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 yea

mr. schumer: let me, before i begin, thank senators carper and capito for managing this bill and doing it in such a fine way and their staffs as well. now, mr. president, it's been a long and winding road but we have persisted and now we have arrived. there were many logs in our path, detours along the way, but the american people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades. in a few moments the senate will pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill dedicating over $1 trillion to strengthen every major category of our country's physical infrastructure. it's been a long time in coming. our economy is number one in the world, but infrastructure ranks number 13. you will find better roads, bridges, airports, broadband in the united arab emirates than in the united states of america. today the senate takes a decades-overdue step to revitalize america's infrastructure and give our workers, our businesses, our economy the tools to succeed in the 21st century. the bill -- the bill will make large and significant differences in both productivity and job creation in

. >> thank you very much senator capito, et cetera doc worth is joining us on my part. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your work as an advocate for environmental justice especially in a functional for communities across the united states. your testimony is a very urgent need to address our infrastructure especially in sanitation and equality. as chairman of that i believe access to clean safe water is a basic human right. it is unacceptable these very vulnerable committees are impacted by poor water quality and access. with takes far song for people to hear about a people to get along. for decades we've turned a blind eye wastewater infrastructure act receiving the funding they need to modernize your drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. i know this amount of funding would be a great start rate this must be a continuing legacy would you agree access to safe reliable drinking water and wastewater is an environmental justice issue? it is an environmental justice issue. and clearly, what we saw we set did a parasite study will be collected fecal, mud, water, soil samples

mr. president, i yield the floor. >> let me ask if i could just to insert one more quick comment -- >> without objection. >> the ranking member, senator capitovery graciously the names of all of her staff. i was here this weekend, she was here this weekend, and there weresh people here working this weekend. environment and prick works, not --ti public works, not justn afthe appropriations committee. folks throughout the building, throughout theho complex, they'e here -- you have parents, you have other obligations. they were here working, and we would be remiss if we didn't o mention that. the other thing i want to say is ranking member, senator capito knows, i'm back and forth on the train a lot of days, much like joe biden used to do. and i, almost every week somebody says to me on a platform either in delaware or here in d.c. waiting -- why can't you, why can't you guys work together? why can't you folks just work ttogether in and i just wish tht they could be here to be here to participate or listen to hear that, actually, we do work together. when the chips are really down, the pandemic, terrible situation, 15, 16, 17 months ago especia

mr. portman: madam president, i appreciate my colleague from ohio. he -- from delaware. he is the chair of a lot of work that pent into this package -- went into this package. he and senator capito from west virginia worked together on a bipartisan basis. and my recollection is in the underlying bill that we pick up in the broader bill passed with a vote of 22-0 out of his committee and that's because they did good work in finding out where there was common ground and, frankly, the american people deserve to have good roads and bridges and infrastructure to drive on, travel on so it's a big part of this bill and i thank him for his work on that. we have now voted twice to proceed to this very important legislation to finally after a lot of years of talking about it make a major improvement to our nation's roads, bridges, railroads and ports, electric infrastructure, grids and more. it is overdue. and i'm delighted to say that twice now we have voted to proceed to final passage. one was a vote of 66-28, the other was a vote of 67-27. and, frankly, there were a couple of people on our side of the aisle who were not able to come vote, one of whom has covid, and in both cases they h

mrs. capito: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. i call up my amendment number 3284 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from west virginia, mrs. capito, proposes amendment numbered 3284. mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. i am a strong supporter of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. this technology allows us to turn carbon dioxide into a valuable product. some anti-fossil fuel keep-it-in-the-ground advocates only support it when it has nothing to do with fossil fuels, and i believe that is a misguided approach. if we're serious about supporting and increasing the number of c.c.u. projects, which i am and many of us are, wind to support projects of all types of facility including on our coal and gas-fired power plants. we also need too support the need of carbon dioxide to produce oil through a process called -- the presiding officer

mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. i have great respect for my colleague from utah, but i am in firm opposition to his amendment. it would completely undo months of bipartisan hard work. the two major bipartisan infrastructure bills that chairman carper and i and the e.p.w. committee passed unanimously would be totally undone here. the bipartisan gang spent months carefully and considerably negotiating this agreement with the white house. all of these meaningful investments that i talked about yesterday would be gone, the new bridge program, gone, supplemental funding for the appalachian system, broadband gone, we have come too far to throw this away. time is of the essence. there is reform for that in this bill as we look at it, let's get it across the finish line so i urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment. thank you. mr. carper: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i too rise in opposition to learnt lee's amendment -- senator lee's amendment. this dismantles the fed

