Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wish to associate myself with the remarks of my fellow colleagues this morning. They are eloquent. When I looked at this scene that Senator Murray and Senator Shaheen had up here and looked at this picture of this panel that is supposed to be speaking about women's health--in particular, birth control--obviously I was stunned. It brought back a memory from 20 years ago when all of America looked at the Senate and saw there was not one woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and they realized that year, in 1991, that there were only two women in the entire Senate. It sent shockwaves through the country. Whether one agreed with Anita Hill or Clarence Thomas, that was not the point. We had very strong feelings about that on both sides. The point of this is that on an issue so critical to this Nation, the next Supreme Court Justice, there was not one woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and we had the ``Year of the Woman,'' and we tripled the number of women in the Senate. It wasn't much, 2 to 6, but it was a start, and now we are at 17, and we are going higher because yesterday this is what America saw, a Republican House of Representatives that is so hostile to women's health that they didn't even think about having a person on there who was a female, nor did they have anyone on there that agreed it is important that women have access to birth control knowing that for many women birth control is medicine, knowing that 99 percent of women, sometime in her lifetime, utilized birth control. So this picture is worth a thousand words. I have a 16-year-old grandson. I came home, I had this picture in my hand. I went up to him--he's not particularly political--and I said: Zach, what do you notice about this? He said: ``It's all dudes.'' This does not take a degree in political science to see what is going on here. When we come back, we are going to be on the highway bill. There will be some bumps in the road along the way, but at one point we will probably have an amendment to vote on called the Blunt amendment. As we get to that later, I will talk about it. But Senator Blunt, a Republican Senator from Missouri, has put forward an amendment that would allow any single employer--regardless of how large or small their operation--to deny essential health care to their employees and preventive health care if they simply say it is a matter of conscience. It is right there. Senator Blunt says: Oh, no. I heard Senator Brown defending Senator Blunt saying: No, no. Oh, yes. Just read it and look at the list of lifesaving and health-saving services that would be denied. So women of America and the men who care about you, get ready because there is an assault on women, and stand with us. Thank you very much. I would yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Would the Senator yield? And I ask unanimous consent that she have an additional 60 seconds.

Mrs. BOXER. I just wanted to make the point that I think Senator Hutchison has been probably one of the most productive members of the Commerce Committee I have ever seen. I have been on that committee for a very long time. Her relationship with Senator Rockefeller is stellar. I too believe she makes a point when she says they have continued to work together since the bill was reported out and they have come to agreement. So I guess my question is, as someone who has given flesh, blood, sweat, and tears on this highway bill, knowing that we have a couple of these bumps in the road, should we not invoke cloture today--I personally hope we do, and we can fix the bill, but if we don't--and if Senator Rockefeller and Senator Hutchison are able to take their work and put that in as a substitute, would my friend be back on board here working toward completion of this bill?

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator. Cloture Motion

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Very briefly, I just want to thank my friend so much. He has a lot of ties to the environment and public works community, and we know every State in the Union is watching us. They want to know that we are going to get our job done on the highway bill. I see Senator Thune is on the floor. He has been extraordinarily helpful as we have worked our way through this in the most bipartisan fashion. For people who might be confused with the vote that took place, I just wanted to point out that in the package that was on the floor, what happened was there was a problem in the Commerce Committee. There was a bipartisan problem there which has now been worked out. So what my colleague has done now is--I ask unanimous consent that I can control the floor for the next 5 minutes.

