John Chafee

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. I also ask unanimous consent that from the hour of 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m., the Senate stand in recess for the weekly policy luncheons to meet.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Therefore, tomorrow the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 12:30 p.m., From 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m., the Senate will recess for the weekly policy luncheons to meet. When the Senate reconvenes at 2:15 p.m., the Senate will resume consideration of the ISTEA legislation. As the managers of the bill indicated earlier today, Members are encouraged to make opening statements and discuss possible amendments to the legislation during tomorrow's session of the Senate. In addition, the Senate may turn to any appropriations conference reports that become available. Rollcall votes are, therefore, possible throughout the day.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, the point I was making is on October 9, Thursday, before we left here, we were promised that this amendment was imminent. As a matter of fact, I thought I would be handed a copy then. But now, 11 days have gone by and we still have not seen the amendment. All I am saying to my colleagues is, just be cautious before leaping on as cosponsors of something that no one has seen yet. I don't know what the problem is, the hold up in this piece of legislation is, but all I know, it is not here yet, and while the prediction is it will be soon, all I can say is that is exactly what was said 11 days ago, and despite the time off that staffs and others had during the recess, nothing has emerged. I ask my colleagues to just hold their fire and keep their ammunition dry and let's see what the different proposals are that are inside here, including the one which I wouldn't characterize in the same fashion as the Senator from Montana did, namely, the Domenici amendment, which I will be part of. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CHAFEE. On a separate subject, Mr. President, I know there are efforts made to get cosponsors on the so-called Byrd-Warner-Baucus, et al., amendment. I say to my colleagues that might be listening, we have not seen that yet. That has not emerged. I hope people would go slow on cosponsorship of measures such as that because Senator Domenici and I have an approach that we think is a very good one and we want to make sure that people just don't get committed in advance, particularly on a measure they have not even seen yet. I believe I am correct in saying that the Senator from Montana, that measure which was discussed on Thursday a week ago, in other words, something like the 9th of October and was imminent, has not yet appeared, am I correct?

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

Mr. CHAFEE

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

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Just a question, if I might. In other words, you would start now and go until 5:15?

