Congressional Record, Volume 157 Issue 161 (Tuesday, October 25, 2011)

[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 161 (Tuesday, October 25, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7045-H7051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 1550
INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is a story about American jobs. This is the story about American
jobs and the story of where our money is misspent, how it hurts States,
the United States, and how we can change that trend. It's how some U.S.
policies currently are hurting U.S. citizens, and it's a story of how
we can change policies, we can clean up our environment, create jobs,
have clean air, clean land and clean water. It's about growing jobs
without increasing our debt, borrowing from China, or raising taxes.
This is a story of the new American Dream for the next generation;
the story that says if we have the will, we also have the way. It's a
story that makes America back to work again. And best of all, it's a
story that can come true. We can do this because we have the road to
energy independence and American prosperity mapped out with this bill,
H.R. 1861.
Today, a number of Members from both sides of the aisle, the
Bipartisan Working Group on Energy, will describe America's needs and
show how this bill provides the means to rebuild our aging
infrastructure and meet America's growing energy needs and will grow
millions of jobs, not for 90 days, not for one election season, but for
20 years into the future. This bill moves us towards energy
independence.
But first, before we get into that, I want to talk about the energy
needs of the world and what's happening with our own economy. We all
recognize, and every Member of this House is concerned with the debt of
this Nation which is now $14.5 trillion. It's 97 percent of the value
of our economy. It's $45,000 for each man, woman and child, and growing
at $58,000 a second.
We are all concerned that more than 25 million Americans are out of
work or looking for more work. We are all concerned that we've lost 5
million manufacturing jobs to other countries in the last decade. We
all know the global demand for energy is going to grow by 53 percent by
the year 2035. And total U.S. consumption of liquid fuels, including
both fossil fuels and biofuels, is going to rise from about 18.8
million barrels per day to 21.9 million barrels per day by the year
2035.
Now, we know that many people would like to have us get off oil, but
we're still going to need oil, not only for transportation, but for
manufacturing, for plastics and for chemical development. It is not
something we can turn our back on, but it's something we need to
recognize is a treasure out there that we can use, not only to stop
sending our money overseas, but also to develop American jobs.
Keep in mind we can turn our energy around through energy because
energy equals jobs. We import 65 percent of our oil, and some of that
from hostile regimes. The U.S. currently imports roughly 20 percent, or
5 million barrels a day, from members of OPEC. The United States spends
about $1 billion a day on foreign oil, or $129 billion each year from
OPEC nations.
By converting to natural gas, 18 million diesel trucks and fleet
vehicles which return to a central location overnight would cut OPEC
imports in half. Choosing to enact no change in policy related to
natural gas is the same as choosing to remain reliant on OPEC nations
for our economic vitality. Our bill helps finance this conversion.
Gas costs families about $2,200 more a year than it did in 2009. And
this House, this Chamber, has talked about energy independence since
the 1973 oil embargo. The demand for energy is growing and growing;
and, unfortunately, OPEC exerts control over world oil prices and has
asked that it someday be $200 per barrel. We think it affects our
economy now at where it is. Imagine what would happen when it reaches
that level.
The Department of the Interior, however, estimates that we have
between 86 billion and 115 billion barrels on our Outer Continental
Shelf. That is enough oil and gas to replace imports from Venezuela and
Saudi Arabia for the next 80 years, extensive tracts of oil, which, by
the way, were last surveyed for the most part in the 1970s. And it's
quite likely that also given areas that have not been reviewed or
surveyed since then would have many times that amount.
Offshore exploration, including the revenues that come from the
leasing, from the royalties, is about $440 billion alone. When you add
everything else that can come from this, with over a million jobs a
year, with manufacturing, the economic impact of this exceeds $8
trillion overall for our country. And new Federal revenues are
estimated to be between $2.2 trillion and $3.7 trillion over the next
20 years.
Our option is to continue to buy from foreign nations which aren't
friendly to us. Think of what happens with this $129 billion a year we
send to OPEC nations, nations that oftentimes we send blood and
treasure of our soldiers and our money to go protect. And what do they
do with our money as well? They build islands, great highways, palaces.
Now, we recognize that many folks around the world are our allies,
but we also have to recognize we are here to take care of our citizens
and make sure our citizens have an opportunity to compete for jobs in
America.
Ultimately, here's the problem America faces right now in our energy
infrastructure. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers,
America's infrastructure is crumbling. It would take $930 billion to
rebuild our roads and bridges; $87 billion for aviation; $12.5 billion
to rebuild our dams that are breaking and our locks; $255 billion for
sewer and water infrastructure rebuilt in America, where we're leaking
massive amounts of water every year in our clean water; $75 billion for
energy infrastructure in this Nation; $50 billion for inland waterways;
$50 billion for levees; $63 billion for rail; and $265 billion for our
transit system.