Mrs. BOXER. So what my colleague has done by offering this amendment is to offer now the agreed-upon Commerce package and the agreed-upon bill so that we can finally get started and not have us torn asunder. It was wonderful to interact with Senator Hutchison today because she made her point that she is quite satisfied with the compromise that has been worked out between herself and Senator Rockefeller on the new compromised Commerce piece. So when we come back, here is where we will be: Senator Reid has offered that new package, which is 100 percent bipartisan. I have talked with Senator Inhofe. His staff and my staff are going to be working literally--I don't want to say 24/7; that is an exaggeration, but they are going to be working every day, including the weekends, over this work period to take probably 200 amendments--that is usually what happens in these bills--and try to get a few that are simple, that are not controversial, get those agreed upon on a staff level, and bring them back to a lot of principals. We have a lot of principals in this because we have four committees--all working in good faith, I might add. So I am excited. I know Senator Landrieu is on the Senate floor, and she has been doing a wonderful job with Senator Nelson, Senator Shelby, Senator Wicker, Senator Carper, and others, on a bipartisan basis on the RESTORE Act. It is an amendment that has been filed, and I am very hopeful that is the type of thing we can get done with good will here, people willing to not filibuster but agree to 60-vote thresholds, if they have to, with time agreements. Here is the deal, and I will close. Senator Reid was exactly right. If we don't do this bill, our entire transportation program expires at the end of March. That is 1.8 million jobs directly impacted by this bill. In the bipartisan bill we have worked out, we not only protect those jobs, but we create up to 1 million new jobs because we have added a very important piece, the TIFIA piece. So we have made that a major program which has cost very little because the way money is leveraged, it will leverage local funds, State funds, private funds. That means we could see up to 1 million new jobs. As we leave here today, the good news is that we have made sure that millions of working Americans will be able to count on the payroll tax cut. That is good. We make sure that so many of our unemployed workers can know they will continue to receive unemployment and that our senior citizens know their doctors will not run away from them when they come in with their Medicare card. We have done a good thing on that. There are things in that bill I don't like. Certainly it was a compromise. We met each other halfway. In the highway bill, we have done that as well. So I am ever so grateful to the leadership in the Senate because they could easily have said: Well, we had a cloture vote, and it went down. Let's forget the bill. But we are all working together. We knew we had to take this step to get to the next step. So we are at that step. We will come back, and we will begin in earnest to dispose of amendments. I hope we will have a list from the staff of maybe 15, 20 amendments that are not controversial that we can move forward on and then get to some of the difficult issues. In closing, I urge my colleagues on both side of the aisle--why do we need to have a birth control amendment on a highway bill? Why do we have to have foreign relations amendments? I serve on that committee, Foreign Relations, and I am proud of it, but we shouldn't be bringing controversial, unrelated amendments to the highway bill because 2.8 million jobs are hanging in the balance. But I leave here with great optimism. A couple of days ago I said I didn't see a path forward for the highway bill and the transit bill. Today I see a very clear path forward. If we all continue to work together, we are going to be proud and we are going to make everyone, from the Chamber of Commerce to the AFL CIO and every group in between that has joined in a coalition of 1,000 organizations--they are going to be happy, and, most of all, the American people will be happy, because we have to fix those bridges and those highways, and we have to make sure our people have alternatives so they can get into transit. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we have on the floor of the Senate the Transportation bill. You might wonder why a bill that is the No. 1 jobs bill that we can do here is moving so slowly. You might wonder. Any normal person would wonder why a bill that is so popular that it has everyone from the AFL CIO to the Chamber of Commerce supporting it is moving so slowly. You might wonder why it is moving so slowly, since the transportation authorization for all of our highway and transit projects expires in about 1 month. You might wonder why it is moving so slowly. Why isn't anyone here? What is going on? Yesterday, I came here and said I didn't see a clear path forward for this bill. It is very disturbing, and I will tell you why it is so disturbing. And that is that when you look at the construction area of our economy, it is still down. We have 1.5 million unemployed construction workers. If you think in your mind's eye what that is, I have a picture here of a stadium during the Super Bowl. You could see this stadium. I want you to picture everyone sitting in this stadium as an unemployed construction worker and think about 15 stadiums full. Yesterday, I said it was 10; that was incorrect. I stand corrected today. It is 15 stadiums full of unemployed construction workers praying that we pass this bill, because they are unemployed and this bill will create or save up to 2.8 million jobs. It will create or save 1.8 million jobs and create up to 1 million jobs. Yesterday, I said I didn't see a clear path forward. Today, I see a path forward. I really do. There has been some progress overnight. But it isn't as clear as it should be. We asked both sides of the aisle, we said, Can you come up with amendments that you feel compelled to offer to this bill? And try to keep them related to transportation. Well, the bad news is there are a lot of extraneous amendments that were filed. First and foremost, birth control. The Blunt amendment. Not only does it say that any employer could say they have a moral objection, it doesn't even have to be a religious objection. Any employer. So if I am an employer and I employ 100 people, and let's say I believe in prayer over medicine, I can then deny health care to all my employees. This makes no sense at all. Senator Blunt says, well, you could take it to court. Oh, sure. Some low-paid employee is going to take it to court. So we have to deal with this birth control amendment and health care amendment on a highway bill. As I said yesterday, first when I saw the birth control amendment, I thought maybe it says you can't take your birth control pills when you are on a Federal highway. What is going on here? There is no relation. It is bizarre to offer these unrelated amendments. Then we have an amendment on Egypt. Now, frankly, I am ready to vote on the birth control. I am happy to vote on an Egypt amendment, although I believe--this is my own view as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee--that when we have such delicate negotiations going on over the safety of our citizens who are being held there, we have to be very careful not to interfere in that important backdoor diplomacy that is going on. But we have one Senator who is holding up everything because he insists that we have to take a stand on Egypt even though we have Americans in danger over there. My Republican friends have to understand what is at stake. The business community, the labor community, everyone is in favor of this transportation bill, and we are going to have to face votes that are unrelated. There is an idea to repeal a very important environmental regulation that will clean up the pollution from boilers, pollution that is dangerous. It is mercury. It causes brain damage. It is arsenic. It is lead. And as I said yesterday--and I don't know whether you have had this experience. I have never in the history of my electoral career, which spans a long time, had anyone come up to me and say, Please, Barbara, we really need more arsenic in our air, we need arsenic in our water, we need more lead, we need more mercury. People don't want it. Why on Earth would they now come forward in a highway bill and repeal a very important rule that will make our families healthier? That is what my Republican friends are putting out there. They want to drill off our coast, even though it might interfere with the fishing industry, the tourism industry, the recreation industry. I would say to my colleagues with a hand of friendship, we are happy to look at transportation-related amendments. We can work those through. My staff and Senator Inhofe's staff have a very close working relationship, and we can take these relevant amendments and sit down and work through them. But obviously, if there is going to be a series of amendments on birth control and foreign policy matters and extraneous matters, it makes it very difficult. It diverts our attention from what is at stake. The clock is ticking on us. This transportation authorization we have expires in March. Here is where we are: We are going to have a cloture vote on the various titles to the bill, the Finance title, the Banking title, the Commerce Committee title. I want to praise all of the committees. They have done their work. Four committees, including ours, the EPW, the Environment and Public Works Committee, we have all done our work. We have done our jobs. We did what we had to do. We passed out the legislation. Now let's marry all the pieces and get going with legitimate amendments and get this done. Get this done. I urge colleagues to vote yes on cloture. I know some have problems with one of the titles, and we can amend that. If you don't like something in that title, we can amend it. And if we don't make cloture on the first round, we will come up with a path forward after that. But, please, it won't work if we have all of these bizarre, extraneous amendments. I am not saying the amendments are bizarre. Some are. But they are extraneous and they don't belong on this bill. I want to take a minute to remind my colleagues how popular the transportation authorization is. We are going to show you the ad that is being run. But President Reagan was very clear on why it was so important to pass a transportation bill. Here is what he said: The state of our transportation system affects our commerce, our economy, and our future. He said, clearly, this program is an investment in tomorrow that we must make today. And there is a very good coalition out there, a broad coalition taking out ads on the radio. After they quote Ronald Reagan, they say: It's time for leadership again, for new investments in transportation, to keep America moving and jobs growing. Call Congress. Tell them to pass the highway and transit bill and, once again, make transportation job number one. This is out on the radio airwaves. I am very grateful that it is happening. I really, really am. Also, we have ads in the various newspapers. Then there is another one that marries up two Presidents' statements, President Reagan and President Clinton. They quote President Clinton by saying: By modernizing and building roads, bridges, transit systems, and railroads, we can usher in two decades of unparalleled growth. Then they also quote Ronald Reagan again. He says: A network of highways and mass transit has enabled our commerce to thrive. At the end it says: Tell Congress to pass the highway and transit bill and make transportation job number one. So here we sit--and I want to show you. I don't know if people can see this. I hope you can see this. This is an ad that is running all over today: President Reagan stood up for public transportation. Will you? Then they quote him and they say: A recovering economy is exactly the time to rebuild America. President Reagan knew it in 1983 when he signed into law dedicating motor fuel revenues to public transportation for years to come. But now the House--and they talk about the problem with the House bill and they tell the House to fix their proposal, which we hope they are doing as we speak. This is a very important endeavor. Again, I have been around a long time. I have never seen the likes of the coalition we have seen. We have a coalition--it is the broadest coalition I have ever seen in my life in every single State, whether it is Ohio or California or New York or Alabama or Nevada or Kentucky. I am telling you, this is a strong coalition. And this is what they wrote to us: In 2011, political leaders--Republican and Democrat, House, Senate, and the administration--stated a multi-year surface transportation bill is important for job creation and economic recovery. We urge you to follow words with action: Make Transportation Job #1 and move legislation immediately in the House and Senate to invest in the roads, bridges, and transit systems that are the backbone of the U.S. economy, its businesses large and small, and communities of all sizes. That is basically from the letter signed by over 1,000 organizations. I see my friend from California is here. She may be speaking on this topic or another topic, and I am going to yield to her momentarily. I think it is important to take a look at the organizations I talked about to give you a sense of it. First of all, every State in the Union is listed on this letter. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of the letter from over 1,000 organizations.

