i'll give you 30 seconds for any closing thoughts including the ones on zoom. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. every other process to give 90 devote. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. nineteen. >> it going to leave this hearing to cover congress life, but you can watch the hearing any time at cspan.org. in the senate were today and the more than 1 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. provides money over several years for roads, bridges, public transit, rails, water projects, airports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations. centers have long session over the weekend to work on the measure and were waiting for the

final and they began amendments today majority leader chuck schumer told senators yesterday could finish up in a matter of days pretty they expect an update before the legislative work begins. life u.s. senate, here on "c-span2".

may they remember that those who would leave a legacy of faithfulness must strive to be faithful to you. inspire our senators to perform their appointed duties with such reverence that their service will be like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning.

we pray in your sovereign name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the president pro tempore: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. the senator from michigan. mr. peters: mr. president, i

suggest the absence of a quorum. the president pro tempore: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. carper: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration

of h.r. 3684, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 100, h.r. 3684, an act to authorize funds for federal-aid highways, highway safety programs and transit programs, and for other purposes. mr. carper: mr. president, i call up amendment numbered 2131 to the substitute and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from delaware, mr. carper, proposes an amendment numbered 2131 to amendment numbered 3157. mr. carper: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, mr. president, yesterday evening, as everyone knows, the group of bipartisan senators working on infrastructure finished the text of the bill. i immediately moved to make that text the base of the bill here on the floor, as promised. last night, democrats offered to begin the amendment process

right away. there are three bipartisan amendments to the bill we're ready to consider. two are led by republicans. a round-smith amendment, and a thune-tester amendment. and another from senators padilla and moran. let me be clear. these three amendments will constitute only the first tranche of potential amendments. the senate can and should consider more amendments, more afterwards. i would encourage senators from both sides of the aisle to submit potential amendments to the bill, and, as we have already done several times this year, on the anti-asian hate crimes bill, the u.s. innovation and competition act, just to name two examples, the majority will work with the minority to put together packages of amendments for the senate to vote on. at the moment, we need consent from our republican colleagues to start the amendment process, and we await their answer. i hope we can use our time in the senate efficiently. let's start voting on

amendments. the longer it takes to finish the bill, the longer we'll be here. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent further proceedings under the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: a number of our colleagues in both parties worked through the weekend to finalize their draft agreement on a major bill for our nation's infrastructure. so i want to thank the senators who worked hard and long to get this effort this far already. i'm confident that out of the 100 of us who serve in this body, 100 will be able to find parts of the legislation that we wish were different, but i believe our colleagues' draft text provides a good and important jumping off point for what needs to be a robust and bipartisan process out here on

the floor. infrastructure is exactly the kind of subject that congress should be able to address across the aisle. roads, bridges, waterways, airports, these things are not luxaries for the greatest nation in world history. they are necessities. necessarily legislation like this will be big and complex. it will necessarily affect all 50 states. that's why while i salute the hard work of my colleagues who produced the base text that's now before us, their conversations can't be the senate's last word. senators on both sides expect and deserve opportunities to have a say and to put their own state's imprints on this major bill. just as infrastructure itself is not a luxury but a necessity, the same goes for the senate having a robust and bipartisan

amendment process on legislation of this magnitude. our full consideration of this bill must not be choked off by any artificial timetable that our democratic colleagues may have penciled out for political purposes. our bipartisan negotiators have already been taking this task very seriously. the american people need the senate to continue taking it seriously as well. now, on another matter, this bipartisan work on infrastructure just reinforces the recklessness of the purely partisan taxing and spending spree that democrats want to ram through next. even before we get to this week, there is ample evidence the senate is fully capable of passing policies that are actually smart, that actually make things better for the american -- for american families, and to do so with bipartisan majorities. a year and a half ago, the senate turned a blank sheet of

paper into the cares act that saved our health care system, saved our economy, and poured money into operation warp speed to help unlock vaccines in record time. overwhelming bipartisan support. a year ago, we passed the great american outdoors act, a historic investment in our nation's national parks and national treasures. another very large bipartisan vote. last december, there was yet another bipartisan covid rescue package. and just a few months ago, senators once again compromised and passed a big bipartisan bill addressing american competitiveness versus china. there is nothing stopping policies from earning bipartisan support here in the senate when they deserve it. bills that deserve to pass the chamber are not having a hard time passing, so the fact that our democratic colleagues will immediately pivot to a

staggering, reckless tax-and-spend spree that will not earn a single republican vote, well, that tells americans everything they need to know. this 50-50 senate, a very narrowly divided house, and a president who promised unity and togetherness have decided they want to respond to an environment of uncertainty and inflation with a sprawling $3.5 trillion socialist shopping list and a huge set of painful tax hikes. that's their man. -- plan. our -- may not have won the presidential legislation, but his ideology has won the war. in the next few days, the democratic leader said they will start the process of ramming through this awful, awful package. they want to respond to a border crisis with amnesty, they want

to have more reckless spending printing and borrowing. they want to respond to a growing worker shortage by turning a tax credit for working parents into permanent welfare with no work requirement. they want to respond to an uneasy economic recovery with massive tax hikes and a whole catalog of green new deal mandates and regulations so washington bureaucrats can run the country. so, mr. president, if what senate democrats are planning to do next was a good idea, it would read like one and it would smell like one and it wouldn't require a hyper-partisan high wire act from senate democrats to pull it off.

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: socialism, it's a label we hear a lot. it's been around a while. a long time. but in american politics it's kind of applied in an unusual way. the notion that every american would pay into an insurance fund so that everyone who retired could live in basic dignity, we called it social security as democrats, the republicans called it socialism. do they want to remove social security as a socialist program? i don't know. i listened carefully as the republican leader starts talking about the weaknesses of the democratic philosophy. and then in the 1960's, lyndon baines johnson looked around america and saw a new class of

impoverished americans growing by the day. they were our parents and grandparents. and he decided one of their biggest problems was paying for their medical expenses and their prescription drugs eventually. so he proposed a federal program called medicare for everyone who reached the age of 65 in america, regardless whether they were rich or poor. boy, think of that. the critics called that socialism. the notion that we would help everyone, that we would collect money during their work experience and then take care of our parents and grandparents so they can live longer, more independently, socialism. now that we are discussing and we are at an early stage, changing that medicare program to extend its benefits to include fundamental and basic

things that have been sitting there for decades waiting to be addressed, eyeglasses, hearing aids, dental work, we know what a difference those things make in the lives of everyone, but how critically important they are to those who are elderly. and, yes, the junior senator from vermont has proposed that we extend medicare benefits to include those protections, but he's not alone. moderates within the democratic caucus across the board agree, it's time to take a serious look at that and the republican leader tells us we're flirting with socialism again. i don't think that a poor, elderly person without dentures who can't eat their food can be ignored.

they are helping them as socialism. i might add one thing that is important. he cites the cares act. i remember it well. it was a little over a year ago, it was last year. the pandemic was kicking off and it was proposed this cares act, it was over $1 trillion. it might have been the biggest bill when it was passed. it was proposed with the trump administration with a democratic congress and it ended up with a strong bipartisan roll call. i voted for it. virtually every democratic senator joined every republican senator to make it a reality. billions of dollars to deal with a pandemic. socialist? i don't think so, it was america coming together to address a crisis. that's exactly what happened. so what happened when we had ha new president -- we had a new president when donald trump is gone, and, yes, he is gone, despite the fact that he doesn't know it.

what happened when we got a new president who wanted to put together a rescue plan, this rescue plan addressed some fundamentals, it addressed the point that donald trump made, that $1,400 were coming to families. really? sounds socialistic to me? but it was the trump idea and it was the biden rescue plan that pulled it had off. and the vaccines and we can only thank the lord and the debris re -- the great researchers who put that together, but it was only just a theory and inventory, but president biden found a way to administer the covid-19 vaccines across america. a dramatic effort. that was paid for by the rescue plan. and the money loans for businesses to get started after the pandemic. money for schools to make sure they were safe when the kids returned to them this fall. when the american rescue plan

was put together by president biden and offered in this chamber, i'm sorry to report that not one republican senator supported it. i hope they've had second thoughts since then. administering the vaccines have given us hope in america and i hope more people will take advantage of it. but that was bipartisanship that really hit the rocks. it took the democrats and kamala harris to make a difference. when i hear about socialism and bipartisanship from the other side, how far would they go in ending programs which have historically been labeled as socialistic? on a completely different topic, but somehow related. senators spend a lot of times in airports, in air pleans, even in covid-19 times.

the presiding officer knows that. i spend a lot of time in airports. o'hare, i could take you on a tour. springfield is a small airport. reagan national airport here, i'm familiar with it as well. but i always thought to myself as i traveled years ago, that one of the worst airports in america, sadly, was laguardia. oh, what a wreck. laguardia was just way under utilized and lacked all the modern developments we expect in an airport, but lowe -- lo and behold that has changed. laguardia is finished and it is beautiful. it has many things that many airports would only aspire to have, as it should, because it is not only serving a great city but it is named after a great

man. fiorela laguardia. he stood 5 -- five foot two, but he was a giant. as mayor of new york city during the great depression in world war ii, he took on political corruption and organized crime. he did some thiks which were -- things that are still talked about. when there was a strike, he read the funnies to the kids so they could keep up with them. he did something. he oversaw investment in public works, including investments in roads, highways, and tunnels that changed the landscape of america's city. f feorla said that he understood

when it comes to the most basic spobilities of government, political labels shouldn't matter. building and maintaining roads and bridges helps all of us. i think mayor fiorella laguardia would be happy to know that we have created a blueprint for america's economic future. against the odds we now have before us a bipartisan plan to build the physical backbone of the 21st century american economy. in these times when there's so much political disagreement, just getting this far is a remarkable achievement. i look forward to a productive debate and hopefully a vote this week. i'm hopeful we can meet the deadline. because the fact is america can't wait any longer for this senate to take action. our roads and bridges are crumbling beneath our feet. last week i brought a photo of a

bridge that collapsed two weeks ago in a small rural town in illinois known as sin ka. a man was driving his pickup truck across the bridge when the bridge collapsed. the picture showed his truck on the edge of the bridge. luckily there were a lot of good samaritans who came to his rescue. more than 47,000 american bridges are judged to be structurally deficient, including 2,000 in my state of illinois. the legislation we're voting on this week will start to repair them. it includes the largest investment in american bridges since the creation of the interstate highway system. imagine that. it also includes the largest investment in clean water infrastructure ever. do we need it? well, think of flint, michigan,

and think of the story today in the chicago papers about the discovery of pfos contamination in water supplies across my state. that isn't all. we can replace the old lead service lines that poison drinking water. so many schools, churches are fed by lead service lines. there is no tolerable amount of lead that can be in water. i thank tammy duckworth for including that in this legislation. chicago has more miles of lead water pipes than any city in america. i'm not bragging, i'm just stating facts. but chicago isn't alone. these lead pipes are in big cities and small towns all across the nation. listen to this. the bipartisan plan includes the largest investment in passenger

rail since the creation of amtrak in the 1960's. you know president joe biden would forget amtrak nor tom charper or -- carper or chris coons. is it the largest investment in public transit in american history. i was at a ribbon cutting -- well, several of them -- recently in chicago. naturally people were not riding the c.t.a. and metro and other rail opportunities as they once did because of covid-19, but it's coming back and we want to make sure those stations are safe and make sure they are being accessible to people with disable. with this bill in my state, the chicago transit authority in chicago and downstate will be able to buy new, more efficient railcars, modernize traction and stations and -- tracks and rail

stations. it will expand the capacity of the blue line at o'hare, completing the red line south extension, which has been a dream for decades. this includes $25 billion to modernize illinois airports, including money for o'hare's terminal expansion. believe me, we can use it. we've done a lot with the runways. magnificent investments there now we have to make sure the terminals keep up with it. remember the cargo ship that ran aground at the suez canal, costing companies and ultimately customers millions of dollars, well, this infrastructure plan will keep america's economy moving and our shipping lanes open by modernizing our ports, locks and dams. we are not just repairing, we are building new infrastructure. this includes the largest investment in clean energy in

infrastructure in america's history. if there was ever a moment in time with the world literally burning up for us to get serious about climate change, this is that moment. and this investment responds to it. in america, the biggest source of greenhouse gases is transportation. we can changer it. this plan is a start. in the town of normal, illinoisa normal, illinois -- a company called rivian bought an old abandoned mitsubishi factory five years ago. they now have started production on electric cars and delivery vans, the cars of the future. is this going to go anywhere? does anybody believe in electric vehicles? 15% of rivian is owned by ford motor company. if you heard of a company called amazon, they invested $1 billion in rivian.