What we would do is open up those areas for offshore drilling. And,
quite frankly, I trust our ability to do it. Yes, there have been
mistakes, but they have been rare; and I certainly trust our folks to
explore for offshore resources and make sure they follow environmental
laws to the letter.
But in this process of creating jobs and dedicating the revenue from
this act, keep in mind we do not raise taxes, we do not borrow from
China, and we do not buy this oil from OPEC. Instead, we create our
jobs. We create our jobs now and in the long term.
We rebuild America's crumbling bridges and roads. We invest in clean
American energy, not just talking about cleaning up our coal-fired
power plants, not just talking about it would be nice to have nuclear
power, not just saying it will be great if people can conserve more
energy, because 40 percent of the energy of typical homes and buildings
is oftentimes wasted through incredible energy inefficiency. We pay for
that energy, but we don't get it. We pay to heat our homes and light
our homes and cool our homes and offices; but whenever we are wasting
that energy, that's power plants we don't need to have built.
There's also wasted energy in the areas that have to do with how our
grid structure is so inefficient, but we can actually clean up the
environment and conserve energy; and we can do all of this without
raising taxes, as we said.
Now, I said this is a bipartisan bill, and I'd like to turn to a
number of my

[[Page H7046]]

colleagues today to talk about how this can be done, and to hear the
kind of support we have for this as we move through.
With that, I would like to yield to my colleague from California, Mr.
Jim Costa.
Mr. COSTA. Thank you very much. I thank the gentleman from
Pennsylvania for his explanation of what truly is a bipartisan effort.
Mr. Speaker, I do rise, like my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle, to support H.R. 1861, titled the Infrastructure Jobs and Energy
Independence Act of 2011.
Those of you who are watching on C-SPAN, take note: this is a
bipartisan effort. It's the kind of thing I think most of you in this
country want us to do in Congress every day. This measure--and the four
important points to note that we all concur in and what America wants
us to do is provide us a path to energy independence, it revitalizes
our Nation's transportation, water infrastructure and other investments
in our infrastructure that equal jobs, jobs, and jobs. It reduces the
deficit with no new taxes, and it is a bipartisan effort, one that is
supported on both sides of the aisle.

{time} 1600

Several years ago, I joined with my colleagues from both sides to
develop this sensible energy policy that acknowledges the challenges
for our Nation's energy, both in the short term, the near term, the
medium, and the long term, over the next 20 years. Similar to what we
have done in previous Congresses, we formed this bipartisan energy
working group, which includes my colleagues, Representative Tim Murphy,
who just spoke, Congressman Tim Walz, Congressman Bill Shuster, and
myself and other Members whom you will hear talk about why we feel this
is the path we ought to pursue.
The Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act was developed by
Members who are speaking here today, sitting down and talking to one
another--not by lobbyists. We hammered this plan out over a period of
months, having worked off of previous efforts in legislation that was
introduced in previous Congresses. This is what's needed in Washington,
and unfortunately, too often, it doesn't happen--the art of the
political compromise. These aren't Republican or Democratic ideas,
these are simply good, commonsense ideas that put America's energy
future first.
Time and time again, I see too many Members rising on the House floor
focusing on their talking points, giving the stump speeches. That's
nice, but it doesn't comport with the reality of the challenges we face
today in many instances. This legislation, however, does. Sound bites
like ``drill baby drill'' or ``use it or lose it'' may sound good to
certain constituencies, but I do not believe they constitute an energy
policy.
This legislation, H.R. 1861, constitutes a real energy policy over
the next 20 years. Let me talk about what this measure would do to
enhance our path. First, it would expand domestic energy production on
the Outer Continental Shelf. Secondly, it would advance alternative
energy, including wind, solar, biomass, wave, geothermal, and other
clean alternatives. Third, it would rebuild our Nation's roads,
bridges, dams, water, and sewer systems--that, as Congressman Murphy
indicated today, is estimated to have a pricetag of over $900 billion.
Fourth, it would develop clean coal energy technology, which we have an
abundance of supply in. Fifth, it would develop ways in which we can
finance nuclear energy technologies. Sixth, it would expand the use of
energy-efficiency products and alternative fuel vehicles. Seventh, it
would restore and protect our Nation's wildlife refuges, national
parks, lakes, and waterways.
And how would it do all this? It would help also to assist in paying
off our national debt. Why? Because the funds that we receive for
energy on fossil fuels, both onshore and offshore on federal lands, is
the second-largest single source of revenue that comes to the United
States Treasury outside of the taxes we pay. It's the revenue that we
would derive by expanding energy sources onshore and offshore that
would go to pay for these efforts.
As a nation, we have to work towards a realistic energy policy. Our
economy needs it. We can no longer afford to take any energy sources
off the table. And while we tackle these problems, we have to rebuild
our aging infrastructure. H.R. 1861 does that by dedicating these funds
to that effort without raising taxes. As many of you know, I'm a firm
believer in using all the energy tools in our energy toolbox,
conventional energy together with renewable resources. A strategy for
energy conservation while upgrading our transmission lines will best
serve our long-term energy needs.
In closing, I'd like to continue to work with my colleagues on this
collaboration. As was noted, since our first energy crisis in 1973, we
have had a host of energy plans by previous Congresses and previous
administrations. What's different between this and those efforts? I'll
tell you what's different. We have not had the ability to get together,
in a bipartisan fashion, to agree on one energy policy, stick with it,
and implement it over the next 20 years.
H.R. 1861 allows us the path to do that. I look forward to working
with my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to ensure that, once and for
all, we put America first, put our politics behind us, and introduce--
not only this introduction, but to do everything we can to enact H.R.
1861 both in the House and in the Senate and get this to the
President's desk.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind the Members that
remarks in debate must be addressed to the Chair and not to any
potential viewing audience outside the Chamber.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I would now like to yield to the
gentlelady from West Virginia, Ms. Shelley Moore Capito.
Mrs. CAPITO. I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania
for having this Special Order to discuss two really important issues:
America's energy supply and our transportation infrastructure. And I'm
really pleased that we have a bipartisan group here. We started like
this several years ago. We all kind of closed ourselves into a room,
Members only, to discuss our Nation's great needs. Many of us share the
same types of States, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, where we
know energy production. We know the jobs that it creates, we know how
valuable it is to our country, but we also know that certain parts of
our country are more reliant on certain sources of energy, particularly
a State like mine, and Pennsylvania and Indiana, as well, I believe,
with coal and other fossil fuels.
And so in concern of disadvantaging certain parts of our country
because of our abundance of energy and our reliance on certain
resources, we got together to try to solve some problems. And so H.R.
1861, I think, goes a long way. Mr. Murphy has talked a lot about what
this means in terms of our reliance on foreign sources of oil, he's
talked a lot about the direct translation of energy into jobs.
We share a portion of our States bordering one another where we can
see the energy sector exploding around the Marcellus shale. I'm from
the northern part of West Virginia that borders on the Pennsylvania
area where the shale is most prevalent, and just to see the creation of
not just jobs in that industry, but jobs in the car lots, jobs in the
county courthouse, jobs in the local restaurants and hotels, is
exciting for a downtrodden area of our country. And so we know that
further exploration on our Outer Continental Shelf will explode in
terms of jobs. So he has a bill.
I also have a bill out that has a little bit narrower focus, and it
is H.R. 2983, and I've nicknamed it the REBAR bill. As we all know,
good nicknames for bills are always catchy. My bill has the same
premise, which is maximizing our energy resources in the Outer
Continental Shelf to generate billions of dollars. Mine has a more
narrow focus because of the 9.1 percent unemployment situation that we
find ourselves in right now and in the near future. I focus mostly on,
or exclusively on, really, infrastructure development in terms of roads
and bridges, and then our water and inland waterways. West Virginia
also borders the Ohio River. We've got aging infrastructure. Some of
our locks are over 100 years old. The Inland Waterways Trust Fund
cannot possibly meet the demands of the need that is apparent on our
waterways. We also have large estimates of $930 billion for roads and
bridges. We all know the gas tax is not going to meet this demand. We
have been funding the trust