Mr. CHAFEE. The language of the amendment must be available if----

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate began consideration of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997, or sometimes referred to as ISTEA II. This legislation is the product of well over a year of hard work and careful negotiation. We had three different proposals, Mr. President, all commendable, and the requirement before us was to integrate these different proposals into one unified plan that all of us could rally around. When I say us, I was, of course, talking about the committee at the time, the 18 members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, but hopefully the entire Senate. When I am taking about 18 members, I, of course, am referring to Democrats and Republicans. I am pleased that the bill before the Senate truly represents a consensus effort with cosponsors from all regions of the country and from both sides of the aisle. The results of these efforts, so-called ISTEA II--ISTEA, again, referring to Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997--provides $145 billion over the next 6 years for our Federal highway, highway safety, and other surface transportation systems. Mr. President, this is a 20-percent increase for the Federal aid highway program over the level provided in the original ISTEA, which stretched from 1991 to 1997 a, 6-year bill. This bill preserves and builds upon the laudable goals of intermodalism, flexibility, and efficiency, all of which goals were found in the original ISTEA legislation. It does so within the parameters of the balanced budget agreement that Congress passed just 2 months ago, Mr. President. In my view, the most important aspect of this bill is that it works within the context of a balanced budget. We were given x amount of dollars, we stayed within that x amount of dollars. I feel very strongly about that, Mr. President. On the Nation's highways you get to where you are going by staying within the lines and playing by the rules. The budget is no different. I am very proud that the program that we brought out of the Environment and Public Works Committee, so-called ISTEA II, stays within the parameters of the balanced budget, a budget, as I say, we only adopted 2 months ago. S. 1173 addresses the concerns of the State by making the program easier to understand and by providing greater flexibility to States and localities. It reduces the number of ISTEA program categories. Under the existing ISTEA legislation there are five categories that we drop to three. It includes more than 20 improvements to reduce the red-tape involved in carrying out transportation projects. Moreover, this bill significantly reforms the ISTEA funding formulas to balance the diverse needs of the various regions of the Nation. Forty-eight of the 50 States share in the growth of the overall program and the bill guarantees 90 cents back for every dollar of State moneys contributed into the highway trust fund. This is a very, very significant advancement and change from the ISTEA legislation currently on the books. Now, this ISTEA II recognizes the diversity and uniqueness of the country and all its transportation needs. The aging infrastructure and congested areas of the Northeast, the growing population and capacity limitations in the South and Southwest, and the rural expanses in the West, all of these require different types of transportation investments. By making the surface transportation program more responsible to all regions of the country, S. 1173 will ensure that the integrity of the original ISTEA program is upheld. Now, Mr. President, to bridge the gap between limited Federal funds and formidable infrastructure needs, this bill makes a strategic investment in the Nation's transportation system. During the 1950's and the 1960's it made more sense for the Nation to build--that is what we were concentrating on, building an interstate system. Today we need to be more creative. We must carefully plan and allocate our limited resources. ISTEA II includes a number of innovative ways to finance transportation projects. It establishes a Federal credit assistance program for surface transportation. This new program leverages limited Federal funds by allowing up to $10.6 billion Federal line of credit for transportation projects at a cost to the Federal budget of just over $500 million--in other words, for half a billion we are able to leverage up to $10.6 billion of a Federal line of credit for transportation projects. To enable States to make the most of their transportation dollars, this bill expands and simplifies the State infrastructure bank program. One of the wisest transportation investments we can make is to do everything we can on behalf of the safety of drivers and passengers. ISTEA II substantially increases the Federal safety commitment. In the United States alone there are more than 40,000 fatalities and 3.5 million auto crashes every year. Those are staggering statistics--3.5 million automobile crashes every year, and 40,000 deaths on our U.S. highways per year. Between 1992 and 1995 the average national highway fatality rate increased by more than 2,000 deaths a year while the annual national injury rate increased by over 38,000. We must work vigorously to reverse this trend. This bill will help us to do so. The funds set aside for safety programs such as hazard elimination, railroads, highway crossings under this bill total $690 million a year, 55 percent over the current level increase. According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, the use of seatbelts is by far the most important step vehicle occupants can take to protect themselves in the event of a collision. Wearing a seatbelt increases a person's chance of surviving a crash by 45 percent, and of avoiding serious injury by 50 percent. Think of that--by simply wearing a seatbelt, one's chances of avoiding serious injury are increased by 50 percent, chances of surviving a crash are increased by 45 percent. To encourage the increased use of seatbelts, the bill before us establishes a new safety belt incentive program rewarding those States that increase their seatbelt usage or take other measures to increase seatbelt use. To combat the serious problem of drunk driving, the ISTEA bill establishes a new program that encourages States to enact laws with maximum penalties for repeat drunk