Mark Dayton: “I salute the chairman and the ranking member for this excellent legislation. I will support a cloture motion. It is very…”

“I salute the chairman and the ranking member for this excellent legislation. I will support a cloture motion. It is very important we pass this legislation as expeditiously as possible for States such as Minnesota which have a short highway construction season. I wish we had been able to put into place the Senate version a year ago. I salute Chairman Inhofe for his tireless efforts, working with his associates in the House and also the administration, in an effort to pass what would have been an excellent Senate bill a year ago. This bill is as good as it could be, given some of the pressures. It is a mystery to me, knowing the serious state of disrepair of our highways in Minnesota and the lack of funding at the State and particularly the local level--it is hard to imagine how any other State could be so far advanced beyond Minnesota's highway construction situation that the money the Senate wanted a year ago, that would be providing for needs this year if not for certain pressures--and is beyond the realm of common sense not to have passed this. So be it. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for, as I understand it, accepting an amendment I offered, along with Senator Lugar, also cosponsored by my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Coleman, Senator Harkin, Senator Grassley, Senator Durbin, Senator Brownback, and Senator Bingaman.…”