[[Page H7047]]

fund for our highways for years. In recent years it has been to the
tune of billions of dollars every year to meet the shortfall. States
can't plan, companies can't hire, and equipment makers can't produce.
There's all kinds of stalling that's gone on because of the uncertainty
in our Highway Trust Fund.
We've set up a structure where you have a bill that lasts for 6 years
so that you can plan, so that you can look at the future of all of our
transportation needs. But if we don't fund that, we're not going to go
anywhere, and we're not going to create the jobs that are going to be
immediately created by a good and robust infrastructure bill.
The President talks about infrastructure. Many Members talk about
infrastructure. But the next question doesn't get asked: How are we
going to pay for this? And that's what I think is particularly creative
about this bill, and I would say along the same lines as the bill that
I had put in for consideration.
So I think it's something that obviously crosses party lines. The
urgency is there. The win/win situation for a bill such as this is
apparent on energy production, job creation, and infrastructure
development. Those are the three pillars of a--I'm going to say it's a
three-pronged stool. These are the three pillars that grow from this
act. I think we should act on this. I think we've got critical mass in
this House to be able to push something like this through.

{time} 1610

As a member of the bipartisan energy group, I'm going to keep working
with my fellow colleagues here today to see that we push this forward
and that the American people understand the great importance and the
great future that this will hold in terms of the growth of our country.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlelady from West
Virginia.
I might add, as she was speaking about the Marcellus shale--this vast
natural gas deposit which is underground in the States of New York,
Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and others--I know Pennsylvania has
realized revenues from that in the billions of dollars and direct jobs
of around 50,000. We're already talking about a couple hundred thousand
jobs that can come from this and that we will have the benefits of that
Marcellus shale natural gas over the next 30 years.
I bring that up because, although that is being drilled now and being
brought to market now, it is a tiny, tiny fraction of what we're
talking about in the coastal areas that we will drill in a responsible
way and use to create American jobs. With the many millions of
Americans out of work who want to work and who want good-paying jobs,
we know one of the greatest threats to our country right now is
poverty. The government can't provide all of those. We can let the
private sector grow, and we can let these jobs come through, so we
begin to work on these many areas of rebuilding America.
I would like to turn to one of my colleagues, one of the prime
sponsors of this bill now, to talk more about the issues here, Mr. Tim
Walz of Minnesota.
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. To the gentleman from Pennsylvania, thank you
for your energy, your passion, your vision. Thank you also to all the
folks who've gathered here.
Mr. Speaker, you're witnessing an all too rare event in this House--a
group of bipartisan legislators coming together and working for the
common good and rejecting the politics of division, rejecting the
politics of the false choices--the either/ors--and coming together with
the respect and understanding that this Nation can innovate, can become
energy independent and, at the same time, can protect those vital
natural resources.
You have a spectrum of folks who come from coal-producing West
Virginia, from Pennsylvania, from Indiana, from California, from the
plains of Minnesota. You have Members here who have a wide spectrum of
political beliefs, but you also have folks here who have been in the
business of producing energy, and you've got folks speaking who are
endorsed by groups like the Sierra Club.
Mr. Speaker, this is what the American public is asking for. They're
asking for us to get together, to use our knowledge, to collect
information, to use that data, and to come up with a plan that will do
the things that you've heard talked about here.
The very premise of this is just so simple, which is that this land
is your land. It's the idea with the riches of this land and the
natural resources, if we use them wisely, if we take those revenues and
reinvest, that we can continue to do what we've always done--out-
innovate, out-moving products to market--and do it in a way that
protects and the natural park system that we have in this country. We
can have it both ways if we're smart, but it needs to start here. It
needs to start with a plan.
It makes no sense to anyone I talk to on the plains of southern
Minnesota that we're spending over $1 billion a day and sending it to
countries that hate us. They will hate us for free. We can keep the
money at home, reinvest in the infrastructure, make sure the outdated
locks and dams on the Mississippi are up to where they need to be to
quickly move those farm products from the upper Mississippi down to the
gulf and to the markets around the world. Those things can be done.
You heard each of our Members talk about the idea that we're
reinvesting royalties. This Nation needs to make sure we're more
efficient. We need to conserve on our energy needs, but to do so takes
research; to do so takes investment. We have to upgrade our power grid.
We have to make sure we're using smart grid technology and using the
software and the technologies available to make sure we're using every
bit of energy the most efficiently. We can take these revenues from the
sale of the resources that are there, extract the resources in an
environmentally sound manner, and take those back and put them into the
research, into the infrastructure, into the ability to move forward.
For example, in my district in southern Minnesota, we're very proud.
