John Chafee

Mr. CHAFEE

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 10 minutes.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and Administration be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Friday, February 27, 1998, beginning at 9:30 a.m. until business is completed, to receive testimony on S.1578, and to hold an oversight hearing on the budget requests and operations of the Government Printing Office, the National Gallery of Art, and the Congressional Research Service.

Mr. CHAFEE

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

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and Administration be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26, 1998 beginning at 9:30 a.m. until business is completed, to receive testimony on S. 1578, and to hold an oversight hearing on the budget requests and operations of the Government Printing Office, the National Gallery of Art, and the Congressional Research Service.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26, 1998 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing on Intelligence matters.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights, and Competition, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26, 1998 at 2:00 p.m. to hold a hearing in room 226, Senate Dirksen Building, on: ``Oversight of Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice: International and Criminal Enforcement.''

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Aviation Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet on Thursday, February 26, 1998, at 2:00 p.m. on Air Traffic Control.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on East Asian Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26, 1998 at 10:00 a.m. to hold a hearing.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services of the Governmental Affairs Committee to meet on Thursday, February 26, 1998, at 2:00 p.m. for a hearing on S. 1495, The Merit Systems Protection Act.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, to meet on Thursday, February 26, 1998, at 9:00 a.m. for a hearing on ``Progress Report on the D.C. Public Schools.''

