On the recordMay 21, 2014
with all the arguments and debate that go on around here in a very legitimate way--it is fair. The parties have grown very far apart--whether you look at the minimum wage, with the Democrats wanting to raise it, with some Republicans who say do away with it altogether; with extended unemployment benefits, where we can barely get a handful of them to go along with us--I could go on through the list. We are going to have a chance to make sure students have a fair shot at refinancing their student loans. We do not know where they are, but so far I have not seen them join Senator Warren in her very important move to allow students to refinance their student loans. I could go through a list longer than I am tall. I am not that tall, but still it is 5 feet of differences. We finally have come together in a way that I am very proud. As chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, we have two sides of our committee--the environment side, which tends to be very difficult, very difficult, with big splits; and then we have the public works side. By putting aside our differences--our deep differences--on the environment and focusing on the other side, we have been able to come up with a couple of really good bills. The first one is the Water Resources Reform and Development Act called WRRDA. It is so important to our Nation, whether you are a coastal port or an inland port, and it is crucial that this get done. The last WRDA bill was nearly 7 years ago.…
