[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 127 (Friday, August 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10874-S10875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             INFRASTRUCTURE

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, both our colleagues from Minnesota have left 
the floor, but I join with my colleague from Rhode Island and others 
here in expressing our regrets and our condolences to the people of 
Minnesota for the tragedy that State has gone through with the collapse 
of the highway over the Mississippi River. Certainly all of us extend 
our sympathies to those who lost loved ones and those who were injured. 
We in Congress will do whatever we can to help out in that situation, 
as all of us have at one time or another stood in this Chamber and 
asked for help for our States because of a tragedy that has occurred. 
It is very much in keeping with the tradition of this body to respond 
to tragedies such as the one Minnesota has experienced.
  I want to take a moment, however, and urge my colleagues during the 
next few weeks to consider an important bill to try to address the 
growing problem of deteriorating infrastructure across our nation. For 
nearly 2 years, the Senator from Nebraska and I, Senator Hagel, have 
been working on this bill, along with the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies, Felix Rohatyn, who has been very involved in the 
issues of New York City, and our former Senate colleagues Warren Rudman 
and Bob Kerrey.
  The numbers are staggering. There are some 160,000 bridges of the 
900,000 in our country that are deficient, to put it mildly. We saw 
what happened in Minnesota. There are 614 transit systems in deep need 
of repair. One-third of all our highways are in need of significant 
repair and improvement. The water systems and wastewater systems in the 
United States are, on average, almost 100 years old. Clearly, the 
ability of our appropriations process to maintain the needed 
infrastructure for our country is inadequate. We all know that. So we 
have spent time over the last 2, 2\1/2\ years working with people on 
Wall Street and others to come up with ideas on how we might attract 
capital to the area of infrastructure development.

[[Page S10875]]

  Ironically, we had talked about delaying this announcement until 
September, but at the suggestion of Senator Hagel, we decided Wednesday 
morning to make the announcement before we left for the August break. I 
think we had four members of the press in the gallery to cover the 
initial announcement of this year-and-a-half long effort. And of course 
by 5 or 6 o'clock that afternoon, we had heard the news of what 
happened in Minneapolis, which heightened the country's awareness of a 
problem that was well-known to those of us looking into this over the 
years.
  This should never have happened in the United States. We have been 
successful over the years because we have understood the relationship 
of strong infrastructure systems, wastewater treatment systems, 
highways, bridges, and transit systems, to our ability to grow 
economically. Of course, some of the major efforts that have increased 
the prosperity of our country have been big ideas in infrastructure. 
Certainly the interstate highway system, under Dwight Eisenhower, is a 
classic example of a project that dramatically improved the economy of 
our Nation more than 50 years ago.
  At any rate, there are a number of examples, and I hope my colleagues 
will look at this critically important legislation we have presented 
for their consideration. We look forward to further examining how 
better to deal with the large problems facing us when we reconvene this 
fall. As many of my colleagues may know, a $1 billion investment, 
whether public or private money, would generate as many as 40,000 jobs. 
So, in addition to addressing major deficiencies in our infrastructure, 
it will also spur economic development and provide needed work for 
those in the construction fields and trades.
  Again, this is an important issue, and one that is unfortunately 
receiving more attention than it would otherwise, except for the 
tragedy in Minnesota. In my home State of Connecticut, we went through 
a similar tragedy, as my colleague from Rhode Island may recall, on 
Route 95 along the Mianus River, the corridor running through his State 
and mine, down to Florida. A whole section of that road in western 
Connecticut collapsed. Four people lost their lives on that day when 
the Mianus River bridge fell. So we relate to and understand what has 
happened in Minnesota.
  Again, our invitation is to take a look at this. It is an idea, a big 
idea, a large idea, creatively financed to be able to do something 
serious about this growing problem. It is a problem we are going to be 
hearing more and more about if we fail to take the necessary steps to 
improve this infrastructure. We must work to construct what needs to be 
constructed and put our feet back on the ground.
  I thank my colleagues.
  I am going to make some unanimous consent requests here.

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