John Chafee

Mr. CHAFEE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, before we start, I once again say to anybody who hasn't yet got the message, I have been authorized by the majority leader to announce that there will be no further rollcall votes this evening. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at 9 a.m. on Thursday, immediately following the resumption of the highway bill, Senator Bingaman be recognized in order to offer an amendment regarding liquor drive-throughs. I further ask unanimous consent that there be 30 minutes for debate, equally divided in the usual form, on that amendment. I further ask consent that immediately following that debate, the amendment be set aside and Senator Dorgan be recognized to offer an amendment regarding open containers. I ask consent that there be 60 minutes for debate, equally divided in the usual form, on that amendment. Finally, I ask consent that at the expiration of that time, at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the Senate proceed to a vote on or in relation, first, to the Dorgan amendment, to be followed by a vote on or in relation to the Bingaman amendment. I also ask unanimous consent that no amendments be in order to the above-mentioned amendments.

Mr. CHAFEE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, we have a series of amendments that have been agreed to by both sides.

Mr. CHAFEE. This amendment by the junior Senator from Alaska is in connection with State infrastructure banks. This amendment restores the so-called sliding scale matching rate for States having large amounts of federally owned land. Under the current State Infrastructure Bank Pilot Program, such States may provide a smaller non-Federal match for Federal contributions of capitalizing grants. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no further debate, the question is on agreeing to the amendment.

Mr. CHAFEE. The major amendment we have been on since 10:30 this morning, what you might call the so-called Chafee amendment, has been tied up with some difficulties. We have not been able to move to a vote on that. We have set it aside to take up other matters. At this time, I would like very much if we could take up the Dorgan amendment, if that is possible. If that is not possible, and that will take an hour, we would soon be able to alert people whether we will be able to do that or not. Absent that, and even in addition to that, there would be an amendment of about a half an hour by the junior Senator from New Mexico, Senator Bingaman. If the Dorgan amendment is not available to take up, then it would be my suggestion we go directly to the Bingaman amendment, which would take a half hour. So it is possible that we would have some votes--a vote at somewhere around 6 o'clock. As you can note from my statement here, there are some ``ifs'' involved in all this. I am doing the best I can to keep our fellow Senators alerted to what the situation is.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Nevada for his kind comments. He has been a very valuable member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I guess, ever since he came here to the Senate. We have worked closely together on a whole series of matters. He has particularly been involved with the Endangered Species Act, revisions of which I hope we can bring to a conclusion pretty soon. So I thank the Senator for all his very constructive work in our committee and on this legislation likewise. amendment no. 1687

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, this amendment is satisfactory to this side. It is my understanding--I have talked with the distinguished ranking member--the amendment is acceptable to the minority side likewise. We are prepared to accept it, and I congratulate the Senator from Nevada for his amendment. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no further debate, the question is on agreeing to the amendment.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the Senator from California has no objection. So let us proceed with the approval on a voice vote.

Mr. CHAFEE. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. CHAFEE. We want to be sure she is going to show. The Senator from Oklahoma has been very patient.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, what this amendment does is deal with innovative bridge research and construction. There is such a program. This would include the development of nondestructive bridge evaluation technologies and techniques. This is an important part of bridge safety research. THE PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no further debate, the question is on agreeing to the amendment.

