Proposing a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for High-Income Taxpayers-- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, before they leave the floor, I thank Senator Coons and Senator Begich and Senator Shaheen for the very important words they gave today on behalf of the House taking up and passing the bipartisan Senate Transportation bill. It is interesting to know we also have the senior Senator from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, speaking out in favor of the House picking up and passing the Senate bipartisan bill. I also served as a county supervisor a long time ago, but I think we all understand that what we do here makes a difference.

This is one Nation under God, indivisible. There cannot be a circumstance where one State puts their own funding from their State into highways but the State next door does nothing. They cannot have commerce. That is why I thought Dwight Eisenhower, when he was a Republican President in the 1950s, said it well. He was a logistics expert. He is the one who started the National Highway System. He knew from his experience in war that you have to move goods and people. He also knew, in his role as President, that in order to have a strong economy, we have to do the same thing here at home.

For me to see this House dither as they are doing--they are dithering on a bill. All they have to do is take up the bipartisan bill. For goodness sake, they have three-quarters of the Senate to support it, and all we need is 218 votes. When I served in the House for 10 years, what did I learn? You needed 218 votes. Tip O'Neill never cared where he got his votes, he just got the votes for the American people. So I have written letters to Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor, and I have begged them to please work with us on this bill, and all we get back are statements from their staff, saying: Well, we are going to do it our way. As Congresswoman Pelosi, the Democratic leader, said today: When you say my way or the highway about the highway bill, you don't get much done.

I also wanted to thank Senator Klobuchar. She also held office at the State level. She was a district attorney, and she understands what happens when the Federal Government, State government, local government, all work together for jobs, and that is what this bill is about.

So I am going to call today on the House to immediately take up and pass the bipartisan Boxer-Inhofe bill. I am going to ask them to abandon their goal of a series of extensions.

When someone goes to buy a house, they need a mortgage. Maybe it will be a 10-year mortgage, 15-, 20-, or a 30-year mortgage. If the banker looked at them and said, We can only give you a mortgage for 30 or 60 days, it would be very difficult, to put it mildly. It is disruptive. You don't know how to plan, you don't know what it is going to cost, you don't know if you are ever going to get the money for the house. So the House, by taking up these extensions, has to understand the impact.

Today I called a press conference to let the press know what the impact is of these extensions. The extension means job losses. We started to put together a list that is coming to us from the States of job losses already happening in the field because of the lack of action by the House. I spoke to the Secretary of Transportation in North Carolina today. He has delayed the remaining 2012 projects totaling $1.2 billion that would employ 41,000 people. So 41,000 people do not have work, as we speak today, because the House is dithering and not passing the bipartisan Senate Transportation bill.

I spoke to the officials in Nevada. As we speak, thousands of jobs have been lost there because the House is considering an extension instead of passing a bill such as our bill.

I spoke to the officials in Maryland. Same thing, thousands of jobs. I spoke to the officials in Michigan. Same thing. Right now we are putting together a list from all across the country of job losses in all of our States as a result of the House failing to take up and pass the bipartisan Senate bill. What more bipartisanship do they need than to have 75 Senators support the bill? One of them was absent due to a funeral. So we have 74 votes for it and 22 against it. What more do they want?

Anyone watching the Senate today sees how paralyzed we are. We have not been able to do a thing. There are filibusters on fixing the post offices. There are filibusters on making sure that Big Oil doesn't keep ripping off consumers at the pump. Filibuster, filibuster, filibuster, filibuster. But we were able to get over all of that and pass a transportation bill. Why wouldn't the House be thrilled about that? Why wouldn't the House embrace what we did? Why would the House instead stand up again today and say, We are going to have a 60-day extension. Guess what. They pulled it. They are not having a vote on that today because of the uproar it is creating in the States and on the House floor. The House has not delivered on its promise for a bill. All the leadership does is complain about our bill.

