[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17689-17690]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CREATE JOBS AND REDUCE THE DEFICIT THROUGH LARGE-SCALE INFRASTRUCTURE 
                              INVESTMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Higgins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, we are approaching the deadline for the 
supercommittee to propose a debt reduction plan. Most economists are in 
agreement on what we need to do: in the long term, reduce the debt by 
at least $4 trillion over 10 years through a mix of added revenue and 
reduced spending. And in the short term, make immediate investments to 
create jobs and to reduce unemployment.
  I encourage the supercommittee not to ignore the second of those 
priorities because now is the perfect time to create jobs by making 
large-scale investments in American infrastructure. Since World War II, 
every economic contraction was followed by a period of economic 
expansion; but although economists tell us the recession has ended, we 
have had no economic expansion. Unemployment remains at 9 percent, and 
economic growth is projected to be moderate at best. The reason our 
economy is taking so long to recover is because this recession was more 
severe than any since the Great Depression, something that seemingly 
few in government, finance, or academia realized at the time.
  Because of the historic severity of this recession, American 
households, local and State governments--even European governments--
find themselves in debt like never before. Consequently, consumer 
demand is and will be depressed while households and governments reduce 
spending. And when demand falls, businesses don't hire. It is that 
simple.
  Some believe this period of decreased demand will last 5 to 7 years. 
A policy of fiscal austerity will make matters only worse. We only have 
to look back at the United States in 1937, Japan in the 1990s, and 
Europe last year and this year to understand that when consumers are 
not spending, the worst thing a government can do is stop spending 
itself.
  The New America Foundation report makes the case that investing $1.2 
trillion over the next 5 years in rebuilding our infrastructure will 
create 22 million jobs--22 million jobs over a 5-year period. That is 
more than the 22 million jobs that were created under President 
Clinton. And the job creation of the 1990s raised so much revenue that 
our Federal budget reached record surplus. Times were so good that we 
were debating, at that time, the implications of repaying the entirety 
of the Nation's debt. The lesson is that the greatest debt-and-deficit 
reduction tool is job creation. That is why the supercommittee must 
include significant job creation components in its recommendations.
  Let me add, Mr. Speaker, that our infrastructure is sorely in need of 
massive investment. Our roads, bridges, airports, energy grid, and 
water infrastructure are all in horrible condition. The World Economic 
Forum ranks America 23rd in infrastructure quality. The American 
Society of Civil Engineers gives our infrastructure a D grade. 
Transportation for America reports that there are 63,000 structurally 
deficient bridges in our country--including 99 in my community in 
western New York. The Chamber of Commerce has said that unless we 
repair our infrastructure, we will suffer $336 billion in lost growth 
over the next 5 years.
  To my colleagues who believe that we can't afford to make investments 
at this time, I say we can't afford not to. Delaying the repair or 
replacement of infrastructure by just 2 years can increase the cost of 
doing those repairs by a factor of five.
  I also note that we just spent $62 billion nation-building in Iraq 
and $73 billion nation-building in Afghanistan. There was no objection 
then to borrowing to finance that nation-building, nor should there be 
objection now when we're proposing to do nation-building right here at 
home.

[[Page 17690]]

  And given the current economic conditions, financing American 
infrastructure projects will never be cheaper. Interest rates are 
extremely low, the cost of labor and materials are low due to lack of 
demand, and the equipment is cheap because it is idle. Repairing and 
expanding our infrastructure is work that we need to do to stay 
globally competitive, and it will never be cheaper to do it than it is 
today. Quite simply, there is much work to be done, and a lot of 
Americans need to do work. Now is the best time to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, a large scale, $1.2 trillion, 5-year investment in 
infrastructure would create 27 million American jobs that cannot be 
shipped overseas. It will reduce unemployment, it will reduce the 
deficit and, in the end, we will have an infrastructure our country 
needs and our country deserves.

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