Yesterday, the Senate, in addition to passing the three-month highway bill that the House recently passed, passed its six-year highway bill (negotiated by Mitch McConnell and Barbara Boxer) by a vote of 65 to 34.
27 members of the Democratic caucus and 38 Republicans voted for it.
19 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against it.
What is interesting about the 19 Democrats who voted NO is that they span the ideological spectrum within the party.
Here are the 19:
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
You have solid liberals like Brown, Merkley, and Warren as well as more conservative members of the caucus like Carper, Donnelly, and Warner.
And, as I noted, they were joined by 15 Republicans:
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Tom Cotton (R-AR)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Jim Lankford (R-OK)
Mike Lee (R-UT)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
David Perdue (R-GA)
James Risch (R-ID)
Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Ben Sasse (R-NE)
Tim Scott (R-SC)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Pat Toomey (R-PA)
In the YES camp among the Democratic caucus, you have liberals like Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) but also conservatives like Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO). And you have a spread of Republicans from Susan Collins (R-ME) to Ron Johnson (R-WI).
If there's a split vote within the Democratic caucus (and it's not about the medical device tax), I'll tend to trust my two senators--Markey and Warren--to be on the right side. So I decided to look up the statements that other NO voting Democrats have made.
The two main concerns that Democrats had were the insufficient funding for the bill and the weak safety provisions.
Here's Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ):
“This is a transportation bill that ignores the transportation crisis in this country. It does not provide enough money to keep mass transit running, let alone make substantial improvements to our aging infrastructure. This bill does not do enough to advance Gateway and it disregards what we learned after the horrible train crash in Philadelphia by delaying implementation of Positive Train Control, which we know would have prevented the tragedy and saved lives.
“Our transportation infrastructure is literally crumbling. Our nation’s bridges are dilapidated, our roads falling apart, and Amtrak’s rail tunnels under the Hudson River are dangerously nearing the end of their life, stranding commuters, and putting in peril the vitality of the Northeast’s regional economy. We have serious problems that require serious solutions that adequately address our pressing transportation infrastructure needs.
“We can’t do this on the cheap. We need long-term, robust funding to ensure our transportation system is safe and reliable, not a series of band-aids and a bill that falls painfully short of achieving either.”
He also highlighted a series of particularly problematic provisions:
• Commits to a six-year authorization but only provides three years of funding—creating a Highway Trust Fund cliff in the middle of the bill
• Creates a private-sector transit New Starts program that allows projects with significant private sector involvement in designing, building, operating, or maintaining transit projects to jump to the front of the line for federal money
• Provides a disproportionate increase to transit programs that help rural States and smaller increases to transit programs that help New Jersey
• Contains a number of problematic safety provisions including a pilot program to allow 18 year-olds to drive commercial trucks, underfunding Positive Train Control, and a repeal of new braking standards for crude oil trains
• Contains a number of problematic environmental provisions, including allowing for more road-building in Clean Air Act nonattainment areas
• Offset by a number of controversial non-transportation pay-fors including a tax on mortgages, aviation and Customs fees, and a sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve assets.
And here's Senator
Chris Murphy (D-CT) with a similar line:
"Over the last year, I have been calling on Congress to find a long-term, sustainable source of funding for America's broken system of roads and rails. Instead, the bill the Senate voted on today cobbles together a patchwork of one-time revenue grabs that just kicks the can down the road again when it comes to shoring up infrastructure funding for the long haul. And from Connecticut's perspective, this bill doesn't devote enough money to help us address rail safety needs - it would still leave us short the money we need to upgrade technology to assure another derailment doesn't happen again." said Murphy. "I appreciate the hard work of Senators Inhofe and Boxer in putting forward this Transportation Bill, but we need to do better, and I'll continue working to assure that Congress passes a transportation bill that addresses the short-term and long-term needs of Connecticut."
And here's Senator
Tom Udall (D-NM):
"New Mexico, like many other regions of the country, is facing a crisis when it comes to its highways, roads and bridges. Repairs and updates are badly needed, but with the Highway Trust Fund running perpetually low, there's never enough money to go around. Federal highway funding makes up 70 percent of New Mexico's budget for roads — New Mexicans need Congress to agree on a forward-thinking plan that invests in transportation, safety and the future of our communities. Unfortunately, the long-term funding bill passed by the Senate today doesn't fit that description, and it stands no chance of becoming law because the House won't agree to it. Congress now has three months to craft a responsible plan to fund our nation's highways, and I will keep working for a bill that provides long-term funding, strong safety standards and makes the investment needed to grow jobs in New Mexico and communities across the country."
In other words, it's a bill filled with problems that won't even pass the House anyway. Congress in action!