Amy Klobuchar: “I rise to speak in favor of the DRIVE Act. I was a supporter of this bill from the first vote we had in the last week.…”

“I rise to speak in favor of the DRIVE Act. I was a supporter of this bill from the first vote we had in the last week. There were some changes made immediately that I thought were important. I think this long-term bill is incredibly important to our country's future. Time and again, we have had these short-term extensions, and that is what the House of Representatives is talking about again. We have an opportunity here. Americans, as we know, can't fix a road in 2 months. In a State such as Minnesota, where we have two seasons, one road construction season and one winter, citizens cannot plan ahead and our State cannot plan ahead when we continue to have these short- term extensions. They also want to do bigger things and better things for transportation in our State, and this funding and this bill will allow them to do that, instead of this Mickey Mouse short-term extension time after time after time. As we have heard from my colleagues, ranking member Senator Boxer, our chairman, Senator Inhofe, Senator Durbin, and Senator Whitehouse today, I think it is incredibly important that we move forward with this bill. This Senator came to this issue in a very tragic way; that is, when a bridge fell down in the middle of a summer day. The anniversary of this bridge collapse is coming up in just a few days. It was a beautiful summer day, rush hour, and there were tons of traffic going over one of the most heavily traveled bridges in our State.…”