Senate Proceeding on Jul 30th, 2009 :: 3:37:15 to 3:57:15
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Speech By: Saxby Chambliss

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Saxby Chambliss: will call the roll.

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quorum call:

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mr. coburn: that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coburn: i'm expecting senator mccain on the floor any time, but i think i'll begin. the government indicating office -- acc report yesterday that talked about the highway trust fund. and what they noted over the

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last of that trust fund has been spent on things other than highways, bridges, and roads. some of the things that it's been spent on, nobody would have any question. but here we findurselves, the second time in a year, trying to bail out the trust fund and

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we're going to decide if we're going to steal it from our kids or steal it from the stimulus bill, which will actually make it much more stimulative than the money's that's there. but we find ourselves in trouble fflt you ask yourself the question: when this trust fund was first setup, it was set up during the eisenhower

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administration, and it was designed to build the interstate highway system and help us with roads and bridges and secondary roads and country. and what it has morphed into is that a large percentage of it now doesn't go for any of that. and so we find ourselves in the midst of a recession with last

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year having high gas prices, which depressed the money going into the fund and with a recession now decreasing revenues going into the fund, and we have all of these projects that we know are priority for us that need to be fixed. now the other thing we learned from this report is that 13,000

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people in this country a year die because of bad roads, bad bridges, and bad highways. so it would seem highway trust fund moneys ought to be spent to eliminate 13,000 deaths and that the priority ought to be about

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roads, and i will put into the record many other items where the money is spent. 10% is mandated for highway beautification. well, i think that's great if we don't have a trust fund that's broke. and we don't bridges in the country that

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structurally have some defect. 93,000 which are seriously structurally defective. i think it's really important that we turn our attention to priorities that will support that. we're going to have a lot of votes on this today. and i'm supportive of us doing what we need to do for the trust fund.

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i'm ao supportive of making sure that priorities of this trust fund are about bridges, roads, and highways. in oklahoma, in tulsa, oklahoma, yesterday we have a man in i.c.u. because somebody hit a bridge with a car but he was drivin another lane and chunks of concrete fell through the windshield and seriously injured our hhway department

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we had a problem with that bridge. not in going over it or going foundational bridge were at suspect terms of the concrete that was underlying it and the uprights that contained it. so the dollars that went to build a bicycle path, the dollars that went to plant flowers along the highway, the

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dollars that went to put walking paths means that guy's in the hospital today because dollars didn't go for what they were intended for. and so when we have $78 billion over the last four don't go for roads, highways, and bridges and instead go for things tha enhance the safety, aren't going

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to help the $13,000 lives a year be saved, america's got to ask: what are your priorities up here? so the -- i'd like unanimous consent to enter into the record the government accounting office report on -- on the transportation trust fund. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coburn: and make the point that as they look at that, there are some important things for us

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to consider. we know, had we passed a better stimulus bill, we would be doing twice as much now as what we are doing in terms of fixing the real problems in this country in terms of transportation infrastructure. but we didn't. we passed a stimulus bill that what it did is it created

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transfer payments on 70% of it and 20% of it may be considered to be stimulative. so the hope would that be as go forward -- and we're going to bail this out and we're going -- what we really need to do ultimately is let us have our own money. from oklahoma, we've never gotten 100% back. we've never above -- my senior senator from oklahoma, the highest was last

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year, but routinely when i first came to congress, we were getting 74 cents out of every dollar that we spent. a sure you, we can keep that money, we can get a whole lot more done with it than we what we get fund now and that may perchance be one solution to ultimately get us out of this mud. i would be happy to yield to my

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James Inhofe: senior colleague. mr. inhofe: he's touching on the real problem that we have here. because i can rember, up unt about five years ago, our trust fund took care of our needs. problem that we had was not just the fact that as it goes the -- the proceeds go down. but that we got involved in things that had with transportation. it used to be bridges and transportation and highways. and it was adequate at that time.

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Speech By: James Inhofe

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James Inhofe: you get all these hitchhikers seeing surplus, therefore, let's tap into the surplus.

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you have these things t nothing to do with transportation. so the senator's right in his observations. mr. mccain: will the senator yield for -- mr. coburn: yeah, let me make one other point. in the last 20 years,e've built 25 transportation museums rather than build highways. now, think about that. rather than -- we have -- remember minneapolis, rember

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the bridge that colla we're putting money into museums -- i wonder if we're going to build a museum about the collapse of the bridge in minneapolis. we're putting money into museums instead of money into making sure that the roads, bridges, especially the bridges, are safe and our priorities are messed up. the american people know our priorities are messed up.

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John McCain: and hopefully we can redirect transportation dollars to true transportation projects, not to the aesthetics that we right now, first of all, can't afford even though they may be nice, and, number two, are causing additional deaths on our highway every year. and i would be happy to yield to the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: will you yield for a question? yield. mr. mccain mccain: isn't it also,

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Speech By: John McCain

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John McCain: couldn't it awbles tced to earmarks -- also be tried earmarks and pork barrel, demonstration projects? could it not be traced to the fundamental facts that the 1992 highway bill included 10 demonstration projects totally $387 billion. the 1987 bill, 152 projects totaling $1.4 billion.

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John McCain: the 1991 highway bill, $538 -- 538 location-specific pork hire barrel projects total -- pork-barrel pr $6.1 billion. the 1998 highway bill, 1,850 earmark projects totaling $9.3 billion.