they ordered 20,000 delivery vans. there are 2,000 people working there now, twice the number that were working when mitsubishi left. they aspire to double that number again and to make production really accessible all across the country. that's not the only story i could tell about electric vehicles. illinois is in a position to be a national leader. we're lucky, too, i might add that the oregon national laboratory in chicago, the chicago land area, has really led american research in battery technology and recycling batteries. that is the future, and if you don't believe me, just watch the ads on television where they're advertising the new ford f-150 lightning, an electric truck. they don't have any available now, but they invite you to sign up to buy one next year. with this plan, we can build a network of electric vehicle charging stations where drivers can charge their cars for a fraction of what it costs to fill a gas tank today and

without the harmful emissions. it really is the future that we're trying to assist with this important infrastructure bill. importantly, this plan will help connect every american to reliable high-speed internet. i ask people, over 60% of the american people said that access to high-speed internet was as important as electricity to them, and some said even water. it's become that integral to a successful life for business. no matter where you live, the internet puts the world at your finger tips. your children can learn from home, you can connect to health care providers when you need them, and businesses can reach a global marketplace. one last point, this plan will help us protect america's infrastructure, our economy, and american families from 21st century threats of climate change, extreme weather, and cyberattacks. it's the largest investment in resilience of physical and natural systems in american

history. with this plan, we can create thousands of good-paying, family-supporting jobs, and a majority of these jobs may not require a college degree. perhaps that two extra years of community college which we hope to include in the next bill will be just what a person needs to get a good-paying job, settle down, raise a family -- the american dream. and we can lay the foundation for a long-term economic boom if anyone pulls together. these are smart, prudent, necessary investments that will pay dividends for years to come. i want to thank the president. he was really all in in the negotiation of this bill. without his leadership, we wouldn't be here. i also want to thank the bipartisan group of senators who worked with the white house to produce this agreement. i've come to know them. i participated in some of their early meetings and listened to them through the deliberation. there were times when i wanted to wring their necks and there were times when i wanted to pat their backs, but they never quit trying and today we have a

bill before us that is a dramatic achievement and it's a bipartisan achievement. i think the number was 17 of the republicans who voted for us to move forward on this debate. i hope those 17 can hold together with the democrats to see this bill to a successful conclusion. remember fierello laguardia's statement. we -- this is the right start. this bipartisan plan hits the sweet spot. i thank our many republican colleagues who joined with the democrats to advance this debate. isn't that what america's been waiting for? i yield the floor. mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: while he's still on the floor, i want to thank my friend and colleague. he and i came together from the house of representatives a million years ago. we were part of the class of 1982, a huge class, over 80 democrats and republicans.

it's been a joy to serve with him. i especially as proud of him and the words he just said here today. healing words, uniting words and we're grateful for his leadership. mr. president and colleagues, the senate is now considering the substitute amendment to h.r. 3684, the invest act. i rise today to urge our colleagues to join senator capito, sitting to my right, and me in debating the legislation, offering improvements that are needed to it, and then voting for its adoption. in february of this year, at my encouragement, president biden invited senator capito, senators -- and me over to the white house right after he was inaugurated president to discuss the need to make bold investments in our nation's crumbling infrastructure. sitting in the oval office that day, as i'm sure the ranking member of our committee

remembers, we were joined in person by the vice president of the united states, kamala harris. and we were voind virtually by -- joined virtually by the secretary of transportation pete buttigieg. i still want to call him mayor pete but he's turned out to be a darned good secretary of transportation as well. because of our committee's long-standing tradition of bipartisan work on infrastructure, my colleagues and i already knew as we headed into that white house meeting that our nation had fallen woefully short, woefully short in maintaining and developing the critical infrastructure that supports us, our families, and our economy. but don't take my word for it. don't take my word for it. the american society of civil engineers 2021 report card for america's infrastructure gave our nation's infrastructure an overall grade of c minus. in recent years that rating has been as low as d-plus, d,

d-minus. still a c-minus is nothing to brag about. rather it's a wake-up call for us to get our act together, if you will, to move it on up, move it on up. that's what our new president called on us to do that day in order to help america move on up and move ahead. without casting aspersions or affixing blame, he made it clear that america hadn't been getting the job done on this front for years, and that by working together, working together we could do something about it. while creating millions of new jobs, a lot of them without college degrees, at the same time. he asked us leaders on the senate committee on environment and public works, to help jump-start the effort to getting the work on crafting and reporting to the full senate surface transportation legislation. and along with legislation, repair and upgrade drinking water and water sanitation

infrastructure as soon as we could. working together with all 20 members of the environment and public works committee -- ten democrats and ten republicans -- that's exactly what we did in record time and with record levels, historic levels of investment. after slit continuing input, i'm sure my -- after soliciting input from all 50 states, we crafted and unanimously reported our water infrastructure bill out of committee to the full senate, unanimously. there it was debated, amended and adopted by a vote of 89-2. 89-2, you don't hear that every day, on april 29, 2021. with that behind us, we turned our attention to surface transportation legislation, roads, highways, bridges, climate and unanimously reported our surface transportation bill to the full senate by memorial

day. the fastest the committee has ever acted, i'm told, on such legislation. i thank senator capito so many times, she's probably getting sick of it, but i want to thank her again. i want to thank everybody -- every member of our committee privileged to work on the environment and public works committee, along with members of our staff for their remarkable work on these important bipartisan bills. speaking of staff, i'm looking over my shoulder, i see some of my team right behind me and over the other shoulder, i see republican staff on the other side. i want to thank our staff director, mary francis ripco, rebecca higgins, who leads our transportation team. kenneth martin and jordan baw as well. a special thank you to john kean and andy d'amato who able lee

led efforts on water infrastructure. to laura haines gilliam to my indefatigable emily spain. i want to hasten to add we wouldn't get any of this done without senator capito and the strong bipartisan support we received from her and a.p.w. minority staff director adam. adam, thank you. and his hardworking team. i won't mention them all but murphy barrett, affectionately known as murphy brown and travis cohen and jess cramer. you expect the chair of the environment and public works committee or the ranking member to be proud of their committee's work, and we certainly are. but we aren't the only ones who have worked hard to write the legislation that's before us today, not by a long shot. i want to commend the bipartisan work of the commerce committee and energy and natural resources

committee along with the efforts of the banking committee. i especially want to thank the bipartisan group we affectionately referred to, senator durbin already has, affectionately refer to them at least most of the time as the g-22, led by senators rob portman of ohio and kirsten is sinema of nevada. i want to thank them for their herculean efforts to make this compromise legislation a reality working with not just folks here and over in the house but also the white house as well, the president and the president's team. we have one of my favorite sayings in the navy is when somebody does extraordinary work what we say is before -- is brava zula. in truth, this touches on the jurisdictions of many of our

committees. that's why the legislation we're considering today is extraordinary. it is a comprehensive infrastructure investment package that encompasses water, highways, roads, bridges, transit, rail, airport, ports, car systems, dams, broadband, cybersecurity, ecosystem restoration, and more. i'd like to pause here for just a moment to remind all of us who serve in this body along with the people that we're privileged to represent that infrastructure is also intensely personal. and when it does not work, our people suffer, their children suffer, and their livelihoods suffer. and we all know that those who suffer most are those who have been shortchanged by the inadequate investments we have made for too many years. in rural parts of southern delaware, communities like allen daleville strudle for --

struggled for years to find alternatives to polluted drinking water wells. across our country hundreds, maybe thousands of communities struggle with access to clean water, including my colleagues from west virginia, shelly capito and joe manchin. our communities across this country are torn asunder by too many places across this country, by highways that have p divided and disrupted neighborhoods across our nation. in my hometown of wilmington, delaware, construction of i-95 literally tore communities apart cutting off access to neighbors, parks and weekend opportunity. we can begin to heal those wounds in places like baltimore, philadelphia as well, heal those wounds with the project we enable in this legislation. the truth be known, mr. president, almost all of our colleagues have stories like this to share. communities beset by raging

wildfires, fueled by climate change, thousands of acres of farmland lost to flooding, more than a third of the crops in iowa destroyed by hurricane-force winds last year. kids without access to the internet, for want of broadband access. and families struggling to deal with legacy pollutants in the land and water where they live. in the near future, mr. president, i hope we'll take some time to celebrate the significant steps we are taking to rewrite these stories with this legislation before us. i want to take a moment or two here today if i may to drill down on some of the most meaningful provisions reported unanimously out of our committee, the environment and public works committee, this year. let's start with the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure act of 2021. it's clear that the programs we have now, despite our best efforts, aren't sufficient to meet the needs of many of our communities, particularly those who simply can't afford to participate in the revolving

loan programs of their states in order to upgrade increasingly inadequate drinking water and wastewater facilities. as our ranking member knows, if communities borrow money out of these revolving funds, water funds, one for drinking water and one for sanitation, water sanitation, if communities borrow money, take money out of that, they are expected to pay it back, pay that money back. and there are, as we know, a lot of communities that are too impoverished to ever do that. and we decided not just to bemoan that but to actually do something about it. that's what we've done with this legislation, provide them with the opportunity to receive a grant to clean up their waters, drinking water, and to deal with their waste water. millions of americans are going to be able to -- to do that, to deal with these challenges, and we are going to help them. this bipartisan legislation works to address this crisis by authorizing more than

$55 billion, $55 billion for programs that will create jobs and make up -- make our communities comfortable by building, upgrading, modernizing our nation's aging drinking water and waste water infrasystems. the measure takes the historic step of reauthorizing the clean water state revolving loan fund for the first time in 35 years. 35 years. and it does so while increasing funding levels for the first time since 1987. this legislation also reauthorizes the dripping water state revolving fund, a program whose authorization expires at the end of this year. you will recall that this is the fund that helps to ensure that clean water flows from faucets when we turn on the spigot. to help resolve a historic injustice in water infrastructure investment, more than 40% of this bill's investments are targeted to help disadvantaged communities.

the bill appropriates $15 billion in new funding for a place -- to replace lead service lines and particularly for our country's rural areas, including native alaskan villages, tribal communities, low-income neighborhoods. our bill invests another billion dollars in programs to connect households and drinking water and waste water systems and services. and this legislation does far more than just fix what's broken. to borrow a phrase from our president, it truly does enable us to build back better. by fortifying water infrastructure in the face of our new and worsening climate reality. sadly, mr. president, sadly our future is one with more severe weather events like hurricanes, like floods, droughts, and bitterly cold weather. i wish it weren't true, but it is. it's a future with evermore people living on the front lines of sea level rise like

louisiana, which on the average, if you can believe this, louisiana loses a piece of land to the sea roughly the size of a football field every 100 minutes. every 100 minutes. to that end, the bill before us provides a combined $500 million to make our water infrastructure system more resilient and more adaptable in the face of extreme weather events. within that historic investment is a new $125 billion program which will for the first time provide grants to communities seeking to fortify their waste water systems against climate change's impact. this is not just a bill to stand in a bill, a legislation that would direct our agencies to build and spend more wisely. we know that investment and innovation in this bill before us could have a profound impact on our economy, creating jobs and fostering growth for our

entire community. we can in short seize the day in the face of so much adversity. seize the day. carpe diem or as we say in delaware, madam, carper die. it is -- carper diem. there is much we can do to invest in our nation's highways, roads, and bridges. our surface transportation reauthorization act increases the baseline for funding our surface transportation programs by more than a third to $203 billion over the next five years. $203 billion. on top of that, the legislation will provide over $60 billion for new funds for roads, bridges, and multimodal programs over these five years. this investment will repair, rebuild our roads and bridges with a new focus on climate change mitigation, resilient equity and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians. every day, motorists cross

bridges in poor conditions in too many parts of our country 170 million times. every day. every day. 170 million times a day. some 40% of the bridges in our country are in need of repair replacement, including nearly 500 bridges in massachusetts, 3,000 in pennsylvania, and god knows more in our state as well. at the current pace of investment in bridges, it could take nearly 40 years, 40 years to tackle the current backlog of bridges in poor condition. that's right. 40 years. that's why today we consider legislation to provide a $40 billion investment to address our daunting bridge repair backlog. our legislation also includes for the first time in a senate reauthorization bill climate tidal provisions dedicated to curbing harmful greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring the investments we make are more

resilient. the climate change enhanced extreme weather events. like it or not, it's coming our way. as many of you know, these transportation sector's largest source of private emissions in our nation, almost 30%, just from its one source, cars, trucks, and vans. if we want to save our planet, and we do, for our children and grandchildren, we have to tackle this major contributor to the climate crisis with a special zeal. the bill we marked up in our environment and public works committee was passed by a 20-0 vote, put us on the right track. dedicating $18 billion to reduce carbon emissions. and including money for hydrogen fueling stations on highways and in locations like schools, workplace, parks, and public accessible areas for our communities. the bill also adds another $5 billion for e.v. charging and hydrogen fueling stations to help us transition toward a