Today--I couldn't believe it--Chairman Mica said this bill is not paid for. Senator Baucus, Senator Thune, and others worked across party lines to pay for our bill. It is 100 percent paid for. And guess what it does. It protects 1.9 million jobs and creates another million. That is what our bill does. So they are pulling this vote. They are pulling this vote today. Good. I am glad they are pulling this vote because they ought to instead pass the bipartisan Senate Transportation bill.

I want to tell you a story about what is actually happening out there in the economy. If we do nothing, 1.9 million jobs are gone on March 31. If we do an extension, then you have death by a thousand cuts, a proportion of these jobs is lost, and it keeps getting worse with every extension. So it is the end of these jobs, a slow torturous end of these jobs.

I want to show how many unemployed construction workers there are--1.4 million. Why is that? When the unemployment rate is 8.3 percent, the unemployment rate among construction workers is 17.1 percent. Why is that? Because we were having a very tough housing crisis, and we are not out of it yet. So all of these workers who were building houses now were hoping to be able to build highways, build freeways, and fix bridges. And our bill does that. Our bill will take these people and put them to work. We could get this unemployment rate down to 400,000 because we will take a million off this with the expansion of the TIFIA Program, which stands for Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which gives the money upfront for cities and States and gets projects built faster.

I want to show you what it would look like if you put every unemployed construction worker into a football stadium. This is a Super Bowl stadium, and it is filled. Imagine each and every one of these seats is filled by an unemployed construction worker, and then close your eyes and imagine 13 more stadiums for a total of 14 stadiums. Fourteen stadiums full of unemployed construction workers, that is what we are facing. Yet, the House will not take up and pass the bipartisan Transportation bill. They are flirting with extensions, which is the end of these jobs, but slower and more excruciating.

We talked about jobs, but we have to talk about businesses. These jobs are private sector jobs, and these businesses--over 11,000 of them--are construction companies that would be adversely impacted.

I met with business owners. One man was teary eyed. He said, Senator, I have had to lay off 1,000 people because of the indecision here, because of the constant extensions we have had on the highway bill. We need your bill now. I said I understood. He said, I cannot look at another worker. He said, Extensions are like living hand to mouth. It doesn't work.

If you know, again, that all you are going to get is 90 days' worth of Federal funding, how can you let a contract for a year? No one is going to go out and let a contract for 90 days for a big program that lasts for a year or a year-and-a-half of construction.

So we just have to remember we are not just talking about workers; we are talking about the businesses that support those workers.

I am going to show my colleagues a series of editorials. They have run in red States. They have run in blue States. They have run in purple States.

I am going to make a statement, and I am going to stand by it: Everyone in America gets this except the House of Representatives. Everyone in America gets this except the Republicans in the House of Representatives, save a few of them who are courageous. Four of them have broken off--one of them from the Presiding Officer's home State, two of them from Illinois, and one of them from North Carolina. They said: We stand with those who say take up and pass the Senate bipartisan bill. Good for them for showing that kind of courage.

I say to my colleagues now, it is a quarter to 5 in the evening. If any of them are tuning in to this discussion, listen to what these newspapers are saying: ``House should pass transportation bill.''

The No. 1 priority for the House of Representatives should be passing a bipartisan transportation bill--as the Senate already has done on a 74 22 vote. .....

The Senate has done its job. ..... House Speaker Boehner should drop the notion of passing an extreme Republican-only House bill and do as the Senate did--craft a bipartisan bill that can pass both Houses.

This is in the Fresno Bee. It is in the reddest part of California. Trust me when I say that. I know. It is the reddest part of California, and they are asking the House to pass the Senate bill.

Then we have, in Michigan, the Detroit News: ``Congressional Waffling Hurts State Roads.''

The U.S. Senate ..... has approved a bipartisan plan. While imperfect, it's better than another reprise of an outmoded transportation act that already has been extended eight times. ..... The disarray hardly gives States the kind of revenue certainty they need to get from a Federal plan, but if Boehner and House Members can't agree on their own plan, they would probably be wise to take what is politically possible and pass it. Pass the Senate bill.

