one of these bridges or one of these roadways that are filled with obstacles and we could get in a crash. People belong to the AAA, and they support us. Also, the Laborers' International Union, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the American Council of Engineering Companies. Let's put up some more. Again, these are unusual allies. Usually they are fighting each other. The National Association of Counties agrees with the National Association of Manufacturers, and they agree with the Truck Stop Operators and the National Governors Association. The National League of Cities agrees with 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. Why did they come together for this? If you are in the retail business and people cannot get to your store, you will not be there for very long. They may say it is just not worth it and will buy online. The fact is that we need to fix our roads. The American Highway Users Alliance agrees with the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Associated General Contractors. I want to make a point. On Tuesday the Associated General Contractors--the AGC--put out a very important and alarming study. Construction employment declined in 25 States between May and June. They went on to explain to the press that there were monthly construction employment declines as Congress continued to search for ways to pay for new highway and transit investments. The monthly construction employment figures are troubling. Investing in transportation infrastructure will make it easier for many firms involved in highway and transit construction to add new jobs. There are certain States that are worse than others. Illinois lost 2.2 percent of its construction jobs--they shed so many jobs--followed by New Jersey. New Jersey had the second-most shedding of jobs, 4,600; Ohio shed 3,700 jobs; Florida, 3,100 jobs; Rhode Island, 700 jobs. I heard my colleagues say: Well, Vermont lost 500 jobs. Here is the situation. I have heard my colleagues say: We don't like the way this is paid for. We have better ideas. I agree with them. I have better ideas too. I have 10 or 11 or 12, but I am not the only one putting this together. We have to find that magic sweet spot where we can get 60 votes here in the Senate. I am thinking if they vote no on this but it passes, when they go to meet one of these workers and the worker says: Thank you so much; we got this job because we got a 3-year funding bill, what are they going to say? I didn't vote for it because I didn't think the funding was right? I wanted it to be done a different way? I am sure the worker would say, I appreciate that, but I am working. I am working. I am feeding my family. I understand why people want a better source of funding, and we have tried. As my chairman knows, we have tried so hard. I know he wants to speak now, so I will close down my time with this----

Mrs. BOXER. I will yield. (Mrs. ERNST assumed the Chair.)

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I am observing it exactly the same way. I said before that we have a very honest relationship in terms of where we can find that common ground, and it is in this arena. As the Senator from Oklahoma has pointed out, he reads the Constitution and I read the Constitution. He has said many times--and he has addressed people who have heard the Senator say this--that this is a constitutional responsibility to make sure we have roads, bridges, highways, and we can move interstate commerce. From my perspective, not only do I agree with that, but I also think it is a very important way while we are taking care of the people to see that people have good, decent jobs, and that businesses prosper. We have never had a problem working together on this. I hope our working together brings liberals, conservatives, moderates, and everybody in between to tonight's votes. I don't know what the vote is going to be, I would say to my dear friend, but I do know this. The House is saying through their whip that they are leaving. Well, that is up to them. We all know, from the Association of General Contractors, it is stated right here that in 25 States we are seeing layoffs right now in the construction arena because we have not acted. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that their statement be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. That is tragic. What happens when people are laid off? We know what happens. We are getting out of this tough recession, and none of us wants to walk down the path of a short-term solution. So I say to my friend, I am going to finish my remarks in about 2 minutes and when I yield the floor to him, I look forward to hearing his remarks. We have work to do tonight. We have to get 60 votes.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, reclaiming my time, my friend is right. This is an area where conservatives, progressives, liberals, moderates--what we call ourselves doesn't matter. We need to have a good, strong highway system. We need to fix the bridges. We need transportation. That is what we do here. In closing, I wish to make this point. Each of our States has relied on the highway trust fund since Eisenhower was President. I have a list, and I think I put it in the Record yesterday so I don't have to put it in the Record again, but it shows how much each State relies on the highway trust fund. I will pull out a few States because it is interesting. I know my own State is 49 percent. We raise the rest of the money, but that 49 percent is huge, and if it were to disappear, we simply could not do what we need to do. So my State is about 50 percent. Here