zero-emission future. a lot of people have heard about and talked about charging stations, electric vehicle charging stations. not so many people mention hydrogen. hydrogen will play a major role in reducing our carbon emissions. particularly with mid-sized trucks and larger trucks but also when we talked about reducing carbon emissions in the industrial sector. stay tuned. a lot to come on that front. the great thing about hydrogen, clean hydrogen especially vehicles to propel hydrogen with the technology that we have devised, it creates an emission from these vehicles, but it's water, i'm told it's water we can actually drink. we will also drive down emissions by supporting clean, healthy alternatives to driving. bicycling and walking are not only affordable modes of transportation but healthy ones as well. important consideration in a nation where all too many

americans are dying from medical conditions tied to obesity. sadly, far too many americans live in neighborhoods where there are no safe bike lanes and crosswalks. tragically, in 2019 alone, over 7,000 pedestrians and bicyclists lost their lives in traffic accidents. over 7,000 pedestrians. i would wager, i would wager, mr. president, that many members of this body -- i actually knew one or more than one of those victims or their families personally. so i'm grateful that our bill works to address these needless deaths head on. the question is how. by providing a 70% increase in funding for programs that develop safe, accessible pedestrians and bicycle pathways across our nation and by authorizing almost $17 billion in funding for highway safety improvements. i also want to note here some of

the critical investments in infrastructure outside of the e.p.w. committee jurisdiction and the important work those committees did to bring this bill to the floor. first, a note of appreciation for the portion of this legislation that was authored by the senate commerce committee led by senators maria cantwell and roger wicker. one of the tens of thousands of americans who commutes to work on the east coast by taking amtrak almost daily, i am encouraged to see that this bill invests in our railway across our nation. this legislation not only provides $6 billion in grants for the northeast corridor to address adam's deferred maintenance needs, it also provides another $16 billion for the adam national network. amtrak's national network. and another $41 billion in grants to improve passenger rail performance and safety. i also want to apply -- applaud the chairman of the senate banking committee and others both on and off the committee who worked tirelessly to advance robust funding for public

transit infrastructure in order to make it possible for millions of people to get to work and home again every day. transit and rail are both critical components of our climate change response, providing low and low-emission travel choices. this bill, our bill, reauthorizes and grows our transit programs while also providing more than $5 billion in grants for state and local agencies to purchase electric and low-emission transit buses. and our colleagues on the senate energy and natural resources committee, led by senators manchin and barrasso, crafted legislation that will help support and clean up our nation's energy infrastructure. investments made in this bill will work to make our electric grid more reliable, more resilient, support families and businesses to become more energy efficient while helping to clean up our nation's old and abandoned mines and wells that leak toxic pollution and methane emissions. the bill before us this week also includes investments in

battery recycling, in zero-emitting technologies including a program much like one passed out of our e.p.w. committee last year that supports our existing nuclear power fleet which collectively produces -- get this -- half of our nation's carbon-free electricity. while there is much to celebrate in this product of our bipartisan effort, more work still needs to be done. collectively, we have incorporated badly needed climate provisions in service, transportation, water, power, and a number of other infrastructure programs. but in truth, we have in the words of robert frost miles to go before we sleep. miles to go before we sleep. and with the words of robert frost as a reminder, all of us who serve here together understand that every race won begins with a first step and ends with a final one. with the enactment of this legislation, we will be taking not one but a number of important steps, a number of

important steps. in the days ahead, we will move a great deal closer to the finish line in a race with a dangerously changing climate that we simply cannot afford to lose. that's why i will be examining the budget resolution closely in the days ahead to ensure that we are devoting resources necessary to put -- to eliminate climate change and to put it on the run as we advance environmental justice. and i would be remiss if i didn't add that we must not shy away in the days ahead from working hard to agree on how to honestly and thoughtfully pay for the investments that need to be made. in the words, my colleague from west virginia, in the words of a former state treasurer of a small state on the east coast who now serves in this body, things worth having are worth paying for. but the key mission of this state is that we have pushed through -- day is that we have pushed through earnest disagreements, varying priorities, much headache and

heartache to achieve a truly singular success in taking on a number of major infrastructure challenges facing our nation. we have elected to work together to address the obvious, to repair and upgrade much of our nation's infrastructure in order to better position america to succeed in a more competitive global economy and survive in an ever more dangerous world due to climate crisis. senator capito and i have served together on this committee for a number ofiers. she succeeds john barrasso who for a number of years was the chair and i was the ranking member. i will never forget -- and you probably won't either, senator -- you probably won't -- we won't forget the words of a fellow named rob wallace, also from wyoming, a friend of senator barrasso who was nominated to be i think the assistant secretary for the interior to focus on, among other things, national parks, wildlife refuges, fish and wildlife. i will never forget what he said

in his confirmation hearing. he commented on the history of the tradition of our committee is one where we actually work together or like each other, even though we don't always agree on the issues, we work to get things done. he said these words. he said the bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions. that's what he said. bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions. i thought at the time he really nailed it. i hope that with this legislation we will nail it, too, because a lot of americans are counting on us to do just that. with that, i'm happy to yield the floor again to -- i'm tempted to call her my wing woman. she calls me her wing man. with my friend and colleague and ranking member of this committee who has been great to work with. thank you. i yield. mrs. capito: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia is recognized. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. i want to begin by thanking the chairman of our e.p.w. committee. we have worked tremendously well together. you gave a great speech right

there outlining not only the difficulties that we have had reaching consensus but really how the building blocks of what we are embarking on today really came from the bipartisanship that we have shown in e.p.w. with our surface transportation and our water bills. by having those building blocks in place has led us to where we are today. and i do remember that first meeting with president biden in the white house. it's not every day you get to go to the white house and sit in the oval office and talk to the president of the united states and vice president. but we started out with basically saying that we can do this, we want do this bipartisanship can work, particularly on areas that we traditionally worked together on, but also on areas that are of critical need to our country. and we never really lost our focus on that and neither did the president and so here we are

today really meeting that challenge that he sort of laid down before us over -- the six months ago. and with the building blocks that us and commerce have put into place, we found it was hard work with a bipartisan group and a great place at a point where we can discuss these, amend these on the senate floor as we should be doing. months of negotiating, the time is finally here. a lot of people and pundits said that we would never get here. as a matter of fact, i had an interview on national tv about three or four months ago when i was leading the effort for the republicans, and the commentator said, i'll believe bipartisanship on infrastructure when pigs fly. so watch out, they are flying. so we are debating this historic bipartisan infrastructure bill. frawsk investment and jobs act is the job of countless hours,

late nights and more than a couple of tough conversations. and i want to include not only our staff but a lot of staffs throughout the senate, whether it's finance committee, appropriations committee, commerce committee, banking committee, energy committee, all encompassing, a lot of our staff have been working through the weekends sleeplessly to try to get us to the day. we debated the definition of infrastructure. we actually discussed that in the white house the day we went to see the president and what that scope should look like and the price tag and the very important how to pay for it. i think that nobody of the 100 of us thinks this bill is absolutely perfect. there is a saying, if we all thought it was perfect, there's something wrong with it. so delivering for the american people is more important than our headlines today. we can make an historic

investment with infrastructure. it is a commitment to keep americans safe, as the chairman mentioned, improving our global competitiveness and growing the economy and creating jobs. this gives states the certainty in funding to plan for big projects but also that flexibility in spending to cater to unique needs. what you need in georgia, mr. president, is different than what you need in delaware or my other colleague in montana would differ from what we need in west virginia. this bill is a product the american people can be proud of and one that will benefit them and the next generation. this is not a one and done. the impacts of this bill will go on through a generation. so after we had the meeting with the president, the bipartisan meeting, the president put out his american jobs act and i began -- he actually challenged my party, the republican party, to come up with a reaction to his american jobs plan. and i took up that challenge along with the ranking members

of the relevant committees. so that would be senators wicker, toomey, barasso, crapo, and senator blunt and we went back to the white house and i was talking to senator carper the entire time through process to make sure that our surface transportation reauthorization bill, which we were in the midst of negotiating was going to be the building block on which we could formulate a bipartisan agreement and our drinking water and wastewater bill had already passed out of this entire body 89-2. so we decided -- and the president was very much in the -- in the conversation and the will to get this done. so our drinking water and wastewater infrastructure act had already passed, as i said, unanimously. we passed it on the floor 89-2, and we were making steady

progress on the transportation infrastructure bill. and our working group began to falter and the bipartisan group picked up with the president. i'm really, really glad anded proud of their efforts that they were able to come to an agreement that is before us today. i'm very, as i will reiterate again, because i think we're going to be saying this a lot, i glad the basis of this are the two bills that came out of the e.p.w. committee. there are two things i would like to highlight. roads and bridges is what we think of when we think of infrastructure. we talked a lot about this. as ranking member of the e.p.w. committee, one of my top priorities, along with chairman carper is the transportation bill. those were a lot of sleepless nights too for many of us and our staff in particular, to write a bill to meet our transportation needs.

the chairman outlined a lot of what his priorities were and i'm going to talk about some of the priorities i had sharing his priorities as well. i came to the table with several major priorities for that bill and i'm proud to say that each one of them is in this bill that we're getting ready to consider. i wanted a robust investment in our nation's roads and bridges. nothing bugs people more, literally, than driving into a pothole when they know they are paying a gas tax, when they know they are trying their best to support the state and local to repair their roads. i think it is the least that americans going to work, going to school or going shopping would expect they are going to be safe as they are traveling. i came to the table and we -- we did a robust $303.5 billion over five years for the federal aid highway programs, which, as the chairman said, is a 35% increase over current law. that investment represents

historic funding. these are historic levels of funding for roads and bridges and provides the states that long-term certainty that they need to plan and complete a project. i'm sure, mr. chairman, you have projects in your state that have been on the burner waiting to be done, are partially finished and they can't get the investment because they can't get the long-term investment that we provided in our bill. so i have specifically made funding for our nation's bridges a priority. west virginia has so many bridges. it's a small state but we have a lot of hills and valleys so we need a lot of bridges. one recent report said that 21% of west virginia's bridges are in poor condition. another report says that 13% of our interstate bridges are in poor conditions. that latter statement is the high just one in the nation. so we created a new bridge program. we worked hard with our

colleagues to make sure there is a massive infliewtion on top of what we have in the appropriations package. the overall package includes $40 billion in dedicated resources for bridges. it is the largest investment since the interstate highway system. it will make a difference for west virginia and the rest of the nation. i wanted to use federal funds to meet their own unique transportation needs. that priority is reflected in the fact that 90% of the e.p.w. bill's funding will be provided to our states through the formula, that means the predictability of the formula that every state has relied on over the last several transportation bills. that's important because it let's states use the federal dollars to address their own priorities. as i said, we have different priorities from congestion in urban areas to economic growth in small towns. and, third, i wanted to make

sure that all parts of our nation, not just urban areas, but the rural areas benefit from transportation programs. rural areas can suffer, it is hard to show cost benefit analysis and how people are being served but this is vital. i'm pleased that the e.p.w. bill creates a new $2 billion rural grant program that will dedicate resources to something that is very important to me, the appalachian highway development system and other projects across rural america. we also worked together to provide additional dedicated funding in the broader legislation. so what does that mean for my home state? that means that this funding will aid the completion of quarter h which is the connector to the eastern and central parts of our state with the metro d.c.