We're the fourth leading producer of wind energy in this Nation. You
can see the beautiful windmills stretching across there and producing a
large amount of our power. Yet the reality is Minnesota is one of the
most coal-dependent States in the Union because of the nature of where
it's at, so we simultaneously need to make sure we're doing that in the
most efficient, effective, and environmentally sound manner while we're
being realistic about what our power needs are.
This Nation and the world will become energy hungry like it has never
seen as 50 percent more energy will need to be produced by 2025. We
need to be smart on how we do it. The country that harnesses the
innovation, that harnesses the ability to be energy independent will
lead into the future. We can't afford to fall behind. We can't afford
to allow the resources we've been blessed with to be squandered and not
used and invested for our children's future.
So I have to tell you, as this has been worked on, to me, one of the
most reassuring things about our great democracy is how this committee
and this bipartisan Energy Working Group have gotten together outside
the constraints of existing politics, outside the constraints of
existing committees and has brought Members--new Members, seasoned
Members, more liberal Members, more conservative Members--with a very
clear idea: making sure that we use our resources effectively, become
more energy independent, diversify our energy portfolio, and do so
without raising a single tax; and making sure our infrastructure is
modern, making sure it is efficient and effective and, in the long run,
making us more competitive. So there are jobs that will be created by
this; there is the ability to pay down the deficit that will be created
by this; and there is a sense of pride that we will have as a Nation.

Back in March, President Obama challenged us to reduce our oil
imports by a third over the next 10 years. To meet that challenge,
there is only one plan sitting on the table right now that has the
ability to do that, which is this piece of legislation. I have to say
it's very gratifying to work on this. I very much feel that the
American people are hungry for a bipartisan, commonsense ability to
compromise where we need to, that there is the ability to bring the
right research to bear and the ability to inspire the American
innovative

[[Page H7048]]

spirit to get there and to do so with a set outcome.
This is real. This isn't talk. This isn't like, oh, we should become
energy independent. I hear a lot of people complain about coal all the
time. The reality of the matter is, if you're here today and
complaining about coal, we need to turn the lights and the microphones
off because they're being powered by that. Without another solution to
that, we're not going to get any closer to what we'd like to see--
affordable, clean American energy that is powering our businesses and
powering our homes.
As the gentleman said, this isn't just an American Dream. This could
become an American reality, and it could start as soon as we get this
thing moved through.
So, again, to my colleagues, I thank you for putting the energy and
the effort into this. I thank the gentleman for continuing to hold us
together. I thank him for being ahead of the curve as this group has
been for the past several years. As for the American public, we're
getting right in lockstep with them as to what they want to see us do.
So I encourage my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, and their constituents to
continue to engage in this and to talk to their Representatives about
becoming part of this group. If you're really tired of the bickering
and if you're really tired of the gridlock and if you're really tired
of our not spending our money at home on our energy and on our ability
to create jobs here, this is your solution, and you've got a spectrum
of folks. It isn't a Democratic issue. It's not a Republican issue.
To the gentleman from Pennsylvania, I have great appreciation for the
work that you're doing.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for
his comments.
As he was describing the issue about making sure that we clean up our
environment, the reason is that this bill pays for those things.
We know, for example, that the waterways just in the Great Lakes
alone is a $30 billion problem with regard to pollution that has to be
cleaned up. We know of our coal-fired power plants that 40 percent of
them have inadequate or no scrubbers, and we need to clean them up.
The point is that shutting them down is not going to reduce the cost
of electricity, and it's not going to clean up the environment when
those jobs simply go over to other countries where they do
manufacturing with little or no pollution controls because that still
comes back over to our Nation. Keep in mind that this bill does not
raise taxes, that it doesn't borrow from other countries, that it
doesn't buy oil from OPEC, and that it doesn't put us more into debt.
I will yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), but I
first want to yield to another gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Pat
Meehan, who is one of our new colleagues here, to also comment on this
bill.
Mr. MEEHAN. I rise in support of the Infrastructure Jobs and Energy
Independence Act. Let me first just start with the element of process
because I want to follow up on what the gentleman from Minnesota was so
articulate in explaining.
On the merits, we can speak to why this is right for America, but
today we're seeing scrutiny of the inability of the Congress to come
together with commonsense solutions that address the real needs of the
American people today and that will help us put people back to work
today. Right before us here, we have just such a bill--one that enjoys
bipartisan support in which you have leadership from both sides
identifying the ability for us to use existing resources. Much like the
way today we use the tax on gas, this allows us to generate the revenue
to support the creation of a real commitment to infrastructure.

