[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10829-10831]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           TRANSPORTATION--A VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized for the remainder of the hour.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin, if I could, by 
thanking my friend from California for his ongoing leadership, 
advocacy, and focus on how we are going to rebuild and renew the 
country--making these critical investments, putting people to work, and 
calling upon this Congress to get in gear to be able to move the 
country forward. I appreciate his courtesy and his leadership.
  I would like to begin, if I could, by turning to another of my 
colleagues from Kansas City, Missouri, Reverend Emanuel Cleaver, who is 
a gentleman who was kind enough to give me a visa to visit his district 
recently. I watched not just the affection that his constituents had 
for him but the big plans, evidenced in his community, that were 
dealing with how we put the pieces together for a more sustainable 
future--a vision for transportation. It was fascinating for me to 
watch, and I appreciate his allowing me to be a part of it.
  I yield to the gentleman from Kansas City at this time.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Thank you, Mr. Blumenauer.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here, particularly 
with Mr. Blumenauer and Mr. Garamendi, who spoke earlier, because they 
have long histories--longer, in fact, than I have been in the House--of 
pushing for transportation issues.
  I think that this is a rather sad and somewhat tragic moment in our 
history. The interstate highway system was developed and put in place 
in 1956, and who would have thought when we entered the 21st century 
that the Congress of the United States would fail to keep that system 
in top condition?
  The transportation bill affects Americans in every State of this 
country. A robust Federal investment in transportation is an economic 
engine, strengthening hundreds of communities. The thing that I have 
said often in my district and, frankly, in hearings is that the best 
stimulus for the economy--the very best stimulus--is a transportation 
bill. The weird thing is that the infrastructure is the backbone of our 
economy upon which businesses, families, and communities thrive. 
Everyone is involved in this. Red or blue, urban or rural, we all rely 
on transportation and infrastructure. Ensuring economic prosperity is 
of paramount importance. It is not a Republican or a Democratic goal 
but one that we all share.
  One of the things that has troubled me most since being elected to 
Congress 10 years ago is that we have somehow narrowed everything down 
to the point at which it is either red or blue--it is either Republican 
or Democratic. I am not sure how we can look at highway systems in 
terms of political tribalism. I served as the mayor of Kansas City for 
8 years during the 1990s, and I can truthfully say that I had no idea 
on a day-to-day basis, based on what people said and did, who the 
Republicans were and who the Democrats were. We were all interested in 
trying to preserve Kansas City. When there was a pothole in one of the 
streets in Kansas City--and Kansas City is a huge city. It's 322 square 
miles. To give you an idea, you can put San Francisco inside our city 
limits 30 times or St. Louis three times. It is a huge city--what we 
all were interested in is making sure that it was fixed because there 
was no Republican way of fixing it, and there was no Democratic way of 
fixing it. We fixed the pothole. One of my great disappointments when I 
arrived here was that there was a Republican or a Democratic philosophy 
on everything, including on transportation and infrastructure.
  Every dollar invested in Missouri transportation generates $4 of 
economic activity. The Federal Highway Administration actually 
estimates that, for every $1 billion spent on transportation, 34,000 
direct and indirect jobs are created. Just think about that. There are 
34,000 indirect and direct jobs that are generated. That is why I take 
every opportunity I can to talk about infrastructure and improvements 
to our roads and bridges and waterways in my district and in districts 
around the country.
  Investments in transportation and infrastructure generate growth and 
jobs during initial design, construction, and then postconstruction. I 
can tell you that, at a time like this when we are still having some 
healing needed with our economy, this is the time to pump it up. We 
don't need QE4. We don't need to do another Dodd-Frank. We need to pass 
a transportation and infrastructure bill. That will begin to help heal 
this economy because it is a job creator.
  According to the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 report 
card--and I hope the people at home get this--3,500 bridges in Missouri 
alone are considered structurally deficient. There are 3,500 bridges in 
my State that are considered structurally deficient.

[[Page 10830]]



