[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 25772-25773]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REVITALIZING OUR ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, the challenge for all America, not 
just the new administration and Congress, but our communities, our 
businesses, especially American families, is how to revitalize our 
economy. There is a great deal of contention occasionally here in 
Washington, D.C. about the best approach, but this problem takes on a 
new urgency as the experts now tell us that while the economy appears 
to be recovering, the jobs aren't: A jobless recovery, posing special 
problems for Americans from coast to coast.
  But beyond the problems with the economy, there are serious issues 
dealing with the state of repair of America; our electrical grid is 
inadequate and unreliable, too many roads and bridges are in serious 
disrepair, and there are problems with inadequate or nonexistent sewage 
collection and leaking water mains. And there is environmental damage 
in sites from coast to coast with Superfund, brownfields, even 
unexploded ordnance and military toxics on military defense locations.
  The opportunity and the challenge is to combine the problems with the 
economy with what we need to do to rebuild and renew America. Luckily, 
this is a solution that is overwhelmingly supported by the vast 
majority of Americans--Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. This 
is a solution that in

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times past has been able to bring together people in Congress to deal 
with the revitalization of our infrastructure.
  We have opportunities right now. There is pending a reauthorization 
of the Surface Transportation Act. If Congress acts, and the 
administration signs it, this could mean 6 million jobs revitalizing 
transportation from coast to coast, border to border.
  I have legislation, House bill 3202, a water trust fund, that would 
enable communities to deal with serious problems like leaking water 
mains. We lose 6 billion gallons of water a day, enough to fill Olympic 
size swimming pools from here to Pittsburgh. Coincidentally this bill 
can help fix these problems while putting hundreds of thousands of more 
Americans to work dealing with those problems.
  The administration has requested, and we have introduced, legislation 
to reintroduce the Superfund tax to deal with the problems of 
Superfunds again that are found in every State of the Union. Left 
unattended, the pollution actually gets worse and migrates, becoming 
more expensive to clean up over time. This is an opportunity to solve 
the environmental problem and return this land to productive use.
  This is something that America supports. The time for the Obama 
administration and this Congress to unite on a vision to rebuild and 
renew America is now, to enact it into law and provide appropriate 
funding. This action will pay dividends to Americans for decades to 
come, making our communities more livable and our families safer, 
healthier, and more economically secure.

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