area and opening up economic growth. if you're coming from the d.c. area, you can slice right through the center of the state, where you can ski, white water or bring your business. how about that? finally, we hear a lot -- everybody hears a lot from folks back home that it just takes way too long to develop a project. we sometimes think sometimes the bureaucracy is our worst enemy when it comes to building our infrastructure. so we prioritized improvements for the project delivery projects to help road and bridge projects to advance from the planning stage to the completion stage much more rapidly. i'm excited about reforms we had in our e.p.w. bill, particularly our bill codifies the one federal decision policy, making it easier for project sponsors to work through the federal environmental review process, not skirting any environmental review, but just expediting it

so it can go quicker which means more development, more considerations, but also more efficiency on how you spend your dollars. the e.p.w. bill allows states to be reimbursed for utility relocation necessary for a project while the review process is ongoing or even establishing deadlines for federal agencies to make decisions. these are a few examples of the 19 sections colluded in the robust project delivery section of the bill. additional provisions in the broader legislation will extend the pass 31 permitting forms to help us build other types of infrastructure more efficiently. my key priorities, robust investment in roads and bridges, flexibility and certainty for our states, resources for rural communities and especially the a dhs, and project delivery improvement are reflected in the e.p.w. bill and across the broader package we are

considering. i'm extremely proud of the work we did on our committee and to produce this, i think it will make significant benefits to our nation's infrastructure. i'm going to talk about our drinking water and wastewater infrastructure act. the chairman went into more detail on it, it is far-reaching, the largest, most robust investment, and investments in new areas around this very crucial area. we authorized $35 billion for water projects across the country with a focus on upgrading an aging infrastructure and invest in innovative technologies and provide assistance to rural and low-income communities to help them keep their water safe and clean. the bill provides that flexibility i have talked about so that both rural and urban areas can best address their needs. the most significant investments are in the clean water -- or in the drinking water and state water resolving funds, otherwise known as s.r.s. our former governors in the body

would know all about s.r.s., how important they are. they maximize the authority for the states to best address their own challenges with a resolving loan fund to facilitate additional future investments. when this water legislation was voted on by the senate, 89 senators supported it. senators recognized that the legislation will help thousands of communities to improve their health, safety, and standard of living. and i'm very pleased that this bill before us again is a part of this package, a part of the larger package so that we can make sure that it gets to the president's desk. i'm glad that the overall package we are considering represents the largest investment in clean drinking water in our nation's his interest tri. -- history. it also has niche things in there that are important to me like in our state. we're wasting water in our state. we have leaky old pipes that leak out 50% of the water from

the treatment facility to the home. what a waste. think about our friends to the west and how precious that is to certain areas and how wasteful that is and so we addressed some of that into our bill. there are a number of other provisions in our package that will be significant wins for west virginia and the nation. i launched my capito connect to help expand broadband infrastructure in west virginia. many communities that lacked adequate broadband service are struggling economically. i see my fellow senator from montana and we have talked about this endlessly on the commerce committee and how absolutely important it is. many communities that lack adequate broadband service are struggling. it is impossible to complete -- to complete -- excuse me. it is impossible to compete for new jobs if a community cannot offer good internet service. i mean, it's just a necessity, causing these areas to fall further and further behind.

so today education, tourism, health care all require high-speed internet service. broadband is core infrastructure and this legislation recognizes that. it's a major broadband investment in this that will tremendously help close the digital divide in this country the we will get it to the last house. we will get it to the last business. additionally, significant fund sg included in this package to improve our nation's airports. funding for the corpts of engineers will -- corporation of engineers will improve our infrastructure, locks and dams. reauthorization of the a.m.l. program will provide billions of dollars to clean up abandoned mine sites. another new program will provide resources to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells. both programs will have a positive effect in this country and particularly in my state. the items i have highlighted are major wins for west virginia and the nation.

they're investments in the next generation and ensuring america continues to compete on the global stage. i'd like to thank senators portman and sinema for their leadership on this legislation and the entire bipartisan working group for their hours and hours of long work. i'd especially like to thank -- we're going to be together a lot in the next couple of days -- my counterpart chairman carper of the e.p.w. committee. i'd also like to thank princess diana for -- president biden for his commitment to see this bipartisan work through. i would like to add that i would like to thank the president's staff because i know that they have committed hours and hours to this effort beginning with me and ending where we are today. i hope this isn't the end. i hope this is the beginning of the -- of things we're going to be doing together. i hope this is the beginning of all good things. the american people elected us to do this tough work. tough compromises are necessary

to develop and pass bipartisan bills. and i believe this legislation is a major positive step. i look forward to working with my colleagues as we begin the amendment process so that we can advance this package. mr. president, i would like to choin with chairman -- join with chairman carper and thank our staff members who worked so hard. i see your staff over there and part of my staff over here. at the risk of picking one of my favorite children off the e.p.w. committee, i'm going to name my entire staff because they all had a hand in this. so i'd like to thank lauren baker, murphy barrett, lib we callaway, george anna clemens who is going to be a mom in a month. travis cone, sarah delevin, will dickson, elizabeth warner, macsimon, tyler jenkins, jess kramer, jake kennedy, matt lupus, cale la mcmurray, jacob mitchell, kelly moore, katherine

smith and my staff leader adam. i'll give him an extra check because he's an amazing person. travis boyles and andy zoo kfor their tireless efforts that helped advance this committee's infrastructure legislation. my personal office team, i'd like to thank my chief of staff joe brew babaker. i also want r want to thank your staff. we worked -- you and i work well together but our staffs really do, i think, rely on one another. that's the way it should be. i would like to especially thank mary francis because she has devoted many hours and time. she and adam, i don't know how many times they talked on the phone but it's many, many, many. rebecca higgins, john kaine, greg doddson, laura, jordan, heather dann, mackey mcintosh, andy, kenneth and tyler hoffman reardon for their dedication to this process as well. so with that, mr. president, i

yield the floor. mr. carper: i'm going to ask if i could just insert one quick comment, mr. president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: ranking member senator capito has mentioned very graitionly the names of -- graciously the names of our staff. i was here this weekend. she was here this weekend. there were people working this weekend, not just our staff, not just on the appropriations committee. staffs like right here in this body. folks throughout the building, throughout the complex. they were here working. they have children, they have spouses, they have parents, other obligations. they were here working. we would be remiss if we didn't mention that. the other thing i want to say, ranking member senator capito knows i go back and forth on the train a lot of days much like joe biden used to do. almost every week somebody says to me on a platform either in delaware or here in d.c. waiting for the train, why can't you guys work together. why can't you folks just work together. and i just wish that they could

be here to be here to participate or to listen, to hear we do work together. when the chips are really down, pandemic, terrible situation, 15, 16, 17 months ago especially, we worked together almost in a unanimous way and we're working together on something extraordinary and important. the other thing i would say and i reminded the president of this just the other day. this is not all on the federal government. whether it's climate change, whether it's meeting our infrastructure needs or whether it's the pandemic, this is a shared responsibility. and the federal government bears a lot of responsibility. we have a responsibility especially to lead, but there are states involved and as a -- cities, nonprofits are involved. all of this is working together. and i would just -- i love to -- we have a home depot just a couple of blocks from our house,

senator capito. when i think of whether it's cities or towns or counties or they have responsibilities to meet and i like to say you can do it. we can help. like they say at home depot. if you can do it, we can help. there's a lot of good help here. the folks around the country who need it, we're going to help. you can do it but we can help and we will. i would say in closing, i see the senator from montana is here, a great member of this body, great member from montana and great member of the appropriations committee and chair as well. and i just want to say thank you for all of your involvement in this effort, all of your involvement. part of this g22, some sanity and some common sense at times when it was really needed and just tenacity. he's the fellow who normally stands at this podium as our leader, senator schumer. and majority leader. he spoke earlier this morning

and i and senator mcconnell spoke from where senator capito is speaking. not everybody expected senator mcconnell, the republican leader, to vote in favor of the motion to proceed to the bill. he did. and that encouraged and sort of -- others, 16, 17, 18 other republicans to join in voting for the motion to proceed. we don't proceed unless we have 60 votes. and that was just a hugely helpful. and chuck schumer who is just -- i call my chief of staff -- this guy, he just doesn't give up. i've known and worked with him forever and very proud of his leadership and i know he'll be glad when this is all over and he can maybe go home and get a good night's sleep. to his family who are willing to share and the kids willing to share him with all of us, a special thanks. i yield the floor. mr. tester: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana is recognized. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. i do want to thank senator carper and senator capito for

this bill. i very much appreciate would you've done to this point and would you're going to do the next three or four days. mr. president, i rise today for the same reason that several months ago i worked with four other democrats and five republicans to try to get something done to address the infrastructure of this country. why? because infrastructure is important. let me take you back 60 years. it is 60 years ago it was 13 and a half miles to the closest patch of pavement from my farm. then i was about 4 or 5 years old and i remember riding with my dad in a 1954g.m.c. 300 truck on that dirt road hauling wheat to town. as he weaved around piles of gravel that were in the middle of that road. and i asked my father why are those piles of gravel there. and he said they're working to

pave this road. and i said what does that mean being a 4-year-old. and he said, well, remember the stretch of road, the 150 or 200 yards that we drive on to get to the elevator right before the elevator? and i said yeah. this proceed is going to be all like that. and i thought wow. and it was. it got paved. got paved for the first eight miles out of town. and that was pretty neat. we were five and a half miles from pavement then which was a great improvement. some ten years later a little more than ten years later, that final four miles was graveled -- was paved so that we could access that highway. so why is that important? that's important because not only did it reduce our costs on the farm on things like tires and pins and bushings and ball joints but it made our farm more profitable.

because of investments in my grandfather and my father's generation made not only did it help them at the time, but it helps me to this day. that was my first introduction to infrastructure. and that is why several months ago i realized that after 15 years in this body and people from both sides of the aisle talking about infrastructure, that it was well past time to get something done on infrastructure. because i knew it was economically important. i knew it would create jobs, and i knew it would help sustain communities all across this country. so what's in this legislation? why is this legislation so important? well let me tell you. it's about the economy. it's about creating jobs.

it's about making sure that we can compete in this worldwide economy that we live in. how we can maintain our position as the world's premier economy in this world. so how does it do it? well, it starts by repairing and modernizing our roads and bridges, our airports, our transit systems, that's critically important for an economy. in my particular case, i live a long ways away from our customer base. so when i jump if the truck and i go to town and i use that piece of pavement that was put down 50 years ago, that's important. when i cross that bridge that cross the river, when i haul grain to fort benton or great falls, without that bridge i couldn't access my markets. without those highways i cannot access my markets. so it is critically important we keep our aging bridges and roads

and airports up to snuff. and then this also makes an incredibly important investment in our aging water systems. where i come from they call it dry land agriculture. this year it's a little dryer than we want because we're in the middle of a drought but the truth is even if you're looking for drinking water or irrigation water or any water, it's hard to come by. as our native american friends have told us many, many times, water is life. and so infrastructure to get water to the point where we can utilize it is critically important. this bill is a major investment in water infrastructure. and i would say one other thing. whether you live in the west or whether you live in the east, our water systems in this country are worn out because we haven't done what our parents and grandparents have done. we've allowed them to decay

without investing in this infrastructure which is what we're doing today with this package. and then we talk about broadband which if we can get this bill across the line, i believe it will fix the broadband accessibility issues in this country. we came through the pandemic and we saw how important broadband was for distance learning, for telehealth, for opportunities for businesses to expand their customer base. this is going to expand -- this bill will help expand high-speed internet throughout this country, both urban and rural, and i will tell you there's a lot of work that needs to be done in my home state of montana when it comes to broadband. and then there's the grid. if we're going to move forward with electric vehicles and they are coming, then we have to have an electrical grid that will support that -- those electrical vehicles -- electric vehicles.

without improvements to our electrical grid, we will be behind the eight ball all the time when it comes to, for example, the electric pickup that ford is putting out. i will say in my lifetime i will probably have an electric tractor on the farm because this technology is moving so quickly that it's real. and this -- and this package does much more than that. i just wanted to touch on those few things. but it's done without increasing your taxes, which is really important. because right now as we see our economy moving forward, we need to keep it going in that direction. ultimately as i said before, this bill comes down to the economy. it comes down to creating jobs and putting america to work. and it's about our national security. it allows us to be able to compete with china in a way that we're losing right now. you know, i've heard people come to the floor and say, you know,

infrastructure is good but we don't need it. we don't need it right now. well, all i have to say is if you believe that, take the keys to the car out of your pocket known as our economy and give them to china. because you're giving this economy away and you're going to make china the leading economic power in this world. then there's the issue of bipartisanship that's been talked about a lot today already. the truth is, this bill has made some news because democrats and republicans actually worked together. they actually compromised. nobody got everything they want, but everybody won. and as i've told many media outlets, this shouldn't be news, but in this day and age, it is. hopefully this will set an example so that we can have much more bipartisan legislation going forward. and in that regard, i want to

thank my colleagues for their dedication to this effort over the last several months, the g who have 10, senator portman, collins, cat did i, shaheen, murkowski. all of you folks that set with me in the same room and we've battled it out. sometimes the conversation has been fun and sometimes it's not been so much fun. but the truth is, every one of these folks wants to get to yes and in the end we did get to yes. i want to thank senator schumer. i want to thank him for his patience, not something that he's known for. but he has been incredibly patient as this bill has been debated and changed and moved forward over -- particularly over the last week, although i will say that he pushed the

envelope and made sure we were tending to business even before that. because i think senator schumer also wants to see this bill come to fruition. and i also need to thank the administration. the folks who represent president biden in these negotiations -- and i am going to i ask the reading of the names be dispensed with. louise terrell, brian shea were incredibly helpful and they were incredible resources and this bill would not have happened without their input. i also want to thank all the staff members from both sides of the aisle who gave up their weekends and worked late in the night over and over and over again. i've said this before, i'll is a this again -- i'll say this again. the staff does the work, the senators take the credit for t the fact is our staffs really rolled up their sleeves and

really performed in a way that every american would be proud. look, over the next three or four days we have the opportunity to prove that the united states senate can do big things and still function. the process we've been through hasn't been pretty. i don't think it's supposed to be pretty. but it's been worth the while. i would say the world is watching, both our allies and our adversaries. our allies want us to succeed. our adversaries want us to fail. i would say to everybody in this body on both sides of the aisle -- and we did get a 67-vote majority to move forward with this bill -- but let's show them that america can function again. let's get this bill passed. let's get it over to the house. let's get it to the president's deck for his signature.