are some of the States: Rhode Island, 100 percent of its program is funded by the Federal highway trust fund. Alaska, 93 percent is funded by the Federal highway trust fund. Vermont, 86 percent is funded by the Federal highway trust fund. South Carolina, 79 percent; Hawaii, 79 percent; North Dakota, 78 percent; South Dakota, 71 percent; Connecticut, 71 percent; New Mexico, 70 percent. Now, from that list--that is, everybody who is 70 percent and over-- those are red States, those are blue States, those are purple States. My point is exactly what Senator Inhofe said yesterday. The fact is, there is no such thing as a Democratic road or a Republican road or an Independent road or a progressive road or a liberal road or a conservative road. We all use the roads, unfortunately, increasingly, at our peril--at our peril. Idaho, 68 percent; Alabama, 68 percent; New Hampshire, 68 percent; Missouri, 65 percent; Minnesota, 64 percent; Oklahoma, 63 percent; Georgia, 62 percent; Iowa, 59 percent; Ohio, 58 percent; Virginia, 57 percent; Wisconsin, 55 percent; Oregon, 54 percent, and it goes on. Every single one of our States is waiting. The lowest, as I understand it, looks to be New Jersey at 35 percent, but the fact is whether it is 35 percent or 45 percent or 90 percent or 100 percent, they all rely on the Federal highway trust fund. All of our people pay into it through the gas tax. We have a responsibility. We are moving forward if we get the votes tonight. Again, we don't know that we will get them. We are working hard to get them. Hopefully, we will move forward with a good transportation bill and, for the first time in 10 years, we will have a long-term bill. Now, the Washington Post did an interesting editorial. They don't adore this bill. They found problems with it, as we all do, but they said it is a sensible plan by Senators Boxer and Inhofe--if we worked it out--that it provides 3 years of guaranteed funding, that it would be a significant improvement from what we have done in Congress for the past decade. They said lawmakers fumbled from short-term funding patch to short-term funding patch--a nonstrategy that often relied on budget gimmicks and made it difficult for transportation officials to conduct long-term planning. The New York Times said on Tuesday what I said before: Construction employment fell in 25 States this summer as State agencies awaited word from Congress on the future of the highway and transit spending. We also know there are well over one-half million unemployed construction workers--one-half million. Now they are starting to get laid off again. I don't know what else to say to Members. The biggest reason they are voting no that I heard is they would like to find a better funding source. Well, all of us would, and if we had our way--the Presiding Officer would come up with her funding source. I love mine, which is a refundable gas tax increase, but I can't get a lot of votes for that. People won't give me the votes for that. So what do I do, throw up my hands and say we will have another short-term extension? No. I sat down with Senator Inhofe, I sat down with Senator Durbin, I talked to Senator Reid and Senator Schumer, of course, and all of my leadership over here, and I did my best. I think everyone has to understand, it is either this way or we will have to do a short-term patch. I will predict--right now, seven States have shut down their program completely. If we don't find a solution, we are going to be looking at each other in a month, 2 months, and we are going to see programs shut down. I often use this analogy, so if my colleagues have heard it before, I apologize in advance. But if you go to the bank, you want to buy a house; they say: Great news, you qualify, and they only give you a 5-month mortgage. Are you going to buy the house? Of course you are not. Are our States going to build a highway if all they have is funding for 5 months? No. That is why the private sector that gets this money from the States--that is why they are laying people off. Now, I want to say, working with Senator Inhofe, we were able to create a new National Freight Program and a new program called Assistance for Major Projects. This means that every one of our States would be eligible. It is exciting to have those kinds of programs. The freight program will provide funds for all States. All States are going to get part of this formula to improve their goods movement, to reduce the costs, and improve performance for business. It expands flexibility for rural and urban areas to designate key freight corridors. This is exciting. The program is supported by the Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors, as well as business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers. Now, under the Assistance for Major Programs, this was something Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island worked very hard on. The bill provides support for major projects of high importance to a community, a region, or the Nation, through a competitive grant program. It includes a set-aside for rural areas and ensures an equitable geographic distribution of funds along with strong transparency provisions. Now, these programs are exciting news. Whether one is from Iowa or California, we are all going to get these funds and locally, we will decide how to spend them. Our bill passed the committee 20 to 0. What a great moment that was, and the reason is we knew we had to compromise. So the part of this bill from EPW was a compromise. The part of the bill from the commerce committee was a little bit trickier because it did come out on a