[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 172 (Thursday, December 1, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H7063-H7064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         PAYING FOR INFRASTRUCTURE WITHOUT SOAKING THE TAXPAYER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, President-elect Trump has many difficult 
tasks ahead--one of which is to promote long overdue infrastructure 
construction at a time when the national debt exceeds our entire 
economy and interest costs alone are eating us alive. Now, some have 
said that a rebounding economy resulting from tax reform can pay for 
it. Well, that may be, but it is not guaranteed, it cannot be 
accurately forecasted, and we will need any new revenues to beef up our 
defenses and reduce our deficit--two other critical objectives of the 
new administration.
  Others have proposed tax credits to leverage private capital for 
infrastructure improvements. But tax credits reduce revenue and widen 
the deficit. Worse, such public-private partnerships have proven a 
fertile breeding ground for corruption, crony capitalism, waste, and 
fraud; and as we learned during the Obama stimulus fiasco, massive 
government spending might stimulate government, but it does little to 
stimulate the economy when it is squandered for boondoggles like 
subsidizing Solyndra and paying cash for clunkers.
  So how do we avoid mistakes of the past, control the deficit, protect 
taxpayers, and yet add $1 trillion of new infrastructure in a way that 
helps the economy and not just lines the pockets of politically well-
connected interests?
  First, get government out of the way. Stop obstructing major 
infrastructure projects like the Keystone Pipeline. Keystone and many 
other projects like it across the country already have private capital 
ready to finance them. Keystone by itself would unleash an estimated $8 
billion of privately financed infrastructure construction, and when 
complete, would mean a half million barrels a day of Canadian crude oil 
entering U.S. markets.
  In my district alone, one abusive official at the Sacramento office 
of the Army Corps of Engineers single-handedly blocked tens of millions 
of dollars of critical infrastructure construction desperately sought 
by local governments in the region. Multiply that across the country, 
and you can see how many infrastructure projects already are financed 
but cannot move forward because of Federal obstructionism.
  Second, streamline radical regulations that have made many 
infrastructure projects cost-prohibitive. In my district, the little 
town of Foresthill gets its water from the Sugar Pine Reservoir, formed 
by a dam that has an 18-foot spillway, but no spillway gate. The town 
is trying to increase the reservoir's capacity by adding the missing 
gate. The gate will cost $2 million, but environmental studies, 
environmental litigation, and U.S. Forest Service fees have inflated 
that cost to $11 million. So this project has stalled. Multibillion 
dollar expansion of Shasta Dam is stalled for similar reasons. Once 
again, multiply this across the rest of the country.
  Third, use revenue bonds to finance capital-intensive projects like 
dams and bridges. California built its iconic Golden Gate and Bay 
Bridges with loans from private investors--repaid by tolls that were 
charged only to the users of the bridges. The taxpayers were never on 
the hook for a dime, and the loans were paid back ahead of schedule.

[[Page H7064]]

  The famous California State Water Project constructed 21 dams and 
more than 700 miles of canals. The revenue bonds and self-liquidating 
general obligation bonds that financed it were paid back not by general 
taxpayers, but by the users of the water and power.
  Fourth, restore the integrity of our highway trust fund. We built the 
modern interstate system with the Federal excise tax paid by highway 
users at the gas pump. The more you drove, the more you paid for the 
roads you were using. But over the decades, more and more of these 
funds were bled away to subsidize mass transit and other purposes 
unrelated to highway construction. Restoring highway taxes for highways 
would go a long way toward addressing the maintenance and construction 
backlog.
  Fifth, repeal the outdated Davis-Bacon Act that requires Federal 
projects to pay grossly inflated wages. Think tanks like The Heritage 
Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimate that 
Davis-Bacon alone inflates total construction costs by roughly 10 
percent. That means that just repealing this single act would add one 
new project for every 10 existing ones at no additional cost.
  These are just a few of the ways that massive infrastructure projects 
can be financed at zero cost to general taxpayers; and because these 
reforms are actually directed at projects for which there is a 
demonstrated economic need, political favoritism and corruption 
inherent in government-directed programs can be greatly reduced.
  Mr. Speaker, freedom works; and it is time that we put it and America 
back to work.

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