mica: mr. speaker, i yield myself 30 second and then two minutes i'd like to yield to the chair of the highway subcommittee. mr. speaker, my colleagues, let's just deal with the facts, and i'd ask unanimous consent that this chart or the information therein be included in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mica: the fact is that the democrats had six amendments, one month, 2.5 months, nine months, two months, when they controlled the house of representatives, the senate, by huge majority and the white house. they couldn't even get it to committee. they could not get it to committee. these are the facts. i yield now to -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for two minutes. mr. duncan: i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. let me just say this, chairman mica has performed great leadership of the transportation and infrastructure committee and tried in every way possible to work with everybody he possibly could. his p

mica: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 4281. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? mr. mica: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 600, i call up the bill h.r. 4281 to provide an extension of federal aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out of a highway trust fund fending enactment of a multiyear law re-authorizing such programs and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4281, a bill to provide an extension of federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funding out of the highway trust fund pending enactment of a multiyear law re-authorizing such program. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida,

mica: mr. speaker, i also ask unanimous consent that the exchange of letters between the committee on transportation and infrastructure and the committee on ways and means be included in the congressional record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mica: thank you. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mica: thank you. my colleagues, mr. speaker, this is a 60-day extension that has been agreed to by our leadership and negotiated with the other side of the aisle. i believe it will ensure the surface transportation programs at the department of transportation will continue to function and that we can continue programs across the country, ensure our men and women stay in jobs at such a difficult time with our economy , again, needing some reliability and transportation programs from the federal level. with that i urge a yes vote on h.r. 4239 as amended, and i reserve the balance of my tim

to say that john mica has been pulled from the bill is a bit of an overstatement. it isn't entirely inaccurate to say that john boehner is looking to find whoever he can and bill schuster is a very good person to go and get the votes that he needs from the freshman members of congress. >> let's look over to the senate for a second. a two-year reauthorization bill. what can you tell us about the status there? >> well, it's going in a long, slow slug towards passage. they're debating about what the number and type of amendments that can be put on the bill. last i checked, they didn't have a deal on the -- on what those amendments would look like, aides on both sides think they will get one. most of the amendments that republicans are wanting to offer probably won't pass. so it's more a chance for making a political message. so eventually, i think, that they will pass that bill. it is a bipartisan bill. it passed out of the environment public works committee on a unanimous vote. there are some republicans who have a little bit of questions about the actual funding inv

mica: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker and my colleagues, i think it might be time right now, madam speaker, that we call the capitol physician to come to the house floor. i think we should call the capitol physician because there appears to be on the other side a mass case of loss of memory. i think we need to clear up just a few facts in what has been said here. we had the gentlelady from california who happened to be the speaker of the house, as i recall the other side controlled the house by a huge margin, the senate by a significant margin, at one point most of the time i think it was 60 votes where you could do anything, they controlled the white house for those two years. they could have done anything they wanted to do. president obama in fact sent secretary lahood to mr. oberstar and myself, i was the ranking repuican, he was the chair, and cut the knees right out from the democrats and said, he wasn't doing any long-term bill. he was doing an 18-month bill which really sent a death signal to transpor

mica? >> thank you. admiral, that's interesting, your last time salerno and my family sailed from there when they came to the united states and i'll be there on easter with some of them. i love the coast guard. they never come and will bey me. they -- with all the other federal folks earn, they never pick at me. there's just a -- they are wonderful folks to deal with and they're just so -- they do such a great job, i can't say enough about what you do. muster drill thing, you know, right now we're all dealing with anecdotal accounts and we'll hear some from the passengers and i think it's great that we bring them in. this is pretty big ship but they're even bigger ships out there. is the musterll

chairman mica who introduced the bill obviously has a lot at stake here, and he has been told that you know, the senate bill is what the house is going to vote on unless he can get those votes. he's going to be out there pushing a lot to try and get freshmen on board, perhaps get democratic support on board. the mass transit account change that he had proposed orally he has now signaled he's willing to leave the mass transit account intact with the hope of getting more support. of course, that's going to be heavy lift because house democrats including nancy pelosi have already said they do prefer the senate bill as the way forward. >> nathan hurst following the story for cq roll call joining us live tonight here in washington. thanks as always for your time. >> thanks so much. >> the headline this evening from "the wall street journal" website, mitt romney breaking with john mccain on syria. he stopped short today of advocating for military intervention in syria at a news conference earlier in the day making a break from a prominent republican supporter, arizona senator john mccain, th

