Press Conference By Senator Amy Klobuchar And Senator Norm Coleman: The Bridge Collapse In Minneapolis

Statement

Press Conference By Senator Amy Klobuchar And Senator Norm Coleman: The Bridge Collapse In Minneapolis

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Thank you for joining us today. We have to be somewhat brief here because we're voting.

Senator Coleman and I just came back from Minnesota. What we saw there is what you've all seen on TV. It was a horrific sight. But we also bring back stories of miracles, of heroism, of a school bus that was so close to going over but yet somehow miraculously stayed suspended on this bridge.

You all saw the divers going in over and over again into the water. You saw the police and fire and the medical personnel that stayed through the night. When we drove into the city, there was already billboards up redirecting people 12 hours after this horrible event and telling them where to go. There is already newspaper postings about extra bus service. And I think you will see, as time goes on, that this was a model of how to respond to an emergency.

I think we all learned some lessons from Katrina. I think in many ways that was a mirror on the national leadership of this country, and this was handled differently. As a prosecutor, I remember going through these exercises in Hennepin County and with the Minneapolis Police over and over again in which we would do practices after September 11th, and never once did we think that we'd actually have such a disaster. But we did, and the people responded. I'm so proud of our police chief, Tim Dolan -- he's a very good friend of mine -- as well as how the mayor and the county and everyone has handled this disaster.

What we talked about in Minnesota were really two things.

First of all, the importance of a prompt investigation. I was pleased that the chair of the National Safety Transportation Board was there. A bridge in America just shouldn't fall down. Secretary Peters, the Transportation secretary, was very good to come so early this morning and to talk to us about what happens around the country. You know, bridges have gone down across the country.

San Francisco earthquake -- lose a bridge; barge hits one in Oklahoma. But it's very rare to have something happen like this. And a bridge just doesn't fall for no reason, and the investigation will get to the causes.

Secondly both Senator Coleman and I are working together. We have introduced a bill to waive the cap. There's a $100 million cap for emergency relief money. This will just pave the way so that we can seek the funds. We wanted to make sure even on this waning days of the session here that that bill gets through.

We have bipartisan support for that bill. I just talked to Majority Leader Reid. He is supportive. I talked to him earlier as well as Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray on our side. Senator Murray actually is chair of the House Transportation Appropriation Committee, had someone with us, a staff member that went with us to survey the damage.

What I took from this is that first of all, there is bipartisan work that goes on in Washington, that there are people who are heroes every day, that dove into that cold water on an August night when they didn't know who was in those cars and saved them. And I think as a result, you're going to see people saved that wouldn't have been saved, lives lost that we will never forget. I think it was Police Chief Dolan who told us the touching story of people dying in the arms of Minneapolis police officers who said their last goodbyes to them.

Thank you very much for taking the time, and I now introduce Senator Coleman.

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Q Congressman Oberstar has expressed his desire to get this done before you adjourn for August -- (off mike). Is that your hope? And is it your expectation?

SEN. COLEMAN: I'll give about hopes -- (chuckles) -- I'm a hopeful guy. We'd like to get this done. We think we need to move very quickly.

Kevin, you know, we've got short construction seasons in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We've got -- I think we've got to know what we have and move forward as quickly as we can.

The Senate is a little more difficult than the House. Single members at times can raise objections. So we certainly can't guarantee -- my -- our message for my colleagues is, we have been there when this nation has experienced tragedies in other areas, devastation in other areas, and we've all come together and understood the needs that we have. And certainly that will be the message to my colleagues. And are we hopeful that we get this done, if not before we get out of here, as soon as we get back. But I certainly think time of the essence.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Yeah, and I want to mention again this -- Minnesota and the situation here. This bridge is -- actually, I said yesterday it's a mile from my house. It's really only about eight blocks from my house. And you literally -- you come out on University Avenue and you just -- there's no longer a major freeway.

The -- in the next year we have coming up, a year from August, the state fair, which is a huge event in Minnesota -- and we invite you all -- and the Republican National Convention at the same time. So we have reason to want to move on this bridge. The estimates are it could take a year to two years to build. The investigation is going to take a while. People are going to have to be patient. But the rebuilding of the bridge can go on while the investigation is still going on.