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John McCain: and the 2005, 5,6 projects totaling $21.6 billion. how can anyone who themselves a fiscal conservative stand by and allow this kind of thing to happen? and what happens? $2.3 billion for landscaping enhancements along -

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John McCain: places -- the ronald reagan freeway. $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse along the erie canal. $600,000 for the construction of horse riding trails in virginia. $2.5 million for the daniel boone wilderness trail corridor.

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John McCain: $400,000 to rehabilitate and redesign the erie canal ma glee up. and $400,000 for jogging, bicycle and trolley trail in columbus, georgia. how in the world can those our constituents not to rise up

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in horror? mr. coburn: well, the answer to the senator's question: they can't. and there's no question there are certain priorities. mr. coburn: what is happened is we've -- as we try to address priorities for individual states, because the states don't get their money back, along comes -- there may be a great project in there and along comes

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a lousy one. so i would just make the point is wve got our eye off the ball. and the eye needs go back. and all you have to do is go to the "tulsa world" to see the story that happened yesterday in my and senator inhofe's own home state. and had we been applying money to transportation instead of nontransportation through trust

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fund, that gentleman probably wouldn't be in the hospital today. a 600 popped or $700-pound piece of concrete fell through the wind shield trapping him in his car. so we have real problems. we don't have just a problem of not enough money in the trust fund. our problem is, is the money that goes out doesn't go for the real things that the trust fund

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was designed to do in the first place. so i would so i would just restate -- and then i'll yield back -- we've got things. until this country gets out of the jam it's in, we've got to put money in real transportation projects to save some of the

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13,000 lives that the transportation department says are occurring directly because we're not fixing roads, bridges, and highways. that's number one. or, number two, let's eliminate the thing, let all the states keep the money at homing, and we'll figure it out how to do it better in oklahoma never gotten a square deal on this thing yet and with tha i'll yield back. the presiding officer: the

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John McCain: senator from arizona is recognized. mr. mccain: would you yield for a question. mr. coburn: i would be happy to. mr. mccain: how much -- does the gentleman know how much we are spending on highway and

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Speech By: John McCain

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transportations -- i use quotation "projects" -- in the stimulus, the $787 billion stimulus bill? mr. coburn: i believe it was 4% or 5%. maybe senator inhofe will know that answer. mr. inhofe: if you will allow notice answer the question, it's 3. question, it's $3.5%. and an additional 3% in military

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projects. so a total of about $7% of any real stimulus, in my opinion. mr. mccain: does the distinguished ranking member know how much of that has been spent, mr. inhofe: yes, everything except -- 67% has not been -- what's the word -- has not been obligated. so 30% -- so, you know, 33%'s obligated.

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mr. mccain: i thank the senator. mr. coburn: let me add also, if you go to governmentspending.v and you go to recovery.gov, will you find, as of last week -- i week- that only $78 billion of the whole stimulus package has actual been spent. now, more of it's been obligated

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but actually been spent. and so i think there's another $150 billion that's been obligated out of that. that's one of the reasons that we're not seeing the effect of the stimulus. one is, it's not going to really stimulate things. and, number two is it's not getting out there to where we need to get it out. mr. inhofe: i'm not sure who has the floor, but if it's you would yield to this, that's another ason that the vitter

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James Inhofe: amendment and the ensign amendment are good, because you're talking about money that is out there that not recoverable. so let's try to direct it someplace where we can get something from it. i had an amendment during the consideration of the stimulus bill and to try to triple the amount of money that would go into actual construction and they wouldn't take it up. thank you.

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Speech By: James Inhofe

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James Inhofe: mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arina. mr. mccain: mr. president, as senator cobur mentioned, today examining how the highway trust fund receipts have been used for projects other road and bridge construction and maintenance over the past five years, and it relies heavily on

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James Inhofe: the new government accounting

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office performed at our request on how we prioritize our nation's transportation spending. and, again, i'd like to remind my colleags that the g.a.o. concluded that over the last five years alone, we spent $78 billion

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John McCain: than road and bridge construction and maintenance. let me repeat, $78 billion on projects other than the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges. and where did it go? according to the g.a.o., over

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Speech By: John McCain

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John McCain: $2 billion was spent on 5,547 projects for bike paths and pedestrian walkways. bike pathsnd pedestrian walkways. as one example, they identified an $878,000 project for a pedestrian and bicycle bridge for a minnesota town of 847 people.

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John McCain: now, i don't know what that works out to be, but just roughly i think it about $1,000 per person. you know, i'd be interested to know how many inhabitants actually use that bridge. and we all know about the bridge to nowhere. perhaps this is the bridge for no one.

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John McCain: another $850 million went for 2,772 "scenic, beautification an landscaping projects around the country." $84 million was spent on roadkill prevention, wildlife habitat connectiveity and highway runoff pollution mitigation projects.

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John McCain: another $84 million went to 398 pedestrian and projects. now, i don't mean to diminish safety, but doe really need spend federal dollars for brochures like the one we cited in our report that encouraged

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John McCain: bicyclists -- quote -- "make eye contact, smile, or wave to communicate with motorists. courtesy and predictability are a key to another $28 million went to the transportation museums -- transportation museums a $215 million went to scenic or