[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 106 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H4860-H4861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         BURDENING FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH DEFERRED MAINTENANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, CBO's May report shows the deficit has 
dropped another $220 billion. The Federal deficit continues to fall 
faster now than it has since post-World War II demobilization in the 
late forties and early fifties.
  Earlier this month, OMB released its mid-session review that 
estimates deficits will be reduced to below 3 percent of GDP by 2017, 
and will continue to fall, reaching 2 percent by 2023. This recent good 
news hasn't eliminated the need to address our long-term fiscal crisis, 
but it has created some breathing space for us to renew our investments 
in America.
  We're now 5 years removed from the financial crisis, and have yet to 
demonstrate an ability to balance competing needs between the long-term 
deficit reduction need and investments in the future that made America 
great. House Republicans have been obsessed by the debt, but struggle 
to recognize any need for investment in education, R&D, and 
infrastructure.
  A few weeks ago, Larry Summers best summarized our predicament when 
he said:

       Just as you burden future generations when you accumulate 
     debt, you also burden future generations when you defer 
     maintenance.

  Given the current market, we're refusing to maintain our 
infrastructure at a time when investors are literally throwing money at 
us. To be clear, yields on the 5-, 7-, and 10-year Treasuries have been 
negative for the past 2 years. This past month, we've witnessed a rate 
jump as markets fret about QE3, yet real Treasury yields still remain 
below 1 percent. When accounting for inflation, rates have not been 
this low for many, many decades.
  Republicans look the other way when it comes to this question, and 
I'm shocked that my colleagues who persistently say we ought to run the 
government like a business have so little interest in taking advantage 
of one of our generation's great opportunities in financing investment 
for the future. This is a far cry from the party of Lincoln that 
invested in the Homestead Act, invested in the Transcontinental 
Railroad, or Eisenhower's interstate highway system.
  Unfortunately, Congress continues to fiddle while Rome burns. Two 
months ago, the I-5 bridge collapsed in the State of Washington. It was 
a miracle nobody died considering that 71,000 vehicles a day use that 
critical connection, the main route connecting Seattle to British 
Columbia.

                              {time}  1015

  According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, my own State of 
Virginia has 3,500, nearly one in four

[[Page H4861]]

bridges, that are either structurally deficient or functionally 
obsolete; and we're not unique in America.
  In addition, many of the country's water mains and pipes are more 
than 100 years old. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates 
it will take $298 billion over the next 20 years to fix this situation. 
Otherwise, many Americans are going to get wastewater when they turn on 
their faucets.
  More than 100,000 residents of the National Capital region learned 
this the hard way just a week ago when, because of lack of 
infrastructure, lack of infrastructure maintenance, they almost went 
without water.
  Our choices not to invest in maintaining the critical infrastructure 
and the backbone of our economy is putting America at a competitive 
disadvantage in the next century. The Panama Canal, for example, its 
expansion will be completed in 2015, radically altering global trade 
capacity throughout the world. Yet the east coast will have only four 
ports capable of receiving the new post-Panamax ships.
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports these new ships will make up 
62 percent of total container ship capacity in the world by 2030. Right 
now, China and Korea not only surpass the United States in this 
capacity; they lead in terms of container traffic as well. This didn't 
happen by accident. They invested.
  Mr. Speaker, there's no doubt that leaving our grandchildren with 
unsustainable debt is irresponsible. But what are they to think when 
they look back and realize we left them with a Nation of potholes, 
contaminated water, and crumbling bridges?
  Our global competitors aren't waiting around for things to pick up 
here in America. They're actively investing in infrastructure to gain 
ground in the hopes of overtaking us in global competition. The Chinese 
spend billions on ports, rail, and highways; and they're not alone.
  It's time to turn our attention back to the seemingly unglamorous, 
but critical, business of fixing America's infrastructure--our roads, 
our ports, our airports, our bridges and our water systems--to ensure 
for future generations America stays strong.

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