[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1930-1931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REPUBLICAN TRANSPORTATION BILL

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House in relationship 
to the transportation bill that we are currently debating in the House 
this week.
  Transportation, as you know, has traditionally and historically been 
an idea where our two parties have been able to find common ground. 
Transportation has been an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats, 
alike, to work to rebuild America, to create jobs, strengthen our 
economy, move commerce, move people, improve the quality of life, 
including public safety--that is, up until now; and that is, until this 
bill.
  With the legislation that we are debating today, Republicans put 
forth the most partisan transportation package in 50 years. It is not 
just partisan; it's bad for our Nation, destroying more than half a 
million American jobs. The transportation bill is supposed to be a job-
creating bill. It always has been--until now.
  Destroying more than half a million jobs, cutting highway investments 
in 45 States, bankrupting the highway trust fund with a $78 billion 
shortfall, and, just the strangest of all, among many shortsighted 
provisions in the bill, I want to make particular mention of what it 
does to public transportation. It eliminates all of the dedicated 
funding for public transportation, leaving millions of riders already 
faced with service cuts and fare increases out in the cold.
  The legislation is so detrimental to our Nation that the Secretary of 
Transportation, Ray LaHood, a former Member of this body on the 
Republican side of the aisle, has said:

       This is the most partisan transportation bill that I have 
     ever seen, and it is also the most antisafety bill I have 
     ever seen. It hollows out our number one priority, which is 
     safety, and frankly, it hollows out the guts of the 
     transportation efforts that we've been about for the last 3 
     years. It's the worst transportation bill I've ever seen 
     during 35 years of public service.

  In recommending that the President veto this legislation, the 
administration has said:

       The legislation would make America's roads, rails, and 
     transit systems less safe, reduce the transportation options 
     available to America's traveling public, short-circuit local 
     decision making, and turn back the clock on environmental and 
     labor protections.

  Mr. Speaker, this is so unfortunate because it's so out of character 
with the American way, the common sense of the American people about 
what we should be doing for them.
  At the beginning of our country, Thomas Jefferson, when he was 
President, enlisted his Cabinet officers to build an infrastructure 
plan for America that involved transportation. In the 1800s, this plan, 
under Secretary Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, was put forth. 
It recognized that we had made the Louisiana Purchase, that there were 
Lewis and Clark expeditions going on, and that we had to build 
America--build roads and transportation out into these territories so 
that people would move there, commerce would develop, our country would 
be strong.
  Following this, the Erie Canal, the transcontinental railroad, the 
Cumberland Road, they were all built after the War of 1812--of course, 
the transcontinental railroad later than that--when our population was 
sparse and so was our national treasury.
  In my own community of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and the 
San Francisco Bay Bridge both were built 75 years ago in the midst of 
the Great Depression.
  President Eisenhower in the mid- to late fifties, not a good economic 
time either, built and instituted the Interstate Highway System, 
unifying our country. It was a national security issue to unify our 
country. It was done at a time when our coffers were low on money, but 
it created jobs. It did what it was intended to do.
  Now we are abdicating our responsibility. Again, 200 years ago, 
Thomas Jefferson; 100 years later, Teddy Roosevelt, and his initiative 
for infrastructure centered around our national park system and how we 
make that part of our national patrimony, and some of that falls under 
the Transportation Subcommittee of the Congress of the United States. 
Now, here we are, 100 years later, putting forth a bill that loses 
jobs, diminishes public safety. It's a missed opportunity, and it's no 
wonder our Republican colleagues are having so much trouble building 
support for it in their own caucus.
  I just wanted to take a moment to share my views with our colleagues 
about how wrong this is for the future and how out of keeping it is 
with our great past, which has seen the strength of our country grow 
because of our investments in our infrastructure and our bringing 
people together through transportation.

[[Page 1931]]



                          ____________________