But to take the money and buy down the rates. So you had all kinds of odd potential alliancewer a iu3 xrl g ry[8 oe6]l[d34 democratic leadership that wasnt exactly bought in on it either. In the meantime, our good friends over in the house were calling it on my side of the aisle were calling it the boxer bill, which, of course, was really great for me to hear. So we just had all kinds of didnt we, senator inhofe . We had all kinds of trip wires on 9s js j8pd8o important which we all thought was for the states, localities, the people who build and rerepair the roads to have e certainty. So in the end there wasnt really a philosophical prosh here. The question was, how could we pull together these disparate pieces into one mosaic that actually a chance to get somewhere . And i want to say to senator boxer in particular, this has been one of the most exhilarating and satisfying experiences ive had in the time that ive been in the senate. I never would have preducpredid 20someodd years ago that id be having it with barbara boxer. But this shows in my opinion i know senator inhofe agrees this is the senate at its best when people can identify common interests and Work Together to get a positive result for the country. So i just want to say to both these great colleagues how much i appreciate their extraordinary work, particularly senator boxer, because we were just opposites in almost every way, what actual fun it was to get to know you better and to work on this together, and you got a year left. Maybe we can find something else. So congratulations to both of you on an extraordinary accomplishment for the American People. Mr. Inhofe thats great, mr. Leader. Let me do this the presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Inhofe we have a lot of requests for to be heard for speakers. And im going to put myself at the end of the line so that everyone else can get p in there first. And the order is going to be senator boxer i understand she might want to share a little time with the senator from florida then the and then senator lee from utah, senator enzi after that, then whoever else wants to talk. And if nobody else, i will wind it up. But before i turn it over to senator boxer, im going to tell a story because i want to make sure that senator sullivan doesnt have to wait for two hours to hear it. Ten years ago in 2005, we had the last bill of this nature. It was a bill that we passed. I was the author of the thing and i was very proud. That was ten years ago. Thats the last time we did a bill like this. I remember standing here, as im standing heerk the chairman of that committee and wanting to talk about with a a great bill that was, transportation reauthorization bill, and all yoeverall ofa sudden, the alarm. Everybody ran, evacuate, evacuate. I talked for about 15 minutes. It is very eerie when youre standing here, the only one in the United States capitol making a speech with the tv going but no other people around. I started going down and saw a great big guy walking down the steps. I went up to ted kennedy, ted, you better get out of here. This place is going to blow up. He said, well, these old legs dont work like they used to. I put my arm around his waist. Some guy down there had a cam rasm the front page of that the cover of that magazine said, who says that conservatives are not compassionate . Now, with that thats my story. So well go on to senator boxer. Mr. Mcconnell if i may, i completely neglected to mention an extraordinarily important player in all of this, and thats neil chatt. Revmently of my staff chatterly of my staff. I realize there might be a possibility that we could do something together. Neil has done an extraordinary job, enjoyed the confidence of both sides. And allowed us to Work Together in a positive and constructive way. I want to thank neil charterly for the great job he did as well. Mrs. Boxer im hardly ever at a loss for words, as you all know. I mean, you noticed that, right, over the years . I am so touched tonight. I had a terrible tragedy that happened in my state, it happened yesterday, you knoll you a about that. And the emotions of that and then the meigss of this. So i wanted to set aside the emotions of the tragedy and just talk to my friends here. This was the impossible dream what we did. And it was in many ways a very long and winding route to get to this night. People worked together to never thought theyd find that common ground. We found it. And the reason we found it is we were willing to set aside the misperceptions i think we had on so many fronts and recognize that our people needed this really badly. And, as i often say, if you want to buy a house gawnd and you goe bank and i bank says, youve got great credit but i can only give you the credit for six months, youre not going buy the house. Youre 23409 going to build youre not going to build a major road if youre worried about the funding. What we have done is extraordinary. The for the first time in 17 years weve we have a long bill, we have a bill that lasts five years. And i have to say and i didnt think of it. I think the payfor was brilliant, myself, the major payfor. There are others who dont like it. Many people on my side said, you should look at the gas tax. I looked at the gas tax. I agree with the chamber of commerce on the gas tax. But im only one of six people here who would probably vote for t the so when you come up against these