Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me thank my colleague from Missouri, Senator Bond, who has worked hard with me, the staff, and all of us who have been working to get this bill to the floor and pass it. It is an extremely difficult bill, covering a wide variety of programs and projects throughout the country. We started this process way back in the beginning of the year with the budget process. He and I spent many conversations on the phone working together, getting our bill through subcommittee, full committee, and now to the Senate floor.

I could not have done it without Senator Bond's help and support, particularly in the housing arena, helping to work through a lot of difficult issues. I thank him in particular for his diligence and his ability to help us get through this today.

Also, I thank his staff: Jon Kamarck, Ellen Beares, and Matt McCardle. They have been there time and again to help us work through the issues. I thank my staff: Peter Rogoff, Rachel Milberg, Bill Simpson, Meaghan McCarthy, and Terri Curtin. They spent innumerable all-night sessions trying to get us to reach deadlines and get the bill to the Senate floor. Without their expertise, we would not be here. I thank them on behalf of all of us in this country. I thank, from my personal staff, Travis Lumpkin, who has been here working with us to get this bill through, as well as Mike Spahn, of my floor staff, who spent a lot of time helping us work through all the difficult parts of the bill. It takes a lot of people to get a bill of this complexity to the floor, and every one of them should be recognized.

We cannot do these bills on our own. A lot of people put a lot of time and energy into getting us to this point. I thank Senators BYRD and COCHRAN, the chairman and ranking member of the full committee, who have worked with all of us on appropriations to get our work done in a timely fashion.

This bill is headed to conference. It is an extremely important bill. As we have heard throughout the last days as we have debated the bill, every American is touched by the impact of this legislation. If you get up and go to work, whether you drive or, as we heard yesterday, ride a bike; whether you go on an Amtrak train or if you have to fly, what we decide in this bill and how we set spending priorities makes a difference in your life.

For many Americans who are facing a housing crisis today, this bill addresses those concerns, as the Senator from Missouri talked about. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. We received the President's budget with severe cuts in Amtrak, in housing, in FAA modernization, and many more that I have talked about over the last several days. This Senate has said we have to invest in the infrastructure of this country. We need to move forward in making sure that average, everyday Americans who get up and go to work, enjoy time with their families, who want to be able to participate in our communities, have a right to do that, and we have an obligation as a Congress to make sure the infrastructure is in place.

We are going to continue to work on this bill with our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol, our House counterparts. I hope we can get a bill to the President and get it signed and move these programs forward so the money we have debated and talked about will be allocated and our communities across this country will benefit from it.

Mr. President, I again thank my colleague from Missouri.

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