[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16186]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             INFRASTRUCTURE

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues and call their 
attention to a report issued last week by Transportation for America. 
The report identified 99 bridges in western New York, 2,000 bridges in 
New York State and 63,000 bridges nationwide as structurally deficient.
  This should not surprise us. The American Society of Civil Engineers 
gives our infrastructure a D grade and the World Economic Forum ranks 
the United States 23rd in infrastructure quality. Our infrastructure is 
suffering from a crippling lack of investment and our country is 
falling behind because of it.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States has spent over $62 billion nation-
building in Iraq. It is time to do some nation-building right here at 
home. There is work that needs to be done, and a lot of Americans need 
the work.
  So I implore this House, pass a jobs bill that includes $60 billion 
for infrastructure, pass a 6-year transportation bill, use innovative 
ideas like the infrastructure bank to create public-private 
partnerships and do it now. Given the state of our infrastructure and 
our economy, we can't afford to wait.

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