[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 69 (Thursday, May 8, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H3945-H3946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, later today, the Republicans, in violation 
of their own rules, are going to push through a permanent extension of 
research and development tax credits, at a cost of $16 billion a year. 
That is another $16 billion a year of deficit to be added to the 
national debt--over the next 10 years, $160 billion.
  Now, that is not to say that research and development tax credits 
don't have tremendous merit. They can do a great deal to encourage 
American innovation and research, new design, development. They can 
boost our economy. They can help our international competitiveness.
  Sure, they, among many other programs and many other investments, are 
and can be good for the economy; but they are going to violate, waive 
their own rules, and say: we are not going to pay for it, we are just 
going to magically fund it, and don't worry about the new debt and 
deficit.
  Now, the Senate has passed a different version. They have 62 
provisions in their bill, which include energy efficiency, saving 
consumers money, new R&D for solar and wind, alternate fuels, among 
many, many other things that they put in there, that they think also 
have merit to help consumers, help boost the American economy.
  The Republicans over here say: no, those other 61 are off the table, 
unless you kill or cut some other program. We can't afford them.

[[Page H3946]]

  Then there is another issue that also comes to the floor. We had, 
this week, testimony from the Congressional Budget Office. The highway 
trust fund goes flat this summer. That means the Federal Government, 
beginning this summer, will make no new commitments to the States for 
repairing the 140,000 bridges on the national system that need repair 
or replacement, repairing or replacing the 40 percent of the national 
highway system that is in very sad repair, the $60 billion backlog in 
our transit.
  Nope, we can't afford a penny of that. In fact, the Ryan budget says 
we are going to abandon--abandon--Federal investment in the national 
transportation system, and we are going to devolve it to the States. 
The States will fund, pay for, and somehow coordinate a national 
transportation system because we simply can't afford it.
  Well, oddly enough, the shortfall in the trust fund is $16 billion a 
year. That is the exact cost of the R&D tax credits.
  Why can't they wave their magic wand and say, well, hey, a million 
direct jobs and a couple million more indirect jobs in transportation, 
not only in construction, but in design, engineering, in manufacturing 
and research, we don't want to lose those?
  We are not talking about maybe keeping or getting a few jobs. We are 
talking about losing well over a million direct jobs and a couple more 
million indirect jobs in the area of transportation, but their magic 
wand doesn't work for transportation.
  Now, there could be a lot of cynical reasons for why they are just 
pushing this one R&D proposal. It probably doesn't have anything to do 
with campaign contributions or powerful interests that are out there. I 
am sure it doesn't.
  One has got to wonder: Why is transportation--national 
transportation--old hat and unaffordable, but R&D, somehow wave the 
magic wand, and we can afford it?
  Now, I was conflicted at coming here this morning because, at the 
same time, one of the greatest advocates that this body has ever had 
for national transportation, James L. Oberstar, died suddenly the other 
night.
  I thought Jim would--rather than having me go up to his memorial 
service today, he would rather have me come to the floor and advocate 
for something he believed in and knew was essential for the future of 
this country, which is adequate investment in our system, a coordinated 
national system of transportation and infrastructure, an energy-
efficient, 21st century system, and a repair to our 20th century 
system.
  That is what we need. No more of these political shenanigans on the 
Republican side. Let's get serious about real investments and putting 
America bact to work.

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