Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I am pleased to join with Chairman Murray as we hope to begin floor consideration of the bipartisan fiscal year 2015 appropriations bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.

As usual, it has been a great pleasure to work with Chairman Murray. She is extremely fair-minded and bipartisan in the approach she has taken to this bill. I also thank her staff for working closely with my staff as we sought to craft a bill that I believe deserves the support of all of our colleagues.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank Chairwoman Mikulski and Vice Chairman Shelby for their extraordinary leadership in advancing those three appropriations bills through what at times is turning out to be a daunting process. It is my hope and expectation that we can give Members of this body the opportunity to debate all three of these bills, to offer amendments, and ultimately to pass them, and that we have an open and transparent process.

I would encourage cooperation on both sides of the aisle. It is in the best interests of this country for us to do our work in the regular order, in the normal process, and to pass these bills, and then to hold conferences with the House to iron out any differences.

Last week the House did approve its own version of the THUD appropriations bill. This is an important step in the process which will eventually allow the two Chambers to meet in conference and produce a final bill to send to the President for his signature. I commend the leaders of the Appropriations Committee and also the floor leaders for making sure we have the time available to bring these bills to the floor.

There is no reason we cannot pass each one of the appropriations bills, have a conference with the House, and get them to the President before the start of the fiscal year so we can avoid gigantic omnibus bills that are a poor way to legislate or, even worse, continuing resolutions that lock into law increased costs and priorities that may no longer reflect today's needs.

The THUD bill before us today is essentially a jobs bill. It provides $54.4 billion in responsible investments in transportation and housing programs, and it includes input from Members on both sides of the aisle. Every Senator has unmet transportation and housing needs in his or her State, from crumbling roads and unsafe bridges to a growing population of vulnerable low-income families, seniors, and disabled individuals in need of housing assistance.

Chairman Murray and I worked very hard to accommodate the input from many Members. This bill we bring before you received overwhelming support in the full Appropriations Committee. In fact, as Chairman Murray mentioned, the vote was 29 to 1 to report this bill to the full Senate. It is essential to acknowledge that this year's THUD bill is directly affected by nearly a $3 billion reduction in Federal Housing Authority receipts for fiscal year 2015. As a result, we were faced with making very difficult decisions to ensure that the Federal investments in this bill were prioritized to meet the most critical needs.

One of the most pressing issues this bill addresses has not received a great deal of attention, so I want to spend a moment on it; that is, the safe transportation of crude oil and other hazardous materials by rail. I know the Presiding Officer is very familiar with this issue. I am pleased to say our transportation bill strengthens three components to help ensure the safe transportation of crude oil and other hazardous materials. It focuses on prevention, mitigation, and response. If you talk to any emergency responder, they will tell you those are the three critical components.

We do so without adopting the President's poorly conceived proposal, which would have created yet another level of bureaucracy in the Secretary's office. Instead, we chose what I believe to be a wiser course. We provided funding directly to the agencies to support additional rail inspectors, advance research efforts, and to establish cooperative training programs.

I know firsthand how horrific these disasters can be, because last year there was a terrible derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, 30 miles from the border of Maine, that cost 47 lives and essentially destroyed this picturesque village. I was very proud that 30 Maine firefighters responded to the call for help from their Canadian counterparts.

Senator Murray and I held an oversight hearing to look at rail safety, and the fire chief from Rangeley, ME, Tim Pellerin, testified before our committee at our oversight hearing. He provided gripping testimony about this extraordinarily dangerous experience, as well as thoughtful recommendations about what should be done. I want to tell the chief that we listened to him, and a lot of our recommendations in the bill--particularly with regard to training--reflect the advice he gave us as a first responder on that very dangerous scene.

Turning to another issue, this bill provides $550 million for the TIGER Program, an effective initiative that helps advance transportation infrastructure projects. We have seen firsthand how TIGER projects create good jobs and support economic growth in our home States.

Turning now to air travel, the aviation investments included in our bill will continue to modernize our Nation's air traffic system. These investments are creating safer skies and a more efficient air space to move the flying public.

In addition to transportation programs, our bill provides sufficient but not generous funding to keep pace with the rising cost of housing vulnerable families. More than 4 million families will continue to receive critical rental assistance for their housing. Without it, many of these families would otherwise become homeless.

Chairman Murray and I continue to share a strong commitment--indeed, a passion--to reducing homelessness in this country. For that reason we have included more than $2 billion for homeless assistance grants. Since 2010 we have reduced overall chronic homelessness by 16 percent and veterans homelessness by 24 percent.

These programs are working, and we have the data to prove it. That is why our bill builds on these successes and provides an additional 10,000 HUD-VASH vouchers to serve our Nation's veterans.

We have an obligation to our Nation's veterans. That has been very much on our minds recently, and we can point with pride to the reduction by 24 percent in homelessness among veterans, but we want to complete the job. We don't want any veteran to be homeless, and we are making progress through this well-conceived program.

While our bill helps families in need and our Nation's veterans, it also invests in our communities. Boosting local economies is critical to job creation and helping families obtain financial security. Our legislation supports these local development efforts by providing more than $3 billion for Community Development Block Grants.

I am sure the Presiding Officer has had the experience, as most Members have, of talking to State and local officials about the Community Development Block Grant Program. It is an extremely popular program with States and communities because it allows them to tailor the Federal funds to support locally driven economic and job-creation projects. It isn't Washington telling them how this money should be spent but, rather, providing the flexibility so that they can meet local economic development needs and help to create new jobs.

The bill before us does not solve all of the problems in either the Department of Transportation or in the Department of Housing and Urban Development; we don't have the money to do that.

Most notably, the administration's budget does not come up with a realistic way to address the urgent need to prevent the highway trust fund from becoming insolvent in August.

There should be no doubt in the mind of any Member of this body, if the administration and Congress do not take action before the August recess, State departments of transportation will not be reimbursed for work that has already been completed and new projects will likely grind to a halt and jobs, good construction jobs, will be lost.

The administration must present an achievable plan to avoid this disruption, these lost jobs, these stalled transportation projects, and Congress must work in good faith to secure passage.

Transportation is the lifeline of our economy, supporting millions of jobs and moving people and products. When coupled with the housing and economic development projects, the fiscal year 2015 transportation and housing appropriations bill will create jobs now when they are needed most and will establish the foundation for future growth.

Just as important to our economic future, however, is reining in excessive Federal spending and getting our national debt under control, which must be a priority governmentwide.

We have met the budget allocations that have been provided to us. In setting priorities for fiscal year 2015, I believe our T-HUD bill strikes the right balance between thoughtful investment and the necessary fiscal restraint.

I appreciate the opportunity to present this legislation to the Members of this Chamber. As we continue the debate on these bills, I urge my colleagues to consider how important it is that we complete our work on time, and I hope they will support the efforts of the Appropriations Committee.

I thank the Chair.

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