[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 21, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICA'S FAILING INFRASTRUCTURE

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, on Monday a bridge collapsed in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, killing one person and injuring another. This tragedy calls to 
mind the collapse of the Schoharie Creek Bridge in New York in 1987, 
which killed 10 people, and the collapse of the I-35 West bridge in 
Minneapolis in 2007, which left 13 dead.
  I don't know if more transportation funding would have prevented 
these collapses, but I do know that every second of every day seven 
cars drive on a bridge that is structurally deficient. There are 69,000 
structurally deficient bridges in the Nation; there are over 99 
structurally deficient bridges in western New York alone. These numbers 
are unacceptable. Congress is failing the American people by failing to 
address this issue.
  Last night we heard from the President a plan to increase funding for 
infrastructure. That is a start, but I say we can and must do more. I 
encourage my colleagues to pass an infrastructure bill that is large 
enough to address the real needs of this Nation.

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