with that, i yield, mr. president. mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican whip is recognized. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. it is good to see the senate taking up a genuinely bipartisan bill this week. a group of members from both parties have spent weeks developing this legislation, and we saw the result of their work in the bipartisan support for proceeding to this bill. nowers -- now we need to let that bipartisan process continue. we need to let those not part of the bipartisan group a chance to weigh in. that means making sure we have a robust amendment process. i know the majority leader is eager to get on to the next piece of this is, the $3.5

trillion spending spree. but that's not a good reason for rushing this infrastructure bill through the senate. this is an enormous bill. it's more than 2,700 pages long, and the legislative text was just released last night. to start with, members need time to digest this legislation and then members need the opportunity to offer amendments. the bill before us today is a genuinely bipartisan bill, appeared i am very grateful for the -- and i am very grateful for the tireless efforts of so many members who put in the time get us to this point. like a lot of colleagues, i spent the weekend here as the bipartisan group worked three many final drafting issues. i appreciate the fact that the members of the group took the time to get the bill as right as possible before introducing it. but this legislation was still put together by only a handful of senators. and unlike traditional highway bills, there are major pieces of

this legislation that haven't been through the rigger of a committee process -- the rigor of a committee process. so all members deserve the chance to weigh in. a number of senators have raised concerns about this legislation, such as whether the supposed point-of-service are sufficient to keep this legislation from -- the supposed faces are sufficient to keep this legislation from driving up the debt. mr. president, information legislation is some of the most essential legislation that we consider. commerce in this country depends on the strength of our infrastructure, from up-to-date electric grids to well-maintained airports and train tracks, ports, and water waterways and bridges. we need to get this legislation right. that means giving members ample time to examine the details of the bill. and it means giving members the chance to address any problems in bill through a maintainingful

amendment process. we shouldn't shack sacrifice time on this bill merely because the democratic leader would like to spend next week jamming a 1 should% purely partisan piece of legislation through the senate. let's finish this infrastructure bill with a robust, bipartisan amendment process. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. schatz: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii is recognized. mr. schatz: thank you,

mr. president. last week the world saw something that it had never seen before -- surfing as an olympic sport. the tort of how this happened begins with a -- the tort of how this happened begins with a native hawaiian named duke. he learned to swim at waikiki beach and went on to win five olympic i am ising medals, including three golds. he pioneered a flutter kick now used by most freestyle swimmers. he was a visionary who after winning gold in the 1912 olympics pressed the international olympic committee to make surfing an olympic sport. he traveled the world to promote surfing, bringing it to the continental united states and to australia and elsewhere and became known as the father of modern surfing. but more than anything else, duke kahanamoku was an ambassador of had i i had.

a reporter once asked him if it was a bigger thrill to win gold or ride those waves. he answered that surfing was a bigger thrill. one century later, duke's vision of olympic surfing became a reality. there is nothing more fitting than hawaii's car risse moore winning the first olympic medal. look no further than can aeries is. like duke she shares his native hawaiian roots and starting suring at waikiki beach as a young child. she attended my alma mater, a school that has graduated more than 30 olympians and president obama. she became the youngest person ever to win a surfing medal at age three. today she stands alone as the world's top-ranked surfer.

there is a saying that the best surfer is the one having the most fun. and that's unquestionably the case with carissa. she is actually the best surfer, and she's also having the most fun. she has this incredible combination of speed and power in the water and a remarkable humility she carries with herself everywhere she goes. she is an intense competitor who wants to win every event she enters but also wants to see her opponents and more importantly the sport of surfing succeed. she has a passion to be admired and a joy that is infectious. she is, in shortcut the rare athlete who must be seen to be believed. i know because i have seen is it in i had i had and now the whole world knows, too. after she won the gold medal last week, can aeries is spoke of duke. quote, it was beautiful to sigh his dream come true a century later. she might as well have been

speaking for all of hawaii. today we honor duke and the legacy he left. we honor carissa moore for her commitment to inspire the next generation of surfers, especially young girls. and we celebrate the sport of surfing finally getting the recognition that it deserves. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. ms. murkowski: request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i am on the floor this afternoon, as we're waiting to learn when we might be able to proceed to a series of amendments as they relate to the infrastructure investment and jobs act. this is a significant measure, one that i have been very proud to be involved with for a period of time working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in our working groups, g-10, g-22, working with the committee chairman and committee ranking member to get where we are today, which is a really long awaited, really long aweighed

investment in our nation's infrastructure. and i know that members are looking through the significant legislation that is in front of us. don't need to take my word for it. you can just look at the number of inches of the document in front of me. it is significant. but, mr. president, i would suggest to you that the need in this country is significant when it comes to investments in our nation's infrastructure. our core infrastructure, what we define to be our roads, our rails, our bridges, our ports, our water and sewer, our brownback. i think we recognize that we talk a lot in this chamber and perhaps on the other side as well. and presidents have come and gone and all talked about the need for more investment in our

infrastructure. but the truthing told, we really haven't done a real wholesale effort towards that goal until this year. and we saw significant work come out of the committees this year -- and i want to commend the chairman of the energy -- excuse me, the environment and public works committee, senator carper, my friend from delaware. his committee worked hard, not only on the surface transportation measure but also the water infrastructure measure that had passed through. we've seen other good work in other areas of infrastructure. i am on the energy and natural resources committee, and that committee was able to move out a significant, what we call the power infrastructure piece that became one of the anchor tenets, if you will, within this

measure. so there's been good, collaborative work in the committees. then that has been built on members, again, across the aisle over these past months to get us where we are today. and so i ask members, as they are going through the bill itself, the language that we had hoped we would get a little bit earlier for colleagues to go through. but in fairness, we really kneaded to take the time -- we really needed to take the time to make sure we had gotten it right. it really does matter. so it did cause some delay that we wish we could have avoided, but we are where we arement and it's monday afternoon, and what i'm hearing from colleagues is that they want an opportunity to engage in this process. many -- many in this body have not been part of the working groups. perhaps they weren't part of the committee that had advanced some

of these pieces of legislation that we have incorporated. so they want to be participants, and rightly so. and this is the time to do just that. so i think it's everyone's intention that we have a robust amendment process moving forward. i'm actually looking forward to this. i've had the opportunity on this floor several times now to be able to manage energy bills, natural resources bills, bills that have been significant, bills that we've actually been able to have a pretty decent amendment process, and sometimes -- in fairness, sometimes that amendment process caused things to derail for a period of time. we don't want to do that in this instance, not at all. but it's not very often that we really do have a true and a meaningful amendment process. we're going to have an opportunity for that with the budget resolution coming

forward, but i think for the most part, most of us know that there's a lot of messaging that goes on. this is not about messaging. this is about delivering results for the american people. this is about creating jobs as we build out legacy infrastructure that is needed around the country. highways, we all know, we all know that our highways are in need of help and support. the provisions that we have included in this measure for roads and bridges will be significant as we attend to the many damaged bridges that we see around the country that really do present a threat to public safety. let's get on them. we know our highways in so many areas are in serious disrepair,

and in certain areas we immediate to be -- we need to be doing more to help build out that highway infrastructure to ease the congestion, to allow for greater efficiency, to allow us as americans to do more of the things that we want to do, whether it's spend more time with your family, be more productive at your work. let's have an efficient system. we've got a little over 14,000 miles of public road in alaska. i can tell you that as we look to my state's roads and the condition and the shape that they're in, i know that we need investments in this space. but i also know that it's not just about roads and bridges. we also allow for things like replacements of culverts for the community, actually the

community that i was born in in ketchikan, just met with the community leaders, and they had shared with me smuf -- some of these culvert replacement projects are key and critical to them as anything they've got going on. recognizing that what we're doing is allowing for greater safety, greater access through our support for highways, for bridges, for things like culverts for pedestrian safety initiatives. i think we all want to do more in that area. alaskans probably fly more than we drive. our reality is some 80% of our communities are not connected by road, and the geography, the expanse that we deal with, we're just not going to be connected that way. but we don't need to be connected that way when we can be connected by the air and when we can be connected over the

water. and so this legislation is, again, very important to those who fly. when i talk about flying, sometimes these are small bush carriers moving mail and groceries and people to medical appointments, but the fact that we've got $15 billion in formula funding for the f.a.a. airport improvement program, this is going to be key. this helps with everything from runway lighting to navigation, taxi way initiatives. these are ways that the 400 public airports in alaska are going to be able to move out on a more efficient basis, if you will, some of the necessary safety upgrades that they have in front of them. again, for us, it's not just

about the land-based airports. we also have the sea-based areas that we worry about. we've got some 114 sea-based airports that we refer to. so recognizing that not every airport is like a dulles or a d.c.a. here, what we're able to do for our small hub airports, our nonhub airports, our nonprimary airports, communities of all size is, because, again, whether you're in bethel or wherever you may be throughout the state, all sizes are not the same here. so making sure that we're able to accommodate that is going to be important. i mentioned that we're also connected land, air, but also by sea. and for those of us that are coastal states -- the senator from delaware has a coastline,

has ferries, people move around by ferries, we rely on our highway system. there are 35 communities, that is their connector. that is how the kids move the high school basketball team, that's how the church groups move. that's how you pick up the groceries in costco in juneau and you put them on the ferry to go over to angoon. it's their road, it's an alaska ferry highway system. recognizing the support we can provide for our ferry systems whether it's in alaska or delaware or places in between is, again, an important opportunity for us. we recognize that as we provide support for those technologies that will allow us to move

people more efficiently and more cleanly, there's a lot of emphasis from this administration particularly with focus on e.v.'s. in this measure, we not only have provisions as they relate to clean school buses, but also to alternative fuel ferries, recognizing that we have some opportunities, whether it's an e.v. ferry that might run from haines to scagway or an alternative fuel, we want to be thinking forward into the future. one of the pieces of this measure, this very significant infrastructure bill that a lot of work has gone into is the water and wastewater title. this is significant. this is significant. we saw too many -- not too many years ago the situation in flint, michigan, with lead

pipes. we've been working to address many of those issues for a period of time, and rightly so. we provide significant funding, more than $180 million over five years for the water and wastewater projects in alaska through the clean water state revolving fund and the drinking water state revolving fund program. these are significant for us. in so many parts of this state we are either faced with unserved communities when it comes to water and wastewater or vastly underserved. when i say unserved, we kind of know what it means in the broadband sense, but let me explain to you what it means in the water and sewer place. it means that you don't have running water in your home. you don't have a toilet that flushes. you have a community well, where people go and they fill up

their jerry jugs and hall it back. -- and haul it back. it means that for sanitation, for using the bathroom, the bathroom is effectively a home depot bucket. if you're fancy, you've got a toilet seat on it. but it's the responsibility of somebody in the family to haul that bucket out and dump it. i shared pictures on the floor here of what that really means in a community to have no, no water, no water, no sewer system. 32 out of 190 rural alaska villages are currently in this situation. i received a voice mail over the weekend from one of alaska's mayors from a smaller community, on the road system though, and she shared with me, and i owe her a call back, but she shared with me, she said, you know, there's so

many people in my community that don't have, don't have running water. and again, this is a community that's on the road system between anchorage and fair banks. how we can help address what most would say is pretty basic infrastructure, is pretty basic health care needs when it comes to water and sanitation, there is significant funding in this measure for indian health services sanitation facilities. i'm the ranking member on the indian affairs committee. i have been on this committee since i came to the senate 19 years ago. i have seen over the years the efforts that we have made to try to address the water and sanitation needs in indian country in alaska with our

native villages. our reality that we face is we are, we are still in a, in extreme deficit when it comes to our tribal communities. the reality is that we have left them behind when it comes to something like modern-day water and wastewater systems. and so the unprecedented investment in sanitation infrastructure is one that i think is significant and incredibly important because we're seeking to clear all the known project needs. people will say that's aggressive, let me tell you, mr. president, when you go to some of these communities and you hear the concerns from the people in the village about how they are supposed to keep their