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

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I am going to name a few of them: the American Composite Manufacturers Association, American Concrete Pavement Association, American Hotel and Lodging Association, American Nursery and Landscape Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, Associated General Contractors of America, National Society of Professional Engineers, National Resources Defense Council, North American Die Casting Association, Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, Reconnecting America, Retail Industry Leaders Association, Transportation for America, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Travel Association, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Laborers International, International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association-- it goes on and on, a thousand groups representing Democrats, Republicans, Independents. I am so grateful to them. I speak to them, frankly, a couple of times a week to tell them what we are doing here to move this important bill forward. I told them yesterday they needed to contact every single Senator in this Chamber to let them know what is at stake in their State. In closing, I will say this: Sometimes when we act we not only do something good, which this bill will do--it is a reform bill, it is a great bill, and it adds to the TIFIA Program, an idea that came out of Los Angeles and is going to create up to 1 million new jobs while protecting 1.8 million jobs--we do many good things. But also when we do this, we stop bad things from happening. What will happen if we fail to act by March 31 and there is no action to fill that trust fund, which our bill does? There will be over 600,000 jobs lost. Later today, at a time when others are not here, I will go State by State. Here it is. ``Estimated jobs lost.'' There would be a 35-percent cut in transportation funding if we do not pass this bill and the finance title that raises the funds necessary. We will break this down. Let me tell you, it is an ugly picture for us to have to go home and face the music at home and tell construction workers that even though we have 1.5 million unemployed construction workers, that is going to go up by 600,000 jobs. We cannot afford to let this bill stop. I will not let this bill go away. I will assert every right I have as a Senator from California, where we have 63,000 of these jobs at stake. I am going to be here on the Senate floor. We are going to get this bill done one way or another. We stand ready to work with our colleagues, to work with our Republican friends, to go through these amendments that are relevant and urge them to backtrack on these very unrelated amendments. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator, and we are working on that too.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I want to be very clear here that Members on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, have very strong feelings that this amendment should not be brought up at this time. We need to be smart and strategic when we have people in harm's way in other countries. Further, I think it is important to note what Senator Leahy has said several times, which is already in law--we have certain conditions placed upon aid to Egypt, and I think that needs to be understood and explored. So because there is so much objection to this amendment being brought up at this time, I will object.

