Insular Areas and Freely Associated States Energy Development

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am delighted to be on the floor this evening to take, first of all, a minute to thank my good friend and mentor Chairwoman Mikulski for her tremendous work on the product that is before us tonight. We want to get something done when we come here. In order to get anything done in Congress, we have to be willing to compromise. We have to fight hard for our principles and what we believe in. But at the end of the day it is a give-and-take. It is never easy, and no one never ends up with a bill they have written on their own.

Chairwoman Mikulski deserves so much credit for what is in this bill that puts our country on a better track. Putting jobs and economic growth first is a principle she always speaks to, and she fought for them in this bill.

She fought off so many policies and riders that were thrown at her. I know because I have spoken with her time and time again as she has tried to say: What can I absolutely draw a line in the sand on, and what can I put in here in order to make sure I am doing what is right for my country? It is not easy to do that.

She fought off many riders that all of us on this side of the aisle would have found extremely difficult to ever vote for. She took those out.

She maintained the budget levels Chairman Ryan and I agreed on last year. That was very hard to do. She is trying to put together a bill to fund our government across the board, from defense, to agriculture, to transportation, to so many areas that people take for granted every day until our government shuts down. Then they remember how much they rely on our national parks or our research and our investment or the protection that is so important in our Homeland Security bills. She worked hard under very strict requirements that we all supported in another compromise a year ago and maintained that in this bill.

Critically, her work on this bill avoids another government shutdown. Running this place by crisis we know doesn't work. It hurts our economy. It hurts our families. Certainly, it hurts the stature of the Senate.

So her work to put this together and have this bill before us tonight is truly a remarkable accomplishment and really is proof of the stateswoman she is. I commend her for that.

I am especially grateful that she put so much into this legislation that really helps our everyday, average, middle-class families who are struggling so hard in this country and really lays down a strong foundation for long-term and broad-based economic growth. She did not forget that principle at all in what she fought for, and that is embedded within the legislation.

There are, of course, provisions in this bill that any one of us can pull out and oppose, and there are certainly some provisions with which I do not agree. I am really disheartened that the House Republicans put Wall Street interests ahead of middle-class families and demanded a provision in this bill. I am very concerned that some of the provisions could increase health care premiums for our families and our businesses. And I strongly oppose the policy change that was slipped into the bill that could lead to a reduction in pensions for many of our retirees. I share the concerns of many of us on this side that that is in this legislation.

This is a compromise piece of legislation, and we had to swallow and the other side had to swallow. Why? It is because at the end of the day, we do not want to run our country in continuing resolutions, in this economic upturn, in crisis management every 30 days or 60 days for the next 2 years. That is why we had to look to the greater good of this bill, and I am very pleased with some really significant pieces of legislation in this bill.

I worked very hard with my good friend and colleague on the other side of the aisle, Senator Collins, who is my partner on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee. Senator Collins and I worked very hard to find a compromise that makes significant investments in our transportation infrastructure to help our commuters and our families and our businesses and our economy.

I want my colleagues on this side of the aisle to know that the investments in this bill that are in Amtrak, in public transit, in air traffic control modernization, and in airport improvements are very critical for all of our communities. I am going to vote yes for those tonight. The bill makes it possible for the FAA to keep sufficient numbers of air traffic controllers and inspectors on the job. This is a key safety issue that I will be supporting in this bill. And our bill puts to work new, targeted investments to help the Department of Transportation to do everything possible to keep our communities safe as the number of oil shipments by rail continue to increase in the country.

I am especially proud of our part of this legislation that continues to support a very successful TIGER program, and so many Members have come to me and said they really appreciated that in this bill because it allows investments in critical pieces of transportation infrastructure in their home States that helps create jobs and boosts their regional economy. I know this has been important in my State. I know the demand is very high. We were not able to have the number we liked, we did have to reduce it, but it remains in this bill as a very strong investment in our communities, and I would be proud to be supporting that in this bill.

On the housing side of our bill, we maintain the housing assistance for low-income families that is so important today that they have the support while they get back on their feet.

To not pass this bill tonight means we put a lot of people who are struggling today at risk in their communities to not have the home that is so important to their family's stability.

I am especially proud we are going to continue funding the HUD-VASH Program. It is a program so many Members have told me is important to them and takes the important steps of expanding HUD-VASH to Native Americans who are at risk of homelessness living on reservations. We increased the number of public housing units that can be part of the public assistance demonstration that allows public housing authorities to leverage private capital and to make capital improvements to more than 100,000 additional units of affordable housing. We worked hard to make sure this bill continues to support public housing and economic development projects in communities across the country through the CDBG Program. I will say that virtually every Member of the Senate has said we need to maintain the CDBG Program on how important it is. There are local communities to make decisions about the local communities, and the funding is absolutely critical. This isn't just about spending. Our legislation contains a number of reforms that are going to improve government and save taxpayer dollars. Let me repeat that. We are voting to save taxpayer dollars because we approved the process for administering emergency preparedness grants, and we make sure property owners are held accountable if they fail to take care of housing funded with taxpayer resources.

We included a provision that supports efforts to improve the coordination between domestic violence service and housing systems to make sure our domestic violence survivors are getting the care and support they deserve. I know much has been made of the provisions that people don't like, and I share that angst.

But I think it is so important that we, as adults, stand up to the responsibility we have, as the Senate and as Congress, to pass a funding bill through the next year that makes sure we don't have gridlock and dysfunction running this economy again.

The alternative to a bipartisan compromise spending bill is just another short-term continuing resolution and another short-term continuing resolution. We cannot run this government by crisis or short-term resolutions. That is an irresponsible autopilot approach and would cut off our ability as Senators to make decisions about how our government operates.

I again want to thank my colleague and my mentor, the amazing Senator from Maryland, the chairwoman of this committee, Barbara Mikulski, for the work she has done and for the drive she has. She never lost sight of what her goal is, despite some very difficult negotiations, and I want to remind all of us that tonight hopefully we will be voting on a compromise.

I know personally that in this country what everybody says to me constantly is: We are tired of the partisan bickering. We want you to compromise. That is what this is. We want our country to work again. That is what this bill does. I urge our colleagues to support this legislation.

I yield the floor.

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