partisan vote, but we have been working--Senator Nelson and Senator Thune, Senator Blumenthal, and others--on that to make it a better title. And I think it is moving in that direction. As to the banking bill, Senator Brown's staff worked very hard on this with Senator Shelby's staff, and I believe it has clearly been improved since it was first released. The Finance Committee was tough. Senator Wyden tried hard. I put some ideas out there. It was tough to get them done. But somehow we have managed to put together the funding. It does clear the CBO. We are in surplus for 3 years in the highway trust fund. We haven't done that. It has been 10 years since we had more than a 2-year extension. This is real. I just say to my friends from the House that I know you want to get out of town. Everybody does. It is August, and we have plans. A lot of us are going to go around the world and do our job that way, have community meetings, and take a week of vacation with our families as every family wants to do. But we are staying an extra week in August. You can stay an extra week in August. That is not such a terrible thing. I get an announcement from the whip over there, Representative McCarthy from my State. He says: Don't send us a bill because we are going home. Well, that is their choice. There are so many good organizations. I am going to put this list up again and share it because I think it is so important. It is tough to put together a bill that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports, along with the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and AAA, not to mention Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I will show you some others. It is exciting to see the National Association of Counties. I started off as a county supervisor. I was in local government. You know, to have us agree with the National Association of Manufacturers, the truckstop operators, the National Governors Association, the National League of Cities, the concrete people, and the gravel people--there is one more here--what you see is that everybody supports this--the American Public Transportation Association, the American Trucking Association, the Associated General Contractors of America. The Associated General Contractors of America has warned us if we don't get this done, it is going to be a real problem. So for the sake of every single person in America, I hope we have the 60 votes we need tonight, and I hope we get this moving. There are a lot of people who are slowing this bill down. I understand they are upset about everything. Look, we each can be upset. I mean every day we can be upset, but we have to try to find common ground. Sometimes it is very hard to find it. Certainly, Senator Wicker was here. He and Senator Feinstein have an amendment. I support it. It is unfortunate that Senator Wicker's opinion didn't hold sway in the Appropriations Committee. It is hard. It is difficult. I personally think he is right. He didn't win in the Appropriations Committee. So now we are trying to fix the problem. We may not have the votes, but what we do have before us--and I will conclude with this--is a solid bill with increases so we can fix these bridges. I want you to see the last image, which is the collapse of this bridge in California. It just happened a few weeks ago or less. What we had here was a bridge that was called functionally obsolete. What they said was that when it was built there was very little comment on it. But now it is a very important bridge because we have to take the goods from Arizona over to California and from California over to Arizona, and it has collapsed. Senator Inhofe and I talk a lot about why we do what we do. He had a devastating bridge collapse--a devastating bridge collapse where a mother of three was killed just walking by the bridge. That is when he and I said enough is enough. We simply cannot handle it. It is our job. Once I was told this when I was a county supervisor. If you know there is a problem and people are in danger--this is what they told us way back in the day because we had an earthquake problem with the building we were in and the county council said to the five supervisors: You know this is a problem. If you don't fix it, there is an argument to be made that you are personally liable. Now, I am not suggesting at all that Senators be held personally liable for a bridge collapse, but I am talking about the moral issue. We do know we have problems. We were fortunate that no one was killed in this collapse, and it was kind of a miracle. But we do know there is a problem. So while we don't have a legal obligation to step up to the plate--and I know Senator Inhofe agrees with me--we believe there is a moral obligation. There is this list of bridges. There are three pages of bridges that we know are in trouble. We know that 50 percent of our roads are deficient. Isn't that enough for us to come together tonight--it will probably be late in the evening, I expect--and vote to move forward with this bill and get it done, send it to the House, and hopefully, they will decide in the same session and decide to pass it? There will be a celebration across this Nation. It will be a celebration by workers who want to fix these problems, by businesses who want to fix these problems, by people who drive who want to see these problems fixed. It is a win-win for our Nation. I thank you so much, Madam President. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I object.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, someone was speaking with me. What is the order? I get up to 10 minutes; is that correct?