family from contracting this virus when the first simple step is to wash your hands, and they say water is pretty precious around here because we don't have, we don't have a sink to wash our hands in. and so, the effort here to catch up -- and i don't even like to use those words in that sense -- we've got to do right by our native people. and the effort here i think is key and critically important. another area that i'm pleased that working with committee of jurisdiction led by senator carper, that there has been a focus -- and this is something that ranking member capito has been keenly focused on as well,

and this is the pfas contamination to our clean water and drinking water programs. i also recognize that there is a focus on small and disadvantaged communities. i've got one small community down in southeast alaska, gustavis. it is the community that is right next to glacier bay national monument area, and the pfas in their little community near the airport area is something that is a major and significant concern for that tiny, small, little community. so making sure that be, again, these programs, the funding that we are helping to advance is good whether you are an urban area with 100-year-old pipes that need replacement or you are

a community that has lacked the original infrastructure in the first place. how we're able to ensure that the needs of our small communities are met as well is significant, and i think it's an important part of this legislation. i mentioned broadband as being that other connector. we connect by way of transportation systems, we get that. but nowadays if you're not connected, if you're not connected by the broadband availability, the ability to communicate elsewhere, your economies are limited, you are limited. i mentioned the fact that so many of the communities in my state are not connected by a road and probably not will be in my lifetime. they're not seeking that as an answer, but they do want to be connected to the rest of the world. they want to know that the

crafts that they are able to make at home, that they'd have the ability to perhaps sell them to a broader audience. maybe it's on your own little website selling to folks in the lower 48 or globally. but you can't do that, you can't do that if you don't have the connection. and so the recognition that the grants for the deployment, broadband deployment with minimum allocation to each state is important, but also recognizing a focus on these high-cost areas for deployment. just saying, if you're looking for a high-cost area for

deployment, look no farther than alaska. it's not something that we're proud of. it's a reality. but part of the tragedy that we see is that in many communities, broadband has arrived. the internet is there, but people can't afford to use it. we have heard at the height of the pandemic last year, a reality that families could not -- could not connect because the cost to do so was just prohibitive which meant that the children weren't gaining that full access to the information. it meant that if you were trying to work from home, that you couldn't do that, and so it is s not just about access, but access has to mean some level of affordability.

so the -- the focus in this broadband piece i think is -- is critically important as we look to the provisions in the middle mile infrastructure grants, as we look to the support again for tribal broadband, recognizing, again, that this is an area that has been chronically underfunded in the past. mr. president, there is so much that when you think about how solid infrastructure allows you to have an economy. in anchorage, we host what we call alaska's port, and it is a significant port, obviously the largest one in the state, but it's through the port of alaska that over 85% of the goods, the

commodities come into the state, and then they are distributed either by truck or by rail, air, but they are moved out from there. and we know what an economic driver that port is to not only anchorage but the state as well. but it's not just big ports. it's also the smaller ports. we have got more coastline than any state in the country. and again, if you don't have the roads, how are you getting in? you are maybe flying this by -- in by small airplane, but more likely your materials are barged up during the summer months. that's how you get the lumber. that's how you get the snow machine, the four-wheeler to go out and do your hunting. our reality is that our ports have to work in every sized

communities, and so knowing that there will be additional support for remote and subsistence harbor construction is going to be so key, so key to these small , small little communities for whom if they didn't have -- if they didn't have this, they have got nothing. you can't move fish out. you can't move fish in. you can't move goods in. you can't move goods out. everything then is flown in. and think about what that means. if everything is flown in, it's crazy wicked expensive. and you're talking about a -- you're talking about a sheet of sheetrock. the fact is if you are flying in your materials, it's almost impossible to be able to afford any of it. mr. president, there is so much, again, when i think about ways

that we help to build our communities, help build our economies, help create jobs through infrastructure. and i spend a lot of time focused on energy initiatives, and i'm pleased with the work that came out of the energy committee that's focused in these -- in these various areas that drive the level of innovation that we will need as we're working to be more efficient to have cleaner energy sources and to really be more competitive. we effectively took the energy act that we passed last -- at the end of last congress and we helped to build out many of the provisions that were contained in that act. with whether it's the advanced

reactor demonstration project, more on hydropower and marine energy research, funding for geothermal, wind, solar energy, the -- the energy storage comongs -- demonstration projects. so much that's focused again on what we need to do to really be not only forward leaning and innovative, but efficient to allow for a more competitive world globally. when you think about our nation's grid infrastructure and resiliency, you don't need to close your eyes and imagine what can happen when your grid fails. unfortunately, as we're seeing, as we're seeing, whether there are wildfires, whether we are seeing brownouts with the

extreme heat, our reality is that our grid infrastructure needs -- needs support. we need to have that resiliency that we all talk about. and again, i'm going to stand up for the small grids, the smaller utilities who face the same pressures that you might have in an integrated grid back here. in fact, maybe even more so if you are -- if you're a small stand-alone community. you are your own grid. you need to have a level of resilience and the ability to make sure that people are not literally freezing in the dark. and so the effort that we have included with regards to our set-aside for small utilities, these are significant initiatives.

i have mentioned resilience a couple different times. i think sometimes people think that is a word that is overused, but i will tell you, we can't be doing enough when it comes to resilience. we have included in this measure a provision that we entitled tribal climate resilience. this is funding that is included to really help with those -- those threatened, threatened communities. many we see in my state but certainly i hear from -- from colleagues in other states who are seeing the same concerns as communities are more threatened due to whether it is erosion, as we are seeing in alaska, or flooding, but support to assist with climate resilience adaptation projects as well as

community relocation. i'll wrap up by just a little bit more commentary on the resilience piece. we are seeing in the west incredible drought right now. we are seeing the extent of these forest fires from oregon going east. but i think it's important for colleagues to know that, again, when we're talking about infrastructure and resilience, we also are acknowledging natural resources related infrastructure, and what more we might be doing with wildfire management, ecosystem restoration. and so to make sure that there is support for things like mechanical thinning, fuel breaks, other activities to reduce the risks of wildfire, whether it's on our forest

service lands or any of our public lands but also the concerns then when the fire knows no boundary as to whose lands they are. certainly in alaska, we saw the benefit of fuel breaks as they were implemented on the kenai. we had pretty significant -- a pretty significant fire several years ago, the funny river fire. we saw full well what that fuel break really did to help property and life. the bill also includes precommercial thinning which, again, is important in a host of different areas, not the less of which in my state on the tongass but i think we do a good job to make sure that when we're talking about infrastructure, we are recognizing the core

infrastructure of whether it's legacy projects like roads, rails, bridges, but also recognizing that infrastructure has impact to our lands and how we ensure that there is greater resilience, again greater protections, and ensuring that it is addressed perhaps more broadly. so, mr. president, there is much good in this bill. there is not everything that i would have wanted, most certainly. there is a lot of things in it that in fairness i wish weren't in it. there are some pieces that i look at and i say way over the top. but i have to acknowledge i come

from a state where infrastructure is just a little bit different. we don't have a big public transit system, so i look at the transit dollars and my immediatp is way too much, don't need this. but i recognize that in a collaborative process, in a negotiated process, you have got to hear the views back and forth of all of your colleagues, and you take some things and you leave some things behind in a give-and-take process. and so just as my colleagues have listened to me convey the urgency of need for more support for the tribal programs when it comes to infrastructure, whether it's on water and sanitation or broadband, they heard -- they heard the urgency there. whether it was recognizing that

not all infrastructure projects are big in terms of their size, but they are big for that small community to know that the wishing community of craig is going to be able to build out that little harbor there. and so i've asked my colleagues to listen to the concerns of a very rural state like alaska, a state where our infrastructure is very unique, and they have had an open mind and a view towards not only recognizing how unique alaska is but recognizing the unique needs of rural america. so we have a compromise product in front of us, and it is a significant product, and we're now at a place where we want colleagues to join us in this product. weigh in with your good ideas.

let's move some good amendments. but i would suggest that the sooner we start moving with these amendments, the better it will be for us in this process here but also for the american public. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: while the senator from alaska is still here, i have just been sitting here listening to a tour deforce. what a wonderful speech. clearly from the heart. for those, mr. president -- the presiding officer and i are recovering governors. the senator's father was a recovering governor at one time. actually, one of the smartest things he ever did, he pointed his daughter to serve where there was a vacation in the senate, he -- there was a

vacancy in the senate, he pointed to lisa to serve in that vacancy. two years later, tony knowles who was a governor of alaska ran against him. tony is one of my greatest friends. i thought my god, this is a hard choice. and it was a hard choice for the folks in alaska to make as well. lisa was elected to the senate. and has served with distinction. when she ran for reelection as a republican, i think, was defeated in a primary, and then turned around and ran in a write-in campaign that i will never forget and i'm sure she won't either. in the write-in campaign, one of the cleverest political maneuvers i have ever seen, murkowski is not an easy name to write in. not everybody in alaska, even though it's a famous name, knew how to write it, murkowski. and my recollection, mr. president, the murkowski

committee campaign folks were smart enough to distribute fliers and messages throughout the state that had a picture of -- a drawing cartoon of a cow on skis with a bubble coming out of the cow's mouth with the word mur. murkowski. we talked a lot, madam president, about the bridges. and when i was in college and a midshipman, and driving to my parents' house in florida with a close friend and we drove across a bridge across the ohio river. i want to say -- actually, i think the date was 1967. december 15, 1967, we were on our way to my parents from

florida, and the next day the bridge we had gone across had collapsed into the ohio river between point pleasant, west virginia, and ka canougya, ohio. 46 people died. and whenever we speak about the need to address our poor condition responsibilities our bridges, i -- condition -- i think responsibilities that. we have gone through some troubled waters here in the capitol and the senate and our country in the recent months, weeks, years, and it's good to have a bridge over troubled waters like you that carries through. i want to thank you for your

great work in so many ways but also with respect to the gang responsibilities 22 -- of22 and you make your family and all responsibilities us proud. i've -- his remarks. and i -- i don't know if the gentleman from louisiana is here to speak shortly or not, but we look forward to whatever he has to say. while we're waiting for senator portman to arrive, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that heather dean, a fellow with the senate committee on environment and public works be given floor privileges for the duration of the 117th congress. the presiding officer: w -- without objection.

mr. carper: thank you, madam president. we have been joined by the senator from ohio, and i had a great conversation with him in my hideaway and grateful to him with his leadership through troubled waters. it would be another one of those bridges over troubled waters. i am happy to yield the floor to senator portman. mr. portman: chairman carper, thank you. thank you for managing this important legislation and the time you put into it. i asked my team how much of this underlying legislation we're talking about on the floor was already written, in other words, what did senator capito, senator carper and others on the e.p.w. committee already write with the surface transportation reauthorization bill that we're picking up in this legislation

and moving forward to ensure that it gets reauthorized, certainly before september 30, and we hope far before that, and it's about half of the pages of the bill is language that was written through the committee process here. now, some may be happy to hear that, some may be unhappy to hear that, but that's the truth. it made our job easier because a lot of the hard work was done. in the case of the legislation that senator carper and senator capito shepherded through their committee with the highways and bridges, it was a 20-0 vote on the committee, unanimous. we thought it was appropriate for us to not tell them how to do their job but to help them by picking up that legislation and as they have improved that legislation, their underlying authorization legislation is included in the package. i appreciate senators carper and

capito working with us on that. we appreciate them working on it because we need i ask unanimous consent. we have -- i ask unanimous consent needs. without their involvement, 20-0, out of the committee, we wouldn't be where we are today. i know that is, again, not understood by everybody, but that's a fact. and our nation's infrastructure does need the help and the infrastructure and jobs act before us right now is an unprecedented investment. it's historic. but it's that because an historic investment is needed. it's important to note that we did so without raising taxes on the american people or causing further inflation in an already heated economy. i heard some of my colleagues on my side of the aisle say, gosh, i'd like to support you, but i'm worried about the spending. this is what economists would

call supply-side spending. this is spending for capital assets that could last 30, 40, 50 or 70 years. think about a bridge or a big water infrastructure spending. it's a different kind of spending. it's not going to be spent over the next year. in fact, very little if any will be spent in the next year, but it will be spent over time, over five, ten years for these kinds of projects. that's the kind of money that goes into building infrastructure and building jobs, again, on the supply side, it's not stimulating the economy in that way. it's growing the economy long term. most economists who have looked at this, including economists like doug hozikin, who used to be here at c.b.o. or an economist like michael strain at brooks institute have said this