Mrs. BOXER

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

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the leader. First, I just want to thank the Leader so much for his remarks this morning. They are so close to my heart. Frankly, they are close to the hearts of the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee and all the committees that have done their work in a bipartisan way. It is a unique moment when we have four committees complete their work and here we sit. Before I ask my question, I think the people of this country need to understand what is going on. We are wasting, as my friend said, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day because Republican Senators, for whatever their reasons, want to bring progress in this country to a halt, to a stop. We have to wonder, is this politically motivated? As my friend said, 2 million jobs are at stake. I would say to my friend, it is actually up to 2.8 million because there are 1.8 million jobs we protect, and up to 1 million new jobs we would create because of the bipartisan cooperation we have had across the board in the Senate on the highway bill. So I thank my friend. My question is, Is my friend aware we have more than 1,000 organizations representing millions of Americans who are Republicans and Democrats and Independents, who work out there on the roads or who are the business leaders from the Chamber of Commerce to the AFL CIO, to the general contractors or the granite people--it goes on and on-- the cement people, to the coal ash people, and the fact is a thousand groups are out there and they are watching us, minute after minute? I hope this is an opportunity to tell them to activate their people and let them know why we are not passing a bill that will save or create 2.8 million jobs and help our businesses across the board and help our States. When we talk about safety, as my friend pointed out, Senator Inhofe tells an eloquent story of a woman killed in Oklahoma walking with her child under a bridge and concrete falls on her. She is gone, and he is so motivated by that. So I hope my friend will address whether he is aware of the broad support in America for this bill regardless of party label.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I want to follow on to the comments made by the majority leader about the importance of the bill we are trying desperately to move forward here today and we tried to move forward yesterday. We had a good vote when we came back here on Monday night. Eighty-five of us said, Let's go do this highway bill. This is a key and important matter for the country. In the 1950s, it was President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican President, who said, We need an interstate highway system. We cannot move people, we cannot move commerce, we cannot be a great power. We have a great military, but we don't have a good road system. He moved forward not only with that but with the very first aid to schools at that time; because before he made the point that we needed to have a Federal program to help our schools, it was strictly a State matter. So we owe President Eisenhower a lot. And I will tell you, the way we are acting around here, if he were watching, he would be shocked. The first amendment to a highway bill is birth control. The second amendment the Republicans want after birth control is to talk about Egypt. It goes on and on, controversial drilling off our coast, and all of this list they came up with. It is very clear we have a bipartisan bill. It will make sure that we build our roads, we fix our roads, we fix our freeways, we make sure our bridges are safe. Right now, we have a horrible situation with tens of thousands of bridges that are unsafe. Do we need to have another tragedy before we pass this highway bill? Every committee has done its work, including the Finance Committee, to come up with the funds to fill the Highway Trust Fund so we can keep going at current levels plus inflation, and we have leveraged one program called TIFIA which leverages 30 times. So by putting $1 billion into the TIFIA Program--and you know about it because you are a proud member of the EPW Committee--by putting $1 billion into the TIFIA Program, it means $30 billion out there, because the States and the localities will apply for this funding, they will match this funding, the private sector will match it, and we will create up to 1 million more jobs in addition to the 1.8 million we are protecting with the rest of the programs. We are talking about a real shot in the arm to our economy. I am proud that Senator Inhofe--who is the mirror opposite of me in most issues. We do not agree on most issues. We do agree on this, the need to have a class-A infrastructure. We agree on that. We think it is critical. Yet here we sit, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, because Republican Senators do not want us to move forward on this bill. You have to ask why. Why? We are willing to take these amendments. We are willing to work on several of them. We cannot do 100 unrelated amendments. Come to us with a list that makes sense. But do not tell the people in your State you are working to get a highway bill done because I am here to put in the Record that the fact is, you are not helping. You are hurting us. You are hurting the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who need these good-paying jobs. You are hurting the tens of thousands of businesses that need to get back to work making the cement, laying the pavement, fixing the bridges, building the houses. It is very distressing. When I go home and people say: What is happening, well, they have to have a vote on birth control. It is hard to find the words except to say: What are you thinking when we have a bill that is so important? My Republican friends stand here, minute after minute and hour after hour--they are not here now--all day criticizing President Obama, who has turned this economy around--no thanks to them. When he took over, 800,000 jobs a month--bleeding. There was a contraction in economic growth. It was way down in the final quarter of the Bush years. There were huge deficits he inherited from Bush. He's turned it around. He said we need to save the auto industry, and we did. A lot of our friends on the other side said: Oh, don't do it. They were wrong. The President was right. We are recovering. Month after month we are adding jobs, after loss after loss of jobs. We have turned it around. But I will tell you that this bill is, as the chamber of commerce and the AFL CIO agree, the No. 1 jobs bill we can do. There is not much we do around here that can have an impact on 2.8 million jobs. I cannot think of anything that tops that. They are mostly private sector jobs. There are some jobs in the public sector in the transit areas, but they are mostly private sector, private business jobs. So anyone who tells you they are for jobs and anyone who tells you they are for economic recovery, the first thing you should say is, Are you helping Senators Boxer and Inhofe in a bipartisan way to move the highway bill, because that is 2.8 million jobs. If they give you an answer like: Oh, sure, but we have to have a few important amendments first, you ask them what those amendments are. If they are honest with you, they will tell you birth control, a woman's right to choose, health care, offshore oil drilling. They have one they want to offer that would hurt our people's health. It would allow dangerous arsenic and lead and other toxins to go into the air from boilers. They want to repeal a protective rule we have that will clean up the pollution from boilers, even though the biggest boiler manufacturers support the rule. Go figure. The last thing I hear people in my State tell me is, oh, I want more arsenic in my air and, oh, I would love to have more lead. I need more mercury. Please. This is the 21st century. We have made so much progress on the environment. We are making progress on health care. We are making progress on infrastructure. Don't stop it all. Step back, let this bill go forward. Senator Reid has set up a vote, a first test vote after the vote to proceed. I know some people have some problems with a couple of the titles, and we are working on fixing that, but I hope we will get 60 votes to proceed. If we do not, we are going to try again. Believe me, we are going to try and try again because, as one Senator, I am not going to agree to do anything else until will we get this bill done, period. One thousand organizations are at work trying to push this bill forward, organizations from business, to labor, to government. We have the general contractors, the cement makers, the AFL CIO and a number of unions, the chamber of commerce, the granite people, we have Portland Cement, and we have a group that represents America, AAA. We have to do this bill. I will not, as one Senator, give up my right and go to anything else. That is how strongly I feel about it, and I do not believe I am being selfish. I think I am representing the people of this country who want to see a jobs bill pass, who want to see a bipartisan bill pass, who want to make sure our States do not suddenly start laying people off at a time when we are finally turning this economy around. I guess I am laying down a marker here as one Senator from one State, albeit the largest State in the Union, 38 million people strong, with a high unemployment rate, traffic congestion. We take 40 percent of the goods through California that are being imported into our country. It goes on our roads, all throughout America. Do you think we need better roads? Oh, yes, we do. Do you know what happens when those trucks sit and stall on the 10 freeway? It is ugly, it is dirty, it is wasting money, it is wasting time, it is hurting people's lungs, and it cannot stand. I lay down the marker today. I ask my friends to please come to the table. I am ready, willing, and able, as the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. We will meet with you. We will listen to you. If you want to have a certain amendment offered and we can help you get it done and it makes sense, it is relevant, we will help. But other than that, let me be clear, there are a few things we do around here that are bread and butter, basic. The highway bill that got started under Dwight Eisenhower is basic. You should hear what Ronald Reagan said about the importance of a highway bill, the importance of a transit bill. You should hear it. It is on the radio. People are taking out ads to talk about it. Bill Clinton is eloquent on the point. This is a bipartisan issue, and it will be voted on in this Senate. It will be voted on because I cannot in good faith as the chairman of this committee just give in and say: OK, we are done. We tried for 4 days, it did not happen. But I hope everyone watching in America--if we have anyone watching-- will understand that it is 3:20 on a workday. This Chamber is empty because people are playing games and maybe they don't want this economy to go forward. Maybe they don't want to see President Obama succeed. Maybe they don't care about jobs, for all their talk, because that is the only thing I can say. When you have a bill on the floor that came out of a committee unanimously--it came out of two committees unanimously: Senator Inhofe and I agreed; Senators Johnson and Shelby agreed--and then you have the Finance Committee reaching out to the Republicans--they worked together, and they had a tremendous vote, which I think was 17 to 6 with one voting present, for their title, and that is about 90 percent of this bill--and then you see nothing here going on because people want to offer amendments about birth control, it is beyond me. I hope, as you see this floor quiet today, if it bothers you the way it bothers me, you will call the Capitol and leave a message for the leaders on both sides of the aisle and say: For the good of the people, put aside your differences and get this job done. This is a bipartisan bill. This is not a Democratic bill. It is not a Republican bill. It is a bipartisan bill. Surely if the committees could set aside unbelievable differences, then we can do the same and get to work on this. I am embarrassed--embarrassed for the people of this country. They are out there working and there is an empty Chamber here when we have the most important bill we could possibly have on the floor. I am going to fight for this bill. I am going to fight hard. I am going to make the case. I am going to fight for the 2.8 million jobs it could produce. I am going to fight for the thousands of businesses that need this lift. I am going to fight for the people who need to have safe roads and safe routes to school so they do not have to worry. I am going to do it in the name of the people who never made it because they were on some unsafe road. Senator Inhofe talks about a mother and a child who went under a bridge in Oklahoma, and a big sheet of concrete fell down and she is gone. She died. I am going to do it in the name of all these things because this bill is about motherhood and apple pie. There is no partisanship to this--none. Republicans use the roads and Democrats use the roads. Independents use the roads. We all use the roads. We want our children safe. We want our families safe. We want our roads usable. We do not want to be caught in congestion. Every part of the transportation system is addressed by the four committees that have come together on this bill. As I leave the floor--and I do not see anybody else--I hope people will watch. In 5 or 10 minutes, if nobody is here, pick up your phone and call the leaders of Congress and tell them to get to work on the Transportation bill and don't offer ridiculously unrelated amendments. We do not have to do that. Come together and sit down together and make a path forward because right now there is no path forward. I do not see it. I do not see it. It is one of those things where people just say: I don't care; we are not going to this bill. Everyone in America is going to know this is happening because I am going to tell everyone in America it is happening. I will not be listened to the first few times, but maybe by the 20th time somebody will notice what is happening here. We are in morning business, meaning we are just yakking, we are not doing any real work. But I will be back in a little while to give a report on the progress we are making--or lack of same. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, do we have a unanimous consent request pending after the vote?

