[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15073-15074]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               INVESTMENT IN OUR NATION'S INFRASTRUCTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, our transportation system is second to 
none, but let us not sit on our hands. We still have room to improve.
  Thanks to the leadership of President Eisenhower, and thanks to his 
experience under the vision of General John Pershing, we have the 
interstate highway system. Just as this Nation made a choice a half 
century ago, we need to make a choice again today. We need to make a 
decision. We must decide if we want to continue the legacy of President 
Eisenhower, General Pershing and other leaders who came before us. We 
must decide to make a major commitment to fund our Nation's 
infrastructure needs.
  As I have said before, I will say it again tonight, we have study 
after study. We have pages and pages of numbers. We have the proof. The 
issue is no different now than it was 50 years ago under President 
Eisenhower. Our transportation needs continue to grow, and we need to 
find a way to adequately fund those needs.
  The needs are many, but the answer is simple. We need to invest more 
in our transportation system. Here, however, in today's economy, the 
problems and needs are not only just with our transportation system.
  In today's economy, where corporate profits inch up, we still have a 
6 percent unemployment rate. The other numbers are even grimmer: 9 
million unemployed Americans; 5 million underemployed Americans; and 2 
million Americans have been out of a job for 6 months; 4.4 million 
Americans have just completely given up even looking for a job, and 
they have left the workforce altogether.
  In today's economy, we simply have to think about more than just TRB 
studies, government lingo, conditions and performance reports and 
bureaucratic infighting, things that probably do not matter a great 
deal to many Americans. What we must do is to start thinking about the 
sluggish economy. We have to start thinking about and talking about how 
the loss of jobs and the 6 percent unemployment rate creates real 
problems and real economic hardships in the lives of millions of 
Americans, American workers who just are not working because they 
cannot find good jobs. There are not good jobs out there.
  Even better yet, let us start doing something about it because we are 
in a

[[Page 15074]]

position to do just that. The concept of the expansionary fiscal policy 
is nothing new. It has worked before and it will work again. It is the 
basic economics of pump-priming the economy.
  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, each $1 billion 
invested in infrastructure creates 47,500 jobs and 6.1 billion in 
related economic activity. With a 6 percent overall unemployment rate 
and an 8.3 unemployment rate for construction workers, there is no 
better economic stimulus package than the $375 billion public works 
bill, plain and simple.
  It is a jobs bill that will put jobs back in the American economy and 
put American workers back to work.

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