                              {time}  2100

  Over 3,300 are considered functionally obsolete. That is 14 percent 
of the bridges in the State of Missouri are functionally obsolete, and 
every day, Kansas Cityans and Missourians are driving over those 
bridges.
  That is a tragedy because it is not only bad in Missouri, it is that 
way all over this country--all over the country, and this body is the 
only body that can address the problem.
  While I agree that States should step up to raise the necessary 
revenues and make crucial investments themselves, it should be no 
surprise that interstate commerce is a duty in which this Congress is 
uniquely poised to fulfill.
  We are a nation of red States and blue States, urban communities and 
rural communities. I represent both. While each State must make 
investments within the communities, the responsibility to ensure our 
Nation remains connected and globally competitive falls on this 
Congress.
  Bridge after bridge after bridge is in danger. Highways are 
crumbling, and we cannot sit by and play partisan politics and argue 
while our infrastructure continues to deteriorate.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight, hoping that these words are not 
falling on the floor and will not be impactful. When we come in here 
like this, we are hoping that these words matter and that things can 
change and that they will change.
  It is my hope that this Congress will act and act quickly because we 
cannot wait until the last minute, going into August, when we will end 
up looking at a highway trust fund becoming insolvent, and that means 
it will drop below the $4 billion funding level as soon as next month, 
July. We must do something, Mr. Speaker.
  I would like to thank Mr. Blumenauer for all the work that he has 
done on this issue over the years, and I hope that the American people 
will just saturate us with letters telling us: Pass a highway and 
transportation infrastructure bill.
  Thank you, Mr. Blumenauer.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you very much, Congressman Cleaver. I 
appreciate your painting a very powerful picture, taking it home, as an 
example, and the work that you have done, both in Congress and as a 
local leader, a mayor, a member of the city council.
  You understand this. You understand that the infrastructure in Kansas 
City, Missouri, used to be a point of pride. It was something that 
brought people together, but that is not unique to your community or 
mine.
  Infrastructure used to be a point of pride that united Americans 
across this great Nation. 152 years ago, the Transcontinental Railroad 
under, I might say, a Republican President--President Lincoln--helped 
us be able to develop the United States.
  It tied the country together. It helped in terms of the opening up of 
the west, and the United States from that point, until the end of World 
War II, had the finest passenger rail system in the world--not there 
anymore.
  As was referenced, under the leadership, signed into law by President 
Eisenhower, there was a bipartisan initiative, a Democratically-
controlled Congress, a Republican President, who initiated the 
interstate highway system.
  The United States, over the course of a quarter century, had the 
largest public works project in our history to that point. It was in 
every State in the Union. It created more economic value than it cost, 
and it was a point of pride to have the finest road system in the 
world.
  Similarly, we have made great advancements in our history dealing 
with water and sewage systems.
  The simple fact is, as was referenced by both my colleagues already 
this evening, the United States is falling behind. We are no longer 
rated number one in the world. The last survey I saw put us at 14th and 
falling.
  We are investing the smallest amount of percentage of our economy as 
we have in 20 years--less than 2 percent--and far less than our 
competitors in China, in Europe, Japan, India.
  The United States is in trouble. Unless and until we are able to get 
our act together to be able to protect, maintain, and enhance our 
infrastructure, we are not going to be able to meet the needs of the 
American people, and in fact, we are going to lose our competitive 
position around the world.
  On top of this, we are in the midst of a funding crisis for our 
infrastructure, and this could not come at a worse time.
  As both my colleagues indicated, investing in infrastructure is one 
of the best ways to create family-wage jobs. The estimates are between 
25,000 and over 30,000 jobs for each billion dollars that is invested.
  The most recent report I saw from Standard & Poor's said, for $1.3 
billion, it is 29,000 jobs.
  That investment would actually lower the deficit $200 million, and it 
would increase overall economic activity in the United States a third 
more than the $1.3 billion invested. The $1.3 billion gives you, 
overall, $2 billion rippling through the economy.
  While we are slowly falling apart, while we are struggling with a 
jobless recovery, and how we could desperately use these family-wage 
jobs that will be created in every State in the Union, there is also 
ongoing damage to individuals. They don't have to be on a bridge that 
collapsed.
  AAA tells us--and that is the preeminent organization nationally that 
represents motorists--they have followed this very closely. Their 
estimate is that the average motorist incurs $323 a year of damage to 
their cars because of inadequately maintained roads, so it is not just 
that they are not getting the service.
  It is not just that they are trapped in congestion. It is actually 
costing them money every month, in terms of damage to what, for most 
Americans, is their second or third most valuable asset.
  Last Congress gave up on a 6-year reauthorization. They just couldn't 
do it. They walked around it, but they couldn't deal with the funding 
question, so they settled for a short-term, 27-month extension that 
expires in 98 days. September 30, it is over, but the money in the 
transportation trust fund will not last nearly that long.
  My colleague mentioned that, next month or so, we are going to drop 
below the trust fund balance that the Department of Transportation 
tells us is necessary to be able to manage the hundreds and hundreds of 
contracts all across the country that are part of the unique Federal-
State-local partnership.
  They can't take the trust fund down to zero, so they are going to 
start cutting back this summer, and because our partners around the 
country in State and local government understand what is happening, 
they are starting to cut back now.
  More than eight States are already signaling what they are going to 
have to forego this summer, so we have got a summer slowdown, and it is 
only going to get worse, and Congress, in the meantime, spins its 
wheels.
  It is hard to be meaningful in efforts to reauthorize the surface 
transportation bill, which is on the verge of expiring, if you don't 
even know what your resources are.
  We have no idea what the resources are that are available to the 
House Transportation Committee and the Senate Committee on Environment 
and Public Works because we haven't established how we are going to pay 
for it.
  Now, we have heard gimmicks from our Republican friends. You know, 
last Congress, their solution was to take away all the guaranteed 
funding for transit and for transportation enhancements.
  The enhancements, by the way, are the most popular program that the 
Department of Transportation administers. They were going to take away 
that guaranteed funding.
  I find that somewhat ironic because that guaranteed funding came from 
Ronald Reagan. In the Reagan administration, they decided that they 
were going to have 20 percent in the transit account and 80 percent in 
the highway account, so you wouldn't have uncertainty. You wouldn't 
have people battling every year, year in and year out, about going 
forward on major projects.

