Hire More Heroes Act of 2015--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the Senate has an opportunity to pass a multiyear transportation bill that ensures critical transportation projects move forward without disruption. As part of this bipartisanship bill, the DRIVE Act, we also have an opportunity to pass necessary policy changes that enhance safety and make our transportation system work better.

Part of the DRIVE Act includes important work on transportation policy we have undertaken at the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. We will lose an opportunity to pass bipartisan reforms if we do not approve this critical legislation.

The last time we passed a multiyear transportation bill into law was 2012. However, since 2009, we have passed 33 short-term extensions to avoid a funding gap that would stop much-needed transportation projects. Highway and transportation infrastructure projects--and in many urban areas, public transit projects--are important to our constituents and our Nation's economy.

If we continue to do short-term extensions--again 33, literally 33 short-term extensions since 2009--that is a terrible way to run a highway program. It does not allow State departments of transportation to plan. It does not allow those who are involved in the construction, the contractors who build our roads and bridges, an opportunity to plan. It creates all kinds of uncertainty out there.

We need the certainty that comes with a long-term highway program instead of having these 33 short-term extensions. So this is a unique opportunity that we have to actually put in place policies that would guide us at least for the next 3 years and hopefully beyond. Our transportation system is one of our government's visible assets. Our constituents who sent us here notice when there is a problem with it.

The Federal infrastructure investment that Senator Inhofe and Senator Boxer have taken the lead on in the Environment and Public Works Committee and the transit projects for which the banking committee is responsible are not the only critical parts of our transportation system. There are policy decisions and advanced safety initiatives. We have rules governing how and when and where we build critical projects, as well as oversight of various regulations at the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding trucking, freight rail, passenger rail, and automobile safety requirements.

These areas are the exclusive jurisdiction of the Senate commerce committee. I have the honor of chairing the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. I was pleased to see my friend from Florida, Senator Nelson, who is the ranking member of our committee, return last night following his surgery last week to help advance consideration of the DRIVE Act.

Let's talk about some of the policies that I have worked on with colleagues on both sides of the aisle that will not become law if we fail to move forward with this bill. Keep in mind that Senators WICKER and BOOKER are the authors of the rail safety bill that the commerce committee passed by voice vote last month, and their bill is included in this legislation.

Let's also recognize that commuter rail systems, including New Jersey Transit and Virginia Railway Express, have stated that they will not meet Federal deadlines for implementing positive train control technology. This legislation currently before the Senate would authorize grants and prioritize loan applications to help commuter railroads deploy this new technology to help address safety issues and to get positive train control up and running as soon as possible.

The bill also includes numerous additional rail safety requirements, including the implementation of necessary automatic train control modifications and crew communication improvements, to improve operations while positive train control is being implemented.

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended requiring inward-facing cameras in all passenger railroads to create more accountability. This bill requires all passenger railroads to install such equipment in their locomotives. In fact, I have a letter here from the National Transportation Safety Board, in which Chairman Christopher Hart says:

I applaud the recent passage of the passenger rail safety bill. I was pleased to see the inclusion of our recommendations regarding inward and outward audio and image recorders.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the NTSB.

That is from the National Transportation Safety Board Chairman, Mr. Christopher Hart. So having these necessary improvements will make our passenger rail systems much safer as they travel across the country.

The bill also streamlines the permitting process for improvements to existing railroad track and infrastructure and improves multimodal planning and permitting. The Secretary of Transportation will have new authority to speed up projects and to reduce paperwork burdens. Outside of improving rail safety, we include a proposal offered as an amendment during committee markup by Senator McCaskill to ban rental car companies from renting vehicles needing recall repair work.

We also include several provisions to increase consumer awareness of recalls, increased corporate responsibility, and improved highway safety efforts in all the States. Following a harsh inspector general report criticizing the Federal Government's auto safety regulator, this bill requires the full implementation of reforms outlined in that report. Once these reforms are implemented, the agency's funding authorization will substantially increase to meet the GROW AMERICA requests for vehicle safety efforts. These are important safety provisions in this bill. They make our roads and our transportation system safer, and they deserve our support.

At the committee level, some provisions of our title were the subject of constructive discussions that helped us improve this bill before it made its way to the floor. Here are a few things we did to broaden support for this proposal after our committee passed the bill last week.

Senator Manchin raised concerns about a provision I authored that requires additional testing for a new train braking requirement known as ECP that will be required under law by 2021 and 2023. I worked with Senator Manchin. We came to an agreement that if new real-world tests show that the requirement isn't effective, it cannot proceed. If it is effective, there will be no delay in its implementation, and there will be no need for new rulemaking.

We worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving on another important issue to combat drunk driving. When we heard they had concerns with our 24/7 sobriety program grant language, we worked with them to address those concerns and to assure that the dedicated grant program with ignition interlock laws continues.

A pilot program our bill proposed that would allow licensed truckdrivers between the ages of 18 to 21 to cross short distances outside the borders of their home State now requires not only the approval of participating States but also the approval of the Secretary of Transportation. At the Commerce Committee we have worked on a bipartisan basis to change, drop or add provisions since we marked up the bill to earn the support of colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

There are still some differences. I expect amendments where this body will have the opportunity to decide important issues that we have debated throughout the committee process. One such issue, which I heard a variety of opinions about, concerns the current $35 million cap on fines that the Department of Transportation can assess on manufacturers for auto safety violations. This bill would double the cap to $70 million, provided that the Department first finishes a still undone rulemaking process on penalty assessment factors that was required in our last highway bill.

I have heard arguments that this cap on fines for auto safety failure should be raised more or even set at an unlimited amount, but we are doubling this cap to $70 million and conditioning an additional increased authorization for vehicle safety on implementing needed reforms.