{time} 1620

As a member of the Transportation Committee, I struggle with the
reality of the tremendous challenges we have from bridges to roads to
waterways across the Nation.
We have an opportunity to address that need. We have an opportunity
to do it without having to continue the greatest wealth transfer in the
history of America, which is the petro dollars we are spending to
foreign nations. It is time for us to join together and support the
Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
What he is referring to also is taking care of our infrastructure,
which has aged so much, and it's just a massive problem. I know it is
something that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is
committed to finding some solutions.
I now yield to Congressman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, one of the
great leaders of this effort. I am proud that he's a colleague from
Pennsylvania, and his commitment is second to none with trying to find
some solutions to rebuild America.
Mr. SHUSTER. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania. Thank you for
bringing us all together here on the floor this evening to talk about
such an important issue and an important bipartisan piece of
legislation.
H.R. 1861, the Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act, is a
bill whose time has come. We came together, Republicans and Democrats,
to figure out ways to find the funds without raising taxes to invest in
America's infrastructure. And this bill does that from investing in
clean energy, rebuilding America's aging locks, dams, bridges and
roads, creating jobs which, of course, all the American people are very
focused on; and this bill will do just that.
It invests in cleaning up our environment and it, again, has one of
the largest infrastructure investments in the history of the United
States. With this bill we can do that and, again, it doesn't raise
taxes. Opening up our offshore resources and bringing that energy to
bear to make us less energy independent is absolutely critical.
In Pennsylvania we know firsthand with the Marcellus shale gas play
that's there. It gives Pennsylvania a second chance, a second chance to
revitalize our economy in Pennsylvania and once again become one of the
driving States in the economy of the United States of America. So we
know that firsthand, and it was Pennsylvania 150 years ago with its
coal and its oil that was found there that made Pennsylvania so key in
the growing and the building up of America.
I want to focus on the funding that would go towards transportation,
and my colleague has a great visual aid up there talking about the
needs, almost a trillion dollars we need to invest over the next 15, 20
years in our roads and bridges. Aviation, $87 billion; our dams are
very much in need; sewer and water, we have about a $300 billion
backlog across this country to rebuild the infrastructure, to get rid
of sewage waste and make sure we have clean drinking water; $5 billion
in inland waterways and locks and dams, which are so critical.
This country grew up, became a power because of our waterways and
able to move goods at a very inexpensive rate. We need to revitalize
those to continue to use those waterways that we have naturally. But it
takes money to rebuild those locks and dams.
When you look around America, I think everybody has driven across a
pothole or sees a bridge that's crumbling or many of us live with
tremendous congestion and, in fact, the congestion is crippling
America. It costs American commuters approximately $115 billion a year
because of wasted time and fuel, and those numbers continue to rise;
4.8 billion hours per year Americans are stuck in traffic. We have to
find out a way to reinvest in the infrastructure that's made our
country.
When you talk about trade, how can you talk about trade and
increasing trade if you can't figure out how to get those bulldozers,
those Caterpillar tractors that are going to be shipped overseas. If
you can't get them from Peoria, Illinois, to the ports of Philadelphia
and the ports of Los Angeles to send them over there, they're going to
sit in those yards.
We've got to figure out a way to get commerce, not only in foreign
markets, but also it's coming into this country. It's the
transportation system that's absolutely vital to that.
Today we currently are spending about $44 billion on our
transportation system, highways, bridges, transit systems, when we
actually should be spending at the Federal level about $62

[[Page H7049]]

billion. That number is going down because of our budget constraints.
So we have got to find new revenues, and Congressman Murphy's H.R.
1861, this plan that we support in a bipartisan way, is going to do
just that, get the funds to be able to invest in our infrastructure.
Our infrastructure, by the way, when you look back to the
Constitution of the United States, a lot of people say, well,
government shouldn't be investing in a lot of things. And I agree,
there's a lot of things we do in Washington, DC we shouldn't be
investing in; but transportation is not one of those.
From the time of our Founding Fathers in article I of the
Constitution, it talks about the Federal Government regulating commerce
with foreign nations and among the several States regulating and
encouraging commerce to build post offices and post roads. The post
roads of the 1800s are the highways and byways of today.
This Nation wouldn't be the great Nation it was if it weren't
connected. And James Madison, the Father of the Constitution said:
``The power of establishing post roads must, in every view, be a
harmless power, and may, perhaps, be judicious management, become
productive of great public conveniency. Nothing which tends to
facilitate the intercourse between the States can be deemed unworthy of
the public care.'' Madison made that argument.
Also early on in our history, under the Jefferson administration,
they authorized the building, 100 percent Federal dollars, of Route 40,
which went from Baltimore into the Ohio territory. They authorized it
under Jefferson, and the construction was completed under Madison. It
opened up the territory, the Ohio Territory, to be able to produce
commerce and prosperity to America. So early on in our Nation, the
Founding Fathers knew the importance of our waterways, of building
roads, of connecting this country.

