I want to thank so much my friend and colleague, Senator Jim Inhofe, for ensuring that our differences on many other issues never got in the way of our working toward a bipartisan Transportation Bill.

They actually do mention only one spending priority, and that is the Highway Trust Fund.

This is not going to be easy. But it is necessary.

I think this is a day that we will remember for a long time.

we can't allow those ideas, whether it is an infrastructure bank or anything else, to replace the basic funding mechanism.

I must say, Senator Baucus and Senator Vitter, who are the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, were extraordinarily helpful and we had many, many meetings for more than a year now.

I hope that we won't be the only ones listening to ourselves.

If we don't prioritize smart transportation investments today, we will fall behind tomorrow.

the Congress must supplement Highway Trust Fund receipts or thousands of jobs will be lost in every single state.

If it is built, the world is going to open up in West Virginia.

We must choose which path to follow: protect jobs and our nation's long-term economic health, or damage our country's ability to remain competitive.

the biggest obstacle to moving the current multiyear reauthorization bill on surface transportation is the Highway Trust Fund's financial outlook.

I want to throw out one caution in terms of the Highway Trust Fund.

I have been suffering for 40 years watching the building of something called Corridor H.

today I ask my colleagues to honor the memory of one of our Nations' great leaders, former First Lady Betty Ford. Mrs. Ford passed away on July 8, 2011, at the age of 93. She leaves behind a legacy of candor, service, equal rights for all…

Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Representative John Mica, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, support increasing TIFIA's annual budget authority to…

I think it's imperative that we come together to make common cause on this, and I think it'll happen.

it's time to get on with enacting a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill in a bipartisan way.

I think it would be instructive.

The unacceptable state of the nation's infrastructure is hurting our ability to be a world leader.

Denigration of the full faith and credit of the U.S. would have substantial effects on domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets.

The full consequences of a default or even the serious prospect of a default by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate.

I appreciate your concerns about the issues you raised, as well as the concerns raised by Senator Barrasso.

My goal now in my new job is public service, so it is very different.

I want to tell you something. The National Park Service runs an incredible program surrounding Alcatraz, a national park.