[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 GOP BUDGET AND INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, throughout American history, the path to 
prosperity has been infrastructure. It has been paving that path, 
building that road, constructing the transcontinental railroad, 
improving water systems, extending electrification to rural America, 
dams, flood control, and sewer systems.
  Each and every one of these initiatives were key to improving the 
quality of life for Americans, enacting business opportunities, and 
putting millions of Americans to work.
  They were all public-private partnerships primarily paid for with 
public investment. Creating these infrastructure marvels, which for 
most of our history were the envy of the world, put millions of 
Americans to work.
  Sadly, that is no longer the case. The United States has fallen 
behind the global leaders. Our infrastructure is mediocre, according to 
expert reports. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given our 
infrastructure a D-plus rating and identified over $3.5 trillion of 
investments that are going to be necessary just to bring it up to 
standard by 2020.
  That is how far we have fallen--a D-plus rating--and needing billions 
of dollars just to prevent further deterioration and decline.
  The failure to act carries significant costs in and of itself. There 
is more wear and tear on vehicles. There is more delays and congestion. 
There are safety problems associated with inferior infrastructure and 
poor maintenance.
  It is going to cost the average American family over $1,000 per year 
in actual damage and increased operating costs to say nothing of the 
millions of hours lost to congestion. It hits business especially hard. 
A 5-minute delay costs UPS $50 million in additional costs each year.
  Ten years ago, there was a blue ribbon report to then-President Bush 
about transportation and transportation funding alternatives. It 
identified over $375 billion as necessary to fund an appropriate 6-year 
program. That was 10 years ago.
  We are now spending at a rate, 10 years later, of about $275 billion 
a year at current levels, but the highway trust fund is only going to 
produce about $200 billion during that same period of time.
  Both Chairman Camp in his tax reform proposal and President Obama in 
his infrastructure proposal identified ways to close this gap to be 
able to fully fund a 6-year transportation reauthorization that would 
help meet America's funding needs for projects of national significance 
that are, in many cases, multistate and are part of a national system. 
We all depend upon the pieces of the system to be in place in good 
repair and working together.
  Sadly, the Republican budget sentences us to decline and then locks 
in a 30 percent reduction from these current inadequate levels over the 
next 10 years.
  It pretends the Federal commitment can be downsized and outsourced. 
Although I would note, in a letter signed by 31 executives of statewide 
chambers of commerce, they point out:

       Even with increased State revenues and innovative 
     mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, there are 
     projects of national significance that cannot be completed 
     without Federal assistance.

  I will be offering today a proposal in the Budget Committee to at 
least allow the capacity to respond to these needs, to meet the 
requests of 17 bipartisan governors, including Republicans from North 
Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania and the 31 State chamber of 
commerce executives from Alabama, Arizona, and Arkansas, to Tennessee, 
Virginia, and Wisconsin. We need these Federal partnerships.
  While this proposal won't commit anybody to a specific path forward, 
it does provide the capacity to get us unstuck and out of this sad 
state of decline, in other words, a true path to prosperity, putting 
millions of people to work, jump-starting the economy, and 
strengthening communities from coast to coast, so that our families can 
be safe, healthy, and economically secure.

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