[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 18 (Thursday, February 2, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ACTING ON AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, last week, President Trump traveled to 
Philadelphia to address the Republican Conference. He talked about his 
pledge to spend $1 trillion on our crumbling infrastructure, and he 
expressed frustration that it is not part of the first 100 days' agenda 
of the Republican leadership. I share that frustration. It is never on 
the agenda for the Republican leadership to invest in American 
infrastructure.
  We did manage to pass a bill through the last Congress--the FAST 
Act--that was a decent continuation of our investments, but it lacked 
funding dramatically, and at the end of 5 years, our infrastructure 
will be in worse condition. So I share the President's frustration.
  He also said, ``fix it first.'' Last week, I talked about harbors. It 
is easy to take care of the harbor issue. All you have to do is spend 
the tax for the purpose for which it has been collected, but the 
Republicans don't want to do that.
  Today I am going to talk a little bit about rail--in particular, the 
Northeast Corridor. We had a report by Amtrak that assessed the needs 
on this corridor, which is shared by freight and rail and carries a 
phenomenal number of people and goods every day. Over 2,200 Amtrak 
commuter and freight trains work some portion of this route every day. 
However, it is in a state of serious disrepair.
  One of the most critical areas is in Baltimore, the Baltimore and 
Potomac Tunnel. It was an investment made by the Government of the 
United States of America. It began during the Civil War and finished 
just after. It has held up. That is a pretty amazing amount of time, 
but it is at the point of failure now, and if that tunnel fails, it 
will choke off all of the movement of goods and people from Washington, 
D.C.--points south--to the northeast. It is a major economic engine--a 
hugely populated area of the United States of America.
  The tunnel fix has gone through an environmental impact statement; so 
they can't drag out with, ``Oh, it is those darned regulations and 
environmental restrictions. We can't get it done.'' No. We can get it 
done. We have got a plan. We have got an engineering design. All we 
need is the money--the investment--by the Government of the United 
States. Now, we have a Speaker who says, ``Oh, if it is worth doing, 
the private sector will do it.'' No. This is an asset which serves both 
private and public interests, and it needs a Federal investment. That 
is $4 billion.

  If you go all the way up to Boston, you are looking at over $30 
billion: bridges--critical bridges--that are 100, 110, 120, 130 years 
old and that are falling apart. It is time for some action here.
  If we go a little further north, up to New York, we have the Hudson 
River tunnel, which is another engineering miracle. The Hudson River 
tunnel was completed in, oh, 1909. Then, of course, even though that 
has held up pretty well, it was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, and the 
salts that got in there are accelerating the erosion of that tunnel, 
and it is near the point of failure; so we would no longer be connected 
to New York City through the Hudson River tunnel. There are 200,000 
passengers who use that every day. That would be a blow not only to the 
New York and regional economy, but to the national economy should that 
tunnel fail.
  Other countries are making these investments. I was in Japan last 
year. They have a rail system that they built 40 years ago. It has run 
on time for 40 years. It has had no accidents for 40 years, and it 
travels at about 200 miles an hour. We, the great United States of 
America, can sometimes get trains up to 20, 30 miles an hour--at 
critical sections of this rail infrastructure--but we do not have time 
for that. First, we have to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Then we 
have to cut taxes for the wealthiest among us, and maybe they will 
build the tunnels and bridges and name them after themselves. I don't 
think so. They will be buying more super yachts and expensive places to 
go on vacation.
  It is past time for this Congress to act in making critical 
investments in America's infrastructure. Yesterday, I unveiled a clock 
which tracks the cost of delays and congestion to the economy and to 
the people of the United States on a daily basis because of 
deteriorated infrastructure. The clock is ticking. It is time to stop 
that clock and rebuild our country.

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