[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 8, 2016)] [Senate] [Pages S3633-S3635] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2017 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Chair lays before the Senate a message from the House of Representatives. The legislative clerk read as follows: Resolved, That the House insist upon its amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 2577) entitled ``An Act making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes,'' and ask a conference with the Senate on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon. Compound Motion Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I move that the Senate disagree to the amendment of the House, agree to the request by the House for a conference, and authorize the Presiding Officer to appoint conferees. Cloture Motion Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion. The legislative clerk read as follows: Cloture Motion We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to disagree to the House amendment, agree to the request from the House for a conference, and authorize the Presiding Officer to appoint conferees with respect to H.R. 2577, an act making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes. John McCain, John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, Deb Fischer, Rob Portman, Roger F. Wicker, Richard Burr, Joni Ernst, David Vitter, James M. Inhofe, Dean Heller, Pat Roberts, Lamar Alexander, Ron Johnson, Tom Cotton, Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell. Ms. MURKOWSKI. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. Under the previous order, all time is yielded back. Cloture Motion Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state. The legislative clerk read as follows: Cloture Motion We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to disagree to the House amendment, agree to the request from the House for a conference, and authorize the Presiding Officer to appoint conferees with respect to H.R. 2577, an act making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes. John McCain, John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, Deb Fischer, Rob Portman, Roger F. Wicker, Richard Burr, Joni Ernst, David Vitter, James M. Inhofe, Dean Heller, Pat Roberts, Lamar Alexander, Ron Johnson, Tom Cotton, Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell. The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the motion to disagree to the House amendment to the Senate amendment, agree to the request by the House for a conference, and authorize the Presiding Officer to appoint conferees with respect to H.R. 2577, an act making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey) would have voted ``yea.'' Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 93, nays 2, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 92 Leg.] YEAS--93 Alexander Ayotte Baldwin Barrasso Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Booker Boozman Boxer Brown Burr Cantwell Capito Cardin Carper Casey Cassidy Coats Cochran Collins Coons Corker Cornyn Cotton Crapo Cruz Daines Donnelly Durbin Enzi Ernst Feinstein Fischer Flake Franken Gardner Gillibrand Graham Grassley Hatch Heinrich Heitkamp Heller Hirono Hoeven Inhofe Isakson Johnson Kaine King Kirk Klobuchar Lankford Leahy Manchin Markey McCain McCaskill McConnell Menendez Merkley Moran Murkowski Murphy Murray Nelson Perdue Peters Portman Reed Risch Roberts Rounds Rubio Sasse Schatz Schumer Scott Sessions Shaheen Shelby Stabenow Sullivan Tester Thune Tillis Udall Vitter Warren Whitehouse Wicker Wyden NAYS--2 Lee Paul NOT VOTING--5 Mikulski Reid Sanders Toomey Warner The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 93, the nays are 2. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question occurs on agreeing to the compound motion to go to conference. The motion was agreed to. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida. Motion to Instruct Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I have a motion to instruct conferees at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Florida [Mr. Nelson] moves that the managers on the part of the Senate at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 2577 be instructed to reject proposals that would rescind existing Ebola emergency funds provided by the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113-235), and designated by Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as such funds support Ebola preparedness and response efforts which are critical to preventing, detecting, and responding to potential future Ebola outbreaks, and to insist that the final conference report include $510,000,000 to reimburse Ebola accounts, as provided for in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113-235) and designated by Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, for obligations incurred for Zika virus response, as such emergency Ebola funds support critical initiatives to prevent Ebola outbreaks, such as country operations and public health infrastructure in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, public health research on infection control, including detection of person to person transmission of Ebola, and advanced research and development of new Ebola vaccines and therapeutics. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 4 minutes of debate, equally divided. The Senator from Florida. Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, this is a motion to instruct the conferees that whatever is decided in the conference to fund the Zika crisis, the money would not be taken out of the Ebola fund and that the money that has been borrowed from the Ebola fund would be replenished. Remember that since the Ebola outbreak was contained 1 year ago, there have been seven more clusters of outbreaks since that time, and the CDC still employs 80 employees working on Ebola. With the last recent Ebola case [[Page S3634]] in Guinea, the CDC has had to vaccinate 1,700 people and then go out and do the infection control over there in West Africa in 50 health centers and make 20,000 connections to try to ensure that it does not spread, which of course is the source of how Ebola gets to the United States. So this motion is simply to say: Let's not take the Zika crisis funds out of Ebola and replenish what has already been taken out. Thank you, Mr. President. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri. Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, we did just vote to go to conference. I would like to see the conference be able to deal with this issue. In the Ebola funds, there is still $1.2 billion left in the Ebola funds. There is still $1.2 billion left in the Ebola fund. This is $510 million that was to be used for things like reimbursing hospitals that would have an influx of Ebola patients in this country, which never happened, and other issues. The administration has said they do not need this $510 million for Ebola. They clearly would like to use it for other purposes, and in fact have used $510 million for other purposes. I would urge a ``no'' vote. Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, do I have any time left? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Twenty-nine seconds. Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would say to my friend from Missouri simply that the administration does not say that they don't need this. As a matter of fact, in their $1.9 billion request, they have asked for the replenishment of this, and the statements that I just made were made by Dr. Frieden and Dr. Fauci as early as this morning. Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, do I have any time left? