[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10112]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 INVEST IN JOBS AND OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

  (Mr. HIMES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I live in the Village of Cos Cob, 
Connecticut, where years ago a major bridge spanning the Mianus Harbor 
on Route 95 fell into the Mianus Harbor, killing a number of people, 
devastating the quality of life in the area, and hurting businesses up 
and down the coastline.
  It fell into Mianus Harbor because we failed to invest in our 
transportation infrastructure. We failed to do something that we all 
understand is critical to our economy and just plain good sense.
  On June 30, thousands of projects--like keeping the Mianus Harbor 
Bridge intact--will come to a halt because this House will not approve 
a reauthorization of the transportation bill. That's bad economics. 
It's bad for jobs, and it's bad for safety.
  What do we do? Seventy-four Senators, lots of Republicans, and lots 
of Democrats, passed a 2-year bill that would keep the funding going 
and preserve or save or create 2 million jobs. But not in this House. 
No. In this House we've got to get the President to approve Keystone. 
We should do that, but let's do it separately and invest in jobs and 
our infrastructure.

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