[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2535-S2536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Infrastructure

  Mr. President, on infrastructure, yesterday Speaker Pelosi and I had 
a productive meeting with President Trump at the White House on the 
topic of infrastructure. We all agreed on the need to invest 
substantial resources in infrastructure. We all agreed on the need to 
modernize and rebuild our roads, bridges, highways, and also our 
schools, our housing, and our power grids, and there was a specific 
conversation about the need to invest in expanding broadband to 
underserved communities.
  We told the President we needed labor protections, we needed a green 
bill, and we needed to see that minorities, women, and veterans got 
their fair share when contracts were let out.
  It was a good discussion, but there is more to be decided. So what we 
agreed was that we would have another discussion in which the 
administration will present proposals for how to pay for the bill.
  Let's face it, the reason we haven't gotten far in infrastructure is 
that the administration has come up with no way for pay-fors. We 
Democrats put in a $1 trillion plan--not $2 trillion--but we paid for 
all of it. We used tax breaks on the wealthy and the powerful who got 
huge, huge benefits recently to pay for it. That may not be the way the 
President wants to pay for it, but we want to know how he would because 
last time he came up with a bill that had virtually no real pay-fors--
public-private partnerships, which even he discredits.
  The bottom line is simple. We will get an infrastructure bill if the 
President will come up with pay-fors, and then we can put ours 
forward--we have

[[Page S2536]]

already--and see if we can come to an agreement.
  Seven or eight people at the meeting all told the President that we 
will not get a bill done unless he comes up with pay-fors. He agreed. 
He said: I will. He said: I will take some heat from some of my fellow 
Republicans, but I will do it. We will be waiting. We will be waiting.
  At the White House, I made it explicitly clear that in an effort to 
pay for infrastructure, the administration must not take the Tax Code 
and make it any more regressive than it already is. I prefer to make it 
more progressive. To tell the wealthy that they are getting a huge tax 
break and then to tell the middle-class, working people that they are 
paying for the bulk of this is totally unfair and unacceptable to this 
Member.
  The President said he would come up with pay-fors, but this morning I 
was disappointed. I saw both the Acting Chief of Staff, Mr. Mulvaney, 
and the Wall Street Journal editorial board mock the effort we are 
trying to make to rebuild the Nation's infrastructure. Their criticism? 
Too much spending, the deficit is too high, and we can't find revenue. 
Funny that we didn't hear those same criticisms when the Republicans in 
Congress were jamming through a partisan, unpaid-for $2 trillion tax 
cut for the wealthiest of Americans. That doesn't have to be paid for, 
but our roads and bridges do. We are willing to pay for both, although 
I am not willing to pay for any big tax cuts on the wealthy that didn't 
pass with a single Democratic vote. I hope, for the good of the country 
and for the need of infrastructure--we know when we build 
infrastructure, America grows, and jobs are created. So we hope Mr. 
Mulvaney and the Wall Street Journal editorial board will rethink their 
knee-jerk partisan reactions.
  Let's face it. Mulvaney is different. He was with the President. He 
supported the tax cuts. The Wall Street Journal editorial board 
believes it is OK to increase the deficit to reduce tax cuts on the 
wealthy but not OK when you are building infrastructure. Ninety-five 
percent of all Americans don't agree with that. Let's hope Donald Trump 
doesn't follow their ministrations.
  The bottom line is, we hope to hear from the White House in several 
weeks, one way or the other.
  Mr. President, what are your pay-fors? We want to know, and the 
American people want to know. Right now it is the biggest barrier to 
preventing us from getting an infrastructure bill.