On the recordJuly 22, 2014
I came to the Senate floor in April to warn my colleagues of a looming crisis in the highway trust fund. I told them if Congress didn't act and the fund reached critically low levels, it would cause construction shutdowns in communities across the country. It would cost jobs and threaten our fragile economic recovery. It would hurt families who depend on safe and efficient roads and bridges. I had hoped that we could address this issue sooner. I had hoped those of us in Congress who understand the importance of strong infrastructure investments could have come together, not just to avoid a crisis but for a long-term solution. We weren't able to do that. But today, after 4 months of warning of this looming crisis, I am pleased to come to the floor as we work to do what should be easy but too often isn't in the Senate--to avoid a completely unnecessary and completely damaging crisis. This is a step in the right direction. As many of us here know very well, it is a step that Congress has not taken each time a crisis approached. For far too many years, Congress has been lurching from crisis to crisis, from debt limit scares to fiscal cliffs. That dysfunction hit a peak last October with a government shutdown over a misguided attempt to block the Affordable Care Act from covering millions of families and with another Federal default scare.…