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary, be authorized to hold an executive business meeting during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26, 1998, at 10:30 a.m. in room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, February 26th, 1998 at 11:00 a.m. in room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Building to conduct hearings the President's FY '99 Budget Request for Indian programs.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the Finance Committee requests unanimous consent to conduct a hearing on Thursday, February 26, 1998 beginning at 10:00 a.m. in room 215 Dirksen.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the majority leader has outlined or stated clearly what the situation is. We are going to now proceed with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1998. I have a statement. I suspect that the distinguished ranking member will have a statement. Then we want to get on with amendments. The amendments that are available to consider today, tomorrow, and early next week will be amendments that are not relative to funding or financing. Funding and financing matters are now being worked out between various participants in that matter. So we will not touch on allotments or matters like that. But there is a whole series of amendments. There are some 200 amendments that have been filed, and a whole series of them have nothing to do with either financing or funding. So I hope that the authors of those amendments will bring them over, and let's debate them. If we can get a time agreement, three cheers, and get the vote. We have a lot of work to do. I just hate to have matters pile up toward the end. The majority leader has indicated he is very anxious to complete this legislation. I join in that desire. Mr. President, at long last, the Senate will begin its consideration of the ``Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1998,'' which will be referred to constantly on this floor as ISTEA or ISTEA II. This legislation is the product of more than a year of hard work and careful negotiations in the face of tremendous obstacles. At this time last year, the Committee on Environment and Public Works had before us three different very good proposals. But they were different. We were able to integrate them into one unified plan that I believe is deserving of the entire Congress' support. I might say, Mr. President, that this bill was reported out of the committee unanimously--18 to nothing. Democrats and Republicans all supported it. When ISTEA was enacted in 1991--that is, ISTEA I, the original bill-- it transformed national transportation policy. What was once simply a highway program is now a surface transportation program. That is the name of the bill. It is the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. That is what it is. It isn't just a highway bill; it is a surface transportation bill. We recognize that transportation touches every facet of our lives. The transition from the old policies and practices to those embodied in ISTEA I wasn't easy, and as for S. 1173, ISTEA II, it will carry forward the strengths of ISTEA I. But it also corrects some weaknesses that were in that legislation. And it will provide a responsive and, I believe, responsibly financed transportation program. ISTEA II preserves and builds upon the worthy objectives of intermodalism. That is a big word that we will be using around here. Intermodalism means in conjunction with and cooperation of a series of methods of transportation--it might be railroad, it might be aircraft, it might be automobiles and trucks--all working together to the greater strength of all. ISTEA II provides $145 billion. That is what we have as of now. Perhaps that will be increased as the result of the negotiations that are taking place. That is for over 6 years. It provides it for our Federal highway system, for highway safety, and other surface transportation systems. Moreover, it aims to stretch these dollars as far as possible. Mr. President, in the 1940s and 1950s the mindset--and understandably so--was to build an expensive highway system to move goods and passengers throughout the country. Now the interstate system is completed, and the mindset has shifted. The goal is no longer simply to build more highways but to preserve and maximize the strengths of our existing system, do the best we can to move more vehicles over the existing roads in a safe and efficient manner. We must reach out for ideas on creative ways of meeting our infrastructure needs. One of the primary goals of the Committee on Environment and Public Works as we drafted ISTEA II was that limited Federal funding be spent as efficiently as possible. We sought to accomplish this in several ways. First, ISTEA II provides real flexibility to States and localities and makes the program easier to understand. We believe this is a more simplified program than ISTEA I. It reduces the number of the program categories from five to three, and it includes more than 20 improvements to reduce the red tape involved in carrying out transportation projects. These provisions address some of the chief complaints we heard about ISTEA I. Second, ISTEA II includes a number of innovative ways to finance transportation projects. It establishes the Federal credit assistance program for surface transportation. The new program leverages limited Federal dollars by allowing up to a $10.6 billion line of credit for transportation projects at a cost to the Federal budget of just over $500 million. In other words, for $.5 billion we get a $10.6 billion line of credit. The bill also expands and simplifies the State Infrastructure Bank Program to enable States to make the most of their transportation dollars. The third change we made, or key feature of this bill, is it strengthens the transportation technology programs of the original ISTEA. Transportation technologies offer a wide array of benefits. They relieve traffic congestion and improve safety. A key forward-looking initiative of ISTEA II has been the Intelligent Transportation Systems, or the so-called ITS. ITS technologies provide new options for transportation planners to address safety and capacity concerns without the negative environmental or social effects of just expanding the highways, adding more lanes, constantly widening the highway. The Intelligent Transportation Systems also provide timely information to travelers and more efficient ways to design and build transportation infrastructure. The beauty of these innovative technologies is they boost the potential of our existing transportation system by moving more cars through existing lanes. That is what I was talking about before. Let me give you an example. I think we can take a good lesson from the Nation's airports. In the past decade we have only built one new airport, a major one, in our country. That is the International Airport in Denver--the only one new airport in the country in the last 10 years. Nonetheless, we have increased the capacity of our existing airports through state-of-the-art technology. By learning from innovations and air traffic control and operations used in our airports where more aircraft carrying more people are using the existing facilities, we can maximize the so-called throughput of our highways, our rail system, and our transit systems just as well. Fourth, the bill before us significantly reforms the ISTEA funding formulas to balance the diverse regional needs of our Nation. The aging infrastructure and congested areas of the Northeast, the growing population and capacity limitations in the South and Southwest, rural expanses in the West require different types of transportation investments. Under ISTEA II, 48 of the 50 States share in the growth of the overall program, and the bill guarantees 90 cents back for every dollar a State contributes to the highway fund. This is up. In the past, under the ISTEA I, some States were as low as getting back 70 cents for every dollar. This would boost them all up to 90 cents on the dollar. One of the wisest transportation investments we can make is safety for our passengers and drivers. In the United States alone there are more than 40,000 fatalities. That is something like 800-plus deaths a week on our highways in the United States. There are 3.5 million automobile crashes every year. Between 1992 and 1995 the average highway fatality rate increased by more than 2,000 deaths a year, while the annual injury rate increased by over 380,000. We must work vigorously to reverse this trend, and this bill will help us do that. ISTEA II substantially increases the Federal commitment to safety. The funds set aside for safety programs such as hazard elimination and railroad-highway crossings under this bill total nearly $700 million a year, a 55 percent increase over the current level. As valuable as transportation is to our society, it has taken a great toll on our Nation's air, water, and land. The cost of air pollution alone that can be attributed to cars and trucks has been estimated to range from $30 billion to $200 billion a year. I am proud that the bill before us increases funding for ISTEA's key programs to offset transportation's impact on the environment. ISTEA II provides an average of $1.18 billion per year over the next 6 years for congestion mitigation and air quality improvements, sometimes referred to as CMAQ--congestion mitigation, reducing congestion and improving air quality. The amounts for this program are a substantial increase over the current funding levels for transit improvements, shared-ride services, and other activities to fight air pollution. Over the past 6 years, the Transportation Enhancements Program has offered a remarkable opportunity for States and localities to use their Federal transportation dollars to preserve and create more livable communities. Our highway program has devastated many communities, barging through them in a fashion that was designed to ``get the road built. Forget about the neighborhoods or what is happening in the communities that these highways are going through.'' That was the old system. Starting with ISTEA I, continued with ISTEA II, we provide a 24 percent increase in funding for transportation enhancements such as bicycle and pedestrian facilities, billboard removal, historic preservation, rails-to-trails programs. In addition to CMAQ and enhancements, the ISTEA II establishes a new wetlands restoration pilot program. The purpose of the program is to fund projects to offset the loss or degradation of wetlands resulting from Federal-aid transportation projects. The original ISTEA, ISTEA I, recognized that transportation is but one part of a complex web of competing and often conflicting demands. As we all know, it is not a simple task to resolve the competing and often conflicting interests and demands with respect to transportation. The statewide metropolitan planning provisions of ISTEA I have yielded high returns by bringing all interests to the table and increasing the public's inputs into the decisionmaking process. This is the so-called metropolitan planning provision that we had in ISTEA I. ISTEA II continues and strengthens the planning provisions of the original ISTEA. This program is a comprehensive approach to transportation and has been working well. ISTEA II continues the spirit of intermodalism by extending the eligibility of the National Highway System and Surface Transportation Program funds to passenger rail, such as Amtrak, and magnetic levitation systems which we are just embarking on. By unleashing the efficiency and environmental benefits of all modes of transportation systems--highway, rail and transit--the bill before us will meet these demands and give a better quality of life for all Americans. I wish to express my appreciation to the majority leader for helping us to expedite the Senate's consideration of this important measure. The majority leader has been deeply involved in the conversations we have been having in connection with this legislation. I also thank Senators Warner and Baucus, and other members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, including our distinguished Presiding Officer this afternoon, each, for their excellent works in developing this legislation. It has been a challenging but rewarding exercise, to write the bill before us. I look forward to working with other Members of the Senate as well as the House leadership to enact a bill that will take the Nation's transportation system into the 21st century. So, Mr. President, again I issue a call to all who may be in their offices or listening. Now is the time to bring up amendments. Undoubtedly the distinguished ranking member will have a statement. But after that we are ready to go. I will feel distressed if we just sit here waiting for people to respond and they do not bring over these amendments. As I say, there are some 200 amendments out there. Some of them, obviously, are involved with fiscal matters which we cannot take up; but the others we can and we would like to. I thank the Chair.