Newspapers all over the country--look at this one: ``Road to Compromise.'' One would think the House would embrace this. What are the American people telling us? We are viewed--we in the Congress--as fighting constantly. Our approval rating is 10 percent. I don't know who represents that 10 percent, but it is probably the Presiding Officer's family, my family, and the family of my colleague from Missouri.

Why is that? We can't work together. We proved today on two bills that we can't get together. But we proved a couple of weeks ago, after 5 weeks of debate, we could do it on the Transportation bill.

When Senator Inhofe and I agree, my goodness, that is a day. We don't agree on so many things, believe me. We are struggling over anything that has the word ``environment'' in it. He is fighting to overturn the EPA clean air rules, and I am fighting him to keep them. He doesn't want that much oversight on nuclear accidents; I want more oversight. He says I don't do enough oversight on things he wants oversight on. Listen, we argue. We respect each other. We like each other. We disagree with each other. But on this we came together. What more does Boehner want? What more does Cantor want?

Speaker Boehner is putting at risk 55,000 jobs in Ohio, and Leader Cantor is putting at risk 40,000 jobs in Virginia. Don't they care about the businesses and the workers there?

This headline says the ``Road to Compromise.'' This is the Ohio Akron Beacon, from the heartland:

On Wednesday, 74 Senators, Republicans and Democrats, joined together in a real accomplishment. They approved a two-year bill. ..... The timing couldn't be better. ..... What will the House do? It should take the cue of the Senate and quickly approve the legislation that won bipartisan support.

It couldn't be more clear. That is Ohio.

I will tell my colleagues I have never seen such an array of newspapers from all over the country.

This one is the Chicago Sun-Times: ``For a Better Commute, Pass Transportation Bill.''

The Senate just delivered a gift to the House: A bipartisan transportation bill at a time when America really could use a lift. Here's hoping the House Republicans don't mess it up. .....

Well, hope against hope. So far, I feel very worried--very, very worried. The whole program expires on Friday and all they can come up with is extensions, and then they don't even have the votes for that. How bad would it be for them to give me a call, give Senator Inhofe a call, and say: We are going to come over and sit down and bring the bipartisan leadership of the committee--there are four of them--bring the bipartisan leadership of the Senate, and let's hammer out something.

What is happening over there? Speaker Boehner is the Speaker of the House not Speaker of the Republicans. He needs to work with the Democrats. I don't expect they will love each other, my goodness. We don't expect miracles, but we should expect them to work together.

I remember fondly my days in the House with Tip O'Neill and Bob Michel. Couldn't have better friends. Did they agree on everything? No. Did they work on everything? Yes. I remember those days. I was a whip at a certain point in the House, and they used to call us together and we would come back and say: There are 25 Democrats who can't vote for this Democratic bill. You know what Tip O'Neill would do? He would say: Fine, I will call Bob Michel and see if he has 25 votes for me. They saw that they might have had 20 and they didn't have 25 and they had to compromise the bill. And they did it. That is why I decided I loved legislating.

I loved working on this bill with my friend Senator Inhofe. I loved working with my staff and his staff. Our staffs became almost like family. I would encourage Speaker Boehner to take a page out of this book.

I see the Senator from Louisiana on the Senate floor. He and I go at it on a number of issues. We work together. We even put on this bill the Restore Act--a bipartisan piece of legislation that is going to make sure the gulf can rebuild and get paid back for the suffering that went on there. Did California get a lot out of that? No. But the country will get a lot out of that because the gulf is a region we care about. It is where we get a lot of our energy. It is where we get a lot of our seafood. We need to work together.

So Senator Vitter and I don't agree on a lot of subjects, and we go at it pretty hard in the committee. But on this we agreed.

So let's look at a few others, and then I will yield the floor after we go through the rest of these.

``Highway Bill Would Boost Stability.'' This is Mississippi. This is one of the reddest States in the Union. I beg Speaker Boehner to open his ears and hear me:

A two-year, $109 billion highway bill that passed the U.S. Senate this week buoys the hope of interest groups like roadbuilders and the travel industry that the House can be prodded by the Senators' action to pass its own bill before a March 31 expiration date.......

This bill has no earmarks. .....

