Washington, DC – Citing the tragedy of the Minnesota bridge collapse, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today called for immediate passage of a bill sponsored by Senators Coleman and Klobuchar to authorize additional funds for emergency repairs and reconstruction of the Interstate I-35 bridge, and S. 775, the National Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2007, which was approved unanimously by the Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday. S. 775 would establish a commission to assess the state of America’s critical infrastructure.

Senator Boxer said: “It should not take a tragedy like the one in Minnesota to remind us that the safety of our bridges, highways, and other infrastructure are matters of life and death. I call on my colleagues in the Senate to pass the Coleman-Klobuchar bill now to help Minnesota deal with the aftermath of this terrible incident, and to pass the Infrastructure Improvement Act without delay so we can start assessing the state of our infrastructure. I intend to hold hearings immediately after the recess on the condition of our national infrastructure and how we can prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. ”

# # #