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Presiding Officer. Mr. President, it is Sunday, and it is unusual for us to be here, but as I have said many times, this is the reason we are here. Look at this photo. This is the bridge collapse in California, and there is another report coming that says this is going to be far from the last one we have. This is a bridge that carries thousands of people a day from California to Arizona. This can happen in any one of our States, and the fact is we need to pass a transportation bill. I am so grateful to my colleague Senator Inhofe and to everyone on that committee who got this started. The Environment and Public Works Committee had a 20-to-0 vote so we don't have to face this anymore. After that, we had other committees act, just not in as bipartisan a fashion, so it was difficult. At that point, Leader McConnell and Senator Durbin stepped in with Senator Inhofe and me, and all we did was try to get to where we are right now, which is a place where we can pass a fair funding bill. I have a list. It is very interesting, and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, my State counts on the Federal Government for one-half of its transportation funding, highways, and transit. Rhode Island counts on the Federal Government for 100 percent; Alaska, 93 percent; Montana, 87 percent; South Carolina, 79 percent; Hawaii, 79 percent; North Dakota, 78 percent; Wyoming, 73 percent; Connecticut, 71 percent; New Mexico, 70 percent, and it goes down from there, but the vast majority of our States count on the Federal Government for funding. What we have done, as both Senators Reid and McConnell have pointed out, is we just keep patching up the highway trust fund. I could go to a bank and say: I want to buy a House. The banker says: You have great credit. That's the good news. The bad news is you can only get a 5-month mortgage. What would I do in that case? I would sadly walk away. I can't afford to invest in a home if I have only 5 months of a mortgage. It is the same way with the States. The way the House went about it, and the way some of my colleagues on both sides want to handle it, is another 5-month extension, and our States are stopping. On Tuesday, the general contractors told us that in 25 States they have begun to lay off many, many, many construction workers. We all know at the height of the great recession we had millions of unemployed construction workers. It has been tough to get them back to work, and remember the businesses that employ them, it has been tough to get them back to work. It has been so hard and now we are seeing a reversal of all the hard work we did because we did a 2-year transportation bill that was helpful. This would be the first 6-year authorization in decades and the first 3-year funding, I believe, in 10 years. It could be more. We need to do this. I want to close by saying this: Working across the aisle is always difficult, but it is exciting, it is interesting, and the staffs from both sides have shown they can do it. Last night, I was on the phone with Senator McConnell's staff--I think it was 20 minutes until 12--and I kept saying: If we can't fix this, I have to call the Senator. They said: Please don't. Well, we worked it out this morning. I see the Senator from Rhode Island Mr. Whitehouse is coming in now. I told the Senators that Rhode Island counts on this Federal highway trust fund for 100 percent of the funding. I also did not mention that Senator Whitehouse is on the Environment and Public Works Committee. He is a very active and productive member. There is a program in there that is important to all of our States--major programs that will finally have a fund, regardless of whether it is Kentucky, Utah, Rhode Island or California. This is a fair bill. It has a good increase for highways and a good increase for transportation. States and cities want it. Yesterday, I found out from Senator Inhofe--who, by the way, did a terrific national radio address on this issue, and I thank him for that--that the mayor from Oklahoma City and the mayor from New York City wrote a letter saying how desperately they need the certainty. We are on the cusp. Amendment No. 2327 Mr. President, I personally support the Ex-Im Bank. I know my colleague Senator McConnell and I do not agree on this. I think the Ex- Im Bank is important. We should not forget that we are still recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression. We need to stay focused on putting people back to work, creating jobs, and growing the economy. We can do that by passing the transportation bill. I thank my colleagues for working together on this bill, and for their patience with this process. This bill will support millions of jobs and thousands of businesses nationwide, it will help rebuild our country's infrastructure, and it will strengthen our economy. It will also