On the recordJune 8, 2016
I have laryngitis, which is the dream of my friends on the other side of the aisle, but I want to say that the Sullivan amendment is dangerous and it is unnecessary. It is the last thing we should do given the lessons we have learned in Flint, MI, because what the Sullivan amendment says is that you can be exempted from nine Federal health and safety laws when you rebuild the bridge. For example, it would allow the dumping of oil, toxic materials that could include lead, construction debris, and that all will go in the water--water we swim in, water we fish in, water we drink. After Flint, how could we do this? This is not a problem. If you ask Senator Klobuchar--I just talked to her--and Senator Franken, they rebuilt their bridge in a year because there is already expedited language in all of the laws on which we worked together. So please reject this. It is dangerous, it is unnecessary, and it certainly is unrelated to the underlying bill. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska has 15 seconds.
