Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 - Conference Report
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to take a few moments to congratulate the chairman of our environment committee, Senator Inhofe, and his ranking member, Senator Boxer, for an extraordinary job. This has been a fascinating experience, particularly for Senator Boxer and me. To say that our relationship got off to a rather rocky start is to put it mildly. We found ourselves 20-some odd years ago on the opposite side of a very contentious issue with a lot of--shall I say--rather feisty exchanges on the floor of the Senate. It is also pretty obvious that we are not exactly philosophical soulmates. But I had heard Senator Inhofe say over the years how much he had enjoyed working with Senator Boxer and that there were actually things they agreed upon.
I made a mental note of that and wondered whether there might be some opportunity at some point down the way to team up with Senator Boxer. That finally happened this year. As Senator Inhofe and Senator Boxer would certainly underscore, we had challenges. We had the complexity on our side of the Ex-Im Bank issue, which created some serious internal Republican problems. We had a flirtation among some Members on the other side that we could shoehorn a major territorial tax bill into this bill. Senator Boxer and I were skeptical about that from the beginning because it is an article of faith on our side that tax reform is not for the purpose of taking the money and spending it, but of taking the money and buying down the rates.
We had all kinds of odd potential allowances that led to the floor debate last summer, for which we had an administration that was less than enthusiastic with what Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe and I were trying to do. Senate Democratic leadership hadn't exactly bought in on it either. In the meantime, our good friends in the House on my side of the aisle were calling it the Boxer bill, which of course was really great for me to hear.
We had all kinds of tripwires on the path to getting what we thought was important for the country, which was a multiyear highway bill, which--I believe I am correct, Senator Boxer--we haven't done since 1998.
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Mr. McCONNELL. It has been 17 years since we had a bill of this duration, which we all thought was important for the States and localities, for people who build and repair the roads to have some certainty. In the end, there wasn't really a philosophical problem here. The question was, How can we pull together these disparate pieces into one mosaic that actually had a chance to get somewhere?
I want to say to Senator Boxer, in particular, that this has been one of the most exhilarating and satisfying experiences I have had in the time that I have been in the Senate. I never would have predicted 20-some-odd years ago that I would be having it with Barbara Boxer. But this shows, in my opinion--I know Senator Inhofe agrees--the Senate is at its best when people can identify common interests and work together to get a positive result for the country.
I want to say to both of these great colleagues how much I appreciate their extraordinary work, particularly Senator Boxer because we were such opposites in almost every way. What actual fun it was to get to know her better and to work on this together. She has a year left. Maybe we can find something else. Congratulations to both of you on an extraordinary accomplishment for the American people.
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I completely neglected to mention an extraordinarily important player in all of this, and that is Neil Chatterjee of my staff, who befriended Senator Boxer and Bettina before I realized that there might be a possibility that we could do something together. Neil has done an extraordinary job. I think I can safely say he enjoyed the confidence of both sides and allowed us to work together in a positive and constructive way. I want to thank Neil Chatterjee for the great job that he did as well.
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