Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Senate Colloquy: Senators Coons and Begich discuss the importance of American Infrastructure
SENATOR COONS: I rise to address a simple but important issue about what our path forward is to building a stronger and safer America. I was deeply frustrated to hear earlier today that the transportation bill, which was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan consensus in this chamber has gone over to the House and they cannot find a way forward to respond to this bill from us or find any clarity or certainty about whether to simply take up debate, amend or consider and enact, hopefully, our bill from the Senate or ask for short-term extensions of 30, 60, or 90 days.
As a former County Executive, when investing in things as important as bridges and highways, roads that make infrastructure, transportation, and a reliable predictable future for our economy possible, nothing is more important than certainty. Financing major highway projects, buying major pieces of equipment, hiring the crews to do the work is exactly the sort of thing where certainty is critical.
I have a simple question to our friends in the other chamber, which is when will they take up this bill that passed this chamber by such an overwhelming margin and when will they take seriously the broad bipartisan input from every imaginable group in support of this? I was active in my previous elected role as county executive with the National Association of Counties, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO have all weighed in. In fact, if I remember correctly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote every single office in the Senate in support of this legislation calling for “specific action that both the Congress and the Administration can take right now to support job growth and economic productivity without adding to the deficit.”
This bill came out of the Committee after remarkable work by Senator Boxer of California and Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma. Two senators who are widely viewed as being at the opposite ends of our political spectrum in this chamber. Madam President, when I go home to Delaware I hear folks say over and again, why can't you work together? Why can't you iron out your differences and put America on a clearer, straighter track towards stronger recovery?
This is exactly the sort of bill that will accomplish that end. A two-year reauthorization, $109 billion bill that in my small state of Delaware would create 6,700 jobs now hangs in the balance. It will expire at the end of this month and rather than take up and consider and hopefully pass this bill, folks in the other chamber and frankly, sadly, largely folks on the other side of the partisan aisle here, are refusing to do so and will instead take a short-term chip shot of an extension.
I simply wanted to say if I might, Madam President, that certainty is something I respect from my years in the private sector. Certainty is something I hear from the other side of the aisle, in the other chamber all the time and this is a moment when certainty can be served by the House taking up and passing the Senate-passed bill.
SENATOR BEGICH: Will my friend from Delaware yield for a question?
SENATOR COONS: Absolutely. I yield to the senator from Alaska.
SENATOR BEGICH: You were a county executive, I was a mayor of a community. We had a deal the real-life aftermath of what happens around here, especially when it comes to extensions and what happens, and I know in my city when I saw these extensions from that end of the table, we always had to stop projects, slow them down, didn't have the money to finish them, winter shutdown, all it did was add cost, increase the capacity -- or decrease the capacity of roads, and literally take projects off the list.
In your community, had you to deal with this probably like I had to, did you have the same kind of impact where you had to tell contractors I’m sorry, we don't have the money, because the federal government hasn't done their job they said they would do 20-some times before and never completed it? Is that a similar situation?
SENATOR COONS: Madam President, the senator from Alaska is absolutely right. In my county role, we didn't do roads, our state does the roads but we do sewers and heavy capital infrastructure like sewers in that in our little county would cost tens of millions of dollars. We'd be on a project, we’d be off a project. We were fortunate in good times we had enough surplus, enough money in reserve we could go ahead and authorize the bond issue and authorize the project. But as the economy turned and as our balance sheet got tougher, we had to wait. We had to put things on hold. We had to put key projects off.
SENATOR COONS: Of all the sectors of our economy that have suffered since the financial collapse of 2008, all the sectors in the entire American economy, at least in my home state, construction was hit the hardest. We already knew that we were far behind in investment. We have got tens of thousands of bridges that are out of compliance with basic engineering standards. Half of our roads are below the standards we would expect for a modern economy.
This is money that can and should be invested in putting people to work, in construction which has suffered from the highest unemployment where it's got support from the Chamber of Commerce to the
AFL-CIO, where we wrestled through the tough processes here over several weeks, as the senator says, and we have got a strongly bipartisan bill over, sitting, ready to go.
There are other things that we debate in this chamber that maybe will create jobs, maybe won't, there is no question. Even those who have the strongest concerns about the federal role in our economy can't disagree that federal highway projects put people to work, strengthen our economy, make us more competitive. This bill is ready to go.
Why you would not take it up and enact it today, I can't imagine. And to the good senator from Alaska, I might say you may have a somewhat shorter summer season than we do, but if you have got 18,000 jobs at risk, I can only imagine the kinds of calls you're getting from your home state as I'm getting from my state urging that the House of Representatives take up this strong and bipartisan bill and pass it so we can all move forward and create some real jobs.
SENATOR BEGICH: The last comment I will say, and I’m sure it is more of a question, I'm sure you had the same situation as you just described. Yes, getting those calls, and they are not just people say well, this is a union thing. No, it’s nonunion, chamber, environmentalists, neighborhoods, community councils. It's everybody you can imagine, because these are real jobs about real people, about real communities. Over there, I think they think it's some theory that, oh, if they delay it, nothing really will happen. They're wrong, because you and I have lived on that other side and have had to live with the consequences of inaction.
This is one of those bills you look for, where there is bipartisan support, all the groups that are out there from all walks of life support it, and everyday people understand it. When I was back in Anchorage and I was getting some petroleum, some gas at the gas station, someone would come up, they would ask me, because why? We are just about to start our season in the bidding process because you have got to take 30, 60, 90 days to get the bids out and then you actually construct.
I think they sometimes think over there in the House that it's some fantasyland that whatever they do has no effect. This does. You say it very clearly. I appreciate you allowing me to ask a few questions and more commentary at times here, but it seems the most ridiculous thing with the American people, Alaskans are telling me every day work together, create a bipartisan legislation, whatever it might be. Here’s one we have done successfully, and now we're ready, but over there, they are just playing politics. They have now tried twice to do something this week, and they still can't get it moving.
So I would encourage them on the other side to just move forward on the bipartisan bill that the Senate has passed that I know they were banking on. We wouldn't pass it. We did it. The American people are waiting for these jobs. The contractor community is ready. The communities are ready. It's time to move forward. Thanks you for allowing me to ask a few questions and give a little commentary.
SENATOR COONS: Thank you to the senator from Alaska, and thank you, Madam President. As we both know from our former roles, when you have a short-term extension, there are costs. It means that folks who are getting mobilized, getting organized, getting ready, you have to pull them back. When the state coffers, the county coffers, the municipal coffers don't have the ability to float and put in place for the federal funds that they're waiting for, it means projects get canceled, people lose their jobs - opportunity and optimism that were moving forward get pulled back.
We have got folks all over this chamber and the other, former governors, former mayors, former county executives, former business leaders who know the importance of a strong and reliable federal partnership in strengthening infrastructure in this country.
I just want to congratulate again Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe for working together so well to craft a tough, strong, capable bipartisan bill. It is my plea that the members of the other chamber would promptly take it up, consider it and pass it so we can get America back to work.
Thank you, Madam President. With that, I yield the floor.
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