Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to begin the floor consideration of the fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies. This bill funds programs that are essential to the American people. Our bill provides $18.5 billion for the Department of Transportation and $38.5 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to meet the housing needs of low-income, disabled, and older Americans, to shelter the homeless and to boost our economy and to create jobs through much-needed investments in our roads, bridges, seaports, railroads, transit systems, and airports.
Let me begin my remarks by thanking the chairman of the full committee, Senator Cochran, and the vice chairman, Senator Mikulski, for their leadership in advancing these appropriations bills. As Chairman Cochran has previously noted, this is the first time in 6 years that the Appropriations Committee has approved all 12 of the funding bills, and I will point out that we did so months ago. I also wish to thank and acknowledge the hard work of the ranking member of the subcommittee, Senator Jack Reed. I am very pleased that he is cosponsoring this legislation and that we are offering these substitute amendments that have just been filed together. The two of us have worked very closely in drafting this bill, and we have listened to the recommendations from Members on both sides of the aisle. Through considerable negotiation and compromise, we have crafted a bipartisan bill that targets limited resources to those programs that meet our most essential transportation and housing needs.
As a result of hard work and compromise by many of our colleagues and the administration, the recent bipartisan budget bill allows the legislation before us today to be made even more effective. As I mentioned, I have offered on behalf of Senator Reed and myself a substitute that reflects the new allocation made possible by the budget agreement. This additional funding has allowed for further investments in key programs, such as increasing the HOME Program by $830 million for a total of $900 million, increasing the Community Development Block Grant Program by $100 million for a total of $3 billion. I must note that those are the current funding levels.
The bill also provides $255 million in additional funds for the FAA's facilities and equipment account for a total of $2.8 billion, which is the budget-requested level to ensure that critical aviation programs are not delayed. These programs offer a wide range of support, from space-based surveillance, data communications, to everyday basic needs, ensuring that power systems are fully supplied to support the aviation and air traffic systems that operate 24 hours, 7 days a week.
We have also allocated an additional $100 million for the TIGER Program for a total of $600 million for this important and much-in-demand program that supports infrastructure, economic development, and job creation throughout the Nation. In fact, every State in the Nation has benefited from the TIGER Program.
We are bringing the Maritime Security Program up by $24 million for a total of $210 million to match the recently passed authorized level.
Finally, we are providing an additional $311 million for FTA's Capital Investment Grants Program, for a total of approximately $1.9 billion, which supports transit systems across the country.
This bill is critical to meeting the vast needs of our Nation's crumbling infrastructure. We have all heard of the low grades that the American Association of Civil Engineers has given to our bridges and highways. Many of us--particularly those of us who represent large rural States--know about the deplorable conditions of far too many of our roads and highways and the need for the State departments of transportation to post bridges that are no longer able to accommodate weight loads and modern traffic.
The TIGER Program will help us meet the needs of our crumbling infrastructure. This highly competitive program creates jobs and supports economic growth in every one of our States. The need for the program is demonstrated by the statistics. Listen to this, my colleagues: The Department of Transportation has received 627 eligible applications requesting more than $10 billion for fiscal year 2015 from all over the country, but only 39 of those 627 eligible applications were able to be funded. Only $500 million of the more than $10.1 billion in requested funds could be granted. This is a successful program with an overwhelming demand, and I am happy that the new allocation allows us to give it a modest increase. It doesn't begin to match the application level for this program, which, again, is a reflection of our infrastructure needs in this country.
Turning to air travel, the aviation investments will continue to modernize our Nation's air traffic system and help to keep rural communities connected to the transportation network. These investments are creating safer skies and a more efficient airspace to move the flying public.
I have been very troubled by the devastating rail accidents that have occurred in recent years. In 2013, the runaway train near the Maine border in the Province of Quebec, Canada, devastated the community of Lac-Megantic, and the inferno killed 47 people. First responders from Maine responded to the calls for help from their Canadian counterparts and helped to put out that terrible fire. More recently, we saw an Amtrak train in Pennsylvania derail, killing eight passengers. We have seen case after case of railcars turning over and spilling hazardous substances. This is a real problem, and it is one this bill addresses. To improve rail safety, our legislation provides $50 million in new funding for infrastructure improvements, rail grade crossings, and positive train control safety technology.
In addition to rail, we have included several important provisions to enhance truck safety on our Nation's highways. For example, our bill requires the Department of Transportation to finalize a rule mandating electronic logging devices within 60 days of enactment. This rule is critical to ensuring that bad actors will not be able to falsify their records. It will bring greater accountability to the industry. It helps those good truck drivers, the vast majority of our truck drivers. It separates them from the bad apples who are falsifying their logs.