provide funding certainty for State and local governments and the construction industry, which was hard hit in the Great Recession. There are approximately 1.4 million fewer construction workers today compared to 2006--which equals roughly 20 percent of all construction jobs--and over 522,000 construction workers remain out of work in the U.S. The law that authorizes our transportation programs will expire in just 5 days--on July 31st--and the Highway Trust Fund is going to run out of money shortly after that. Many States, including Utah, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Wyoming, have delayed or canceled construction projects due to the uncertainty in Federal transportation funding. We have the opportunity to pass a bill, the DRIVE Act, which is vital for jobs and the economy. Last week, a letter was sent from 68 groups calling on the Senate to vote for a six-year reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs. This letter was signed by labor groups such as the Operating Engineers, the Laborers International, and United Brotherhood of Carpenters, as well as business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Retail Federation. This letter was also signed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AASHTO, our State DOTs, who know better than anyone the importance of certainty from a long-term bill. Today we have the opportunity to do even more to help grow our economy by reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. I applaud my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who worked so hard to reach a bipartisan agreement for a multi-year reauthorization. At a time when too many of our workers are still looking for jobs, the Ex-Im Bank helps American businesses create jobs. Last year alone, it financed $27.5 billion in exports for over 3,000 businesses, supporting over 164,000 American jobs. And over the last 6 years, it has supported a total of 1.3 million jobs. Not only that, the bank helps the United States level the playing field when so many other countries heavily subsidize their exports. The Ex-Im Bank helps American businesses compete fairly. Even more important, this job creation comes at no cost to the public. The Ex-Im Bank covers its own costs--sometimes even returning money to the Treasury--and maintains a default rate of under 2 percent. Unfortunately, as of July 1, the Ex-Im Bank has been unable to process any new transactions--and this poses a real threat to our economy. Business deals that are months or years in the making are now on hold, and may fall through, unless we reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank immediately. Let me tell a few stories about the Ex-Im Bank's impact in California. Since 2009, the Ex-Im Bank has helped almost 1,000 California exporters--702 are small businesses--to make deals to export $18 billion in American products. Here are just a few examples of what the Ex-Im Bank has done for California businesses. FirmGreen, based in Newport Beach, CA, is a veteran-owned business that converts landfill gas and other renewable resources into renewable energy and clean fuel. Financing from the Ex-Im Bank enabled FirmGreen to lead a landfill gas project in Brazil, which generated 165 new manufacturing jobs across seven States. Unfortunately, FirmGreen recently lost a $57 million contract because of the uncertainty surrounding the Ex-Im Bank reauthorization. The company's CEO Steve Wilburn put it well recently, ``For Congress to create a partisan issue out of a bipartisan entity that is supporting U.S. business and growing jobs simply for the debate is just wrong.'' Los Kitos Produce, a minority, woman-owned produce company in Orange, CA, wanted to expand its business to new markets overseas. To reduce the risks involved in selling to new foreign buyers, the company applied for an insurance policy from the Ex-Im Bank. This insurance facilitated $750,000 in sales and the company's expansion into Colombia and Korea. This helped to increase exports from 5 percent to 25 percent of their total sales. Martha Montoya, CEO of Los Kitos Produce, said: Without the Ex-Im Bank, I'd lose my growers' trust to ship overseas. Our growers reinvest everything back into their business and back into their community. They can't afford to risk not being paid. Congress needs to support American small business by reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. The bottom line is: without Ex-Im Bank, we wouldn't be able to export. ProGauge Technologies of Bakersfield, CA, manufactures machines that inject steam into reservoirs to thin out oil so it is easier to pump. In recent years, the company received $15.6 million in Ex-Im loan guarantees. Exports now make up 65 percent of the company's revenue. ProGauge President Don Nelson said: Without Ex-Im bank, [a lender] would make us put up 100 percent collateral, and we would