[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 14 (Wednesday, January 23, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H1008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NEED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Malinowski) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MALINOWSKI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the 
Transportation Funding Fairness Act and to express my hope that, after 
we have come to our senses and reopened the government, this year 
Congress will come together to fund the bridges, tunnels, railroads, 
airports, and roads that we all understand America needs to prosper and 
grow.
  In the first decade of the 20th century, commuters in New Jersey 
towns like Summit, Union, and Westfield could hop on a steam-powered 
train, ride right up to a terminal on the dock in Jersey City, change 
seamlessly to a ferry, and be in Manhattan within 50 minutes to an 
hour, if there wasn't too much fog or ice on the Hudson River.
  A hundred years of magical, technological progress later, and we have 
managed to shave that trip by maybe a few minutes, if the trains are 
running on time that day.
  Decades of underinvestment in public infrastructure have taken its 
toll on American greatness. Anyone who has traveled the world and has 
seen the modern airports and seaports and fast rail networks that our 
competitors are building would understand that.
  Just in the last 2 months, as we have not even been able to open our 
government, the Chinese Government has been busy approving over $125 
billion in new rail projects--$125 billion.
  No State suffers more from our lack of attention to infrastructure 
than New Jersey, where twice as many people use public transportation 
than the national average. To get to and from New York, 200,000 of us a 
day still depend on just two rail tracks across the Portal Bridge and 
through a Hudson River tunnel that our great-grandparents built in 1910 
because they thought those 50-minute, turn-of-the-century commute times 
were unacceptably long.
  When the Portal Bridge opens to let boats pass today, a worker with a 
hammer must sometimes lock it back into place while stranded commuters 
wait, and that Hudson River tunnel has just a few years of life left. 
If we fail to replace it in time, we will be dealing a crippling blow 
to the economy of our region and our country.
  That is why it is so urgent and important that we get the Gateway 
Tunnel project built.
  Madam Speaker, in New Jersey, when we say we want to build bridges, 
not walls, that is not just a metaphor. We mean it literally. The $5.7 
billion that would be wasted to wall off America from Mexico happens to 
be almost exactly the Federal share of building a new Hudson River 
tunnel that would keep Americans connected to each other and, 
ultimately, to the world.
  These are the real choices that we face. Is there any doubt what the 
voters who sent us here would have us choose: building something that 
millions of people living in my State and neighboring States say they 
desperately need, or something people living on the border say they do 
not need? A symbol of national progress, or a symbol of national fear? 
Is there any question at all?
  That is one reason why I am introducing this bipartisan bill today, 
which is meant to clear one of the artificial obstacles the Department 
of Transportation has placed in the path of the Gateway Tunnel.
  The Department has argued that when States take advantage of Federal 
transportation loans to pay some of their share of projects jointly 
funded by the Federal Government, like Gateway, those loans don't count 
as part of the State contribution to the project.
  It makes no sense. State taxpayers, after all, are 100 percent 
obligated to pay back those loans. It is like saying that I am not 
actually paying for my house because I have taken out a mortgage.
  Our bill makes crystal clear that States can use Federal loans to 
cover all or part of their share of these projects.
  Speaking of taxpayers, Madam Speaker, I represent a State where we 
get only 74 cents back from Washington for every dollar we pay in 
taxes. That is the worst ratio in the country. The average American 
gets $1.12 back for every dollar he or she pays, courtesy of the 
Federal deficit.
  What we ask, with strong justification, is that Washington give a bit 
more back in the form of investment in the infrastructure that powers 
States like New Jersey and, in turn, enables us to power the American 
economy.
  I hope we will make progress on that this year and that this bill 
will make the task a little bit easier

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