I did not want to dilute that program that I think has been very, very successful.

I thank the Chair. (The remarks of Mr. Inhofe pertaining to the introduction of S. 360 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

I had a long visit with Senator Kerry the other day. He was talking about his Infrastructure Bank ideas, which I, there is some merit to something where there is a, in this case, his provides for not grants but loans.

He failed to specify how he would pay for his mammoth $556 billion proposal.

I am still ranked, by the national journalists, as the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate and yet, and Barbara is on the other end of that, and yet we are together on this.

I would be opposed to that.

Sadly, the President failed to step up and show any leadership.

I thought the President did a disservice when he came out and he said yes, we need $556 billion for infrastructure.

I was hoping for some positive leadership by the Administration after only paying lip service to our crumbling roads and bridges.

Do you know how much of that went to roads, highways and construction? Three percent.

We can talk about all of these other things, but somehow we are going to have to fund it.

We ought to be honest with that.

Just the other day we had a lady, a mother of two small children, in Oklahoma City, driving and a bridge, something this big, it killed her.

I ended up being the only Republican to vote against the Balanced Budget Act of 1998 because of that.

That is not true. Because when we started this thing, we started the Highway Trust Fund, we started it back in Eisenhower's time.

I really believe that we have the dynamics here to get in there and to look at some things that have not been looked at before.

They are not doing it because they love America. They are doing it because it is a good return.

I have to admit it was the Republicans, not the Democrats, that killed that idea.