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I rise because I want to point out to the people of this country who may be watching this proceeding that what has happened tonight on the Senate floor is just ridiculous. Senator Bill Nelson--I think he was restrained, frankly. I know him. He is a very close friend--was restrained in his comments. One Senator is stopping us from being able to ensure that justice is done, getting a great judge on the bench. It is sad. It is a historic nominee. It is a bipartisan situation with Senators Nelson and Rubio together, but it goes beyond this. In addition to holding up the Senate and wasting time here--because we can't vote on the judge now; we have to wait until hours and hours go by--what happens after? We are supposed to be on a highway bill, a bill that will protect 1.8 million jobs and create an additional million jobs. Mr. President, 2.8 million jobs are hanging in the balance. We have obstruction from my friends on the Republican side--and they are my friends. I don't know what they are doing. I don't know whom they think they are helping, but it is not the American people. Whether it is standing in the way of this judge or whether it is stopping this highway bill, they are hurting America. I want to tell them to wake up and smell the roses--we are trying to get out of this recession. This is a jobs bill that is just waiting to happen. We have myself and Senator Inhofe as partners in this effort. We have Senator Baucus working with the Republicans in the Finance Committee. We have Senator Johnson working in concert with Senator Shelby on the Banking Committee. On the Commerce Committee, we have a few bumps in the road, but we are going to straighten those out because Senators Hutchison and Rockefeller are working together. Why is it that we are doing nothing? Is it because Senators on the other side do not want us to move ahead? It is no wonder we have 13 percent approval from the American people. I will tell you, if they did not let our families vote, it would be less. How low can it go? We are going to know. I have to say we want to get to this highway bill. It also had an 85- to-11 vote to move forward--an 85-to-11 vote to move forward--and guess what the first amendment is. It is not about making sure our highways keep up with the demand. It is not about how we can make sure our transit systems are functional. It is not about how we make our bridges safer. It is about birth control. Excuse me, the first amendment my friends on the other side want to offer is about birth control? I honor my friends' views on birth control. I personally believe, as the vast majority of Americans believe, that it is important women have the ability to have their insurance cover contraception. It saves money, it saves lives, and it reduces abortions by the tens of thousands. It saves insurance companies 15 percent because it avoids so many problems. Fifteen percent of the women who use birth control use it for non-birth-control reasons, such as helping prevent an ovarian cyst from turning into a dangerous situation. They use it to prevent endometriosis. They use it to prevent debilitating pain. It is a highway bill. I am interested to see what Senator--I have to read again what he is offering. I think it is so broad, it says that anybody in America--any employer can refuse to offer any part of insurance they want if they say it is a religious objection. So let's say you are a Christian Scientist and you run a big organization and don't believe children should get chemotherapy--and we have had those cases. Under the Blunt amendment, I guess you don't have to do it. You just say it is a religious objection. It is so sweeping. My point tonight is to say that such an amendment does not belong on a highway bill. To that end, and I will stop here, we received a letter today: ``To the Members of the United States Senate.'' This is one of the clearest letters I have ever seen. Here is what it says: The time is now to pass S. 1813, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, the bipartisan highway bill crafted by the Environment and Public Works Committee. Last Thursday 85 Senators voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1813, clearly demonstrating bipartisan support for passing the highway and transit bill. While we are encouraged by the show of support, the undersigned organizations are concerned that progress may be impeded if non-germane amendments are offered as part of the deliberations on this bill. I love this letter. Listen to what they say. The organizations that we represent may hold diverse views on social, energy, and fiscal issues, but we are united in our desire to see immediate action on the Senate's bipartisan highway and transit reauthorization measures. This is to every Senator. Senators, please listen carefully. Therefore, we strongly urge you to abstain from offering nongermane amendments that would impede the passage of this legislation, which is essential to job creation, economic growth and to the long-term stability of vital transportation programs. I will read who signed this: AAA, the American Association of State Highway and Transit Officials, the American Bus Association, American Concrete Association, American Council of Engineering Companies, American Highway Users Alliance, American Moving and Storage Association, American Public Transportation Association, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Traffic Safety Services Association, American Trucking Associations, Associated General Contractors of America, Associated Equipment Distributors, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Governors Highway Safety Association, Intelligent Transportation Society, International Union of Operating Engineers, Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the National Association of Development Organizations, the National Construction Alliance II, National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, Portland Cement Association, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Listen, we have to put aside these wedge issues, these ``gotcha'' issues. We have the equivalent of 10 Super Bowl stadiums filled with unemployed construction workers. We have business after business that is struggling. This is a bipartisan bill. This will save 1.8 million jobs and create an additional 1 million jobs, and we are talking about birth control amendments, line-item veto amendments, amendments about foreign policy. I have to say to those colleagues of mine, whatever side of the aisle they are on--at this time I only know Republican amendments, but anyone who comes forward with a nongermane amendment and tries to put it on this important bill--let me say this as best I can, either they don't care a hoot about jobs for our people or they just want this economy to tank for political reasons. Because if we don't pass a highway bill-- and the authorization ends at the end of March--I am going to be blunt with you. What is going to happen? Our States are going to start shutting down these projects and people will be unemployed and we will see reversal in this very delicate economic recovery. This is a critical bill, and I am going to be on this floor every single day and I am going to be going on my Facebook and I am going to be going on Twitter and TV and radio everywhere. Why? To say a very simple thing to my colleagues--get out of the way of this jobs bill. Get out of the way. All of America supports it, from the left to the right, to the center and everything in between. I yield the floor. I thank the Chair.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. You made the point. I was happy when you made the point because it gave me a chance to argue with you, and we both enjoy that, and we will continue. Our friendship is deep. We each know when we talk to each other that it is from the heart. But when it comes to this particular issue, we both agree we have to get a bill done. So much is dependent upon it. I just received a letter from the Americans for Transportation Mobility. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the letter to which I am referring.