. >> you can watch this and other programs online at book tv at mica. specifically the idea of utopianism. this is just over an hour. [applause] okay, so we thought rather than let him give a boring speech -- [laughter] we would have a conversation, and you are going to join in on this after i get my shot at him. so marked, first, welcome to the library. >> can you put marlo books out of here? [laughter] >> we sold all the rest. >> thank you very much. >> i will start with, you know, when you wrote liberty and tyrannies sold over a million bucks. what is such a huge success now you've written a mother, and i know you haven't written either because you need money. wife of reason for the. well, you know, you can't put everything in one book and liberty and tyranny was a state of conservatism and non-conservatism, the introduction of it because honestly i felt that the republican party had turned into kind of mush and i thought it was important with what the left was doing in this country to remind people of conservatism to why it's a magnificent and why i

you saw me in mica ban my caban there. >> to get out of your element in order to really have a momentink about where you are going. >> that's right. you have to take a couple of steps back, take that giant leap forward. if you try to leap forward right where you are you don't get the momentum. it is great to take back and have the time for strategy which is so hard to do when your entrepreneur -- you are an entrepreneur and doing things on a day-to-day basis. >> rod, thank you for that package and making us green with envy. >> happy to do it. >> thank you for everything today. >> thanks. >> to learn more about today's shoeshgs ju show, click on our website. you will find all of today's segments plus web exclusive content with more information to help your business grow. become a fan of the show on facebook. we love getting your feedback. followous twitter if you would like. @msn @msnbc/yourbiz. what about the challenges of opening a business 3,000 miles away? >> thought to myself, 3,000 miles away for your second location is exactly what they say you shouldn't do in retail. >> how can

mica request that we have this hearing over the tragedy of the c concorid concorida, that we use this opportunity that the u.s. cruise industries that been very proactive with the coast guard, which we are going look forward to following up on and highlight the reality as ms. brown and mr. cummings amply d but to make sure that we do not have collateral damage with u.s. citizens, with the cruise industry because of our safety record is being so incredible, and that is due to the proactive nature of the coast guard and would sheing -- and working with the industry, we will look forward to the results of the investigation, which as you said, admiral will give us more, but at thpoint -- at this pointi feel comfortable in saying, and not being a lawyer and having tall qualifiers that need to go with this, ever indication is that it was incredibly poor judgment on one individual mariner at best. and at worst, it's much more damning and there's, when you have somebody that exercises extremely poor judgment and lack of judgment, it's a difficult problem to deal with. admiral, we thank you fo

what is happening is thaton micah has been saying for weeks -- is that john mica has been saying for weeks and months he is in -- not in charge of the votes or funding, so to say he's been pulled from the bill is an overstatement but it's not entirely inaccurate to say thatboehner is looking to find whoever he can and bill shuster is a very good person to get the vote he is needs from the freshman members of congress. >> let's look to the senate for a second. much different bill a two-year re-authorization bill. what can you tell us about the status there? >> it's going on a long, slow slug toward passage. they're debating the number and type of amendments that can be put on the bill. last i checked, they didn't have a deal on the -- on what those amendments would look like but aides on both sides say they're getting close and i think they'll get one. most of the amendments that republicans are wanting to offer probably won't pass, so it's more a chance for making a political message. so eventually, i think they'll pass that bill. it's a bipartisan bill. it passed out of the environm

mica: both of which are included in h.r. 7. i'd like to confirm by the gentleman from wisconsin that h.r. 7 is in compliance with the budget resolution. mr. ryan: the gentleman from florida is correct in his observations that h.r. 7, as considered by the house, is in compliance with the fiscal year 2013 budget resolution before us today. and we look forward to the final long-term re-authorization bill. mr. mica: i thank the chairman for his diligence and ongoing efforts to bring much-needed fiscal discipline to federal spending, and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. that was an interesting colloquy, especially given the fact that the senate has passed a bipartisan transportation bill. again, a bill that has very broad support that if we took it up today in the house we could get it passed right now and it would be good for the economy and good for the fact that we have 17% unemployment in the construction indust