And I on this side of the aisle can proudly say that it's been a
Republican tradition in the United States Government and the United
States Congress. Abraham Lincoln built the transcontinental railroad,
not in the middle of a recession, but in the middle of the great Civil
War.
He knew how important it was to connect America, to make sure that we
move commerce in an efficient way and a safe way. From there, Teddy
Roosevelt building the Panama Canal, which connected the two coasts
together by water, extremely important for us to become an
international power in commerce and in trade.
And then, of course, Eisenhower coming back from World War II, seeing
what the Germans did with being able to move their troops around, had
the idea that not only would it be good for America's security, but it
would be good for America's commerce to connect this country. And
that's exactly what he went about doing in the 1950s: we built the
interstate highway system.
I have talked to many of my colleagues that have said the roads have
been built, we don't need to spend on them. But they're crumbling; they
need to be rebuilt. And one of the facts that I think we all ought to
remember, it took us 65 years to go from 200 million to 300 million
people, and we crossed that threshold in about 2005 or 2006. It's only
going to take us 30-some years to go from 300 million to 400 million.
This Nation is going to continue to grow. We've got to be able to
move people; we've got to be able to move our products throughout this
country, to the ports to be able to trade globally. So this is
something that has to become a national priority.
I believe that this bill, 1861, will help it to become a reality with
the funding levels needed to invest in our transportation system.
Again, you invest in transportation, you can see the return on
investment, whether it's economic development or jobs created in the
short term from building it or the long term and the commerce that it
produces and the efficiencies that it allows our businesses to have.
Again, I thank the gentleman for bringing us together on a bipartisan
basis. I would hope that more of our Members would sign up for this
bill so we can push it to the finish line.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for
his comments and in helping to lay out how we need to lay out America's
infrastructure, clean up our environment and do this without raising
taxes, borrowing, or buying more from OPEC.
I now yield to another one of the cosponsors and another
Pennsylvanian whose district is just north of mine, Mr. Jason Altmire.

{time} 1630

Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
Mr. Speaker, we should do this more often, have a bipartisan
discussion on the floor. We have debates. We have bipartisan
interaction, but we don't have this type of situation occur very often
where we have Members from all across the country, from all political
points of view that have come together in support of a piece of
legislation that is going to impact the country. It's going to impact
all of our districts. There is no district in the country that is not
going to see a positive benefit from the legislation that we are
discussing here today, H.R. 1861.
When I'm home, I hear from constituents all the time about
infrastructure. And in southwestern Pennsylvania, we have 1,000
structurally deficient bridges. We have roads that are in great need of
modernization and improvement, and we need to invest in our locks and
dams. The district that I represent along two different rivers in
southwestern Pennsylvania has six locks and dams that average more than
84 years old, and they're crumbling and they need help.
We have a discussion every day in this Congress about the importance
of Federal investment and the wisest use of money and taxpayer funds. I
can't think of anything that we could be doing in this country that's
more important domestically than improving our infrastructure, than
repairing our roads and bridges, our locks and dams, our airports.
The waterways commerce that has been discussed here tonight means
billions of dollars in southwestern Pennsylvania, and it's critically
important for the entire country. Our roads and bridges need to be
repaired. I talked about the thousand bridges in southwestern
Pennsylvania. We have 6,000 just in Pennsylvania as a State that are in
need of repair. So this bill takes a critical step in answering the
fundamental question that we all deal with every day. That's great,
I'll hear, that's fine. We need to improve our infrastructure, but
where's the money going to come from? Where are we going to get the
funds to do this investment? Hundreds of billions of dollars are
required to complete or even make a dent in the work that needs to be
done with the infrastructure in this country. How are we going to pay
for it?
Well, currently we have a Federal highway trust fund that's 18.4
cents per gallon of gas purchased in the country. That trust fund
annually runs out of money before the end of the fiscal year. Every
year we find ourselves scrambling just to maintain our current
infrastructure.
What the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) has done in
introducing H.R. 1861 is come up with an alternative source of revenue
that does not include raising taxes. It does not include finding
revenue from some other program or transferring funds from some other
priority for the country. It increases the amount of money that's
available by doing something that I think we all agree we need to do in
this country and that's explore our own domestic resources for energy,
because if there is any issue that I hear about as often or more often
than transportation infrastructure, it's energy. It's this country's
energy resources and why aren't we tapping into our own reserves and
why aren't we exploiting the use of coal and natural gas and in this
case offshore drilling to increase our domestic energy supply.
We have had many discussions and will in the future on this floor
about the necessity of getting ourselves off foreign oil, of increasing
our domestic energy reserves. And what this legislation does is
increase the supply of our own domestic resources, yes, which is
critically important; but it then takes the royalties, it takes the
money that is generated from that and applies it to our much needed
infrastructure repair.
So what does this bill do? This bill expands offshore drilling and
uses the