barriers, you need to really be creative. And the International Tax reform, you know, leader mcconnell was never going to allow that. I got that message. I still encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work on it. But it didnt work out. So what are we going to do, just fold up our tent and say the general nundz is going to pay for this . We dont have enough in the general fund. We have deficits. We all know that. So what i want to say is, with 16,000 bridges in disrepair, falling down, structurally deficient and 50 of our roads in disrepair, weve got a lot of work to do. And this gives our states the certainty. The relationships that develop between the staffs, im going to withhold my comments on that till later when everybody fishes. Im going to be here because im going to mention every single name on both sides. I just cant thank you enough. They didnt sleep during the thanksgiving break. They worked constantly. But lets face it. This bill was the perils of pauline. Even last night my esteemed leader asked me to do something i could never do in a million years in this bill. And i must have turned so pale, i almost fainted and betinno must have had a heart attack on the spot because we thought maybe we wont have this bill. But he knows me well enough to know what i can do, and that makes for a great working relationship. So i will talk about the details of the bill later. Basically it is a fiveyear bill over the period it is a 20 increase, which is huge for our states. Its road, its transit. There are new programs, freight programs that senator inhofe worked on, Maria Cantwell worked on, exim is in there, yoafersiacontroversial for some. I predict that bill is going give the economy a real boost. I really mean it. Because of the certainty its bringing and because of the fact that mulls of jobs willer created and that always boosts us up. It helps with our deficits and the rest. So i will yield the remainder of my time just two minutes dosh senator nelson with the deepest things to senator mcconnell, senator inhofe, senator thune, senator necessarily son, just a hero, senator brown, all the members of the Conference Committee who signed the conference report. So i would yield the floor this time to senator nelson. Then well go back to senator inhofe. Senator . Mr. Nelson i thank the senator for yielding. Mr. President , im going to say two short paragraphs, but, first, my commendations to the leadership that has already been mentioned by the esteemed majority leader. My commendations to my colleague, our chairman on the commerce committee, senator thune, who has been a pleasure to work with, and my unending comments to the staff, including kim lipski, the staff director for our minority staff on the commerce committee. I just wanted to echo what youve said, because of this bill, were going to provide states and communities with over 300 billion over five years to repair the roads and bridges of this country and greatly improve rail and port projects. And as a result, we are going to create jobs. In my state of florida, this translates to 12 million that can be used for improvements on interstate 95, interstate 75, and the projects such as sun rail and trirail and the street cars in fort lauderdale. This is just a small example and i am so grateful to everyone. Thank you very much. I yield the floor. Mr. Inhofe thank you very much, senator. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Who have with that, well go ahead mr. Inhofe with that, well go ahead with my previous agreement and hear from senator lee, followed by senator enzoo from wyoming. Enzi from wyoming. Mr. Lee i rise in opposition to the highway spending bill before us today and not just the failed substance of the legislation. I rise to oppose the bills irresponsible and unsustainable funding mechanisms and the cynical process that produced it. Were told that this bill fully funds federal highway spending for the next five years and that it wont add a single dime to the federal deficit. The math may add up on paper but does anyone really think the payfors in this bill are honest, responsible ways to fund a government program. Lets look at a few examples. Of the 75 billion used to bail out the trust fund over the next five years. More than 50 billion comes from an accounting gimmick that steals money from the rest of the treasurys general fund. Heres how the shell game works. Normally the Federal Reserve sends the profits from its portfolio assets directly to the u. S. Treasury. These surplus profits are actually one of the major reasons our federal budget deficits have fallen in recent years below where they were a short time ago. However, this bill would siphon off that money and redirect it into the Highway Trust Fund. Just today the Federal Reserve chair, janet yellen, testified before the joint Economic Committee where she commented on this particular provision, on this particular aspect of this bill. She said quote this concerns me. I think financing federal fiscal spending by tapping resources at the Federal Reserve sets bad precedent and impinges on the independence of the val bank. It weak h weakens fiscal discipd i would point out that repurposing the federal reserv reserves Capital Resources doesnt really actually create any more money for the federal government. And thats not the only funding gimmick found in this legislation. It also purports to raise 6. 