This bill enhances safety. If we do not pass this bill, auto safety regulators don't get more funding, as called for by Secretary Foxx and various safety groups following the record 64 million auto safety recalls we have witnessed over the past 2 years. Penalties for auto safety violations will not go up if this bill doesn't pass, commuter railroads don't get new assistance to implement positive train control or the other critically important safety improvements that the NTSB, Amtrak, the FRA, and others have called for. None of that happens if this bill doesn't pass. Rental car companies don't face a Federal ban on renting vehicles that are subject to open recalls if this bill doesn't pass.

Not passing the safety reforms in the DRIVE Act would be an incredible missed opportunity for addressing a host of key safety improvements. Some in this building believe it would be easier if we just passed another short-term extension. They are right. It would be much easier, but keeping highway and related transportation infrastructure projects funded for a few more months doesn't address safety and regulatory issues that we cannot afford to keep ignoring.

Five months from now, if tax reform leaves us with new options, we can always decide to infuse additional funding into the bill before the Senate, but delaying action on transportation for 5 months could also compound our difficulties. Remember, there have already been 33 short-term extensions passed by Congress since 2009.

A silent part of every argument for a short-term extension is let's not address safety and other critical transportation needs. The right decision for the American people is to seize the opportunity to pass a bipartisan, multiyear transportation bill without delay.

I wish to share with you some of the letters of support we have received from various organizations that have looked at the body of work that is included in these particular provisions that I have mentioned.

The Governors Highway Safety Association says:

GHSA congratulates the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on releasing S. 1732. This six-year reauthorization bill will provide needed stability and consistency for state highway safety agencies to reduce the number of crashes, injuries and fatalities on America's roads.

This is from the American Public Transportation Association. It says:

On behalf of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), our 1,500 member agencies, and the millions of Americans that depend on public transportation, I write to commend the Committee's hard work to advance comprehensive rail legislation that attempts to address safety, funding needs, Amtrak enhancements, improved project delivery, and other important rail policy issues.

We fully support the inclusion of a rail title within any broader surface transportation authorization package considered in the Senate.

That was from the president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers states that they are writing ``to endorse the inclusion of the Railroad Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act (S. 1626) into the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 (S. 1732).

``The move to include passenger rail authorizing language in a broader highway and transit bill is an important step in recognizing the critical role intercity trains play in a national transportation system.''

This letter is from the States for Passenger Rail Coalition:

On behalf of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition, Inc., (SPRC) I write in support of the actions taken by the Commerce Committee to introduce sections of the highway bill. I am particularly pleased that the Railroad Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act (R2E2)--as approved by the Commerce Committee--was included as a title of the bill.

These are just a few of the examples of letters we have received. The final one I will mention is from Transportation for America, and there again they say they appreciate the fact that we are authorizing ``the federal passenger rail program with the transportation safety and freight provisions under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee through 2021,'' and that ``this proposal moves the federal transportation program in the right direction in addressing the nation's freight needs.''

The point I wish to make is there have been some of our colleagues on the floor who have been finding fault with various provisions in the bill, and obviously there are going to be a lot of people who aren't going to support this in the end anyway, but we ought to at least be talking about the facts. We ought to be talking about what is actually in the bill, and we ought to be talking about the important reforms that were made in this legislation that addressed safety issues, safety on the highway, safety on our rail system, improvements and reforms in our passenger rail systems, and the commuter railroads we have traveling across this country. There are a number of needed safety improvements and reforms that will be lost if we fail to act.

The letters I have mentioned are just a few examples of the organizations that rely upon those forms of transportation, that recognize this is an opportunity we should not miss.

I hope we will take advantage of the opportunity and not do another short-term extension, which would be the 34th now since 2009, and not put in place the types of changes, reforms, and improvements that are needed in our transportation system across this country. If we fail to act now--the window that people think we have now for a short-term extension--the 34th short-term extension--we will be looking at this sometime later this year, and we will be right back where we are right now.

We shouldn't miss this opportunity. We should take advantage of it and try, and as best we can as we move this across the Senate floor and debate some of these issues--if there are ideas about improving it, making it better, making it stronger, I think that is what this debate is all about. But I want to make sure that as we talk about these issues we are accurately characterizing and reflecting what is actually in the bill and all the work that has been done on both sides of the aisle by both Democrats and Republicans and Members who are interested in these issues.

There are a number of committees that have jurisdiction over transportation issues. As I mentioned, the Commerce Committee is just one. The Environment and Public Works Committee has had the lead on writing the bill. The Finance Committee, on which I also serve, is responsible for--at least largely responsible for--trying to come up with the pay-fors the way that we are going to fund this, and the banking committee deals with many of the transit provisions of the bill.

So there are multiple jurisdictional issues involved here. All the committees have been active. All the Members on those committees have been active. I can certainly say that on our committee, the commerce committee, we had great participation from both Republicans and Democrats on the committee. We had a lot of good input, which didn't end when we reported the bill out of the committee but continued on through the weekend and into this week. So we continue to look at ways we can make this bill stronger.

But I have to say, all the things that are included in here, all the things I mentioned along with the components and features of this bill that have been worked on by other committees, are important changes. Probably, most important of all, is that we get something that puts in place a multiyear bill that creates the kinds of conditions that are conducive to jobs and to economic growth. We all know how important transportation infrastructure is to our economy.

I come from a part of the country where we rely heavily--we drive long distances, we have a lot of geography that we have to cover. Our economy, because we are agriculturally based, relies very heavily upon getting our products to the marketplace. So we have to have good roads and bridges, we have to have a railroad system that works, and we believe that many of the things that are done in this bill contribute to, enhance, make stronger, better, and more efficient our transportation system. That is good for jobs, that is good for the economy in this country, and that is why it is so important that we move forward.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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