have no money available for operations. . . . Revenues would go down by about 75 percent and I'd have to lay off between 50 and 60 people. Ex-Im is critical to our business. The Washington Post reported that ProGauge will have to withdraw its bid for a $30 million project in the Middle East if the Ex-Im Bank is not reauthorized. ``It's going to be devastating for us'' said CEO Don Nelson. ``Basically, we just won't be able to operate anymore.'' Wiggins Lift Company is a small business in Oxnard, CA, that employs over 50 workers and has been family owned for three generations. The Ex-Im Bank recently provided financing of $1.4 million for Wiggins to export its forklifts to three Brazilian companies. This deal will help to sustain an estimated 30 jobs at Wiggins Lift. ``Ex-Im's guarantee is a positive for everyone'' said Wiggins Lift CEO Michelle McDowell. ``These sales are helping us continue to grow, add employees, and contribute to the U.S. economy.'' These are just a few stories of what will be lost if the Ex-Im Bank is not re-authorized. Every day that the Ex-Im Bank is unable to make new loans, more and more businesses will lose opportunities to compete and sell their products worldwide, and that means jobs lost right here in America. Let's do the right thing. Let's reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank. Let's pass the highway bill. Let's create jobs and strengthen our economy. I urge my colleagues to support this important reauthorization. To sum it up, we have a lot of small businesses that count on the Ex- Im Bank to finance them so they can export our products. We have so many in our State. I hope it passes on a bipartisan vote, and I thank Leader McConnell. I know this is not something he likes at all, but he made a commitment and he is sticking to it. Lastly, we are going to have a vote to overturn ObamaCare. Senator Hatch and I were discussing how much we disagree on this point, but I told him I wouldn't hold back. I think it doesn't make any sense. We are looking at millions of people nationwide who now have health insurance and cannot be told by their insurer they have a preexisting condition like high blood pressure or diabetes, forget it. We have so many families that now have their 24-year-old, 25-year-old, 26-year-old on their insurance. I have stories that will make you feel good--stories from people in my State. One person had her cancer caught at a very early stage, and as a result of that she has lived to tell the tale. Before ObamaCare, she couldn't have gotten the tests she needed to discover this deadly cancer. I just say rhetorically to my friends on the other side--and they are my friends. I will tell you, we have really built up some relationships over this bill, which I am so happy about. Why don't we work together to fix the problems? We know no bill is perfect. The Transportation bill is far from perfect, and we had to fix that too. Maybe there is a new day dawning. We keep saying that, but it doesn't seem to be happening. But maybe something good is going to come from the bipartisanship, tough as it has been. The Transportation bill is far from perfect. I wanted to do so much more on safety, and I have to say that Senator Nelson did such a good job. I must have talked to Senator Wyden half a dozen times. He kept putting on pay-fors that were good, but they were rejected by the other side. We could have done so much more if we had gone that way. We did what we could do, and just as in the trade battle where our caucus was very split, our caucus is very split here. I hope we can find enough courage and interest, and most important, keep this in mind: This is, to me, the poster child of why we have come together. This America, this doesn't look like America. It is wrong, and we can come together and hopefully vote for Ex-Im Bank, against the repeal of ObamaCare, and then move forward with a good cloture vote tomorrow night on our very much compromised bill on transportation-- because it is a compromise. Again, my thanks to people on both sides of the aisle--Democrats, Republicans, and everybody--for moving this along. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

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