Mrs. BOXER. I want to tell you who signed this letter. And my friend may not have seen it. The American Public Transportation Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the Associated Equipment Distributors, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the Associated General Contractors, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Now, I have to say----

Mrs. BOXER. Yes, but let me make one statement. This list I have just read represents America--Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Yes, I yield.

Mrs. BOXER. I am finishing this, and then I will yield the floor and am happy to have him speak. I felt this was opening time for the chairman and the ranking member to lay down their case, and I am not about to let an attack on the President of the United States of America go unanswered. I am not going to do it. So if we are going to go down that road, we are going to have a give-and-take. If we are going down the road I hope we will go down, it is about getting this bill done. So let me talk about this letter, and then I will yield the floor. And I say to my ranking member, we will decide how to divide the time, and we should. That is fine with me. They say in this letter: We commend the Senate committees that helped craft S. 1813, a bi-partisan bill for stabilizing federal transportation funding mechanisms for the near-term and avoiding draconian cuts amounting to one-third of total federal investment in highway, transit and safety programs. They are talking about the fact that the highway trust fund is a third of where it should be. That is why we are so happy that the Finance Committee, on a bipartisan vote, is replacing these funds. The letter goes on to talk about what would happen if we didn't do this bill. Cuts of this magnitude would accelerate the deteriorating performance of the nation's surface transportation network, greatly undermine U.S. economic growth and competitiveness, and result in the real loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. This bill includes important policy reforms that would improve the delivery of transportation improvements by consolidating programs, reducing red tape, and leveraging private sector resources. Additionally, this great coalition, which is comprised of the chamber of commerce, the unions, and business, says: The ATM coalition will strongly oppose any amendments to reduce the funding levels established in this legislation, and remains committed to working with Congress to find reliable revenue streams sufficient to support the long-term growth and the fiscal sustainability of the Highway Trust Fund. This next quote from their letter is so important: Without the certainty of a multi-year bill, current problems become harder to solve as highway and transit conditions worsen and land, labor, and materials get more expensive. Absent passage of a multi-year reauthorization, there will be continued uncertainty and erratic funding for critical infrastructure investments and the public and the private sectors would continue to respond by delaying projects, withdrawing investment, and laying off employees. We encourage you to support the motion to proceed to S. 1813. Of course, Mr. President, that is the motion we will be voting on today at 2 p.m. They continue: The ATM Coalition stands ready to bring together business, labor, highways and transit stakeholders to provide Congress the public support to pass an adequately funded multi-year surface transportation bill by March 31, 2012. On the issue of the enhancements, we already had a vote on enhancements before, and we turned back proposals to do away with enhancements. So what we did in this bill is we said to the States: Guess what, you have much more flexibility. I have to tell you--and I won't do it now, but perhaps Senator Paul is going to speak about these enhancements--we know for sure that these enhancements--and I think that is the wrong name because they are really safety projects--have saved lives because they fund things such as pedestrian paths and safe passageways for kids to get to school. So while my colleague and I may differ, I strongly believe Congress stands behind--I should say the Senate stands behind continuing to fund these safety projects, and we have given the States far more flexibility. So I hope we will defeat any amendment to remove the ability of our States to determine which of those safety projects they want because we have the facts behind us--13 percent of traffic fatalities involve pedestrians and bicyclists. I feel we give our States the opportunity, and if Oklahoma doesn't have any of these problems because it is a much more rural State than California, I am happy with that. But we have to understand that these are safety projects, and I hope we will defeat any amendment that tries to reduce the ability of the States to fund these projects. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Well, Mr. President, this is a big day for those of us who believe strongly that we need to focus on job creation, a better business climate, a bill that will, in fact, not only protect jobs but create new jobs. That is the bill we are hoping will get the go-ahead at 2 o'clock, what we call MAP-21, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, S. 1813. This has been--if I could use an analogy that fits--a long road to get to this point so we can, in fact, make sure we have an adequate road system, an adequate highway system, an adequate transit system, and that we make sure, as a world leader, our infrastructure--our bridges, our roads--keep up with the demands put upon them. There are many demands put upon them because we are a great nation with commerce and heavy-duty vehicles on our roadways and railroads that cross over roadways that create potential problems, and, certainly, we have a robust transit system that needs to keep up with the times. Last night, I received a letter from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and I was very pleased to see it because they support the bill Senator Inhofe and I, on a bipartisan basis, were able to get through our committee on a unanimous vote. It is a rare moment in history, frankly, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and labor unions all come together, with everyone on the same page, to say: Let's move forward with a bill. In these days of controversy and debate--and, Lord knows, I am immersed in many of them--this is one where we have been able to carve out a very important consensus, not only in the Environment and Public Works Committee but in the Banking Committee--where Senators Johnson and Shelby work together--to get a piece of this bill done. In the Finance Committee--where Senators there are led by Senator Baucus--they were able to hammer out a tough and important agreement to fund this bill because it has some shortfalls due to the fact that the highway trust fund has been going down because cars are getting better fuel economy--and that is a good thing--but the bad, unintended problem is the trust fund now has fewer dollars, so we run short of what we need to keep our bridges and highways and transit systems going. So what a moment it was to see not only our committee but the Banking Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Commerce Committee, with a couple of exceptions on a couple of provisions--they did their job as well, and we are trying to work with them to resolve whatever matters remain in that portion of the bill. But I want to quote from the letter from the Chamber of Commerce that I received last night. I want to share a couple lines with everyone. I am quoting: The Chamber strongly supports this important legislation. Investment in transportation has proven to grow jobs, and the need for Congress to act on transportation infrastructure is clear. Another quote: Passing transportation reauthorization legislation is a specific action Congress and the Administration can take right now to support job growth and economic productivity without adding to the deficit. Those two quotes I think show we have done our job well. This is a bill that is paid for. This is a bill that, because of the way it was written, is a reform bill, which I will go into. But it also protects the jobs we currently have, which is 1.8 million jobs in the transportation area, and also, because of the way we have boosted a program called TIFIA--which I will talk about, which is a highly leveraged program--we have the capacity to add over a million new jobs. Mostly these jobs are in the private sector. That is where they are, and that is what we are focused on in this legislation. I mentioned Senator Inhofe before, my ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee. I expect him to be in the