2 billion in revenue for transportation and Infrastructure Projects by selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum reserve. Now, lets leave aside for a second that the Strategic Petroleum reserve was never intended to be a piggy bank for congressional appropriators. What makes this payfor particularly objectionable is that its authors assume they can get 93 for a barrel of oil when its currently selling for less than 40 per barrel. Only in washington could we come to love a provision like this. Only in washington could we come to accept the provision like that. As somehow acceptable. If were going to start selling federal assets at fantasy prices, prices that do not exist and will not exist in any union force for the foreseeable future, theres absolutely no limit whatsoever to the number of things that we can pretend to pay for. But thats what well be doing, pretending to pay. But as bad as this bills funding schemes are, the cynical process used to secure votes in its favor might well are far more troubling. For instance, this bill adds back 3. 5 billion in crop subsidy spending that we just cut last month in the budget deal. Now, is this really how we do business in the United States senate, mr. President . Reduce spending one month in order to appear fiscally responsible only to reverse course the very next month when we think no ones looking. You dont need to oppose crop subsidies to see that dishonesty and the cynicism of this particular maneuver. Even worse, this bill would never have had a chance of passing the senate were it not for a deal to include the renewal of the Exportimport Bank as part of this legislation. Ive spoken out against the Export Import Bank many times before so theres no need to revisit the mountain of evidence proving that it is one of the most egregious, indefensible cases of crony capitalism in washington, d. C. But it is worth highlighting some of the socalled reforms that exim supporters included in the bill. First theres the new office of ethics created within the expo Exportimport Bank. Presumably this is supposed to help the banks management reduce the rate at which exim employees and beneficiaries are indicted for fraud, bribery and other wrongdoing. Since 2009, there have been 85 such indictments, or about 14 per year. The bill also creates a new position called the chief risk officer and requires the bank to go through an independent audit of its portfolio. Only in washington, mr. President , will you find people who believe that an organizations systemic ethical failings can somehow be overcome by creating a new ethics bureaucracy. Or that hiring a new Risk Management bureaucrat is a suitable replacement for market discipline. Or that giving another multimilliondollar contract to a wellconnected Accounting Firm will somehow substitute for real actual political accountability. None of these bogus reforms will make an ounce of difference. None of them will change the essential purpose of the Exportimport Bank, which is to use taxpayer money to subsidize wealthy, politically connected businesses. Finally, mr. President , it must be stressed that this bill does nothing to fix our fundamentally broken highway financing system. After this legislation is enacted, the Highway Trust Fund will spend more money than the federal gasoline tax brings in. And after this series of fraudulent payfors are exhausted in just five years, well be right back to where weve been for the last decade and that is trying to find enough money for another bailout without attracting too much attention from the American People. And lets not forget that the states are big losers under the status quo system too, under the Current System that weve got. Federal bureaucrats divert at least 25 of state gasoline tax dollars to nonhighway projects, including mass transit, bike paths and other boondoggles like vegetation management, whatever that is. Mr. Inhofe let me just ask a favor and ill give you all the time you want. But you had asked for five minutes. I plan to respond to the things that youre saying that i dont agree with. But if you wouldnt mind, let the others who have come here to speak in the order that we agreed to and then come back to you, would that work . Mr. Lee mr. President , i have less than a page of my remarks that ive prepared left. I ask unanimous consent for permission to have an additional two minutes to complete my remarks. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Lee as i was saying, federal bureaucrats divert at least 25 of state gas tax dollars to nonhighway projects, including mass transit, bike paths and other boondoggles like vegetation management. Federal davidby con pricefixing regulations then artificially inflate Construction Costs by at least 10 . And federal environmental regulations like those issued under the National Environmental policy act, add an average of 6. 1 years in planning delays to any federally funded project. I understand that washington is not ready for a more conservative approach to infrastructure funding, at least not yet. One where states get to keep their transportation dollars and decide how and on what theyll spend those dollars, free from interference by federal regulators. We can have honest disagreements over policy and i know theres more work to do in making the case for conservative transportation reform. But what i refuse to accept is thathe toxic process that produd this bill, the backroom deal, the aboutface on crop subsidies and the Exportimport Bank. The American People deserve better than this and i wont stop fighting to ensure that we will do better than this in the future. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. Inhofe thank you, senator. Senator enzi . Mr. Enzi i want to thank the senator from oklahoma for letting me interrupt this. But we passed a bill earlier that i normally would have gotten to speak after but didnt want to hold people up that had transportation plans so reserved my comments until later. And i appreciate this chance to call it later. I want to congratulate the senator from oklahoma and the senator from california for the significant highway bill that they passed tonight. I know that there was a lot of work that went into that and a lot of good things that will come out of it. It will make a difference for the economy in the united stat states. And as chairman of the budget committee, i know that if we can get the private sect to her increase by just 1 , we bring in 400 billion more revenue without raising taxes. And this will be a significant part to reducing the economy 1 in the private sector. Today we also passed the most comprehensive and farreaching repeal of obamacare that is possible under the reconciliation rules. We expect the house to pass th thank version shortly and soon this repeal will head to the president s desk for the first time in his tenure. Our bill will eliminate more than 1. 2 trillion in Obamacare Tax hikes and save nearly 400 billion over 10 years. Lifting the burdens this law has placed on hardworking families will help move the nation forward from obamacares broken promises to better access for patientcentered health care for each and every american. As i noted earlier, our nation has made Great Strides in improving the quality of life for all americans, but these changes were always, always forged in the spirit of bipartisan compromise and cooperation. We still need Health Care Reform but it has to be done the right way. To have good health care, well have to have ideas from both parties, not just one party. But tonight we made significant progress to pointing out a bunch of the flaws. And there were a lot of people that were involved in that and id like to take this opportunity to thank them. We gave instructions to the finance committee and the health, education, labor and Pensions Committee that they were each to save a billion dollars, so senator hatch and his staff went to work on it, senator alexander and his staff went to work on it and they accomplished that task in conjunction with the house. So i want to thank them for their effort. I want to thank the republican staff of the Senate Budget committee, including my staff director and especially my staff director, eric yulen, but also my deputy staff director, dan kowalski, the parliamentarian, terry gorman, the senior budget analyst, steve robinson, the budget analyst, Greg Deangelo and tom bork, the junior budget analyst Caitlin Voight and chief he will George Everly and assistant counsel george brown. And susan eckerly and elizabeth keys. I also want to thank the people on my personal staff who had to put of this smir projects kind of secondary at times and had to pitch in and help with the budget as well. I also want to express the appreciation to my staff from leader mcconnells office. Leader mcconnell is a tremendous strategist and has opened the process for the United States senate so that great things like the highway bill can be can be done. And thats done by allowing committees to do amendments and then the Committee Bill to come to the floor. And the Committee Bill to have amendments from both sides of the aisle in an open process. And then to go to Conference Committee and have the Conference Committee do their work to make sure that the house and the senate are together. And some of the chief people that worked on that is the chief of staff, sharon saunderstrom, his policy advicer, scott robb, his budget and appropriations policy advisor, john burkes and his policy director, hazen marshall. In addition, our floor and cloakroom staff have been very helpful, led by laura dove and robert duncan. Senator cornyn and his staff did a marvelous job of helping to find out what difficulties there were and what things needed to be corrected. Senator thune did a great job of lining up speakers. And senator barrasso did a great job with his staff in lining up some of the messaging. Thanks are due to the Senate Finance committee, the staff director, chris campbell, the chief Health Counsel and policy director, jay colsa, and the Health Policy advisor, katie simmion, Heath Rutledge and becky shipp. And i want to extend my gratitude to the staff of the health, education, labor and Pensions Committee, senator alexander has done a marvelous job there but his staff including staff director dare cleary, his deputy staff director, lindsey sideman, his senior policy advisor and Health Counsel, liz rowe and Health Policy director mary sumterlipinsky. I also need to thank the former budget staff people who lent their expertise to this, particularly bill hogland. Were in a process that may help with some of the future accounting for projects. Thats to do some budget reform. A lot of people have talked about budget reform. Weve been doing hearings on budget reform and we believe putting together a bill and