[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10865-10866]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       H.R. 1861: INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, while deliberations 
continue on dealing with our $14.3 trillion debt and while 
deliberations continue on raising the debt ceiling, Americans are very 
concerned about where we're going.
  June unemployment at 9.2 percent and a growth of only 18,000 jobs 
translates into a meager 360 jobs per State. Now, when you look at how 
many high school students graduated in June, that's 3.7 million. 
Colleges graduated 1.7 million. Those 360 jobs barely equal the size of 
a typical large American high school graduating class, and certainly 
barely covers students at one typical college per State with a typical 
major. No wonder Americans are worried about our economy when so many 
youth are entering the job market only to find there are no jobs.
  So while our leaders on both sides of the aisle are deliberating--
and, unfortunately, too much of this immediately becomes a battle of 
words--let's keep in mind that one way to balance America's budget, one 
very important way to deal with America's debt, is to grow jobs. For 
each 1 percent decline in unemployment, it's $90 billion per year in 
Federal revenue. That's a decrease in unemployment compensation. That's 
an increase in Federal revenues. That's 1.5 million jobs for every 1 
percent decline in unemployment.
  Let me quote our colleague from across the building here, Senator 
Rubio, who said: This is not about increasing taxes; it's about 
increasing taxpayers. And this could do it.
  Now, the cost per job in the failed stimulus bill was at least 
$278,000 based upon $660 billion spent. Of course, that number per job 
increases dramatically and rapidly if you include the interest paid on 
that stimulus bill, which takes us over the $1 trillion mark. That sort 
of approach is not going to work, and if we open our eyes, we can all 
honestly admit that. Increasing unemployment is not going to decrease 
the Federal debt or deficit. We have to grow our way out of this.
  Now, a bill that I've introduced and that several colleagues in a 
bipartisan way have signed onto as cosponsors--and I ask my colleagues 
to join on as cosponsors--is H.R. 1861. This bill would allow us to 
say, instead of sending $129 billion a year to OPEC for foreign aid, to 
buy their oil, we drill for and we use our own. It would yield 
somewhere between $2.2 trillion and $3.7 trillion over a 30-year period 
in Federal revenues, not from raising taxes, but from using the 
standard royalties and lease agreements that come from this. It starts 
out as a crawl and increases to a walk and then into a run as this 
money comes through.
  What we do in this bill is about growth in America. It isn't just 
talking about it. It's putting our money where our jobs are because it 
leads to 1.2 million jobs annually based upon estimates of the American 
Energy Alliance. That's jobs making steel, making steel pipes, wire, 
software, technology. It's jobs for the roughnecks. It's the 
steelworkers, the electricians and the laborers who work on these rigs. 
It's jobs for those who take this oil and convert it into gasoline, and 
it's jobs for those who have to put together all the infrastructure to 
make that happen.
  Beyond that, what we do is we dedicate these funds into the 
infrastructure which America needs. According to the American Society 
for Civil Engineers, we need over $2 trillion to deal with our current 
infrastructure needs. Many States find that 25 percent of their roads 
and bridges are structurally deficient, which is unsafe; but for every 
$1 billion we spend on our infrastructure, it yields 38,000 jobs. Those 
jobs are for operating engineers and laborers and carpenters or 
electricians and engineers and for those who make concrete and steel 
and all the things that go with what we need for our roads, our 
highways, our bridges, our locks, our dams, our water and sewer 
systems.
  Let's grow our way back to prosperity. Let's stop saying we're going 
to send money to OPEC and watch them grow. Let's stop just pointing 
fingers and blaming and complaining about China. We have the tools here 
in America to make this happen. So, while our leaders are over at the 
White House, arguing about how to take care of the debt, let's not 
forget that, overall, Americans are saying that one way to grow out of 
this debt is to grow more jobs, to grow more taxpayers, not just to 
find ways of taxing them. We can do this.
  Again, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1861, where 
we can do this. Let's not talk about jobs, and let's not complain about 
it. Americans know when the wool is being pulled over their eyes, and 
Americans know when they're working. Let's truly help them out and get 
jobs back on the table.

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