mica. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. mica: thank you for yielding. mr. speaker and my colleagues, let's just set the record straight. the other side said this wasn't a bipartisan process. first off, the first hearing was healed in the ranking member's hometown and district in west virginia. we went from sea to shining sea all the way to los angeles to accommodate bicameral, unprecedented, bipartisan hearing in los angeles. again, the comments made here do not reflect reality. in the committee we took 100 democrat amendments and we accepted about 20 of them. in addition to when we drafted the legislation, 60% of the recommendations that the democrats were in the -- in the draft that came before the committee. so this stuff about it not being bipartisan, and then the republicans can't get it done, these are the people that can't get it done. they controled the house. they controlled the senate, they controlled the white house during this entire process. they couldn't even get it to committee. they could not get the bill to

. >> mica to everyone is, don't believe that this can't happen to you, because it can. >> you can quit. for free help call 1-800 quit now. spent my name is roosevelt the always thought that cigarette smoking just messed up your lungs but i never thought that at only 45 would give me a heart attack. i never thought it would stop me from playing basketball with my kids are kind of thought it would give me a scar like this. and i never thought it would change my life forever. spent my tip is do your part of favor and quit now. >> you can quit. for free help visit smoke-free.gov. >> i am married. [inaudible] >> you can quit. for free help call 1-800-quit-now. >> it began with my big toe. that was my first amputation that i had spent buerger's disease, it's a flash of disease brought on by smoking. >> my fingers started to go piece by piece. >> first it was my left leg. after my left leg it was my right leg. so now i am a double amputee, all from smoking spent my tip to everyone is, don't believe that this can't happen to you because it can. >> you can quit. for free help call 1-800-quit-no

you look at washington, on the transportation committee, the speaker of the house had to remove john mica from being involved in the bill because of a revolt on the right within his own party. that has never happened in my recollection ncongressional history. the same thing is a problem here in the presidential race. there is noledder statesman to say, look, it is not your turn. wait four years. >> you know, tony, neither santorrum nor gingrich inclined to quit the race. call them stubborn, egotistical -- >> arguably. >> that's great for mitt romney, isn't it? >> sure. romney has a week or two to really enjoy the fact that newt gingrich and rick santorum both have not resolved their own inter-party fight. newt gingrich claims to have a big night. he won the biggest state, 70 delegates, his home state. in fact, he came in third i. 2-18, so far. >> he came in third in two other southern states and claims to run a southern strategy. that won't hold up. so you are going to have the more conservative, pro-santorum wing of the party really go to newt and try to get him -- >> even though it's go

hi-hats, heels and helping the arts--community aats ppogram partnered wwth baltimore layworks and micaand raafles, door prizzs and acccmmodations, spa treatments and more--there wiil be ssecialldance presentations- jubilee arts instructors and participants--thhse dances find their beeinnings in the &pswing era, aaddare a rich par of the african american tradition and americann iitory --swing performance perrormance for more information on jubilee arts, log on to fox baltimore dot com slash morning. ((breekk4)) ♪ [ camera shutters clicking ] ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] announcing southwest airlines nationwide sale, with flights all over the country starting at only 69 dollars one-way. hurry and book now, only at southwest.com. ♪ hurry and book now, only at southwest.com. ((open)) -3 3 - caroline, ecil county schools schools located south of the c&d canal, dorchester, kent, wicomico, worcester county all two hours late. late.- queen nnes and talbot county re all 90 minutes late. &p3 maps-95at152-83at27--, back to maps-fiber-back to maps say he attacked his oww mother - with a haamer! police

in effect to kill mica to be a panther? and i might kill somebody? i can't be appointed for my boy. i know care. get it as close to it right. you have to kill a way to. he says he got to kill a white car. and you've got to bring in his badge and a gun. i don't care. we get to the panther office and the black panther party, sign on the outside of me, in the back and a sitdown and brothers and sisters have a leather coats in the army fatigue jacket and somehow berets and some of the sisters have their heads wrapped them up front the person who is running a meeting with the information lieutenant and his explaining the panther 10-point program. now, if you've read this was is written october 1966. if you read this document that was written 45 years ago, the thing is that it's brilliant. sadly he could've been written two years ago. we'll talk about that a second because a lot of those points have not been addressed. but you know, the points are things like we want freedom and power to determine our community. we want full employment for people in our community. decent housing, shelter

