[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.

                          ____________________