[[Page H7050]]

permit and royalty revenue to fund the infrastructure improvements and
clean energy technology--solar, wind, hydro--the things that everybody
in this country wants to support, but there hasn't been the money to
maintain and upgrade that technology and do the innovations that are
necessary in the future.
The revenue goes towards repairing roads, bridges, locks and dams,
developing that renewable energy structure, developing clean coal
technology, and improving nuclear technology. Twenty percent of the
domestic energy supply with electricity comes from the nuclear
technologies, and it helps develop alternative fuel vehicles. I hear
all the time the internal combustion engine is a century-old-plus
technology.
With all of these wonderful things that we have done in this country,
can't we find a way to make a car run on something other than gasoline?
It seems like something we should have done a long time ago. We haven't
done it yet. We're making progress. This bill helps us get there,
whatever that technology may be, whether it be electric, natural gas;
some advocate hydrogen. But it does the R&D that's necessary to pursue
those technologies. And 10 percent of the drilling revenues are set
aside to pay down the national debt. Nobody can argue with that. So it
creates a new pot of money that doesn't exist currently that's going to
be used to pay down our debt, expand our energy resources, and repair
our roads and bridges and our locks and dams.
I just can't imagine there is a more worthwhile piece of legislation
and a piece of legislation that impacts everybody in a greater way in
this Congress. So I would say to my friend from Pennsylvania, thank you
for your leadership on this issue. And to the Members from across the
country who have spoken here tonight, I hope that is a message not only
to this Congress but to the entire country that, yes, we can come
together as a Congress. There are things that we agree with on a
bipartisan basis; there are things that we can do to improve the
financial situation in this country, to improve our roads and bridges,
to get ourselves off of our dependence on foreign oil, and to cultivate
our own domestic resources. And we are going to get this done.
I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania
for his support and insight into this.
Several of my colleagues have noted that this is a rare moment on the
House floor. We actually have people from both sides of the aisle
coming together during this Special Order hour, Mr. Speaker, and
talking about an issue where we have to find agreement.
Now, if this was one of those times when we were in disagreement and
insults were being hurled back and forth, the galleries behind me would
be filled with the press reporting on this. Probably this Special Order
won't be reported on much at all because Members are actually coming
together with a common plan and a common goal to say we recognize we
need jobs, we need to clean up our environment, we need to have an
energy source, we need to do this without debt. And as my colleague
from Pennsylvania just pointed out, this bill actually returns money to
the Treasury and helps reduce the debt by a percent every year.
I might also add, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, talked
about this concept of using energy to pay for transportation when he
said on September 15 in an address in front of the Economic Club of
Washington, D.C., he said the following:
I'm not opposed to responsible spending to repair and improve
infrastructure. But if we want to do it in a way that truly supports
long-term economic growth and job creation, let's link the next highway
bill to an expansion of American-made energy production. Removing some
of the unnecessary government barriers that prevent our country from
utilizing its vast energy resources could create millions of new jobs.
There's a natural link between the two. As we develop new sources of
American energy, we're going to need modern infrastructure to bring
that energy to market.
Talking more about this bill and issues and how this will help us
throughout the Nation, I turn to another one of my colleagues from
Pennsylvania who's here, Mike Fitzpatrick.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for his
leadership on this legislation. I think you are absolutely right that
this is a bipartisan moment here in the House, Members from both sides
of the aisle coming together around a common goal. Many from
Pennsylvania recognize that if this bill becomes law, it would be not
just great for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but we'll see jobs
created in the private sector, and it'll be good for our great Nation.
So I rise in support of one of the few bipartisan plans for energy
independence, job creation and infrastructure investment, the bill H.R.
1861.
I'm a proud cosponsor of this legislation because it addresses
America's energy problems. It puts in place a plan to start rebuilding
our country's aging infrastructure. And, most importantly, it creates
American jobs. From the gas pump to electric bills, increased energy
costs are straining American families and hurting American businesses.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has projected that the cost
of heating our homes and offices will undoubtedly rise this winter.
Bernard Crandley, Bill Edmonds, and Richard Barkman, constituents of
mine from the Eighth District of Pennsylvania, have recently contacted
me and shared their concerns with these increased costs as winter
approaches. In just the last 2 years, families are spending over $2,000
more on fueling their cars. Moreover, the population of the United
States continues to soar above 300 million, which means that traffic
congestion will only get worse, especially in our area, the
northeastern section of the United States. The 2009 Urban Mobility
Report finds that traffic congestion in the top 437 urban areas
resulted in major choke points and bottlenecks, causing Americans to
lose 4.2 billion hours and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel sitting in
traffic jams.

{time} 1640

Congestion hinders our progress in improving air quality, as vehicles
caught in stop-and-go traffic emit far more pollutants than they do
when operating without frequent breaking and acceleration. This means
that our energy costs will only continue to rise.
The focus in Washington over the last several months has been our
Nation's $14.8 trillion debt and the growing annual deficit. The
current magnitude of our debt crisis has forced us to address these
concerns with a renewed sense of urgency. Our national debt is growing
at nearly $60,000 per second; and with each second that passes, our
children and grandchildren inherit more of this burden.
Of course, the issue of our Nation's fiscal health and job creation
go hand in hand. With unemployment hovering steadily at 9 percent
nationwide and our manufacturing sector waning, the number one issue at
hand now is how to put people back to work. At town hall meetings
across the Eighth District of Pennsylvania, I have been listening to
thousands of people, including small business owners, unemployed
workers, and families struggling to make ends meet. The consistent
message is that Washington must provide certainty and stability before
our economy can begin to grow again and start adding new family-
sustaining and good-paying jobs.
H.R. 1861 provides solutions to these problems in several ways.
First, it addresses the need to lower energy costs by authorizing the
responsible and environmentally sound leasing of Federal lands on the
Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas exploration. The U.S.
Department of the Interior estimates that we have between 86 billion
and 115 billion barrels available off our shores. This is enough oil
and gas to replace imports from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for the next
80 years.
In addition to oil and gas exploration, the bill would invest in
energy efficiency for our buildings and factories, which waste between
20 and 40 percent of the energy that they consume, and invest in
renewable and alternative energy sources and technologies like
responsible wind power, solar, hydrogen fuel cells, and electric
vehicles.
H.R. 1861 moves us toward energy independence without paying hundreds
of dollars per barrel of oil to OPEC and other hostile countries,
spending billions daily on importing foreign oil,