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Madam President, I rise in support of the amendment which has been offered by my colleague who is the chairman of the Clean Air Subcommittee of the Environment Committee. He has identified some important concerns about the implementation of the recently revised so- called National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This is a very complicated area. The Senator from Oklahoma has invested a good deal of time and energy studying this and educating our committee about it. His subcommittee, as he mentioned, held seven hearings on the subject here in Washington and another in Oklahoma. He and his staff led the sometimes difficult negotiations on this amendment to, as he noted, a successful conclusion. I want to applaud the Senator from Oklahoma for his efforts both on this amendment and on the larger issue of the NAAQs rule. He has invested a great deal of energy and time in studying this complicated matter and educating the Environment and Public Works Committee about it. His subcommittee held seven hearings on the issue here in Washington, and another in Oklahoma. He and his staff led the sometimes difficult negotiations on this amendment to a successful conclusion. His efforts and patience have served us all well because the amendment before us will improve the implementation of the NAAQs. This amendment seeks to ensure that commitments made last year about how the standards would be implemented are upheld. The Environmental Protection Agency said it would cover 100 percent of the costs associated with installing and operating the new monitors needed to measure fine particulate matter. Having made the promise, the federal government must ensure that it is kept. This amendment would do that. The amendment would also require three years of data collection before planning starts for additional pollution controls. The EPA has decided that it needs three years of data to ensure that chronic sources of particulate matter are accurately identified. Complete data will enable states to develop appropriate control strategies. Reducing PM 2.5 is important to the public health but we must be sure that new controls are used where they are needed. Without sufficient monitoring data, we will not be certain the right sources are targeted for controls, and we may not achieve the improved air quality or the health benefits that we are seeking. Along the same lines, we need to be sure we can chemically distinguish one type of particulate from another. That is the only way State air officials will know if they need to reduce pollution from wood stoves or power plants. This amendment requires a field study of the monitors to ensure that they are serving this purpose effectively. The EPA promised the States that they would have both the resources and the information necessary to implement the NAAQs rule. Through this amendment, the Senator from Oklahoma is attempting to enforce those commitments. All of the goals of this amendment are worthy and reasonable and I urge everyone to support it. Essentially what the amendment does is the following: There have to be monitors set up to measure particulate matter and ozone levels and other matter. The question is, Who is going to pay for these monitors? Is it going to be the Federal Government? The Administrator indicated it would be the Federal Government, but there seems to be some backing off from that. The amendment of the Senator from Oklahoma says that the Environmental Protection Agency would cover 100 percent of the costs of installation. You have to install these things and operate them. You have to go out and check these new monitors to measure the fine particulate matter. That is the first thing the Senator has accomplished in this amendment. That is a very welcome provision because the State budgets are having trouble keeping up with the requirements of the Clean Air Act. The other part of his amendment would codify the requirement under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. That calls for 3 years of data collection before there can be a designation of nonattainment for this particular part of so-called particulate matter. So, the EPA has decided that 3 years of data are necessary to ensure that chronic sources of particulate matter are accurately identified. As I understand the amendment of the Senator, it requires 3 years. Am I correct?

Mr. CHAFEE. So, this is a difficult area. The assurance that the Senator from Oklahoma has put in, dealing with both the period and also who is going to pay for these monitors, is a good one. We are glad to accept it on this side.

Mr. CHAFEE. That is her privilege.

Mr. CHAFEE. Why don't we say you go ahead for 10 minutes and let's see what happens, with the understanding you will yield if she comes over so she can say her piece.