Mr. CHAFEE

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

Mr. CHAFEE. I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendment be agreed to, the resolution be agreed to, the amendment to the title be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point in the Record.

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

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 306, S. Res. 148.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the hour of 10 a.m., the Senate resume consideration of S. 1173, the ISTEA bill.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m. on Friday, February 27, and immediately following the prayer, the routine requests through the morning hour be granted and there then be a period for morning business until 10 a.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the following exception: Senator Ashcroft, 10 minutes.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 317, S. Res. 181, reported today by the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, in conjunction with the previous unanimous consent agreements, tomorrow morning there will be a period of morning business for 30 minutes, followed by consideration of S. 1173, the so- called ISTEA legislation. Mr. President, it is our hope that the Senate will be able to make good progress on this important legislation during Friday's session of the Senate. In addition, the Senate may consider any executive or legislative business cleared for floor action. Therefore, rollcall votes are possible during tomorrow's session. Mr. President, it is my hope, as it is of the ranking member of the committee, that Senators will bring over their amendments tomorrow so that we can act upon them. There are a host of amendments out there. While it is true that we cannot consider amendments dealing with financial matters in connection with this legislation, there is a whole series of other amendments that are available for consideration if only the proponents of the amendments will come over and present them. I greatly hope that will take place tomorrow.

Mr. CHAFEE

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