[[Page H7051]]

raising taxes, or increasing our national debt to China and elsewhere.
Second, this bill would take billions in proceeds from these drilling
leases and directly fund much needed construction and infrastructure
projects. In my home State of Pennsylvania, our infrastructure is in
desperate need of repair. We have bridges and roads that date back to
the Civil War, and traffic congestion is a daily hassle. There is near
unanimous agreement that we must invest in our Nation's infrastructure,
but the question remains of how to pay for it. The President and some
Democrats in Congress have suggested that we use taxpayer dollars in
the form of a second stimulus package. This bill funds infrastructure
investment using private sector dollars, not taxpayer money or borrowed
Chinese dollars. This innovative approach will allow for the private
sector to help fund our recovery without adding to the deficit.
And most importantly, H.R. 1861 would put countless Americans back to
work. Offshore oil exploration is estimated to create 1.2 million
quality jobs annually, and for every $1 billion invested in our
infrastructure, an estimated 30,000 good-paying, long-term jobs are
created for contractors, construction workers, engineers, steelworkers,
building trades, and others.
Since the beginning, I have made jobs my top priority, supporting
legislation designed to incentivize hiring and create an atmosphere
where small businesses will grow. I welcome President Obama's recent
entrance into the work already being done by the House of
Representatives to address the unacceptably high unemployment rate. It
is important that Congress put aside partisan politics and put America
back on the track to prosperity. I call on the Senate and the President
to pass the jobs bill that the House of Representatives has already
passed with bipartisan support.
As the Congress debates various methods of economic growth and job
creation in the coming weeks, I'm hopeful that we will take an approach
which incorporates the common sense outlined in this bill. Doing so
will require a spirit of bipartisan cooperation to be successful. It
will not be easy, but I will continue to focus my energy on creating a
strong American economy and a brighter future for our children and our
grandchildren.
I thank my friend from Pennsylvania.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Joe
Donnelly.
Mr. DONNELLY of Indiana. I thank my esteemed colleague, who also
serves in the Naval Reserves. We thank you for your service to our
country in that role as well.
This is an extraordinary bill that is about jobs, jobs, jobs, energy
independence, and a stronger America. It cuts across party lines and
solves so many problems that we face, including assisting in bringing
our deficit down. It is a commonsense piece of legislation that puts
the United States first.
We have vast energy resources, and we should be utilizing them.
Instead of sending $500 billion a year overseas to other countries
that, as my friend from Minnesota said, we don't have to pay them to
make sure they like us, they'll just not like us without any payment at
all, what we need to do is stand up for America, to not worry about
whether or not we can keep other countries happy in order to obtain
their oil.
We need to stand up for America--our own natural gas, our own
ethanol, our own biodiesel, our own nuclear, our own wind, our own
solar. In doing that in all of these areas, you put other people to
work. In the steel mills of northern Indiana, where I live, these mills
are pumping out product for the oil patch. They're pumping out product
to make the wind turbines. Across the board, you see jobs created in
Indiana. But that applies to all 50 States.

You have almost a trillion dollars for roads and bridges that will be
built throughout our country. And when you look at this, this answers
the call. When folks say how can we get America to work together, how
can we get America to stands up for itself, this answers the call:
people going back to work; the deficit being reduced; manufacturing
here in the United States. Across the board, it strengthens our Nation.
So instead of wondering about how we can move forward, we have an
answer as to how to do that.
I'm thrilled to be working with my colleagues to work together to
strengthen our Nation, to reduce our deficit, to make it in America,
and to become energy independent. We have enough natural gas in this
country--just natural gas alone--to run our vehicles for the next
hundred years. If we go across the spectrum, we can create incredible
wealth and an incredible future for our Nation.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman from Indiana.
I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. I thank the gentleman. I thank all the
speakers today.
Mr. Speaker, you just witnessed something--an hour-long discussion on
energy policy that did not demonize producers of energy and did not
demonize conservation groups, did not point out problems on the other
side and did not become political. It put out solutions, answers that
are workable, backed by facts and ready to be implemented.
We can do this. The American people deserve us to do exactly this. I
encourage you and everyone in this Chamber to get behind this.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank all the speakers today.
Let me wrap up by saying this. In Pennsylvania, we're coal country;
we're natural gas; we're the headquarters of nuclear; and we recognize
we have a responsibility as a Nation to take care of our country and be
good stewards of our environment. We also have to make sure we are
creating jobs in America.
But I want to tell you something else. While people are out there
criticizing oil, I still believe we can do it better. And one of the
things to keep in mind is, when we're sending $129 billion in foreign
aid every year to OPEC, we're paying for their bridges and their
highways; and that OPEC money has a way of finding its way to countries
like Iran and using that to fund terrorists who are attacking America,
hurting our soldiers and maiming them. I've seen enough of them in the
hospitals that I work with in the Navy.
Let me tell you, that alone, Mr. Speaker, is reason to pass a bill
like this and stop harming our soldiers and our citizens in paying for
terrorism. Instead, let's pass the Infrastructure Jobs and Energy
Independence Act. Let's keep our money at home; let's create jobs;
let's keep America safe; and let's do this right.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

____________________