Mr. CHAFEE. Yes, it will be my intention, as I say, at 3 o'clock to proceed with a voice vote on the amendment.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, yesterday, the Committee on Environment and Public Works held an important meeting on the pending business before the Senate; namely, the underlying legislation, S. 1173, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997. During yesterday's business meeting, the committee agreed unanimously, the 18 members of the committee voted 18-0, to adopt an amendment to S. 1173, which will provide an additional $25.9 billion for the Nation's highway programs over the next 5 years. The additional funds will bring the total authorization for highways in the bill to $171 billion. As I mentioned last Thursday in my opening statement on ISTEA II, which is how we will refer to the underlying legislation, the majority leader, Senator Lott, and Senators Domenici, D'Amato, Byrd, Gramm, Warner, Baucus, and I have been working to try to resolve the difficult issue of how much additional funding should be directed to transportation. We have participated in a challenging but ultimately productive set of meetings. Although I am not an advocate of spending the 4.3 cents gasoline tax on highways, I believe that the agreement we reached is a fair one that will allow the Senate to complete its work on ISTEA in a timely fashion. The principal question on everyone's mind is how this additional funding will be allocated among the 50 States and various ISTEA programs. I am pleased that the amendment before us distributes the new money in a manner that is responsible to all States and to all regions of the country. Moreover, the committee amendment does not affect the allocations or program structure in the underlying ISTEA II bill. The lion's share of the additional funds, $18.9 billion, goes to all 50 States in the same proportion as the formulas under S. 1173. Before we proceed, I want to outline the package adopted by the committee yesterday. To make the bill fairer, the committee amendment provides additional funds for those States that did not fare as well as the majority of the States in S. 1173. First of all, this amendment does address the inequities of the so- called donor States, those States that contribute more money to the highway trust fund than they receive from the Federal aid highway program. The underlying bill, S. 1173, as reported, guaranteed that each State would receive at least 90 cents in return for every dollar allocated to the States from the trust fund. The amendment before us includes an additional $1.9 billion over the life of the bill to ensure that each State receives at least 91 cents in return. Now, the States that will benefit from this donor State bonus are the following: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These States have complete flexibility to use the additional funds for any purpose authorized under title 23, which is the Federal aid highway title of the U.S. Code. That is the first thing we did. Second, there are a number of densely populated States, such as California, Illinois, and New Jersey, where high volumes of traffic clog the roads and high repair costs impede routine maintenance. The committee amendment provides an additional $1.8 billion over the next 5 years for these high-density States. The additional funds may be spent for any purpose authorized under title 23 to relieve the terrible congestion problems and address tremendous infrastructure needs. Those States which are neither donor States nor high-density States also may spend a percentage, 22 percent, of the additional funds they receive pursuant to this amendment for any purpose authorized under title 23. The committee amendment also provides additional funds for those ISTEA programs directed to regions of the country with unique needs. For instance, the Appalachian Development Highway System was first authorized in law in 1965, but is not yet completed. The committee amendment provides an additional $1.89 billion for the Appalachian Highway Program for fiscal years 1999 through 2003 to help complete the 3,025 mile system. Second, as a result of the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other key trade agreements, states along the Mexican and Canadian borders have experienced a substantial increase in truck traffic. The increased traffic and congestion along these routes has put a heavy burden on the corridors that connect border locations and other ports of entry. The committee amendment provides $450 million over the next five years in contract authority for the nation's border infrastructure and trade corridors. Third, the roads that run through the nation's parks, Indian reservations, and other public lands are in great need of maintenance and repair. The committee amendment provides an additional $850 million over 5 years for the Federal Lands Highway Program. This is in addition to the money that was included in the bill originally as we submitted it. Of the $850 million total, the committee amendment provides $50 million per year for fiscal years 1999 through 2003 to help address the mounting needs of the nation's 49,000 miles of Indian reservation roads. An additional $50 million per year for the next 5 years, is provided for the Public Lands Highway Program, which funds Forest Service roads and other public roads that run through federal lands. The remaining $350 million in the Federal Lands portion of the committee amendment is directed to the Park Roads and Park Ways Program. An integral part of our National Parks System is the 8,000 miles of park roads and parkways that make the splendor of these national treasures accessible to all Americans. Fifty million dollars of the $70 million annually for the Park Roads and Parkways Program is directed to these roads that run through our national park system. The remaining $20 million per year is set-aside to address the backlog of needs for the roads in our National Wildlife Refuge System. I am delighted that the committee has agreed to include this additional funding for the 4,250 miles of refuge roads within the system. Indeed, the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, plays a pivotal role in the conservation of fish and wildlife resources throughout the country. The additional funds provided in the committee amendment will allow the Service to better focus its appropriations on the core mission of protecting fish and wildlife and their habitats. Mr. President, before closing, I want to thank all of the members of the committee for their diligence and cooperation in adopting the amendment before us. I see Senator Warner here, who has been a very valuable ally and originator, actually, of much that is in this legislation. I thank them all for their diligence and cooperation in adopting the amendment before us. I thank the majority leader, Senator Lott, who presided over the negotiations in which we arrived at this compromise; Senator Byrd, Senator Warner, whom I previously mentioned, Senator Baucus, the ranking member of the full committee, who has been so helpful, Senator Gramm, and particularly Senator Domenici. All I thank for their determination and resolve during our discussions. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support the amendment before us so we can proceed to the business at hand and enact an ISTEA II bill which will bring the Nation's transportation system into the next century. I thank the Chair. Mr. WARNER addressed the Chair.

Mr. CHAFEE. In the interim, if Senators wish to talk on this subject or others, I will reserve the time at 3 o'clock to proceed with this unanimous consent request.

John Chafee

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