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I want to start by thanking the Presiding Officer for her work on the Environment and Public Works Committee. We did what some people think is the impossible: We passed a bill without one dissenting vote to move forward with a 6-year reauthorization of our highway and transit programs. People say: How did the committee do it? You are so split on other issues. It is because we recognize--all of us, whether we are liberal, progressive, moderate, conservative, very conservative--that it is essential for our great Nation to have an infrastructure that works. Last week, a bridge collapsed in California. It was a miracle no one was killed. That bridge carries people from California to Arizona. That means commerce goes over that bridge. That means passenger cars go over it. This is what happened. This is what it is about. It is not about what committees got in a room. It is not about Senator Cruz's ideological issues. It is not about any lobbyist. It is about the hard, cold fact that more than 60,000 of our bridges are structurally deficient. It is very hard to go to bed at night knowing we have not done anything about this except just do these short-term extensions of the highway trust fund where States are simply not undertaking the kinds of projects they need to undertake, which are inspecting those bridges and moving forward with repairing and strengthening them. The reason I have this here--to me, it is the poster child of why, on a bipartisan basis, we need to continue to move forward. Forget about the naysayers on the Democratic side. Forget about the naysayers on the Republican side. Let's have those of us who see this as the issue, not the process, you know, not the sequester which we have to solve--it is not part of this. We have two bad problems facing us: the highway trust fund that funds the transit and highway system and sequester is another problem. If we can solve this problem now, let's solve this problem now. We have a coming together, a very odd coalition here of Republicans and Democrats, despite the fact, I venture to say, that not one person loves this bill. There are always going to be things in a bill you don't like. We stripped some of the pay-fors that were hurting our cities. Thanks to Senators Portman, Stabenow, and Peters, that was done. That is good. We have a bill that is fully paid for, for 3 years--the first time in 10 years. We can always find problems. We can always say: Why are we doing this and not doing that? Well, the reason we are doing this is--if my numbers are right--we are single digits away from the highway trust fund going bust. It goes bust on July 31. Imagine. And we are fighting about this? We ought to be moving this faster. Oh, no, we have a filibuster; we have to be in this weekend. But it is worth it. I asked my staff to figure it out. Over the 3-year period, it is 2 million jobs--2 million jobs. That is a quarter of the jobs that were lost in the great recession. The fact is, those families are suffering still-- over 500,000 construction workers out of work. I want to say this. When people say ``Well, the lobbyists are winning here,'' who are the people who are pushing us for a bill? I would ask the American people--make your decision. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the AAA, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, American Council of Engineering Companies--I would just say to folks that this is a rare coming together of America. The Presiding Officer has been around here for a while. It is hard to find the U.S. Chamber on the same page as the Laborers' International and on the same page as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Conference of Mayors and engineering companies. Let's continue looking at this list: the American Highway Users Alliance, the American Public Transportation Association, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the Society of Civil Engineers, the American truckers, the Associated Equipment Distributors, the general contractors, the equipment manufacturers, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the National Asphalt Pavement Association. Labor has come together with business. Cities have come together with States. The users of the roads, the AAA--remember how we call them when our car breaks down, sometimes because it falls into a pothole and gets all messed up? The AAA wants this done. I am saying that this is an opportunity. There are naysayers on everything. It is rare that we can come together and get anything done. This is one of those moments. I want to share the fact that, on average, Federal funds provide 52 percent of every State's outlays for highways and bridges--52 percent, the average. There are some States that rely on the Federal Government more. I will tell you which States they are: Montana, 87 percent reliance on the Federal Government; Idaho, 68 percent reliance; Oregon, 54 percent reliance; Colorado, 64 percent--in other words, these States are counting on us--New Mexico, 70 percent; Minnesota, 64 percent; Missouri, 65 percent; Oklahoma, 63 percent; Mississippi, 65 percent; Alabama, 68 percent; Georgia, 62 percent; South Carolina, 79 percent; New Hampshire 57 percent; Vermont, 86 percent--I am sorry, New Hampshire is 68 percent--Maine, 57 percent; Rhode Island counts on it for everything, almost 100 percent; Connecticut, 71 percent; DC, 52 percent; Alaska, 93 percent; Hawaii, 79 percent; West Virginia--I thought my friend would be interested--61 percent reliance. So