mica could agree on a bill, which has been my experience in the 31 years i've been here. it's not my experience this year, that hasn't happened. but almost invariabley and i think for the years you've been here you've experienced that as well. let me ask you now with respect to the budget, do you expect the budget to come to the floor you? indicated that and if so would that be wednesday? mr. cantor: mr. speaker, the gentleman is correct. we will be beginning debate on the budget wednesday and likely concluding that debate and vote on thursday. mr. hoyer: normally as you know, we've had alternatives made in order. we of course want to make in order an amendment which will guarantee that medicare will be available to our seniors and that we will not decimate medicaid which we think is appropriate for our seniors and we also want to make sure that we have revenues that can sustain health care for seenos -- seniors, education for kids, help for our communities. will the gentleman be able to tell me whether or not in fact alternatives will be made in order by the rules commit

. >> what are your reasons for favoring using government security officers at airports over john mica's privatization proposals? >> of course we have the project security richmond set up prior to 9/11, and i think tsa was created for the core purpose of preventing another 9/11. and so, philosophically at its core i can see tsa as a u.s. government run the organization with the counterterrorism focus and there are benefits of doing that that have been discussed. what has also been with the issues for me is what is this from a cost perspective that up until this point to have the privatized reports cost more from the u.s. tax payers because they're still paying the cost of the privatized screening and have to follow the same standard operating procedures and the sand particles that we use every other airport and that is one of the reasons we just haven't seen that many airports actually apply. we have 16 currently being run as privatized screening work forces san francisco being the largest. we have to new airports applied in the faa authorization bill which was included. the change in th

chairman mica to that body. use the republicans with criticism to the approach is not democrats only. its premise on members, own republicans. >> to have the votes to defeat the amendment? there's also reports that obama is personally lobbying the democrats. feature request that quick >> the answer is yes. everyone should just calm down and keystone. just take a deep red, folks. half of it is being constructed as we speak. and the other half, there's been a new application filed to get rid of some of the contentious problems that the company knows they have. so the president has not come out saying i oppose. he opposed and the matter being jammed down our throats. so the answer i repeat is yes we will defeat that because that is what we should do. >> is your will to try to help slow down prices? >> the purpose of this bill is to continue the highway program started by president eisenhower. it is, as we've indicated here, everyone is talking about the millions of jobs this will save. we know to do this is extreme

. >>> el actor venezolano se ha visto muy cariÑoso con la actriz y modelo mica kelly. >>> esperamos queue tu hija en este caso mayor no sienta celos?. >>> seguÍ tu recomendaciÓn, incluirla en todos los procesos. campaÑa ne a darle la mamila, ella con su hermana es adoraciÓn y tengo que decir que estuvo resentida conmigo en un punto y comenzÓ a ignorarme un poco mi hija clara por esta situaciÓn. pero a la hermana la quiere, y protege. llora y le pone la mamila. >>> por ejemplo para demostrar que estaba molesta. y que se le alojaba de ti. querÍa que solo yo cargara a siena, si la iba a cargar que solo la cargara yo. que me la pasaran, y agarraba el chupÓn de siena. y tomaba de sus ma miles. y le gustaba que la ak rru cara y arrollara. >>> ¿es normal?. >>> cuando viene el hijo Único o el segundo hijo tratarlo de incorporar de entrada a las actividades del niÑo. y no puede ser a la entrada. entonces, se siente como una persona mayor, que estÁ excluida en el nexo familiar. y la Única persona querae el Ñe sa nexo con ellos es la mamÁ. si me entregas para ayudar a la niÑa, me retiro de ti y bu

mica made the request that we have this hearing over the tragedy with the costa concordia, that we, wet and i think we'll hear additionally, that the u.s. cruise industry has been very proactive with the coast guard, which we will look forward to following up on, and highlight the reality as mr. cummings and ms. brown i think and play dead, but to make sure that we don't have collateral damage with u.s. citizens, with the cruise industry. because of our safety record is being so incredible. and that's do the proactive nature of the coast guard, and working with the industry. we will look forward to the results of the investigation, which as you said, admiral, i think give us more earbud at this point i feel comfortable in saying, not being a lawyer and all the qualifications or qualifiers that need to go with this, every indication is that this was incredibly poor judgment on behalf of one individual mariner, at best. at worst, it is much more damning and when you have somebody that exercise is extremely poor and lack of judgment, it's a very difficult problem to deal with. so admiral,

