Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that at 4:15, the Senate proceed to a vote on a motion to table the Coburn amendment No. 2810 and that Senator Coburn be allowed the last 10 minutes prior to the vote in order to speak on his amendment. I further ask unanimous consent to preclude any other amendments prior to the Coburn amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would again notify Members that we are likely going to have a vote here in about 35 minutes. We are working toward an agreement on that. But I notify Members to come to the floor for a vote in a short while. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Klobuchar amendment be the pending amendment, and the amendment be modified with the changes that are at the desk.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I object.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I object.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2803 on behalf of Senator Schumer.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this amendment has been cleared on both sides. I know of no further debate.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2799 on behalf of Senator Obama and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. That amendment has been cleared on both sides. I know of no further debate on this amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2794 on behalf of Senator Bingaman and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I will yield for the Senator from Kentucky to speak for a few minutes, and then I will come back, and we will try to get unanimous consent, again, to set the vote at 4 o'clock. I remind all Members of the Senate on both sides that the majority leader has asked us to finish this Transportation/Housing bill by tonight. We are going to be here late. Members do need to get their amendments to the floor, get them offered. We will work our way through them. But it is imperative we understand from everyone as soon as possible what business they need us to accomplish. Again, we expect to finish this bill by tonight.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we have about 26 hours left to complete the Transportation and Housing Subcommittee appropriations bill. Our majority leader has already said we are going to return to a debate on Iraq next week, a very few days away from now. I have a great deal of respect for General Petraeus, but I would remind my colleagues this is the Transportation appropriations bill which we are attempting to complete and the amendment before us has nothing to do with that subject matter. Therefore, in accordance with the point of order established by Senator Lott when he was majority leader, I now make a point of order against the amendment, that it is a sense-of-the-Senate amendment which is not germane to the Transportation appropriations bill.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Jacqueline Beatty-Smith, Smith a fellow in Senator Reid's office, be accorded the privileges of the floor during consideration of H.R. 3074, the Transportation appropriations bill and any votes therein.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks my colleague made regarding the HUD tenant-based housing. I will have more to say on that later. I appreciate his comments. We do have now before the Senate a pending amendment about which I would like to make a few remarks. I am hoping we can set a timetable for a vote on that fairly shortly. I do want my colleagues to know about the amendment now pending. Less than 6 weeks ago, our entire Nation--really, the entire world-- watched in horror as the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, MN, collapsed into the Mississippi River. Given the scope of that disaster, it is miraculous that the fatalities were not greater. Thirteen people lost their lives and over 100 were injured on that horrible day. We are all going to remember the horrendous vision of that yellow schoolbus full of children that came within a few feet of tragedy. The National Transportation Safety Board is still, of course, conducting its investigation into the exact cause of the bridge collapse, but the horror of that incident has appropriately focused the Nation on whether we are investing adequately in a national highway system that is fragile and aging. The troubling conditions of our Nation's highways and bridges should not have been a surprise to the media or to policymakers. This has not been a story kept under wraps for years. This is not a case where the true conditions were suddenly revealed in a groundbreaking study. The U.S. Department of Transportation has by law been required to publish regular reports on the conditions and performance of America's highway infrastructure. That report is submitted to Congress and posted on the Web. The DOT's report was used extensively in the debate we had with the Bush administration 4 years ago over the appropriate amount of funding that should be authorized in the highway bill. This report from the DOT is amplified by regular annual report cards published by the American Society of Civil Engineers, along with regular studies by other groups. The difference today is that the nightmare became a reality for the people of Minnesota and Americans across the country as we watched it live on television. We have built a national highway system that is the envy of the world. But it is now no secret that our Government has failed to adequately fund the maintenance needs of that system. Increasing traffic has put added stress on a system that simply was not designed for it. As a result, our bridges are deteriorating far faster than we can finance their replacement. This is why more than one in every four bridges on U.S. highways is rated as deficient. Put another way, fully 27 percent of our 600,000 bridges have aged so much that their physical condition or their ability to withstand current traffic levels is simply inadequate. Roughly half of these deficient bridges or about 78,000 across the Nation are structurally deficient. That means the Department of Transportation considers the physical condition of these bridges to be poor or worse. These bridges require immediate attention, and many of them will need to have weight limits to keep them in service. For a portion of these bridges, their physical condition is so bad that they are unsafe and do need to be replaced. The other half of deficient bridges or another 80,000 across the Nation are functionally obsolete. They don't meet today's design standards. They don't conform to today's safety requirements, and they are handling traffic far beyond their original design. These deficient bridges are not just found off the beaten path, by the way. In fact, over 6,000 bridges considered deficient are located on the National Highway System, the roadway system that is designated as most important to our Nation's economy, defense, and mobility. There are deficient bridges found in every State in the Nation. My home State of Washington has more than 2,300 deficient bridges. But certain of our States are struggling a lot more than others. Iowa has more than 6,600 deficient bridges. Oklahoma has more than 7,400 deficient bridges. Pennsylvania has almost 9,600 deficient bridges. Texas has more than 10,000 deficient bridges. California has more than 7,000 deficient bridges, with more than 2,000 on the National Highway System. The Department of Transportation evaluated the complete picture across the Nation last year when it published its Conditions and Performance Report for 2006. That report concluded that there is a $65.3 billion backlog of repairs needed on U.S. bridges by all levels of government. Unfortunately, the challenge of addressing this issue comprehensively is going to have to wait for the next highway reauthorization bill. But today I have offered an amendment to this bill that will add $1 billion to the resources available to all 50 States to help address their most critical bridge replacement and repair needs. This amendment will not bust the budget. It can be accommodated within the budget ceiling that governs our subcommittee bill. It does not bust through that ceiling or through the discretionary spending cap that has been imposed by our budget resolution. Working with Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran, our subcommittee was allocated additional outlays that were not used by other subcommittees specifically to accommodate the cost of this amendment I have offered. My amendment would distribute the $1 billion strictly according to the formula that already exists in the code for the bridge replacement and rehabilitation program. That formula by law takes into account the physical conditions of the bridges in each State, the cost to rehabilitate or replace the deficient bridges, current safety standards and traffic demands, and the role of the bridges in the overall transportation system. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a table displaying the distribution of this funding to all 50 States be printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the second-degree amendment that I sent to the desk further expands the Secretary's collection authority and provides additional funding for the bridge rehabilitation program. I am going to be discussing this amendment in detail later this afternoon after Senator Bond has completed his opening statement. I would like to thank my colleague, Senator Bond, for his work and his staff's work on this very complex and very important bill. Again, I urge all our colleagues to bring their amendments to the floor. As everyone knows, we are in a very short timeframe this week because of the Jewish holidays. We are going to be working late in getting our amendments done. We encourage everyone to get to the floor. I thank my colleague for his work on the bill.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I believe a vote will now occur on an amendment.