Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Republican leader for his comments on the veterans situation. I believe everybody in this body agrees, on a bipartisan basis, that we should move this bill forward as quickly as possible and address the real crisis. This is an issue I have been talking about for a long time. No one who serves our country should wait in line to get the health care they need when they come home.

I am delighted both sides are working very expeditiously to move this legislation forward, and I hope we can take that up as soon as possible and move it without it becoming political on either side.

HIGHWAY TRUST FUND

Having said that, I come to the floor to talk about a different topic; that is, about the highway trust fund. As we know, right now States across the country are working on transportation projects to repair bridges and relieve traffic on our Nation's roads and highways.

Kentucky, for example, has started to widen Interstate 65 between Bowling Green and Elizabethtown. Local officials tell us it is an important project to ease their traffic and help ambulances and firetrucks get to the scene of emergencies quickly, but earlier this year Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said that project might be at risk because of a shortfall in our highway trust fund.

A crisis in the highway trust fund could jeopardize thousands of important transportation projects--such as the example I gave in Kentucky--around the country if Congress doesn't act. So I am on the floor again to call on our colleagues to work together to avert a crisis in the highway trust fund.

I wish to call attention to specific wasteful tax loopholes that Congress could eliminate to actually shore up the trust fund--loopholes that actually both Democrats and Republicans have in the past said we should close.

There can be no question that the highway trust fund is facing a revenue problem. The Department of Transportation has been warning us for months that it expects the trust fund to reach critically low levels as early as this summer. If that happens, the Department might have to delay reimbursements to our States.

This crisis is no longer a hypothetical. It has already caused States to plan for a construction shutdown if Congress does not act. In Georgia, more than 70 transportation projects could be delayed indefinitely, according to their State officials. In North Carolina, an engineer from the State's department of transportation says, if the trust fund runs dry, ``that essentially stops our construction program.''

This crisis is having a serious impact on construction jobs. If States are not able to enter into new construction contracts, as many as 700,000 jobs could be at risk, according to the Department of Transportation.
The construction industry was particularly hard hit during the economic downturn. Allowing the highway trust fund to reach critically low levels would be another blow to an industry that has already seen more than its fair share of job loss and uncertainty.

For all of these reasons, Congress must act to avoid a potential construction shutdown this summer.

In the past few weeks I have been very encouraged that Members on both sides of the aisle agree we do need to replenish the highway trust fund with revenue. Allowing the trust fund to run dry is not an option. Putting construction jobs at risk is not an option. Failing to make much needed investments in our roads and bridges is not an option.

House Republicans have offered a proposal to cut mail delivery down to a modified 5-day delivery system to temporarily fund the highway trust fund, but I believe that is the wrong way to go. There are better ways to address both Postal Service reform and the highway trust fund shortfall.

But I do think there is now an opportunity to solve this looming crisis in a way that actually should have bipartisan support. We all know our Tax Code is riddled with wasteful tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, and many of those loopholes that both Democrats and Republicans have proposed closing are available for this fund.

For example, Republican Congressman Dave Camp, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, Senator Reed of Rhode Island, and Senator Levin of Michigan have all proposed eliminating the so-called stock option loophole. Right now corporations claim the largest tax breaks by compensating their executives with stock options instead of a regular paycheck. That is so the corporation can skirt a tax rule that limits deductible cash compensation to $1 million per year for each of a handful of corporate officers. Closing that loophole alone would save us as much as $50 billion over the next 10 years.

Another loophole allows some wealthy business owners to mischaracterize their income as business profits instead of salary to avoid paying their fair share of payroll taxes. Putting a stop to that unfair practice, as both Republican Chairman Camp and Democrats have proposed, could save us more than $15 billion over the next 10 years.

Those are just two wasteful and unfair tax loopholes that both Democrats and Republicans have proposed closing. The list of loopholes goes on and on. We can use that kind of revenue generated by closing just a few of them to avoid an unnecessary crisis, shore up our highway trust fund, and make the critical investments we need in our roads and bridges across the country.

I know that for many people around the country this looming highway trust fund crisis is all too familiar. For them it is just another example of Congress lurching from crisis to crisis. Just last week the director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said he reminds people that just last year Congress shut down the entire Federal Government. That is how he knows there is a real threat that Congress will shut down investments in our roads and bridges. So States such as Arkansas aren't taking any chances. State officials there recently delayed 10 highway projects, and they said they might have to delay even more if we--Congress--don't act.

So I believe our States need certainty in the highway trust fund. Commuters are counting on transportation projects to ease congestion. Construction workers are counting on jobs to repair roads and bridges. I believe we should build some common ground that Democrats and Republicans share to replenish the highway trust fund. Let's work together to show commuters and businesses and workers and States that Congress can come together to solve this crisis. I hope we will work together to prevent a construction shutdown this summer.

Mr. President, before I yield, I ask unanimous consent that the time during any quorum calls prior to noon be charged equally to both sides.

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