Bill Nelson

I call up amendment No. 4670. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Florida [Mr. Nelson] proposes an amendment numbered 4670 to amendment No. 4607.

My distinguished colleague from North Carolina, Mr. Tillis, is correct. Chairman Thune and I did agree to accept this amendment as part of a package of 26 amendments agreed to by all but one of our colleagues. While I am disappointed that…

I would say to my friend from Missouri simply that the administration does not say that they don't need this. As a matter of fact, in their $1.9 billion request, they have asked for the replenishment of this, and the statements that I just…

Maybe you ought to call a little prayer session with them.

If they're buying not the full package of what they think they're buying, they're buying something that they've got to go in and have recalled in 2 years.

How about disclosure? How about the protection of the consuming public?

I intend to get answers, and that's why I put in the record the 14 letters that we have just asked again for complete disclosure.

This is a failure of informing consumers, and I think your regulator ought to be getting answers on this.

But the most shocking part is the discovery that four automobile makers out of all those letters that we sent, four responded, that we know of, that they're selling new cars with the defective airbags on a schedule to be recalled in 2…

What we find are some alarming facts, that the completion rates range from as high as 57 percent to less than 1 percent.

There is much work to be done over the next four and a half years, and this committee will conduct rigorous oversight to ensure the success of these vital transportation programs.

Our economic competitiveness is dependent on our ability to compete with our foreign competitors, and if our corn is more expensive because our transportation is more expensive, that means our competitors are going to win.

I also look forward to the FRA's forthcoming actions to implement my amendment requiring cameras on passenger trains, fulfilling a longstanding NTSB recommendation in helping railroads better monitor crews and track conditions.

I expect this will entail collaboration across the Department and with stakeholders on the more effective uses of Section 130 program funds.

We also expected that you would hear about the growing number of unreasonable challenges that organizations face in complying with the TCPA.

Now tell me this, the El Faro leaves port, headed for Puerto Rico, and he sails right into the middle of a hurricane. Now there are 33 lives, most of which were from Jacksonville, Florida, lost.

And your accuracy is increased by 15 percent by the G-IV in the vertical profile?

Can they drop the sondes?

So if you had an accident or a maintenance problem, and you were down with the P-3s, you do have backup with the Air Force?

That caused a revolution in Miami-Dade County in building codes, much for the better.

Did you really get 32 feet of sea level rise surge in Hurricane Sandy?

We simply have too much at risk.

As Senator Rubio and I know as native Floridians, hurricanes are a way of life.

I hope you have a very boring job all the way up through the end of November.

I applaud the National Hurricane Center for its work on this new tool, and I stress the importance of educating people on the dangers of storm surge.