[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 179 (Thursday, January 3, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   H.R. 3166--INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT IS THE BEST ECONOMIC STIMULUS

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                         HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 3, 2002

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, the so-called economic stimulus 
legislation presented to the House is like that old story of throwing 
an eight-foot rope to a person who's drowning ten feet from shore: it 
just doesn't get there; there isn't enough rope.
  Well, there isn't enough help in this initiative the Majority has set 
before the House and the nation. Extension of unemployment compensation 
is important, but 13 weeks isn't enough. Offering the unemployed an 
individual tax credit to buy health insurance on the open market isn't 
enough: average monthly premiums for COBRA range from $220 for an 
individual to $580 for a family; the standard unemployment benefits 
don't even begin to provide workers with the financial assistance they 
need to carry on their existing health insurance or buy new coverage in 
the private health insurance marketplace. The rope is just too short.
  The people in my district who are out of work--and I don't think they 
are much different from people elsewhere in America--would far rather 
be paid for working at a useful job than being paid for not working. 
What they want most is a full time job paying a living wage with decent 
benefits, such as health insurance, and others that are provided in 
most collective bargaining agreements in the work place. We ought to be 
considering legislation that will invest in the nation's infrastructure 
and create those living wage, productive jobs instead of this mirage of 
a stimulus bill.
  At the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration, the Civil 
Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration which together 
created jobs for over six million Americans, giving people real hope, 
lifting the nation out of depression and putting in place permanent 
improvements that elevated the quality of life throughout America.
  In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Accelerated 
Public Works Act, which invested over $1 billion in community 
facilities, putting over 900,000 previously unemployed persons back to 
work by building water and sewer lines and sewage treatment plants, 
municipal buildings, fire halls, police stations, street lighting 
systems, sidewalks, streets, roads and bridges throughout the country.
  In 1976, President Ford signed the Local Public Works Act and 
President Carter signed LPW 2, which invested a cumulative $2 billion 
in similar works throughout the country, creating jobs for over 1.5 
million unemployed workers.
  Today, we should do no less. The Democrats on the Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee have developed and introduced a bill to 
authorize $50 billion for infrastructure investments to enhance the 
security of the nation's rail, environmental, highway, transit, 
aviation, maritime, water resources, and public buildings 
infrastructure. With leveraging features included in this legislation, 
the ten-year cost to the U.S. treasury would be less than $32 billion.
  The $50 billion of investment initiated by our proposal would create 
more than 1.5 million jobs and generate $90 billion of total economic 
activity.
  Under the Democratic measure, H.R. 3166, preference would be given to 
infrastructure investments that provide enhanced security for the 
nation's transportation and environmental systems. Our bill 
specifically requires that the states, cities, transit authorities, 
airport authorities, etc., who would receive these funds, commit their 
investment to meeting security needs of their infrastructure systems 
and that the funds will be invested in ready-to-go projects to which 
those funds can be obligated within two years.
  These investments create the private-sector jobs that build America, 
that provide the decent wages to buy homes, big-ticket household 
appliance, automobiles, and the other consumer goods that are the 
engines of growth for our economy, and which create permanent 
improvement for our cities and towns, for urban and rural America and 
improve the quality of life for all of our fellow citizens.
  Yes, we ought to provide an extension of unemployment compensation 
and interim health insurance coverage for the nation's unemployed until 
they can get back to work; but we must create those jobs through 
enactment of the Rebuild America First Act to finance infrastructure 
renewal and security for the nation's transportation systems.

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