is counter inflationary kind of suspension and that's important. i will say that this is needed because we are falling behind as a country and every state has its own needs here. i will tell you what my needs are in the state of ohio which is that we make a lot of stuff so our factory workers who make tanks and make cars and make washing machines, we want to be sure that our infrastructure works to be sure that it gets to market. sometimes it's in the united states or sometimes it's overseas. we have a lot of farmers in ohio, we plant crops. we want to make sure that those crops can get to the elevators, that the grain can get out. we have a lot of people who live in ohio and live in cities an commute. and so the mom who looks at her commute and says, why do i get

caught in rush hour and have to spend time in the car instead of spending time with my kids, wouldn't it be great to improve the highways and bridges to improve the time that someone is stuck in a car. this is about helping our country at a time when we need it. there is probably no better example of that than broadband. think about the child in appalachia, ohio, who has no wi-fi service, none -- i'm not talking about no wi-fi, i'm talking about no which wi-fi. i look at my colleague from west virginia and think of the issues they have. we are talking about broadband in the rural community and access in the more urban and su suburban communities. that is important because that child now can do the schoolwork at home and during the pandemic, of course, this has been a huge issue but it's an issue every day. rather than having to drive with

her mom to the local library, which some girl might have to do in appalachia to find a wi-fi signal, she can get it at home because of what we provided in here. all of this is in this, it's all part of this. it's important. the american society of civil engineers has given our nation a report card every year. our report card night now is a c-minus. we get a c-minus. now, i did get a couple of c's in high school and college so i don't think c's are always terrible, but i don't want our infrastructure to get a c, much less a c-minus. they estimate somewhere in america there is a water break every two minutes. water infrastructure is part of this. they also estimate that our public roads are in poor or mediocre condition. this hasn't improved in years. we're now listed 13th in the

world by the world economic forum. they look at countries and say where do you rank? the u.s. is right up there. the u.s. is on top of competitiveness but not on infrastructure. on infrastructure it drives us down because, frankly, we haven't invested as other countries have. the number people use is that china spends four times more than we do as a percent on their infrastructure. i think it's actually higher than that from the numbers i have seen. let's say it is four times more. china gets it. they know it is important for economic growth. i talked about how it makes the economy more efficient and therefore more productive and therefore you have more tax revenue generated. they get that. we've allowed our infrastructure to get to the point where we are not competitive as a country, and not just developed countries either. we cut back funding over the years and so it is no problem that this has happened.

the aspen group has estimate through 2019, the economic and infrastructure hit the lowest point since 1957. and this lack of investment has real impact. historian henry patroski said that the delays by traffic on -- congestion cost us $20 million a year. i talked about the mom not able to be with her kids because she is spending time in the car, that is important too. there is an estimate that there is a total infrastructure gap of more than $2 trillion that we need to address by 2025 otherwise we could lose nearly $4 trillion in g.d.p., economic growth that we otherwise would have produced as a country. those are big numbers. these are the engineers that say we have a gap of $2 trillion we need to address by 2025, ours is

at historic levels. some would say it may not be enough. you will hear more this week as all of these different places where the infrastructure investments are made. others would say we need to do even more. you can see there is a need for renewed infrastructure. let me give you a really specific example and it is one reason i'm interested in this project, honestly. gosh, for 25 years now we've been talking about fixing our bridge in cincinnati, ohio. it's called the fence bence bridge where i-75 and i-71 comes together. it's a huge economic issue for us in greater cincinnati and there's congestion there every day. it's a bottleneck. the bridge is busy. in fact, it's carrying twice the number of cars that it was built

to carry already. there are no shoulders on it anymore because they have tried to expand the lanes as much as they can. we recently had two trucks crash there partly because there is no shoulder there and it took the bridge out for a couple of months, and it's -- it was a huge economic impact. this bridge, again for 25 years, people said, we have to replace this bridge. it's not safe, it's not big enough. it doesn't connect 71 and 75 in the way that it should for our commercial activities. it's a bridge that has been deemed by the u.s. department of transportation as functionally obsolete. that sounds pretty dramatic, functionally obsolete. unfortunately, again, these accidents continue to happen because it's not safe. you have 1 60,000 vehicles on it, it needs to be fixed but

it's really expensive and the local communities, the states just simply can't do it alone. there are critical pieces of infrastructure like that bridge in states all over our country, from roads to railroads that all need upgrades to stay competitive in this global economy. it's no surprise that infrastructure is where the american people really do want action. they get it on this one. they want us to come together as republicans and democrats and fix this problem. there was a recent poll by cnbc saying that 67% of americans think it is important to replace crumbling roads and bridges. there was a very recent poll saying, again, this is a cbs poll that 87% of americans support repairing our roads and bridges. 87% of people don't agree on anything but they do agree on

this which is let's fix our infrastructure. let's do what presidents in modern times have all said we need to do. president bush, president obama, president biden. president trump is a developer, a builder, he understood the need for infrastructure investment, but, frankly, congress didn't work with him to get that done. there were also issues about how that was to be paid for. but i commend president trump for raising that issue. he ought to be given some credit because we might not be talking about it if he hadn't continued to say we need to invest big time in infrastructure. then president biden and his campaign said the same thing. and when he took office, he said the same thing. we need to do an infrastructure plan. his original plan wasn't one that republicans could support because it had huge tax increases in it and it had a lot of infrastructure that wasn't core infrastructure. and that's why we came together

as a bipartisan group. senator capito is here. she worked with the white house on this to try to come up with a way to move forward. and again, that helped create the foundation for what we've done here but the point is republican and democrat alike over the years have said the same thing which is it's time. let's fix this infrastructure. finally we're giving the infrastructure the help it needs and deserves and giving the american people more importantly the infrastructure that they want. and it's a good investment. 120 -- one 2014 report found you can generate a return one dollar in, three dollars out. that explains why president trump put forward the $1.35 trillion panel -- $1.5 trillion package. why president biden put together a package. why democrats and republicans alike appeared on capitol hill talked about infrastructure for

years. american workers need tbrawrkt. they -- infrastructure. they don't need new taxes. that's why in this proposal again we say let's take the taxes out. let's pull the core infrastructure out so it's more focused on what's really needed and let's do it on a bipartisan basis. and that's what we do in this proposal. the pro-growth policies put in place by congress through the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017 was very good for our economy in every respect. wages went up. lowest poverty rate since we started keeping track of it in the 1950's. a lot of very good things. unemployment at historic lows for many groups, including blacks, hispanics. overall the 50-year low in unemployment. we got to be sure we're not raising taxes now because we went into this pandemic with a strong economy. we've got to come out of it with a strong economy. but infrastructure is something that we should do without raising taxes. there was a lot of discussion

after the -- president biden talked about infrastructure as to whether it could be partisan or bipartisan. and there was some people saying let's put it in what's called reconciliation where you don't need a single republican vote. i applaud president biden and republicans and democrats in this chamber for saying you know what? this is one where we ought to be able to get together. if you can't get together in a bipartisan basis on infrastructure, where can you? so that's why we were able to figure out a way again without raising taxes, focusing on core infrastructure to ensure that the critical infrastructure we rely on every day, our roads, our bridge, our railways, our electrical grids, our water supplies, our broadband and more will get fixed. 87% of the american people are looking to us to do that. it's no wonder. go home. talk to the people you represent in your state and they'll tell you this is one where we come

together. we need to deal with the infrastructure challenges we face and the digital divide that is out there. what this does not include is a grab bag of social spending priorities that the democrats want to include in the other bill they're talking about, which is the $3.5 trillion spending proposal they unveiled earlier this month. and that's an important point that my colleagues should not miss. the president has said that they -- $3.5 trillion package, the so-called reconciliation package, will not include more core infrastructure funding. in other words, the president has said i propose $2.65 trillion. the bipartisan group said it's going to be $a 550 billion. i'm not now going to put the additional amount i want into reconciliation. simply put, republicans and democrats alike coming together to focus on the core part of this without taxes has ensured

that a lot more is not going to be spent both on core infrastructure and on so-called social infrastructure with huge tax increases in another package. so this is the best thing for the american economy by far to have a bipartisan proposal. the president has said that we're not going to double dip. in other words, infrastructure won't be in the next package. he said that privately. he said that publicly. and i believe he'll keep his word on that. certainly those of us who are involved in this will ensure that that's not part of the agreement that is violated. so we're seeing these studies come out that show that this is the right approach for the economy. we talked about the university of pennsylvania business proposal. it says our proposal will actually increase the economy, raise wages for workers, and actually lower our national debt over the longer term again

because of the feedback loop we talked about earlier. makes the economy more efficient, more productive, grows the economy, more revenue would be coming into the economy. again, we do so without raising taxes. a democratic economist larry summers and many on the republican side of the aisle had been warning for months about inflation. again as i said earlier, this is counterinflationary. the bottom line is the infrastructure investment and jobs act will provide an historic investment in hard infrastructure with input from a bipartisan group of senators while avoiding the tax hikes and the reckless spending proposed by the biden ■administration and importantly for the sake of future bipartisan here in congress, this is an infrastructure plan that allows us to avoid the repeat of the covid-19 $1.9 trillion spending bill that passed under the partisan process called reconciliation. it demonstrates to the american people that in fact we can figure out how to work together to get big things done. president biden said he wanted

to work in a bipartisan way. well, this is a great example of it. it's a genuine effort on behalf of republicans and democrats to find common ground and move our country forward. i'm committed to working with my colleagues here in the senate to see this legislation through to the end. we've come a long way. and i believe we're close to achieving a historic victory for the american people. i encourage all my colleagues to join us in supporting this infrastructure investment and jobs act so that we can truly make an important bipartisan investment in the next generations of americans. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. i am really going on the record opposing president biden's decision to abruptly withdraw troops from afghanistan and i

oppose it for the same reasons many of the world's most respected military officials oppose it. we knew our allies would suffer. the taliban have burned their way through afghanistan and staked a claim on much of the territory that we have now abandoned. we created a void and the taliban walked right on in. and last week we watched as another of our adversaries planted their own flag in afghanistan. on wednesday the chinese ministry of foreign affairs tweeted this picture from a meeting between chinese communist party officials and the taliban. that is correct. wednesday of last week. they even went so far as to say they're hopeful that the taliban will embrace a peaceful and more

inclusive approach to governance. it was a nice piece of performance art from a government recently accused of genocide, but this is what the ccp does best. fill the void, throw up a diplomatic facade, and seize as much power as they possibly can seize as quickly as they can do it. back home in tennessee we have felt the ripple effects of beijing's creeping dominance. you know, when most people think of a foreign threat, they think of an army or a spy ring, but what we need to understand is that these threats are much more subtle. if you don't know what you're looking for, you'll end up missing it. back in the mid-1990's when i was the executive director for the tennessee film, entertainment, and music commission, we were already fighting a losing battle against

chinese intellectual property theft. now this might not seem like a matter of national security but for the song writers and producers and creators who fell victim to it, it was a matter of economic security. this theft made them vulnerable. it made multiple industries vulnerable in our state, including the auto industry, auto parts, aviation, water sports. they all started to feel the effects of a dishonest chinese communist party. and, therefore, it made our country's economy vulnerable. the same goes for those plague whac-a-mole with the pirates and counterfeiters selling stolen or outright fake merchandise. it's a serious vulnerability.

sometimes those vulnerabilities are more obvious, however. for example, when the novel coronavirus sent us into lock young, we were finally able to draw attention to how much control beijing has over health care in america. they have a stranglehold on our supply chains for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medical supplies. i introduced the s sam-c act wih senator menendez. it would protect the supply chains and bring production back to the u.s. this threat didn't spontaneously evolve. it's the result of a hundred seemingly small vulnerabilities that our adversaries in beijing have found a way to exploit. how did it happen? well, it has a lot to do with their slow takeover of international organizations.

namely, the united nations. since 1971 the chinese communist party has exploited hopes that membership in the u.n. would force them to behave like a normal country. but the reality of the situation is that chinese diplomats control four out of 15 specialized u.n. agencies and many other subsidiary offices. even more importantly, the c.c.p. is flooding the u.n. with lower-level staff which means they have strength in numbers that we do not have. they've seized far too much power for comfort. since 2007, chinese diplomats have led the u.n. department of economic and social affairs, which means they've also controlled the direction of the u.n.'s development programs.

by 2015 they had gained enough influence to make developments anonymous with belt and road initiative projects which as we all know are debt trap schemes for beijing's leveraging against struggling nations. this is a debt trap scheme. in 2014 china placed a diplomat at the top of the international telecommunications union. since then the i.t.u. has more or less been beijing's mouth piece. they promote chinese companies, chinese telecom standards and of course support beijing's attempts to monopolize communications infrastructure in countries stuck in debt traps. it's all connected. since their admission to the u.n., the c.c.p. has practically

achieved immunity from accountability for human rights violations. the n.g.o. china has used for years to whitewash their barbaric treatment of tibetans is now a u.n. accredited organization. in 2018 when the u.s. withdrew from iew necessary company -- from unesco who was waiting in the wings to become the largest contributor to global education? you're right, it was china. they've used their stranglehold on the department of economic and social affairs to officially silence the weaker muslims of xinjiang. they used their status as members of the human rights council as cover for horrendous human rights violations in tibet, in mongolia, taiwan, hong kong, and on the mainland.

