Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BOXER. There are several of us who reserve our right to object. What the House has done is guaranteed job losses for this country. They are already dithering on the Senate bill. Their not taking it up for a vote has cost us about 100,000 jobs. Thousands of businesses are at stake, and eventually we are talking about 3 million jobs at stake. The fact that they would do this without any commitment to get to conference, without any commitment to finish their job and run off on vacation is the reason I am reserving the right to object.

I ask that the unanimous consent request be modified so an amendment, which is at the desk, the text of S. 1813, the surface transportation bill, passed by the Senate on March 14, 2012, by a large bipartisan majority vote of 74 to 22, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

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Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I know my colleague Senator Collins is waiting to speak. I will be very brief.

Let's be clear what just happened. What just happened is the House sent us a 90-day extension of our transportation programs with not one dime of revenue in there to fund those, and the highway trust fund is on the road to bankruptcy. So they are the first in my memory--the first legislative body in the Capitol--to ever extend for this period of time without a dollar, which means an acceleration of bankruptcy of the trust fund.

What else did they do? They just guaranteed 100,000 people are not going to get their jobs, and they guaranteed hundreds of businesses are not going to get jobs. They sent out a signal that America should be ready for hardship because they didn't even have the decency to put in that extension a written commitment to produce a bill, to get to conference with us, and to get a bill to the President. No, they run off on their vacation and leave people twisting in the wind.

Well, I want it to be known I am one of the chairs who worked on the bill. There are many other people who were fantastic on this bill from both sides of the aisle. I know--I spoke to Senator Inhofe today about this--we want this bill done. I am going to use every tool at my disposal as one Senator to keep the pressure on the Republican House.

Speaker Boehner: You are not Speaker of the Republicans, you are Speaker of the House. Reach your hand across the aisle, as Senator Inhofe reached across the aisle to me and I reached across to him; and Jay Rockefeller reached across to Senator Hutchison and she reached across; and Tim Johnson reached across to Shelby and he reached across; and Max Baucus had an array of Republicans work with him in the Finance Committee. We know we can do this.

But what the House has done is send a very clear message of job loss and hardship. It is unacceptable. I look forward to working on this every single day. Now we have 90 days. Tomorrow it will be 89, and then 88. We are going to count down, and we are going to keep the pressure on, and we are not going to let this transportation program go up in smoke because it has been in place since Dwight Eisenhower was President.

It is a sad day for America today, a very sad day. But we will never give up over here, and James Inhofe isn't going to give up, and we are going to fight hard to get a bill.

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