[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 292]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE IS ABYSMAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the commission which Congress 
created during the enactment of the surface transportation, the 
SAFETEA-LU bill, reported its results to the Congress in terms of the 
state of the Nation's infrastructure. The short version is that the 
state of the Nation's infrastructure is abysmal. We are seeing 
dramatically increased congestion. We are seeing bridges collapse. We 
are losing ground. We are not even maintaining the investment made by 
the Eisenhower generation in the Nation's interstate system let alone 
other vital national needs. It needs immediate attention.
  And, of course, investment in our infrastructure will produce jobs. 
Large numbers of jobs will be produced should we go ahead with this 
needed construction, not only construction jobs but suppliers, small 
businesses, communities will benefit. The economy as a whole will 
benefit in terms of our economic productivity and competitiveness with 
just-in-time delivery and other concerns. And the American people will 
benefit in terms of more time at home, less time in commutes, less fuel 
wasted in congestion and backups in traffic. These are investments that 
need to be made.
  The commission, a bipartisan commission, by a large majority said we 
need to be investing between $220 and $335 billion a year from all 
sources, Federal, State, local, and private, in the Nation's 
transportation infrastructure.

                              {time}  1700

  And today we're investing about $87 billion, about a third of the 
minimum they think is necessary. This is a wake-up call that's long 
overdue to this Congress, to this administration, and to the country 
about how we're losing ground. We're headed toward Third World status 
in terms of our Nation's transportation infrastructure. That is not 
acceptable.
  Unfortunately, the Bush administration, the headquarters of the head 
in the sand folks, are saying no additional Federal investment is 
necessary; that all of that $220 billion can come from privatizing the 
Nation's highways; tolling and pricing people off the roads will help 
mitigate congestion. Yes, they want to toll existing highways, paid for 
by taxpayers, they want to put extortionate tolls on where they would 
charge more at rush hour. Now, if you happen to live on the east side 
of town and work on the west side and have to travel a congested 
highway, from George Bush and Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation, 
the message is, quit your job, move, or tough luck, suck it up. That's 
not acceptable for America. We are not going to solve this problem 
through the fantasies of this administration. You're not going to solve 
it with the privatization of our existing network.
  Now, in certain areas, tolling, congestion pricing and private-public 
partnerships, done properly, protecting the public interest, can 
contribute a small amount. The estimates are, generously, maybe 10 
percent. But the Bush administration is saying that can do 100 percent 
because they're saying they will never ever support any increase in any 
taxes to increase any investment in the national transportation 
infrastructure. That's a shame. That's an incredible shame. And it is 
doing an amazing disservice to the future of our economy.
  And as we stagger in this recession created by the policies of this 
administration, one of the best ways that we can begin to build out of 
it and to make ourselves more productive in the future and prevent 
future recessions is investment in our infrastructure. You can justify 
borrowing money to build things that are going to last 30, 50, 100 
years and benefit all of the American people and our economy. They want 
to borrow money to give more tax cuts to the few rich people, many of 
whom have done fabulously well, some of whom lost their shirts with 
speculation in this recent market. Other sides of the speculators made 
hundreds of millions and billions of dollars by speculating on the 
collapse of the housing market, while the Bush administration and Alan 
Greenspan and everybody watched the bubble grow and grow and grow and 
grow and did nothing.
  We need a concrete investment for the future, an investment in our 
transportation infrastructure, despite what Mary Peters and George Bush 
think is one of the best ways to promote the long-term health and 
competitiveness of the United States of America. We should begin to 
make those investments.

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