FAA and Gas Prices

Floor Speech

FAA AND GAS PRICES -- (Senate - May 06, 2008)

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to respond to some of the opening remarks of the Republican leader.

The Senate is going to vote this afternoon on cloture on the FAA modernization bill. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. It is bipartisan. We agreed unanimously last week to go to this bill. It has been stalled on procedural motions ever since. This is a critical piece of legislation that all of us know we need to get to. I will be speaking later this morning on that bill. But I wanted to address the remarks of the Republican leader in particular, who said the Republicans were going to block the motion to invoke cloture this afternoon because of ``extraneous measures'' in the bill.

I remind my colleagues, the majority leader was on the floor of the Senate last week offering numerous alternatives to the Republican side to allow them to offer amendments, to allow them to move forward on this bill, to come to some agreement to move forward.

It is disappointing to hear they still object. Of the extraneous amendments, one has to do with the highway trust fund and the fact that we are out of money and need to address that issue. It is addressed in a bipartisan way in this bill. It is badly needed for roads, bridges, and highway construction, and it is a responsibility with which we should proceed. The other one has to do with reimbursing New York for money from 9/11. This is not controversial. It was agreed upon after 9/11.

The budget the President sent to us says it is necessary, and it is in this bill because it is important that we get that done and move it forward. This legislation allows us the opportunity to do so.

These are not controversial issues. It is important that we move forward on this legislation. I hope our colleagues will agree to do that this afternoon.

Finally, I heard this morning that our Republican colleagues say that Democrats aren't going to deal with the gas tax issue. I assure everyone, we understand this issue. When we go home and see gas prices nearing $4 a gallon, when we hear from truck drivers and people who are trying to get to work or to grocery stores, the price is really hurting them. We are doing everything we can on this side--and have been--to try to move us forward in a way that addresses this crisis, but we recognize there are no short-term, easy, quick fixes. We know the same-old, same-old of promising drilling that would not produce anything for 10 years or giving away more money to the oil companies as an incentive is not the right way to get constituents to a place where they believe gas prices are again affordable. We are in the process of putting together a comprehensive piece of legislation that the Democratic leader will announce this week. I look forward to having our colleagues on the other side move forward with us on that comprehensive package to address the gas price issue facing our constituents.

With that, we will be now moving to a period of morning business. I look forward to addressing the Senate later on the FAA authorization bill.

I yield the floor.

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