Senator Murray says bridge decision must be made quickly

VANCOUVER — U.S. Sen. Patty Murray told Southwest Washington union officials April 8 that federal funding for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River could be delayed by as much as eight years if pols from both Oregon and Washington don’t put their egos aside and quickly find agreement on what type of bridge they want built.

“I know people are worried about impacts and have different ideas, but look, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good on this,” said Murray, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and chairs the Transportation Subcommittee, which means she has significant influence on funding for the project.

Murray, a Democrat, said she remembers first discussing expanding capacity on the I-5 bridge with former Republican Oregon U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield. He retired in 1997. Since then, thousands of hours and millions of dollars have been spent studying what type of bridge would be suitable to replace the old one. [The I-5 Bridge is actually made up of two side-by-side draw-bridges. The northbound bridge was built in 1917 and the southbound bridge in 1958.]

In March 2008, the Columbia River Crossing Project Sponsors Council unanimously endorsed building a 12-lane bridge with light rail, and lanes for bicycles and pedestrians. The cost was estimated at $3.6 billion.

The Sponsors Council is composed of mayors from Portland and Vancouver, directors from TriMet and C-TRAN, transportation department directors from Oregon and Washington, the president of Oregon’s regional Metro Council, and the chair of Washington’s Regional Transportation Department.

Unions are unanimous in their support of a 12-lane replacement bridge.

Since that unanimous vote in 2008, however, some members of the Sponsors Council have back-tracked, suggesting that 12 lanes is too big.

“Every single transportation project, big or small, has people who are for and opposed to them to start with because of different little issues,” Murray told union officials April 8. “But I’ll tell you, every single one of them — when you do the final ribbon cutting — everybody’s standing there because they want their picture in the paper.”

Murray said if political consensus isn’t reached soon, the bridge project will be left out of the 2010-2016 Highway Reauthorization bill, which is now under discussion.

“If I don’t have agreement about what it’s going to look like, we’re going to miss out for probably the next six or eight years before we’ll be able to ask for federal funds for that,” Murray said. “I know there’s a lot of egos involved, but people have got to get past these differences.”

On other labor issues, Murray had no answer as to the fate of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form a union.

“This has been a huge frustration,” she said.

The bill needs 60 votes in the Senate to kill a filibuster — which the Republican leadership has promised to do. Each time it got close, something happened, Murray said. First, the Senate had to wait for Minnesota Democrat Al Franken to be seated before taking a vote. By that time, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts became gravely ill and was unable to work.

“As we got to actually 60 votes, we had a few of ours (fellow Democrats) who were squishy,” Murray explained. “The question became, ‘do we want to bring it to the floor and lose by one vote, or do we want to keep working and try to come up with a compromise that doesn’t give away everything, but is enough that we can live with and get 60 votes?’ “

As Senators were working on that compromise, “Massachusetts happened.” Kennedy had passed away and voters elected a Republican to complete his unexpired term of office.

“So, here we are. (Democratic) leadership is talking about what to do next,” Murray said. “Do we push forward and show you where the votes are, or do we compromise more? I do not have an answer for you right now. ”

A senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Murray also is pushing for legislation that would allow the GI Bill to be used in apprenticeship training programs. She said the unemployment rate for returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan is nearing 22 percent, and that veterans face too many barriers to getting hired.

She said she was using labor’s Helmets to Hardhats program as an example of how to connect military veterans back into the civilian workforce.

Murray is up for re-election this year. Nine Republicans have filed to run in the August primary, with the winner facing her in November.

Home | About