The bill also requires the Department of Transportation to publish a proposed rule on speed governors, which limit the speed at which trucks can operate. The Department has delayed this important rulemaking 22 times since 2011. It is far past time to get this important safety rule completed and to implement it. It isn't just the ranking member and I who think so, this is also supported by the trucking industry itself.
We need to make progress in both the areas of electronic logs and speed governors, and our bill will ensure that that occurs.
We also provide funding for the Office of Defects Investigation at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to analyze consumers' complaints and trends related to vehicle safety defects. The Presiding Officer may recall that this agency came under scrutiny this past year for failing to discover and act on defective airbags, as well as faulty ignition safety switches. We must ensure that remedies are implemented promptly and make certain the public is better informed of critical defects.
Our bill also provides for critical housing programs. It preserves existing rental assistance for vulnerable families and individuals, and it improves the Federal response to the problem of youth homelessness. Both of these were priorities for me. I wanted to make sure that those vulnerable, low-income families, our disabled citizens, and low-income seniors did not lose the subsidized housing to which they are entitled and in which they are already living.
So that is a very important provision. I would note, when we look at the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that more than 83 percent of the budget is devoted to these programs that are so vital to ensuring safe and affordable housing for some of the most vulnerable Americans.
Improving the Federal response to homelessness is also an important priority for me. That is why we placed a special emphasis in this bill on the growing problem of youth homelessness, and we have funded additional vouchers for what is known as the VASH Program that is aimed at our homeless veterans. Sufficient funding is provided to keep pace with the rising cost of housing vulnerable families. I will note that doing so this year has been especially challenging, given the administration's decision to lower mortgage insurance premiums, because that reduced FHA receipts by nearly $1.1 billion, but despite this challenge, this bill, by setting priorities, ensures that the more than 4.7 million individuals and families currently housed will not have to worry about losing their assistance. Again, let me emphasize, without this assistance, many of these families, many of our disabled Americans, and many of our low-income seniors could become homeless. We are preventing that.
The increase in youth homelessness is especially troubling and warrants more attention. Reflecting this concern, $40 million is provided to expand efforts to reduce youth homelessness. In addition, the bill includes funding for more than 2,500 family unification vouchers to assist our young people who are exiting the foster care system, and it extends the amount of time these youth can use their vouchers.
I am sure if the Presiding Officer talked to foster youth in his State, the situation would be the same as mine. He would find that when they reach a certain age, they are no longer eligible for care by foster families and they have nowhere to go. Oftentimes, they end up in shelters. That is not an acceptable situation. So by expanding these family unification vouchers, we are hoping to ensure that these youth are not homeless or forced to live in shelters.
These efforts build on our success in reducing veterans' homelessness. We have had real success in this area. VASH is a program that actually works. We have reduced the number of homeless veterans by one-third, but the job is not done. We have a goal in this country of ending homelessness among our veterans who have served our country. We provide an additional 10,000 vouchers for our homeless veterans so we can complete our work and reach that goal.
Our bill is also an important source for local development. We worked hard to provide $3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Programs. This is an extremely popular program with the States and communities because it allows them to tailor Federal funds to support local economic and job creation projects. In fact, in my State, it is one of the most popular economic development programs--and I think that is true across America--because it isn't a top-down Federal Government dictating how the funds are used; instead, there is great flexibility in providing funds to States and communities, and they decide what is needed. They match the funds. There is often private sector money involved as well which may be used to revitalize the downtown to build affordable housing or whatever that particular community decides will spur economic development and create jobs. This is a job creation program, and it is one that is flexible and recognizes that those at the local and State level know best what their economic development and job creation priorities are.
The bill before us does not solve all of the problems facing housing and transportation in this country. We simply do not have the money to do that, even with the higher allocation, in this era where we are facing a $17 trillion debt. This is a fiscally responsible bill. It reflects priorities. We cannot fund every good program out there. We have to make choices. We certainly don't want to fund programs that are not effective. We have put our money on our priority programs that will make a real difference.
I appreciate the opportunity to present our appropriations bill to this Chamber. Again, I want to thank my ranking member, Senator Jack Reed, with whom we have worked very closely on the substitute amendment.
As we begin debate on the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill, I urge my colleagues to consider the careful balance struck by the compromise that our subcommittee and our full committee worked so hard to achieve.
Thank you, Mr. President.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I just want to make a brief announcement before yielding to Senator Blunt and Senator Klobuchar, and that is that we are open for business as far as amendments are concerned.
I would invite my colleagues to start sharing their proposals with Senator Reed, with me, and with our staffs so we can see if there are some that can be cleared, and perhaps, later in the day, we can move by unanimous consent a package of those that are acceptable and noncontroversial to both sides. The sooner we can get going on the review of those amendments, the better. I would encourage my colleagues to proceed.
I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
Source