Chamber shortly. I cannot tell you of the trusted partnership we were able to develop with him that went not only for his relationship with me in working on this bill, but the staff-to-staff relationships which have blossomed into friendships and trust. I think what we have shown is that each of us can be a tough but fair partner. Our staffs understand where we are coming from. But we have a bigger goal in front of us than our differences; that is, our agreement that it is our responsibility to fix our aging roads and highways and bridges--our infrastructure--to put people back to work, to boost our economy, and, as Senator Inhofe has talked about very often, with examples that are in many ways heart breaking, we have problems with safety in our Nation. We have bridges that are crumbling. We have seen them with our own eyes. We cannot turn away from this because we may have disagreements on lots of other things. It has been a long but a very worthwhile journey to get to this stage because the payoff here, if this bill eventually becomes law, is, as I said, protecting 1.8 million jobs and creating up to another million jobs. Again, I want to mention the Commerce Committee. I did not thank Senators Rockefeller and Hutchison for their work on this as well. So we have four committees that are involved in writing this bill. Each committee has voted out their bills. If all goes right today, and we get a resounding go-ahead, I hope we begin with amendments on the EPW portion, and then move to add the different other bills to this bill, until we have added all four--all the committees together--and then I hope we will have a resounding vote and get to a conference committee. We have major differences with the other body, but I think we can work them out for the good of the people and the thousand organizations that back us in this bill, in this effort. I also have to thank Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader. He brought this bill to the floor. He exerted the right kind of pressure on all of our committees. He encouraged us. He understands clearly that, as we try to get out of this recession--and we have seen beneficial results from our actions in a number of areas--this is going to mean a big boost for jobs. I want to also say that within my committee we have what we call the big four: it is the chairman and the ranking member--myself and Senator Inhofe--and then it is the chairman of the Highway Subcommittee and the ranking member there; and that is Senator Baucus and Senator Vitter. So I honestly think if you look at the big four, and you look at our philosophies, and you look at where we are from and the differences we bring to the table, we cover the whole Senate in terms of the range of ideologies but are tied together by a belief that this is something that needs to get done. And Senators Baucus and Vitter were with Senator Inhofe and me every step of the way, for which we are very grateful. I mentioned, I alluded to a thousand organizations that have been involved on the outside pushing us to get this done. My hat is off to them. They make up a broad coalition. I have spoken frequently with them to give them an update on how we are doing, and I have to tell you they truly represent America. Over the course of this debate, if I have the time--and in many ways I hope I do not have the time because I hope we can get this done and not spend a whole lot of time on it because I think the committees have done such a good job, but if we have excess time on the floor, I intend to read as many of those organizations into the Record as I possibly can because that coalition is remarkable in its reach. They were led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It is an unprecedented coalition. They came together regardless of ideology and differences. Every time I look at this list, I am reminded that essentially it is America. It is America: business, labor groups, State organizations, city organizations, and organizations from all 50 States. We received a letter from these thousand organizations recently, and I am going to quote some of what they said. They said: There are few federal efforts that rival the potential of critical transportation infrastructure investments for sustaining and creating jobs and economic activity. . . . They wrote: In 2011, political leaders--Republican and Democrat, House, Senate and the Administration--stated a multi-year surface transportation bill is important for job creation and economic recovery. We urge you to follow words with action: And this is what they asked us: Make Transportation Job #1 and move legislation immediately in the House and Senate to invest in the roads, bridges, [and] transit systems that are the backbone of [our] economy, its businesses large and small, and communities of all sizes. Again, it is important to note, our surface transportation bill creates or saves millions of jobs, benefiting millions of American families across the country. What a great signal it will send, as we struggle to get out of the slowdown and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This will be a very large light because there are very few other things we can do here that have the reach of a transportation bill. Let's talk about the construction industry. According to the most recent unemployment figures, there are 1.5 million construction workers out of work, with the industry facing an unemployment rate of 17.7 percent. Construction workers are out of work. I show you a chart I have in the Chamber. The national unemployment rate is 8.3 percent. We want to see that come down. But look at that construction industry unemployment rate: 17.7 percent. These are real people with pride in what they do. And we know the housing industry has had a horrible time. It has stalled out, and it is in a horrible trough. So if we can take those construction workers and offer them an opportunity to build the roads, the bridges, the highways, the transit systems, it will put them to work and we will get that 17.7-percent rate down. I do not know if we have a picture of that stadium. This is a picture of the Super Bowl stadium. From what I understand, it seats about 100,000. That is what we see here. If we had 15, 15 of these pictures, 15 Super Bowl stadiums' worth of people, that is how many people are unemployed in construction. I use this not only because I watch the Super Bowl, although my Niners did not get in and it was upsetting, but because this is a picture, a visual. Imagine every one of those people unemployed times 15. It is a visual. I think it is important that we keep in mind we are talking about real people who have lost real jobs because of this recession and especially the housing downturn. This is a chance to put them to work. There is an urgent need to get this legislation through the conference committee and onto the President's desk because the current transportation authorization extension expires on March 31. I wish to say to colleagues who may be watching or staff who may be watching: You may have a lot of amendments in your mind, in your heart, and everybody has a right, and I support your right. But please think very hard before you start bringing down amendments that will slow us up. Those thousand organizations know we need to keep our eye on the ball, and these organizations are in all our States. They represent millions and millions and millions of American families. So let's not add extraneous matters, please. Let's not have frivolous amendments, killer amendments. We all can offer these. I have several I could offer in a heartbeat. But this is not the place to have our ideological disputes. This is a bill that is a jobs bill. This is a bill that is good for our businesses. This is a bill that will save 1.8 million jobs and create up to 1 million more at a time when we must have that kind of wind at our back. There is another reason. Not only does the highway bill expire in March, but we also know the trust fund is running out of money for projects already in the pipeline. So we have to find a reliable and stable source of funding. Senator Baucus and his Finance Committee have come up with a way to responsibly fill this shortfall. I cannot thank them enough, the Democrats and Republicans on that committee. Thank you. Because what you have done is to have come up with some very good ways to pay for the shortfall, and those ways do no harm. We must push forward for another reason which I alluded to before. America's aging infrastructure is crumbling. Let me just tell America this: Some 70,000 of our Nation's bridge are structurally deficient-- 70,000 of our Nation's bridges are structurally deficient, 50 percent of our roads are not up to standard. If you are in your home