in 2019 we confirmed whistle-blower testimony that revealed the office of the high commissioner for human rights sent the names of activists critical of the chinese communist party straight to beijing. and last year we watched the world health organization praised beijing for lying to the world about the severity of the disease that would eventually cause a deadly global pandemic. madam president, we're in damage control mode. by the end of 2021, the u.n. will hold nine elections for heads of specialized agencies and five for major funds or programs. we control exactly none of these positions. our task is twofold. first, we must fill these voids.

we don't have a choice. but we must also inject accountability by holding ourselves accountable for the integrity of our own relations with the u.n. and foreign countries. last week i introduced the u.n. transparency and accountability act, which will strengthen america's influence as a key u.n. member nation and expose the threat adversarial countries posed to international organizations. my colleague, congressman michael mccaul from texas, has companion legislation ready to go in the house, and there is no sane reason why we shouldn't see these bills come up for a vote sooner rather than later. we're going to find out exactly who these bad actors are. we're going to flood the u.n. with americans to stop them. and we're going to account for

every single penny we contribute to u.n. projects. and then we're going to make the reports on all that spending available to the american taxpayer, who is footing bill. no more hiding. the bottom line is that we can't win this war without brute force. there is no weapon that can neatly cut the strings beijing is pulling. ceding freedom has consequences. the ripple effect created in geneva and brussels and new york and washington can and will destroy the lives of people half a world away. as effective as diplomacy can be, we are alone in this one. we are responsible for safeguarding our freedom. as president reagan once said, freedom is always one generation away from extinction.

it has to be fought for and defended by each generation. there's no kicking the can down the road. once it's gone, it is gone. there's no better voice for human rights than the united states, and if we do not speak up, we give every other nation on the planet an excuse to stay silent also. no one will come to our rescue if our supply chains are compromised. no one will come to the rescue of tennessee innovators and companies if their supply lines are compromised by the communist chinese. and no one else is going to make sure our children and grandchildren don't fall into one of beijing's debt traps. perhaps we should keep that in mind this week as we take up all

2,7 00-plus pages of the infrastructure panel. if ever there was a time for restraint. this is it. the threat is staring us in the face and the i fear that my democratic colleagues are missing the threat. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: thank you, madam president. you know, when i go home back to alabama, i usually ask the people what's most important to you? every day, what's most important to you? and usually there is a consensus of three things -- a good job, schools for their kids, and safe neighborhoods for their families. that's always what they talk

about. you know, the fulfillment of these basic aspirations is the foundation of the quality of life. the foundation of the american dream. in my relatively short time up here, i've noticed people in this building often lose sight of those three basic items. we waste time bickering over things that at the end of the day don't much matter in the grand scheme of things. we engage in bitter partisan commentary all in the hopes of scoring political points. folks back home can't relate to this because they don't have the luxury to waste time on cheap talk. we're witnessing a nationwide surge in crime as we speak. in the last year, homicides have risen upwards of 30%. this is unprecedented and double

the previous largest increase of 13% since 1968. there always is more than one factor to consider when analyzing crime trends, but in the effect of some democrats' antipolice rhetoric has been perfectly clear. just take a look at what's happening across our country as we speak. for last year, we've heard some democrats at every level talk about wanting to defund the police, take money away from them. we've got too many of them. in many cities, they control democrats succeeding, they've been successful. they've told police to stop enforcing certain laws. i've heard democrats say that they want to replace cops with

social workers. you know, while i understand the well-intentioned entire to address the root cause of crime, instead of just focusing on the fallout, leaving our police underfunded and ill-equipped is not the solution. if someone is attempting to break into my house, i'm not calling a social worker to come perform an evaluation, to develop a treatment for the assailant. i'm not doing that. too often we've seen elected officials take the side of radicals burning property, burning small businesses, over the men and women who wear the badge and have sworn to preserve and protect our communities. and now we're seeing the consequences all across the country. as one report notes, in new york

city, murders have increased 47% since 2020. tickets and routine arrests dropped by 90%, but requests for police intervention went up by 50%. but the police won't go. they're not wanted. murders in los angeles this year are up 32%, and shooting is up 59%. but arrests in los angeles have dropped 37% since 2020 and are down even more this year. in chicago, murders are up 33% this year. last weekend alone, 12 people shot and killed, 63 more shot. the latest in a string of deadly weekends this summer. and car jackings in the city have tripled since last year. why would you buy a car in

chicago? it's going to get stolen. makes no sense. in minneapolis, murders are up 69%. turns out that when protesters, activists, mainstream media and elected officials told cops they're not wanted, it's not just the officers who heard them. criminals also were listening, and the american people are paying the price. also, the defund rhetoric from the left is having a severely negative effect on police morale -- all-time low. some officers say, according to an nbc survey, 200 police departments, officer retirements are up 45% and resignations are up 18% this year. why would anybody get up and put a uniform on this the morning, put a badge on their chest and a

gun on their side and go to work in this climate of crime? we have to take our hat off to the men and women that are actually doing this and doing the best job they can. some police chiefs have had enough. chicago police superintendent said their court systems continued to release the violent criminals in their jails. quote, making us all less safe. the district of columbia police, right here in our hometown, said, quote, we cannot continue to coddle violent criminals. amen. but the ugly truth is, there is a deliberate attempt to coddle these violent criminals, and it's bankrolled by the most radical fringe in the democratic party. district attorneys are the local public officials who determine whether and how the government will prosecute criminals from

petty theft to violent crime. district attorneys in the last couple of years there is a big movement to elect ultra radical liberal district attorneys in big cities across the country. they've succeeded in philadelphia, san francisco, boston, and just right across the river in fairfax county, virginia. these rogue prosecutors -- and they are rogue -- are refusing to prosecute all sorts of crimes like theft, disorderly conduct, and trespassing. well, what's their job? it's to prosecute, but not these prosecutors. this isn't just opposing the men and women who wear the badge. these radical leftists are posing the very idea of enforcing the law. the prosecutor's job is to enforce the laws that are written, not rewrite the laws in

the book. but these d.a.'s are choosing to follow the law as they see fit. they know better than anybody else, ignoring what the people's representatives have passed. in san francisco, district attorney chessa bowen said his office wouldn't prosecute theft under $950. the result has been people robbing stores in broad daylight. we've all seen it on tv, going in the door and just grabbing all you can get. and not running out the door but walking out the door. if the cops are called, they don't show up. they know they're not going to do anything about these. these dis a's -- these d.a.'s are ignoring what the people's representatives have passed. in san francisco, district

attorney chessa bowen said his office wouldn't prosecute theft under $950. the result has been people robbing stores in broad daylight every day. if the cops are called again, they won't show up. but probably the worst of all is in boston. rachel rawlins, rachel rawlins, directed doe in boston in 2018, a list of crimes in her office would by default move to dismiss when it came to court. we're not going to prosecute these. trespassing, shoplifting, theft under $250, disorderly conduct, drug possession with intent to distribute, malicious destruction of property, breaking and entering, so long as the defendant was trying to sleep or escape the cold,

resisting arrest -- and that's not even the entire list. what do they need a d.a. for? so a violent felon could steal $200 worth of goods, have large amounts of drugs, break into someone's home, resist arrest, and the d.a.'s office would not even bother to prosecute these crimes. makes a lot of sense to me. if all that sounds crazy to you, you're right. but these are the actual policies and the real-world effects. and now rawlins, this same district attorney in boston that decided she's going to just take a vacation instead of being a district attorney and not try to convict anybody, this ms. rawlins have been appointed by president biden to be the u.s. attorney for massachusetts. he's giving the person who decriminalized resisting arrested and all -- resist

something arrest and all these other laws. i wonder what other crimes she'll decide aren't worth processing? there is surely somebody in boston that can do the job. and yet president biden is the only one saying republicans are lying. he said that just a couple weeks ago about democrats wanting to defund the police. he said it's the republicans. i'll tell you what's also not helping to make our neighborhoods safer -- the growing crisis at our southern border. absolute shame, and the biden administration completely, completely lacks the urgency to fix it, and it's getting worse every day. i guess nobody cares. we've already surpassed one million illegal immigrants since president biden was inaugurated.

and remember, this data is looking at the illegal immigrants and the drugs that the customs and border patrol catches. we don't know how many have slipped by or how many pounds of dope have slipped by. we just know the ones that we've caught. president biden is only making matters worse, folks. as our colleagues on the homeland security governmental affairs committee found, the biden administration is spending $2 billion to not build a wall. we're paying $2 billion. the taxpayers in this country are paying $2 billion to not build a wall. that's right. that's $3 million every day of your taxpayer money wasted just to not build something that would help fix this crisis. the bare minimum we should expect to happen at the border would be to make sure illegal immigrants we do not apprehend

have a court date so a judge can review their asylum claim. i mean that's common sense. but according to a recent report, 50,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the united states in the last few months without a court date, yet 13% of those have bothered to show up. 13%. we're going to trust them to come over here and just do it on their own. that's not going to happen. at best, this hurts those who come into this country actually looking to plead their asylum case. at worst, it's giving free rein for people to violate the law. at best, this hurts those who come to this country actually looking to plead their asylum case. at worst it's giving free rein. congress needs to pass my bill

s. 107 that would require the d.h.s. to provide notice to appear. it just makes common sense. but as we've seen, too many folks in charge don't have any common sense when it doms enforcing the law. everybody can see violent crime rising in big cities. they can see the biden administration growing a blind eye to a growing catastrophe on the southern border. the american people are right to question, they're right to question president biden and the democrats' commitment to the rule of law. to question the commitment to keeping our cities and neighborhoods safe. i'm painting a pretty big picture here but you've got to call it as you see it, but there are things we in the senate can do to make things better. we can do things here, right here in this room to make things better. it starts with fully, everybody fully supporting our law enforcement, because if we

don't, one day we're going to regret it. we need to improve morale and recruit the best and brightest in our police forces to keep our communities safe. we should also empower all law enforcement to address the negative effect at our border crossing. this is the local and state police. the empowering law sphermt act that i presented -- the empowering law enforcement act that i presented would give them the power to overtake i.c.e. my bill would grant this and give them the authority to investigate and identify which we at this moment don't have. if the biden administration won't enforce the law, let's give local and state law enforcement the opportunity to do it. folks, wanting safe communities is something every american wants and deserves. we elect public officials, we pay taxes, and trust our governments to ensure safety for the greatest number of people

possible. it's pretty much impossible to have good jobs and good schools if you don't have safe neighborhoods. and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. if the people don't feel safe, their government and we as government officials have failed to perform its most basic function. failure of this is not an option. so to reverse this crime and this rise in crime, let's support the very people who put their lives on the line every day. i certainly do, and i encourage the president and members of this body to support every member of our law enforcement. madam president, i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: we are not in quorum call. mr. cardin: madam president, i rise in support of the legislation that is before us, the bipartisan infrastructure package. i applaud all those who worked so hard so that we could have this legislation before us. it is desperately needed. when we look at the status of our infrastructure today, the aged systems that we have across our nation, in maryland we have some infrastructure that dates back over a century and a half ago. we need a generational investment to modernize our

infrastructure, and the legislation before us does exactly that. it will make the united states more competitive and create a lot of good-paying jobs. it will deal with the growing backlog of infrastructure projects that we have in each one of our states. i applaud the work that brought us to this point. i particularly am pleased that the legislation incorporates the work done by the environment and public works committee as it relates to transportation infrastructure and water infrastructure. i particularly want to acknowledge the leadership of our committee, senator carper and capito. i was proud to be the chair of the subcommittee on infrastructure working with senator cramer and senator duckworth contributed greatly, particularly to the water infrastructure. i also want to applaud the leadership of president biden. it is his leadership time is --p

brought us to this moment. he found a way to move forward on modernizing infrastructure. let me first if i might talk a little bit about the transportation parts of this bill i am particularly pleased about. clearly we see a significant increase in our investments in roads, bridges, transit systems, rail, airports, ports, and waterways. we can talk about some of the specifics, and i'm going to do that. but first i want to applaud the efforts that we've made to move forward in new directions. this bill for the first time in a major reauthorization of our surface transportation, acknowledges the realities of climate change. we know what is happening in our communities. the increase in the amount of flooding, droughts, wildfires and extreme weather events are frightening to all of us. in my state of maryland, i can point to one community, ellicott city, who has seen two 100-year floods in