what I am trying to say is that if we do not succeed on this and we give it a patch again, our States will shut down. Seven States have already shut down their programs. They cannot sign contracts to fix any bridge. If seven States have already shut down and we do another extension, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs bleeding--bleeding. We will spin back into a bad situation. I see the Senator from Montana is here. I was just going through the list and showing that our States do rely on this highway program, and Montana relies on it for 87 percent of their spending. The average in the country is 52 percent, but a lot of our Western States that have so many miles rely on us more. My own State is 49 percent, but I have to say, we have 40 million people, and if we are not getting 49 percent of what we are used to getting, we are shutting down a lot of programs. I say all the time, if you want to get a house and you go to the bank and it says: Oh, you are cleared. You get a mortgage for 5 months. Well, you are not going to buy the house. You are not going to buy the house. You are going to say: Well, thank you for nothing. And that is the place we are. I know my colleague would like to have the floor, and I don't need to say anything else except we have been working so hard across the aisle, Senator Durbin and I, with Senator McConnell and Senator Inhofe. It has been a collaboration and it has been difficult. We come to the table with different ideologies and different ideas. We have hammered it out, and we have hammered it out because none of us, whether we are a Republican or Democrat, moderate or conservative or liberal, wants to see this happen again anywhere, but it is going to happen again. I can't tell you how shocked I was. Imagine, anyone going to Arizona now has to go 400 miles out of their way. What does that do to commerce? What does that do to the truck drivers trying to deliver goods? What does it do to our tourist industry? How many people go back and forth? They are going to make a fix to this, but it is going to be a little tough because they are going to take one span and shut it down while they fix it and the other will be a one-way this way and that way. So it could be more dangerous. I just say thank you to my Republican friends, to my Democratic friends. We have two amendments, one is the Ex-IM Bank. We will vote on it on Sunday. Hopefully, that will pass and be attached to this bill. It is an important jobs bill. The other one is a Republican amendment to repeal ObamaCare. I will not go into it today, but I have to say the House has voted 55 times on this issue. The Supreme Court said it is fine. We are reaching 20 million Americans who now have health care. Why, as my friend the Democratic leader asked, don't we just get together and make ObamaCare better? I have met so many people who are thrilled to have insurance, but there are ways we can make it better. But to talk about repealing something that is already in law, and it will be there--we can make it better. Let's not keep this repealing ObamaCare idea out there because it would hurt too many people and would create chaos. I hope we will vote against that and vote for Ex-Im. But much more important is that we are going to see Senator Cruz and others who want to disrupt this, who will offer a lot of irrelevant amendments-- amendments on Iran, amendments on a woman's right to choose. That is what is going to happen. The Chair is going to rule in accordance with precedent, and we are going to have to support the ruling of the Chair. It is going to be a tough and messy process. Someone said to me: Now that you are in the middle of this, is it true that passing a law is like making sausage? I said: Well, that would be an insult to sausage. That is how tough it is. It is tough. Last night, at 11:30, 20 minutes to 12, I thought the deal was off. It has been tough, but we managed to come together. We don't want this to happen. We want to give certainty to the States, and I hope we will stick together, as strange as the coalition is--because it is an odd one of Republicans and Democrats, though it is the way the Senate used to work--and get this done. Again, I thank all Members, even the ones who have opposed me strongly and opposed Senator McConnell strongly. Thank you for being here, and I hope you will be here Sunday because we have a couple of very important votes. I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks of my friend from Utah. Before Senator Hatch leaves the floor, I just want to say that we have worked very hard to put this bill together. It has been difficult. If I were writing it, I would have written it differently. If the Senator from Utah were writing it alone, he would have written it differently. But we have worked together long enough to know that we have to meet each other halfway.

Mrs. BOXER. Of course.