Lincoln Chafee: “I point out we have been on this highway bill, the surface transportation legislation, for nearly 3 weeks. This was, I…”

“I point out we have been on this highway bill, the surface transportation legislation, for nearly 3 weeks. This was, I believe, the fourth cloture vote so that we could move on and deal with the bill. We could not get cloture. The other side didn't want us to have cloture. So that's why we are in this jam. This legislation before us is a 6-year bill. It came out of the committee unanimously. There may be variations and amendments. That is fine. We ought to have a chance to bring them up and vote on them. But we could not do that, Mr. President. I think that is very regrettable. Now people are backing off and saying let's possibly have a 6-month bill. I think that is a disaster; nobody can do any long-range planning with a 6-month piece of legislation. So I think it is very unfortunate the way this has worked out. I am not sure what the next order of business is or what the next step in connection with this highway legislation will be, but I feel very badly that we did not get cloture so we could go ahead and deal with a good bill, bring up the amendments and vote on them one way or another. But we were unable to do that, and I regret it.”