driving offenders. As valuable as transportation is to our society, we have to remember, Mr. President, yes, transportation obviously is valuable to our society, but it has taken a tremendous toll on the Nation's air, land, and water. The costs of air pollution alone that can be attributed to cars and trucks has been estimated to range from $30 to $200 billion a year. ISTEA II upholds the original ISTEA legislation, strong commitment to preserving and protecting our environment. ISTEA provides States and localities with tools to cope with the growing demands on our transportation system and the corresponding strain on our environment. I am proud that the bill before the Senate increases funding for ISTEA's key programs to offset transportation's impact on the environment. Clearly, all these automobiles and trucks on our roads contribute to a strain on our environment. ISTEA II provides an average of $1.18 billion per year over the next 6 years for the so-called congestion mitigation and air quality improvement programs, also known as CMAQ. This is an 18-percent increase over the current funding levels for transit improvement, shared ride services, and other activities to help fight air pollution. Over the past 6 years, the transportation enhancement program has offered a remarkable opportunity for States and localities to use their Federal transportation dollars to preserve and create more livable communities. ISTEA II therefore, provides a 24-percent increase in funding for transportation enhancements such as bicycle and pedestrian facilities, billboard removal, historic preservation, and rails-to- trails program. In addition to CMAQ and enhancements, the ISTEA II bill establishes a new wetland restoration pilot program. Why are we doing this, spending highway money to restore wetlands? We are doing it to fund projects to offset the loss or degradation of wetlands resulting from Federal aid transportation projects. There is no question that all kinds of wetlands have been lost across our Nation over the last 25 to 30 years as a result of the construction and the resulting damage to our wetlands. When it was enacted in 1997, ISTEA expanded the focus of the national policy, transforming what was once simply a program for building roads and bridges into a surface transportation program dedicated to the mobility of passengers and goods. Mr. President, I call your attention to the very name of this program. This is not a highway bill. This is a surface transportation efficiency bill. So we do more than just focus on highways. The purpose is to move people and goods in the most efficient manner possible. S. 1173 continues this spirit of intermodalism by extending the eligibility of the National Highway System and surface transportation programs to passenger rail such as Amtrak and magnetic levitation systems. The statewide metropolitan planning provisions of ISTEA have yielded highway returns by bringing all interests to the table, and increasing the public's input into the decisionmaking process. ISTEA continues to strengthen the planning provisions of the original legislation. Admittedly, the transition from old policies and practices to those embodied in ISTEA has not always been easy. The bill before the Senate will carry forward ISTEA's strengths, but it will also correct ISTEA's weakness and provide a responsive transportation program to take us into the next century. Now I would like to turn, if I might, to an issue of great concern. Over the past few days there has been some discussion of the distressing prospect of going around the balanced budget agreement to increase funds for the Federal aid highway program. Some Members of Congress are trying to ensure that the 4.3-cent gas tax, which is what the tax reconciliation redirects into the highway trust fund, actually is spent on highways. Although I support increased funding for transportation, I cannot support the proposition of spending the 4.3- cent gas tax. Let me add that transportation nearly fares better than every other national program in the Federal budget resolution. From 1997 through the year 2002--the 5-year budget period which deals with highways--the budget resolution increases transportation spending by almost 7 percent. In contrast, other nondefense discretionary programs increase by roughly 2 percent. In other words, transportation will grow at a rate of three times that of other nondefense discretionary programs. It is imperative that we look at transportation funding in the context of countless other important legislative priorities of Congress. During the consideration of the bill before the Senate, Senators Warner, Domenici, and I plan to offer an amendment that will resolve the issue of potential budget surplus in an orderly manner through the budget process next spring. Determining what the Nation's priorities are during the budget process when all programs and policies can compete fairly is a responsible way to resolve this complex issue. Before I conclude, I want to express my appreciation to Senators Warner and Baucus and other members of the environment committee for their hard work and determination in developing this program. As I mentioned, Mr. President, this came out of the committee by a vote of 18-0, Democrats and Republicans alike supporting it, those from the West, the Midwest, the South, the Southeast, the Northeast, all supported it. Transportation is not a partisan issue as much as it is a regional issue. Senators Warner, Baucus, and I represent three distinct regions of the country with very different points of view. It has not been easy and we still have a way to go before reaching the finish line. I look forward to working with other Members of the Senate as well as the House leadership to enact a bill this year that will take the Nation's transportation system into the 21st century.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I appreciate the lovely bouquets that have been thrown my way. I think I would swap them for more support than I am currently receiving. But, nonetheless, I appreciate it. I thank the distinguished senior Senator from West Virginia and all around here, Senator Baucus, Senator Warner, others. I would ask the sponsors of the amendment that we would like to see it. We are going away, now, for a week, and I think it would be helpful if we could see this amendment. When will it be available?