Our colleagues are very supportive on my side of the aisle, of getting the authorization bill through tonight -- we hope we can do that -- or tomorrow morning. And as Senator Coleman -- if we run into some kind of obstacle, as he mentioned, we can continue through this month, because the funding will be there -- the emergency funding. It's authorized -- the secretary's authorized up to 100 million (dollars) before you have to get that cap up. So we would be fine through the month. But again, it would be -- I would like to see at least the authorization out tonight or tomorrow.

Q Did either of you know that this bridge was deemed deficient before? And were there any kind of communications from the state that maybe there needed -- that this bridge needed -- (off mike)?

SEN. COLEMAN: There was a lot of discussion with the secretary of Transportation today, who addressed that issue, and the governor. And as a former mayor, I have some familiarity with it. We had a bridge called the Wabasha Bridge. We had pieces falling off of it. It was at a lower level than that bridge, but they didn't shut it down. I got real worried at a certain point in time, and we fixed the bridge.

But the statement has been made that the classification when the -- what's the exact term that they -- deficient -- is one that is, from the secretary of Transportation, is one that says this bridge is going to need some work, need repair, but not a danger, not something that needs to be shut down. She was very clear about that.

I think 3 percent -- the figures that at least that were quoted to us today -- about 3 percent of the bridges in Minnesota are in that category, perhaps 40 percent of the bridges nationally. So it simply says that these bridges need to repaired at a certain point in time but don't represent a risk for danger. So the fact that this was a deficient bridge is not something that would have been on, you know, kind of red-lettered and something that folks would have brought to our attention.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: And I want to stress again that the people in charge of this investigation have said they do not know what happened. They said one of the most useful pieces of evidence is going to be the video that -- showed today, because that will show exactly where it started to split and where the problem first happened. So having that video will be critical. And they have so many eyewitnesses' accounts because there were many survivors. They have people from -- passer- bys; this is an incredibly busy, busy area. It's right in the University of Minnesota. So they have a lot of physical evidence plus the visual accounts and the video that's going to be helpful. But I only make the point because they do not know what's wrong.

Q Let me follow up on that, because we're going with the positive. Is -- did this -- obviously this incident shines light on the infrastructure problem that you talk about across the country. Is there a problem with the government and particularly Congress and its priorities when it comes to transportation funding, earmarks that go for parks and bike parks and bike paths in Minnesota and elsewhere instead of really focusing on -- (off mike)?

SEN. COLEMAN: Just by -- and I will say happenstance, I introduced a bill yesterday morning before this -- coauthored at that time by two former local elected officials: Senator Carper, a former governor from Delaware; Senator Voinovich, a former mayor from Cleveland and governor from Ohio. Senator Klobuchar has joined in that bill, calling for Congress to create a commission, and by next -- by 2009 -- give them a little less than a year and a half to do an assessment of our nation's infrastructure -- roads and highways and bridges, and then come up at the same time during that with a plan to say how are we are going to fix that, what's it going to cost, and do it -- five years, 10 years to -- because we haven't done that. We haven't done that.

Clearly, this does raise concerns among citizens who are driving on those bridges that are listed as structurally deficient. Again, the authorities will say that doesn't mean they're unsafe; it means you got to deal with them.

But I think this is certainly a call to arms to say, let's take a closer look; let's take stock; let's then come forward with a plan and then let's figure out a way to fund it.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: And I would just add to that that because we do not know the cause, it's -- I know this from being a prosecutor. People always want to draw conclusions. And we really don't know the cause yet. But I will say that this is a reminder to us all that we need to have strong funding for the long term for our infrastructure in this country, and that we need emergency funding as well, like we are able to access today.

SEN. COLEMAN: We apologize. We have -- (cross talk).

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: We have to go vote. We already missed some votes today. So --

SEN. COLEMAN: Some of us missed votes yesterday when we were told we wouldn't miss the vote, so we're a little sensitive.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: (Laughs.) All right, thank you.

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