i thought jim demint wants to take us back to the articles which federation and john mica who opposed mightly the federal festess in 2010 are just not understanding the nature of construction. construction has a critical path. you have to start, you have to end. you have to have all these logistics in line. and if we are going to allow 10,000 bridges to remain substandard, we are going to allow high speed rail never to be built in this country, if we are going to dissolve amtrak, i wonder where we're going to be in the 21st century when we have people thinking like 19th and 18th century people. i understand your trade association is violetly involved. i wish you had been publicly involved earlier. but the failure to pass the senate bill or something close to it means we're at a standstill for the longest time as far as bridge maintenance and postponing the day when we have yet other collapses and closhurs. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that's a very good point. i couldn't have said it better myself. one of the reasons that investment in transportation has such a big economic b

mica: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the ordering of the yeas and nays on the motion that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4239, as amended, be vacated to that end and the question put the question de novo. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the ordering of the yeas and nays from the motion that the house suspend the rules -- the gentleman from maryland is recognized on his reservation. mr. hoyer: i have no intention of objecting, mr. speaker. but simply say we continue to believe on this side of the aisle that we could resolve this issue as we've had this debate over a longer term, give confidence to the markets, give confidence to the states and localities by simply bringing the senate bill to the floor and passing that bill. and with that, mr. speaker, i withdrawal my reservation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman withdraws his objection. is there objection? without objection, the ordering of the yeas and nays on the motion that the house suspend the rules a

mica could agree on a bill, which has been my experience in the 31 years i've been here.t's not my experience this year, that hasn't happened. but almost invariabley and i think for the years you've been here you've experienced that as well. let me ask you now with respect to the budget, do you expect the budget to come to the floor you? indicated that and if so would that be wednesday? mr. cantor: mr. speaker, the gentleman is correct. we will be beginning debate on the budget wednesday and likely concluding that debate and vote on thursday. mr. hoyer: normally as you know, we've had alternatives made in order. we of course want to make in order an amendment which will guarantee that medicare will be available to our seniors and that we will not decimate medicaid which we think is appropriate for our seniors and we also want to make sure that we have revenues that can sustain health care for seenos -- seniors, education for kids, help for our communities. will the gentleman be able to tell me whether or not in fact alternatives will be made in order by the rules committe

. >> what are your reasons for favoring using government secured officers at airports over john mica'sl? >> well of course you know, the private security regiment said that prior to 9/11, and i think tsa was created for the core purpose of preventing another 9/11. and so philosophically, at its core icc essay as a u.s. government run organization with counterterrorism focus. and there are benefits of doing that that have been discussed. what has also been one of the issues for me is from a cost perspective, that up until this point of the privatize airports, its cost more for the u.s. taxpayers because taxpayers are still paying the cost of the screen. they still have to follow the same operating procedures, same protocols that we use it every other airport. and i think that's one of the reasons we just haven't seen that many airports actually apply. we have 16 currently being run as privatized screening workforces, san francisco being the largest. we have had two new airports apply, the faa reauthorization bill which included a change in the way we treat applications, and so we will l

their only steament, h.r. 7, the -- attempt, h.r. 7, the boehner-mica altogether days is, was passedn -- authorization, was passed on february 14. it passed on a party line vote with couple of republicans voting again it. then something happened on the way to the floor. on the way to the floor the republican leadership realized that they didn't have the votes on their side of the aisle to pass it. and what about this bill? well, secretary ray lahood, a former distinguished member of this body, republican from illinois, current transportation secretary, described it as the worst highway bill 's ever seen. he's been in public life for 35 years. the bill was drafted in the dark of night without any underlying, any democratic input. remarkably it removed transit from the highway trust fund. removed the guaranteed federal funding that's been in place, bipartisan basis, for 30 years, removes it. and it couldn't attract understandably a single democratic vote but they found out on the way to the floor they couldn't get enough republican votes to pass it either. now i'm proud to be offering