Mississippi could derive major benefits.

I am just saying, when we have editorials from Mississippi for a bill, we know it is a bipartisan bill.

Let's take a look at some others: ``A Solid Transportation Bill.'' This comes from Oregon, the Register Guard, an editorial:

By an impressive bipartisan vote of 74 to 22, the Senate on Wednesday passed a two-year blueprint for transportation. The House should move quickly to approve the Senate measure. If a transportation bill is not approved and signed into law by April 1, the government will lose its ability to pay for Federal transportation projects.

So now we have Mississippi, Oregon, Illinois, and Ohio. I don't remember all that I read.

``Bipartisanship in Senate Moves Transportation Bill.'' This is Oklahoma, another deeply red State:

With rare bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed a much-needed and much-delayed national transportation bill that could create jobs and fund road projects. .....

The country's infrastructure has been ignored for too long and is in dire straits. This is an important and necessary extension of the transportation bill. It will make needed improvements to our infrastructure, and it is a real job-creator. .....

I am telling my colleagues that I am buoyed by these editorials because these editorials from Republican papers and Democratic papers are nonpartisan. They are all urging us to act.

``Transportation Funding Held Hostage in the House.'' Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas--another red State:

What an exciting thing to see the Senate pass a surface transportation bill last week on a 74 to 22 vote. Such bipartisan support for maintaining and improving this crucial part of the national infrastructure makes it almost seem like the good old days in Washington. .....

At one point, [House Speaker Boehner] said he would put the Senate bill before the House. Earlier, he said House Republicans might go for an 18-month extension. ..... It's beginning to look like Boehner doesn't have a clue what the House will do. .....

Does this sound familiar? Does it remind you of the congressional follies of last summer, the reality-TV drama and brinksmanship of the debate over raising the federal debt limit.

I can't reach Speaker Boehner. He doesn't answer my letters. Cantor doesn't answer my letters. They just have spokespeople who put something out there. What is wrong with talking to each other? What happened to those days?

Now, it goes on, and I am going to go through these: ``Pass This Transit Bill.'' This one is the Miami Herald:

In an all too rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate, by a vote of 74 to 22 last week, passed a transportation bill of vital interest to South Florida and the rest of the country.......

This uncompromising approach is why public approval of Congress stands at 10 percent or below in recent polls. Mr. Boehner should urge the members of his caucus to set aside their job-killing intransigence and accept the bipartisan Senate version before funding runs out.

So here is the thing--I will wrap up--there is a clear path to success, and it is not painful. It is not painful. Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor should abandon their idea of these endless extensions. We have proven today through the State organizations and by talking to State officials in all of our States that jobs are already being lost because of the uncertainty, the dithering--that is my word--and the fact that they are talking about extensions. Extensions are no good. Extensions mean job losses--41,000 jobs already lost today as of now in North Carolina and thousands in other States because States do not have the ability to up-front the Federal share. They are counting on us.

Our bill is fully paid for in a bipartisan way. Our bill has not one earmark. Our bill takes 90 programs down to 30. It is streamlined. It is made efficient.

We have, in a bipartisan way, added the Restore Act. We added ways to fund rural districts for their schools by the timber receipts. This is a good bill, and this is a bill that is truly a work product of everyone in this Chamber. Even those who ended up voting no had something to do with it and helped us get it through.

So there is a clear path. They pulled their 60-day extension off the floor of the House, and that is a good thing. Now they should put the Senate bill on the floor and both sides should embrace it and pass it.

Let me tell my colleagues a signal it will send to our people at home: It will send a signal of job growth in the future, a signal that we are working together, a signal that we are going to get out of this recession, a signal that we put aside politics for the good of these hard-hat workers and the companies that employ them. They deserve it. They got hurt by Wall Street. Everybody in the country did. But for these construction workers, because of all this messing around with these mortgage-backed securities, it killed the construction industry and housing.

We have a chance to help some of the hardest working people in our Nation. I call on the House leadership to take a page out of our bipartisan book here and pass the Senate bill.

I thank my colleagues, and I yield the floor.

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