[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 113 (Thursday, August 1, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NATION-BUILDING AT HOME

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, last week I met with Rich Lowry, the editor 
of the National Review, whose new book, ``Lincoln Unbound,'' urges the 
Republican Party to embrace an aspirational agenda of Abraham Lincoln, 
who led an ambitious program of rail and canal construction.
  His book calls to mind the words of Sheila Bair, a George W. Bush 
administration official, who, in February, urged her fellow Republicans 
to remember that, from Lincoln's transcontinental railroad to 
Eisenhower's highway system, Republicans have understood that investing 
in critical infrastructure projects creates jobs and expands the 
economy.
  Yet the appropriations bill that was on the floor this week would 
have cut $2 billion from the Department of Transportation. It was a 
total rejection of the Lincoln-Eisenhower tradition.
  We have spent $87 billion rebuilding the infrastructure of 
Afghanistan and just approved $5 billion more. According to the United 
States inspector general, supporters of the Taliban and al Qaeda are 
getting the contracts and ``far too much will be wasted'' due to 
insufficient oversight.
  This, Mr. Speaker, is appalling, and it's time to do nation-building 
right here at home.

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