headlines that the republican maneuvering has done is an embarrassment to speaker boehner, to chairman mica, but it's not just to the republican leadership, it's an enbearsment to the house. i'm sorry -- embarrassment to the house. i'm sorry my republican friends and colleagues can't seem to agree amongst themselves about a path forward. they cannot get 218 votes for any bill, even the speaker's proposal. the good news is they don't have to. there are 435 members of the house if they would work in a bipartisan basis as we have done in the past, we can stop this short-term roulette. we can give the construction industry, local government, people in the private and public sector the certainty they need for not just this construction cycle but the next construction cycle. we can put 10s of thousands tens of thousands of people to work, do what congress needs to do, what congress has done always until this point. i hope the republican leadership before we leave this week will at least allow the bipartisan senate bill to come to the floor , to be voted on. i'm confident that a majority will pass

their only steament, h.r. 7, the -- attempt, h.r. 7, the boehner-mica altogether days is, was passed on -- authorization, was passed on february 14. it passed on a party line vote with couple of republicans voting against it. then something happened on the way to the floor. on the way to the floor the republican leadership realized that they didn't have the votes on their side of the aisle to pass it. and what about this bill? well, secretary ray lahood, a former distinguished member of this body, republican from illinois, current transportation secretary, described it as the worst highway bill he's ever seen. he's been in public life for 35 years. the bill was drafted in the dark of night without any underlying, any democratic input. remarkably it removed transit from the highway trust fund. removed the guaranteed federal funding that's been in place, bipartisan basis, for 30 years, removes it. and it couldn't attract understandably a single democratic vote but they found out on the way to the floor they couldn't get enough republican votes to pass it either. now i'm proud to be off

their only steament, h.r. 7, the -- attempt, h.r. 7, the boehner-mica altogether days is, was passed on -- authorization, was passed on february 14. it passed on a pty line vote with couple of republicans voting against it. then something happened on the way to the floor. on the way to the floor the republican leadership reazed that they didn't have the votes on their side of the aisle to pass it. and what about this bill? well, secretary ray lahood, a former distinguished member of this body, republican from illinois, current transportation secretary, described it as the worst highway bill he's ever seen. he's been in public life for 35 years. the bill was drafted in the dark the bill was drafted in the dark of night without any

today, i couldn't believe it, chairman mica said this bill isn't paid for. when senator baucus and senator thune and others worked across party lines to pay for our bill. it's 100% paid for. and guess what it does. it protects 1.9 million jobs and creates another million. that's what our bill does. so they're pulling this vote. they're pulling this vote today. good. i'm glad they're pulling this vote because they ought to instead pass the bipartisan senate transportation bill. i want to tell you a story about what's actually happening out there in the economy. if we do nothing, 1.9 million jobs are gone. 1.9 million jobs. on march 31. if we do an extension, then you have death by a thousand cuts. a proportion of these jobs are lost, and it keeps getting worse with every extension. so it's the end of these jobs but slow, torturous end of these jobs. i want to show you, madam president, how many unemployed construction workers there are. 1.4 million. why is that, when the unemployment rate is 8.3%, the unemployment rate among construction workers is 17.1%? why

and chairman mica said today, this must be the last extension. fine. it shouldn't even be an extension. they should take up and pass the senate bill. how many bills do we have that have 74 votes in favor? and if senator lautenberg hadn't been at a funeral, it would have been 75. three-quarters of the united states senate came together around this bill. the house is wreaking havoc on the nation. right now you could fill 14 super bowl stadiums with unemployed construction workers. 1.4 million. and why are they doing it? because they don't want to deal in any way with the democrats. senator inhofe and i were so thrilled to work together. i see the senior senator from alaska, who helped us draft our bill. helped us with senator begich. they crossed party lines. we have a great bill. is it perfect? of course not. is it strong? yes. is it paid for? yes. will it protect 1.9 million jobs and create an additional million? yes. that's great news. but the house, you know, has decided the only people in america not to get this is the house of representatives over

coon -- cantor, mica, all of them. they said it's a priority and they do nothing. they are dithering, as the papers have expressed. today they can stop dithering. tomorrow they can get our bill ready for a vote. next week they could pass it, we can go home, we can all celebrate with our businesses and our construction workers and know that we've done something great for the american people. thank you very much, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. franken: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. i'd like to associate myself with the words of the senator from california and commend her for the tremendous work she did on the transportation bill, a bipartisan bill that passed overwhelmingly here in the senate. madam president, i'd like to join many of my colleagues who this week are talking each a little bit about the affordable care act which tomorrow celebrates its second anniversary of being signed into law by the president. even though the law won't be fully implemented until 2014, millions of