Mr. President, I wanted to thank Senator Murray and the Senate for once again, on a bipartisan basis, passing the appropriation for the funding to rebuild the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.
 
The Senate acted incredibly quickly after this tragedy occurred on August 1st.  The next day, Senator Colman and I were there.  We saw firsthand this tragedy, the heroic responses of our rescue workers in Minnesota – ordinary Citizens diving into the water.  They didn't know who they would find and they did not know the danger they would face, but they went in.
 
It could have been so much worse, Mr. President. Our citizens came together and now this Senate has come together. I want to thank them for this.
 
Our state is losing about $400,000 a day. This was a major thoroughfare in the area and in the Twin Cities - we going to rebuild. The day we went and saw the shards of steel and saw the broken bridge that crashed down into the middle of the Mississippi river, I said that bridges in America should never fall down. Well this bridge did, and when bridges in America fall down we must rebuild. By taking this important action today to fund the rebuilding of the bridge, this Senate has started that process.
 
I want to thank my colleagues. I want to thank Senator Coleman for cosponsoring my amendment. We will now move on to rebuilding our bridge and bringing our beautiful Twin Cities back to where it was.
 
Thank you very much,
 
Mr. Pesident. I yield the floor.