[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 20 (Thursday, February 7, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H625-H626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     LOOMING INFRASTRUCTURE CRISIS

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, for the first time in American 
history, the highway trust fund is running a deficit this year. What is 
the solution from this administration? Well, instead of having a 
comprehensive approach to dealing with the shortfall, they just want to 
steal some money from the mass transit administration account and walk 
away. This will only delay the problem for 1 year, and it will push 
mass transit into deficit the next year, instead of a practical 
solution to fix the looming transportation trust fund crisis.
  This is consistent with their consistent underinvestment in our 
Nation's infrastructure. It is why the American Society of Civil 
Engineers has rated our infrastructure a D minus, and estimates it will 
cost us $1.6 trillion over the next 5 years to repair water, sewer, and 
transportation infrastructure, a crisis not just for the Federal 
Government but even worse for State and local governments.
  A hundred years ago, Teddy Roosevelt had a vision for a national 
conference to develop a plan to deal with the Nation's infrastructure. 
It is time for this Congress to revisit that concept, maybe have a 
transportation vision for this century.

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