Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, 42 days ago--that is more than 1,000 hours--42 days ago, 74 Senators from this Chamber voted to pass a badly needed, long-term transportation bill. At that time, I joined many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to call on the House to consider the Senate's bill or a similar bipartisan bill that would provide highway and transit programs with level funding for at least 2 years.

While the House has not yet passed a long-term bill, I am pleased that they voted to go to conference with the Senate. That means we are one step closer to finally having legislation in place that would support nearly 2 million jobs--about 6,600 of those in New Hampshire--and a bill that would maintain current funding levels, which would avoid an increase in both the deficit and gas taxes. I urge the House and the Speaker to immediately appoint conferees so we can continue moving forward and finally pass a long-term transportation bill. We cannot wait any longer. Mr. President, 937 days have passed since our last Federal Transportation bill expired. If you are counting, that is 2 years, 6 months, and 27 days.

If the House does not join the Senate and support a reasonable bipartisan transportation bill that is paid for, States and towns will not have the certainty they need from Washington to plan their projects and improve their transportation infrastructure.

According to numerous studies, deteriorating infrastructure--the highways, the railroads, the transit systems, the bridges that knit our economy together--cost businesses more than $100 billion a year in lost productivity. That is because we are not making the investments we need to make. And this is no time to further stall programs that encourage economic growth and create the climate for businesses to succeed.

In New Hampshire, we very directly experience the consequences of this uncertainty. The main artery that runs north and south in New Hampshire, Interstate 93, is congested. Currently, we have a project underway that would reduce that congestion on our State's most important highway. It would create jobs. It would spur economic development.

Although this project has been underway for several years, the pace of the project has slowed dramatically because we do not have a transportation bill in place. Businesses and developers along the I 93 corridor cannot hire workers or invest for the future while the project remains uncertain.

We need to act now to unleash the economic growth this project and transportation investments across the country will make possible. We know that projects such as Interstate 93 produce good jobs. New Hampshire's Department of Transportation said that work on just one section of the highway--just one section, between exits 2 and 3--created 369 construction jobs. And all around the country we have projects like Interstate 93 that are waiting on Congress to complete this effort.

For every billion dollars we spend in infrastructure investment, it creates 27,000 jobs. It should not be so hard to get this done. If Barbara Boxer and Jim Inhofe can agree on legislation, then the House ought to be able to agree on legislation. Cities and businesses need the certainty as we get to the new construction season. And the longer the House waits to appoint conferees, the harder it will be for Congress to pass a long-term bill.

I urge the House to swiftly appoint representatives to negotiate with the Senate so that we can come together and make the Federal investments necessary to get transportation projects moving and get people back to work.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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