Statement of Senator Russ Feingold On the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act May 17, 2005 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today the Senate will vote on final passage on the Senate version of H.R. 3, the SAFETEA bill. As we all know, the country has important transportation needs that Congress must address and I commend the managers of the bill for working hard to address highway construction, mass transit, highway safety and other important programs. Mr. President, this is a very important bill and I am not taking my vote lightly. I have heard from numerous individuals and groups across Wisconsin who are opposed to another temporary extension and eager to have the certainty for planning purposes that comes with a full reauthorization. I understand their concerns and I share their desire that Congress provide necessary transportation funding. That is why I voted in favor of the motion to proceed to the bill and the motion to invoke cloture on the bill -- because Congress needs to act on the country's transportation priorities. I wish I could vote for the bill. I would have voted for a bill that was equitable, even if it was not perfect. However, the current bill is far from equitable -- in fact, it makes Wisconsin a double loser, both under the funding formula's rate-of-return and in the level of overall funding relative to the last bill, TEA-21. The bill does not do nearly enough to help meet the transportation needs of my constituents in Wisconsin and, for that reason, I will vote against the bill. Mr. President, let me take a little time to explain my concerns with the bill, starting with the funding formula this bill would establish. Under that formula, certain states would continue to receive significantly more money than they pay into the Highway Trust Fund, while other states continue to be denied their fair share. In fact, the number of donor states -- or those who receive less than their fair share -- would actually increase under this bill compared to the final year of TEA-21. In 2004 there were 27 donor states, while by the end of the new bill in 2009 there would be 31 states that pay more into the Highway Trust Fund than they receive back. Six states -- Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon and Wisconsin -- would become donors, while only Arkansas and Nebraska would leave that category. Mr. President, I worked hard with the rest of the Wisconsin delegation during the last successful authorization to make sure that our state finally got a fair rate of return. Let me tell my colleagues, that change was long overdue. According to numbers from the Department of Transportation, from 1956 through 2000, Wisconsin got back just 90 cents on every dollar it paid into the Trust Fund. In TEA-21, Wisconsin at last received a fair return. Unfortunately, this bill will take us back to where we were for the previous four decades -- in the hole. Under the new formula, Wisconsin will once again be a donor state in 2006 and receive the bare minimum rate of return of 92% by the final year of the bill. I have spoken to other members of our state's delegation, and I think I can safely say we agree that Wisconsin deserves better. It is bad enough that the bill would return Wisconsin to donor status. Adding insult to injury is the level of funding that this bill would provide for my state. This bill provides almost flat funding for Wisconsin, which we all know in real terms is a cut. In 2004 under TEA-21, Wisconsin received $635 million, while the average spending under the current bill would only be $642.8 million per year. When these figures are adjusted for inflation, in real terms the bill means a reduction of over $35 million each year for Wisconsin, reducing our ability to meet our transportation needs -- all while we become a donor state and again subsidize other states' transportation projects. I cannot support a bill that treats Wisconsin so poorly with respect to both overall funding and the formula's rate-of-return. Fortunately, today's vote is not the final word on this bill. I will continue to work hard with the senior Senator from Wisconsin and the rest of the state's delegation to do everything that we can to produce a final transportation bill that is fair for our constituents.

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