mrs. capito: thank you. mr. president, this week the senate has been considering historic infrastructure legislation. we've seen a lot of positives in this process. 22 eamgdz have -- amendments have been proceed and many of them have been adopted. on thursday we saw the process hit a snag and we have colleagues who sincerely be want to debate their remaining amendments, but we have objections that prevented our amendments from moving forward. in my view, that is unfortunate. i want everybody's voices to be heard. because a number of the amendments would improve this legislation, and we have consensus on both sides. i hope that we have a package that will receive votes before we pass this bill nienl. i supported an amendment that senator cornyn to use previously appropriated covid funding to finance infrastructure projects. when i began negotiating with the white house in april and may, this was one of the things that i put on the table with the president and i know the g-20 has also had this on the table with th

mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. i am in full support of this bipartisan amendment. as the chairman explained, that public-private partnerships under tifia would be backed by the surety bond which would maneant of a contractor default, the contracts could still be completed mr., contractors paid and taxpayer investments paid. i am fully in support. i would like to say that the progress we had today is more than encouraging. we're all, i think, very excited about the prospects of what the improvements that this bill will make to our transportation and energy sectors and just our -- the guts of our country in terms of the physical infrastructure. with that, a i am -- i would yield back. thank you. the presiding officer:ness no further debate, the question is on the amendment 2354. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: the yeas are 97, the nays are zero. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is agreed to. the majority leader.

mrs. capito: i think it shows good progress for all of us. thank you. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from delaware, mr. carper, proposes an amendment number 2180 for mr. barrasso to amendment number 2137. mr. carper: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor today to address the amendment at which we'll be voting in the next 15 or 20 minutes. it's barrasso amendment number 2137. it has to do with building codes and the bill that's on the floor tonight for our discussion and debate, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. there is money in this bill that's being debated today for building codes. and this amendment is quite simple. it is a consumer pro

mrs. capito: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: i ask unanimous consent to address the senate for several minutes on this amendment. i rise in support of this amendment. i am the ranking member of the subcommittee on appropriations for homeland security. the president's budget request included a rescission of $2 billion that we as members of this body put -- enacted it, as the gentleman from wisconsin has clearly illuminated. at the same time, we are having a tremendous problem at our southern border. we all know this. we don't have the july numbers yet. we know the apprehensions will be in excess of over 200,000 in one month. the july numbers also indicate that the number of unaccompanied children is the largest ever encountered in one month. there are currently now over 160,000 miles of walls that we legally funded. when you go to the border, you see thousands of dollars worth of steel slats lying on the ground that were to be constructed until president biden canceled it. you know who will else see that's? human trafficke

mrs. capito: i am in full support of using the 15-minute deadline that we have anyway and actually enforcing this. there's a lot of interest in this bill, as there should be. there are a lot of amendments pending. we want to get as many members in and have their amendments in the queue as we possibly can. if people don't come down and vote and show courtesy, i said we're going to go to punitive measures, i'm not sure voting in the allotted time is is a punitive measure. i'm fully supported of that. mr. carper: i would ask any staff members, let your senators know it is 15 minutes. that's it t -- that's it. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be called up to the substitute and be reported by number -- number one is lee 2279, number two is rosen, 2358, further, that the senate vote in relation to the amendments in the order listed with no amendments in order to the amendments prior to a vote in relation to the amendments, with 60 affirmative votes required for the a

mrs. capito: thank you. thank you, mr. president. i rise in support of this bipartisan amendment and the spirit in which it has been offered. the amendment will designate five different states as the future interstate 14 corridor. the sponsor state that it would be integral for economic development support and support tourism and also provide an important link to our military facilities. i encourage my colleagues to vote yes on the cruz-warnock amendment. mr. carper: can i have the attention of our colleagues? in addition to the points made by the sponsors of this legislation, by the ranking member of the committee, anytime ted cruz and reverend warnock -- i'll ask unanimous consent to address out of order. anytime these two members get together and offer legislation, how can any of us say no? maybe we can get a voice vote, i don't know. we'll see. thanks very much. congratulations. i ask for a voice vote. is is there objection? does the gentleman from texas mind getting a voice vote? mr. cruz: fine, if it's fine procedurally. mr. ca

mrs. capito: i'd like to just add my voice with the chairman of the e.p.w. committee. i think in consideration of everybody's time, we've got four more amendments and maybe more. we could roll through these if we would just be concise with the time. if we don't, we might look for more punitive measures, right, mr. chairman? mr. carper: you never know. we might do some voice votes, if the spirit moves us. that would be good. we yield back. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: madam president, i have an amendment that we're calling up. it is a very straightforward amendment. this deals simply with how we handle e-verify. the e-verify system is very simple and straightforward. it's been used all over the country. it is a nonpartisan issue that we've used for decades now. if verifies whether the people that we're actually hiring in all this purchasing that we're doing, this massive billions of dollars, will actually be -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. lankford: we're putting billions of dollars into our econom