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 1 minute. Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, in the $1.9 billion request, they would not have asked for this money because they were asking for $1.9 billion of new money, some justified and some not. I believe we worked hard to get a good start here. This can clearly be an open item in the conference, but I don't think it should be a directed item in the conference. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. Mr. DURBIN. I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey) would have voted ``nay.'' Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Daines). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 49, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 93 Leg.] YEAS--46 Ayotte Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Booker Boxer Brown Burr Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Coons Donnelly Durbin Feinstein Franken Gillibrand Heinrich Heitkamp Hirono Kaine King Klobuchar Leahy Manchin Markey McCaskill Menendez Merkley Murphy Murray Nelson Peters Portman Reed Rubio Schatz Schumer Shaheen Stabenow Tester Udall Warren Whitehouse Wyden NAYS--49 Alexander Barrasso Blunt Boozman Capito Cassidy Coats Cochran Collins Corker Cornyn Cotton Crapo Cruz Daines Enzi Ernst Fischer Flake Gardner Graham Grassley Hatch Heller Hoeven Inhofe Isakson Johnson Kirk Lankford Lee McCain McConnell Moran Murkowski Paul Perdue Risch Roberts Rounds Sasse Scott Sessions Shelby Sullivan Thune Tillis Vitter Wicker NOT VOTING--5 Mikulski Reid Sanders Toomey Warner The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this motion, the motion is rejected. The Senator from Alaska. Motion to Instruct Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I have a motion to instruct conferees at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Alaska [Mr. Sullivan] moves that the managers on the part of the Senate at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 2577 be instructed to insist upon the inclusion of the provisions contained in Senate amendment 4065 (relating to the reconstruction of certain bridges). The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska is recognized. Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, this instruction relates to an earlier amendment I had, No. 4065. It is a simple amendment that would allow States and communities throughout our Nation to expedite the permitting process and construction of their bridges that pose safety concerns for their citizens. This would only apply to bridges that are built in the same place--they are not expanding bridges--same size, and bridges they are replacing. It is essentially maintenance on bridges. If State environmental agencies determine that Federal permitting requirements should be waived, then they are allowed to do this to expedite the permitting of the bridge. Let me explain why this is important. Right now in America, there are 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in need of repair. Yet when we try to repair these bridges, it takes 5 years to 6 years just to get the Federal permitting requirements. This amendment--these instructions would allow this process to move much more quickly. It will be important for the safety of our citizens, to put Americans back to work, and to grow our economy. It is a commonsense instruction. I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are focused on permitting reform. This is something very simple that we can do that will benefit all of our States and all of our citizens. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California. Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I have laryngitis, which is the dream of my friends on the other side of the aisle, but I want to say that the Sullivan amendment is dangerous and it is unnecessary. It is the last thing we should do given the lessons we have learned in Flint, MI, because what the Sullivan amendment says is that you can be exempted from nine Federal health and safety laws when you rebuild the bridge. For example, it would allow the dumping of oil, toxic materials that could include lead, construction debris, and that all will go in the water--water we swim in, water we fish in, water we drink. After Flint, how could we do this? This is not a problem. If you ask Senator Klobuchar--I just talked to her--and Senator Franken, they rebuilt their bridge in a year because there is already expedited language in all of the laws on which we worked together. So please reject this. It is dangerous, it is unnecessary, and it certainly is unrelated to the underlying bill. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska has 15 seconds. Mr. SULLIVAN. I yield to my colleague from Maine. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine. Mr. KING. Mr. President, in 15 seconds I yield to no one here in my commitment to the environment, but I also have a commitment to common sense. We are talking about bridges, not expanding--same size, same dimensions, and same location. If that were it, I would oppose this amendment; however, this amendment has a safety valve that the construction, reconstruction, or maintenance of the bridge must pass muster with the State-level permitting and environmental protection authority. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired. Mr. KING. I understand. I think we should support it. Thank you. Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, do I have any time remaining? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 55 seconds. Mrs. BOXER. Wow. In the beginning, God created. I just want to say to my friend Senator King, just ask the people of Flint, [[Page S3635]] MI, how happy they were that the State took over the health and safety rules. Their kids are suffering from lead poisoning. Sometimes you are talking about bridges that are 100 years old. They contain toxic materials. Again, this is not necessary. We haven't got a problem because we have taken care of expedited procedures. My arm was twisted on it in the FAST Act. So let's reject this because we want to protect the health and safety of the people we represent. I urge a ``no'' vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey) and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey) would have voted ``yea.'' Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 56, nays 38, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 94 Leg.] YEAS--56 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Blunt Boozman Burr Capito Cassidy Coats Cochran Collins Corker Cornyn Cotton Crapo Cruz Daines Donnelly Enzi Ernst Fischer Flake Gardner Grassley Hatch Heitkamp Heller Hoeven Inhofe Isakson Johnson King Kirk Lankford Lee Manchin McCain McConnell Moran Murkowski Paul Perdue Portman Risch Roberts Rounds Rubio Sasse Scott Sessions Shelby Sullivan Thune Tillis Vitter Wicker NAYS--38 Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Booker Boxer Brown Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Coons Durbin Feinstein Franken Gillibrand Heinrich Hirono Kaine Klobuchar Leahy Markey McCaskill Menendez Merkley Murphy Murray Nelson Peters Reed Schatz Schumer Shaheen Stabenow Tester Udall Warren Whitehouse Wyden NOT VOTING--6 Graham Mikulski Reid Sanders Toomey Warner The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this motion, the motion is rejected. The Presiding Officer appointed Ms. Collins, Mr. Kirk, Mr. McConnell, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Graham, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Reed, Mr. Udall, Mr. Schatz, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Murphy, Ms. Mikulski, and Mr. Leahy conferees on the part of the Senate. ____________________