Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - November 15, 2007)
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, could the majority leader yield for a question?
Mr. REID. I am happy to yield for a question.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am listening carefully to what you said. I am here on the floor working very hard trying to get the Transportation and Housing bill to the President, as he has asked us to do. We worked together in a strong bipartisan way. All of the Republicans and all the Democrats in both the House and Senate signed the conference committee report. This is critical infrastructure. I note the Senator from Minnesota is on the floor. He had a bridge collapse in his State. We have had a housing crisis we addressed within this bill. We know airport expansion is a critical infrastructure piece. I see the Senator from Louisiana is on the floor. There is very important infrastructure there.
If I heard the Senator correctly, we are not going to be able to move forward on this critical piece of legislation that only has one hurdle left to get to the White House. If I could, in effect, clarify it, my understanding is there is an objection and we will not be able to move it past the final hurdle?
Mr. REID. I answer to my friend who has done such an outstanding job on this bill, as she does on everything, this bill did have in it $195 million to replace I-35 West, the bridge in Minneapolis. We all witnessed the tragedy of the collapse of that bridge. A picture is worth 1,000 words so I will not give 1,000 words, other than to say I ask everyone to call up in their mind's eye the devastation that took place when that bridge unexpectedly collapsed. The bill also, I say, includes an additional $1 billion for urgent bridge repairs in all States in the wake of that tragedy. That is only a small part of that legislation and it is unfortunate we couldn't send that to the President before the recess. We still could, maybe when we get back in the morning, and we could do it before we leave here. That is still possible.
Mrs. MURRAY. I say to the majority leader, I thank him for trying to move forward. I hope our minority leader will work with his caucus to try to help us move this forward. It is critical infrastructure that thousands of communities are counting on this week, heading for a jampacked Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone is going to realize the impact of not investing in our infrastructure. I hope we can continue to try to work something out.
I thank the majority leader.
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