and you have little kids and someone who is an expert comes up to you, an engineer, and says your house could easily crumble, we all know what you would do. You would get out of there, fix it, and then move the family back in. This is no different. If somebody tells you your house is crumbling, you have to fix it. If somebody says to us, our Nation's bridges are structurally deficient and over 50 percent of our roads are not up to standard, we have to act. My dear friend and colleague who is going to manage this bill with me has arrived. I will tell him, I am about 5 minutes away from finishing my opening statement and yielding to him. But he is more eloquent than anyone I have ever heard on two issues; one, what is the role of government. He makes the point, which I am not going to take away from him, as to how infrastructure fits into that. He also is eloquent on the point of safety. Because he has seen with his own eyes what happens if we do not get our infrastructure sound and safe. We have a deteriorating part of our infrastructure, and it needs to be fixed. We cannot be an economic leader if we cannot move people and goods. We cannot thrive as a nation if our people are trapped in traffic and our businesses are trying to move goods and they are trapped in traffic. We lose 4.8 billion hours from work and we pay the price for that in loss of productive time and in dirty air. As to our bill that was passed out of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I wish to say to my ranking member who was not here and his staff was not here at the time that I started, I praised him to the sky--and staff--because regardless of our differences on many issues, we have been able to put this country first in this bill. I am so grateful for the spirit of cooperation we have brought to our work, which was captured in the Banking Committee where Senators Johnson and Shelby got together, and in the Finance Committee where many Republicans joined our Democratic friends to figure out a way to fund this responsibly, and in the Commerce Committee where we have one or two little hiccups, but I do believe we are going to resolve them. I am proud we were out there first showing we could do this. People said all over the Senate: If Boxer and Inhofe can do this, anything is possible. MAP-21 is a reform bill, and I am proud about that. It consolidates 90 programs into less than 30. It focuses on key national goals. It gives greater flexibility to the States to invest in their top priorities. It eliminates earmarks. It establishes performance measures to improve accountability. It accelerates project delivery, and it provides resources for a new national freight program. This bill is responsible. It continues the current level of funding plus inflation which, as I said, protects 1.8 million jobs. The TIFIA Program, which Senator Inhofe and I agreed to increase, which stands for Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, is also embraced by Chairman Mica over on the House side. So Republicans and Democrats agree that by making more funds available through TIFIA, we can mobilize up to $30 billion more from the $1 billion we have placed in that fund and create up to 1 million jobs. I wish to thank the mayor of Los Angeles and the Chamber there and the workers there who brought the idea of leveraging to my attention. I wish to say that Tom Donahue, of the U.S. Chamber, president there, Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL and many business and labor groups throughout our Nation supported this TIFIA Program to stretch taxpayer dollars in a safe way. Again, they have done that in the House bill as well, which is very good for us. I am proud of this bill and the reforms in it. I am proud of working relationships we have established across party lines in our committee. I could say, very honestly, there are a lot of things this bill does not have that I am sorry about, that I wanted to see in there. I am not going to detail those. But I know Senator Inhofe feels the same way. But there were certain things that were lines in the sand for each of us, and it was a give and take that resulted in this compromise which is a good bill--a good solid bill. We put those controversial issues aside for the good of the Nation. I will close with this. Ever since Dwight Eisenhower started us on a path to build the Interstate Highway System, transportation has been a bipartisan effort. I asked my staff to research some of the comments made by President Eisenhower in 1963 when he established the Federal Interstate Highway System. Actually, he wrote his autobiography in 1963. He established the System in 1956. This is what he said: More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America with straightaways, cloverleaf turns, bridges, and elongated parkways. Its impact on the American economy--the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up--was beyond calculation. It is very important to note how bipartisan this is. Ronald Reagan in 1982, ``More efficient roads mean lower transportation costs.'' He said: Lately driving is not as much fun as it used to be. Time and wear have taken their toll on America's roads and highways. He said it well. So we have Democratic Presidents, Republican Presidents, Democratic Senators, Republican Senators all working in a bipartisan way. Votes on these bills have been overwhelming, 79 to 8; 372 in the House to 47--all of our President's signing these laws. Historically, major surface transportation legislation has received overwhelming bipartisan support. In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Equity Act, ISTEA, with a Senate Democratic majority, passed by a vote of 79 to 8. The House, with a Democratic majority, passed it by a vote of 372 to 47. President George H.W. Bush signed it into law. At the December 18, 1991, signing ceremony, President Bush said: ISTEA is ``the most important transportation bill since President Eisenhower started the Interstate System 35 years ago . . . this bill also means investment in America's economic future, for an efficient transportation system is absolutely essential for a productive and efficient economy.'' In 1998, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, TEA-21, with a Senate Republican majority, passed by a vote of 88 to 5. The House with a Republican majority, passed it by a vote of 297 to 86. President Bill Clinton signed it into law. In 2005, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, SAFETEA-LU, passed the Senate, with a Republican majority, by a vote of 91 to 4. The House, with a Republican majority, passed it by a vote of 412 to 8. President George W. Bush signed it into law. Elected officials are not the only people who recognize the importance of maintaining our transportation systems. The American public also supports rebuilding the Nation through infrastructure investment. According to a poll released last October by CNN, 72 percent of Americans--and 54 percent of Republicans--support ``increasing federal spending to build and repair roads, bridges and schools.'' Roads and bridges are neither Democratic nor Republican, and all elected officials need to leave partisanship on this issue at the door. Bipartisanship is the only way to get the job done, and Senator Inhofe's and my partnership in this effort is proof positive that it can be done. Senator Inhofe and I do not agree on many issues, but we found common ground on this one. We agree that we must invest in our aging transportation systems, we must boost the economy, we must put people back to work, and we must pay for it in a way that is not divisive or partisan. Neither Senator Inhofe nor I got our wish list in this bill, but we do have a bill that both of us can support. At the end of the day, that is what matters. The American people deserve to have their elected officials work together to solve our pressing problems, and that is what we did. The bill before us is thoroughly bipartisan, and therefore nobody will think it is perfect, but it is a very strong commitment to our transportation systems and to the health of our businesses, workers, and communities that depend on it. I say today is a good day. I have tried to thank everyone I can think of who had anything to do with it. It is my privilege now to yield the floor and look forward to the comments of my ranking member.

Mrs. BOXER. Wait a minute, the Senator is not managing.

Mrs. BOXER. Well, we are both managing the time.

Mrs. BOXER. Reserving the right to object, if I could ask my friend through the Chair, would it be possible for me to have 2 minutes prior to his statement, and then following my remarks the floor will be the Senator's.

Mrs. BOXER

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