Jim Inhofe: “First, let me thank my good friend, the Senator from California, Mrs. Boxer, for speaking because I asked her to do it.…”

“First, let me thank my good friend, the Senator from California, Mrs. Boxer, for speaking because I asked her to do it. A lot of people are surprised on how well we get along. The committee she chairs is called the Environment and Public Works Committee and I am the ranking member. When Republicans were in the majority, I was the chairman. I look forward to being chairman again, but that is another conversation for another day. But the reason I wanted to speak is, because we do. A lot of people are surprised to see this. We get along very well. Right now, we are doing everything we possibly can to get a highway reauthorization bill. She prides herself on being a very proud liberal and I pride myself on being a very proud conservative. Yet we both know that one of our primary functions here is to do something about infrastructure. I have often been ranked as the most conservative member of this body, the Senate. I often have said I may be conservative, but I am a big spender in two areas: national defense and infrastructure. That is what we are supposed to be doing. Right now, we have the most deplorable problem in the condition of our roads and highways and bridges. My State of Oklahoma goes back and forth being dead last or next to the last behind Missouri as having the worst conditions of our bridges.…”