William H. Frist: “yesterday the Senate voted overwhelmingly to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the highway bill, the highway…”

“yesterday the Senate voted overwhelmingly to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the highway bill, the highway bill we are now on. The amendment process has begun. It enjoys strong bipartisan support, and I am encouraged by the bipartisan commitment to both go to the bill and move this important bill forward. Time is of essence. The current highway extension from last year expires at the end of next month, on May 31. We are going to have to work together to pass this legislation, then take the bill that we pass to conference to join it with the House bill--I have a feeling there will have to be fairly extensive negotiations at that point--and then send that bill to the President for his signature. This highway bill that is currently on the floor is a product of a long bipartisan process. It is based on more than 3 years of hard work, over a dozen hearings, testimony from more than 100 witnesses, countless hours of negotiation, all of it supported by a deep and broad coalition, from State and local highway authorities to national safety advocates. It was last month that a very similar bill overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 417 to 9. It is time to get this bill done. This is what America sees, I know: While we engage in this endless negotiation inside the beltway, outside the beltway people are listening to that as they are sitting in traffic jams which are getting worse and worse by the day.…”