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I would ask if it is possible to see it before we leave? In other words tonight, tomorrow, something like that?

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, as I understood there is a table being passed around that shows the allocations to the various States. That's really the tough part of the amendment. So, what is left?

Mr. CHAFEE. Thank you.

Mr. CHAFEE. Maybe you did, but the idea that this was adopted by some masquerade, somehow the impression ``when my wife goes to the gasoline station she is thinking that all that tax money is going into the highway trust fund and that if we send it anywhere else we are deceiving her,'' that is nonsense. It was nonsense right from the beginning, as I said, in delineating the history of what took place in 1990 and then in 1993.

Mr. CHAFEE. Sure. Let me say one thing, if I might, Mr. President. I am now in my, I guess, 20th year here, and I have been on the side of the distinguished senior Senator from West Virginia. I remember lifting the Turkish arms embargo about the first year I came here. And then I have been on the other side, against him. As a general rule, I would far prefer to be on his side than against him. I find it is a much more comfortable position, perhaps a safer position in many ways. So I am very, very conscious that when I duel with the distinguished senior Senator from West Virginia, I have to be on the alert. I will buckle on my breastplate of righteousness, I shall seize my cap of salvation, I shall grab my sword of the spirit and prepare for combat.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I know the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee has some comments. But let me just say briefly, I want to put one thing to bed around here, to rest, and that is that this gas tax has been collected with the people who are paying it believing it is all going into a highway trust fund. Let me just review the bidding a little bit. Many of us--I certainly was here, the Senator from Montana was on the Finance Committee at the time, I don't know whether the Senator from Texas was. But in 1990, there was a 5-cent-per-gallon tax started; 5-cent-per-gallon tax; 2.5 cents of that was to go to the general fund, 2.5 cents to the highway trust fund. This was no secret. It wasn't something that was slipped over anybody. We all voted for it up or down, knowing 2.5 cents of that 5 cents was going into the general fund of the United States. There is none of this business of coming to the pump, looking at it and thinking that tax you are paying all goes into building highways. Then in 1993, we added a 4.3-cent tax, all to go to the general fund, and that was no secret either. So, Mr. President, I just want to say that this idea that we are somehow deceiving the public by piling up money in the general fund from the gasoline tax is just not accurate, and everybody who was in the Senate at the time--that is everybody here--certainly those on the Finance Committee clearly knew where the money was going to go. Let me just say something else. I know the Senator from New Mexico is going to deal with this further, but I must say, this is a world record around here. We passed a budget in August. That is when it was signed, August. September, October we are going to deviate from it. The proponents are riding two horses here. One they are saying, ``Oh, it's not going to affect anything,'' and that is right, because under this amendment, it goes out to the States but can't be spent until one of two things happen: until the other domestic discretionary accounts are cut or the cap is, or the overall discretionary cap is raised. That is true. So on one hand you can say what marvelous things are going to be done for the highways, every State is going to get more, how wonderful it is, and then you say, ``Oh, no, none of it is going to be spent; therefore, it is not going to affect the budget at all.'' When the time comes and the decision is made, you radically alter the budget that was just signed by the President a month and a half ago, probably it is 2 months ago now. That is a world record for this Chamber. Usually we don't deviate from a budget until we have gotten into it a little bit, but here we change it after a little less than 2 months. I don't think that is a very good record we should be proud of in this Chamber. I know the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee will be speaking, and I look forward to hearing his remarks.

Mr. CHAFEE

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

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. I explain to the Senate this amendment was made necessary to correct certain provisions that are in technical violation of the Budget Act. The bill reported by the committee stays within the overall spending limitations imposed by the budget resolution, but not every dollar is in the right category. We have made adjustments in this substitute amendment that correct those deficiencies. The adjustments do not affect the allocation of the dollars to any State nor the certainty that those dollars will be delivered by the formula in the bill. The amendment does not affect the substantive provisions of the bill in any other respect, but puts some of the spending authorized by the bill under the obligation limitation to ensure that we meet the technical requirements of the Budget Act. It is my understanding the committee has a right to modify its amendments in this way. I polled the committee yesterday, and a majority of the members agreed to this modification. The substitute amendment now is the only committee amendment and is open to amendment by any Senator and will be the vehicle for conducting debate on this bill. Amendments Nos. 1310 and 1311, En Bloc

Mr. CHAFEE. I send an amendment to the desk with a new amendment and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. CHAFEE. On behalf of the committee, I therefore now withdraw all of the other committee amendments, save the amendment I have just sent to the desk.

Mr. CHAFEE. I send to the desk an amendment to the text to be stricken.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, October 8, 1997, to conduct a markup of the following nominees: Laura S. Unger, of New York, to be a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Paul R. Carey, of New York, to be a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Dennis Dollar, of Mississippi, to be a member of the National Credit Union Administration Board; Edward M. Gramlich, of Virginia, to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve; Roger Walton Ferguson, of Massachusetts, to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve; and Ellen Seidman, of the District of Columbia, to be a Director of Thrift Supervision.

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation be authorized to meet on Wednesday, October 8, 1997, at 9:30 a.m. on the nominations of George Black, James Hall, and John Hammerschmidt to be members of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Mr. CHAFEE

Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with.