[[Page 10831]]

  Most important, if you are going to deal with major transit and 
highway projects, you need certainty; and President Reagan and his 
administration, in their wisdom, promoted a program that established 
the highway trust fund and had a separate account for transit.
  Well, last Congress, the gimmick was: we will just strip away all 
that guaranteed funding, and we will have some theoretical money to 
keep the transportation program afloat.
  It blew up in their face. They were able to get it through the Ways 
and Means Committee on a party line vote, by the way, never having a 
hearing on it, just moved to a work session, and it was roundly 
attacked.
  Groups, truckers, business, environmental groups, local governments, 
transit, the entire infrastructure community rose up in rebellion 
against this goofy idea that was not going to deal with the fully 
funding needs, and it was going to pit people against one another.
  The outrage was so strong that our Republican friends couldn't even 
bring their own bill to the floor, and it collapsed, and we were ending 
up with this 27-month gimmick.
  It was funded by simply draining every dollar out of the highway 
trust fund, and in so doing, they thought they could maybe last for 27 
months. Well, as we are finding out, they can't.
  The next gimmick that we are hearing about--and I love this one--it 
is fascinating. Our Republican friends have required the post office, 
unlike any other agency--or near as I can tell, any business--to 
prefund the health insurance of future employees, so they are charging 
the post office an extra $5 billion a year for employees that aren't 
even on the payroll, let alone their retirement in the future.
  So the post office has some challenges in terms of different 
patterns, in terms of this prefunding obligation, shifting use of the 
post office, and the refusal of some in Congress to allow the post 
office to operate like a business, so it has got a funding crisis.
  The Republican alternative is to take a post office that has a 
funding crisis--it is a real one, it was artificially created, but it 
is a real crisis--and to eliminate Saturday mail delivery for 10 years 
and take these theoretical savings by eliminating Saturday home service 
and use these theoretical savings from an agency that they claim is 
going bankrupt, and they are actually trying to make go bankrupt, and 
use it for another bankrupt institution--that is the highway trust 
fund.
  Ludicrous--10 years' savings of eliminating home delivery, which are 
theoretical, no sense at all that they are going to materialize, but 
for 10 years--and it would just produce enough money to get us into the 
next fiscal year, and leave the post office worse off than it is now.
  Luckily, I think our friends on the other side of the aisle have 
realized that is not a solution, and I think they have dropped that, 
realizing it is not going to go anywhere.
  There are actual proposals that would meet this challenge. I have got 
legislation that has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, by the U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce, by both the truckers and AAA, the contractors, engineers, 
local government, transit, to just--straight up--deal with the fact 
that we haven't raised the gas tax for 21 years--pretty 
straightforward. It works.

                              {time}  2115

  My colleague, Peter DeFazio from Oregon, a senior member on the 
Transportation Committee, has proposed looking at a barrel tax for oil 
and makes a strong case that this would have significant advantages and 
would allow us to go forward.
  You know, I don't care what solution we come up with. There are a 
number of good ideas. Last week, Senator Murphy of Connecticut and 
Senator Corker of Tennessee came up with a proposal in the Senate that 
they thought would provide those resources.
  What is interesting is that the House has been AWOL on this. We have 
not had a single hearing in Ways and Means this year, last year, the 
year before that, or the year before that. It has been 42 months since 
the Republicans took over. We haven't had a single hearing on 
transportation finance. I find that shocking. I find it embarrassing as 
a member of the committee and as a Member of the House of 
Representatives. As an American, I find it shameful that we are not 
doing our part.
  Luckily, the other body is moving. My friend and colleague, Senator 
Ron Wyden of Oregon, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is 
moving ahead with some alternatives that would help keep the trust fund 
afloat so that we can avoid the summer shutdown and we don't have to 
stop the programs and put these people out of work. It will give us 
breathing room so that the people in the House can step up and do our 
job.
  Mr. Speaker, every single Democrat on the House Ways and Means 
Committee requested the Republican leadership--months ago--to at least 
give us a hearing. You don't have to buy into any solution, but let's 
come together, look at the problem, and hear solutions from the 
Americans who are dealing with it. Let's hear from the Governors. Let's 
hear from the transit agencies, from the State transportation 
commissions, highway departments. Let's hear from the men and women who 
work in the maintenance and construction of our infrastructure--the 
bridges, the roads, the transit. Let's hear from the engineers, the 
truckers, the representatives of the automobiles. They have got some 
strong opinions. They have potential solutions. They have done research 
that the committee should hear about, that every Member of Congress 
should hear about.
  Sadly, as the clock winds down, as we look at the summer shutdown and 
the pending bankruptcy of the highway trust fund, the House is frozen 
in place. Time is slipping away. We have just a few dozen legislative 
days before the House is scheduled to adjourn for the election, and we 
have not one thing on the agenda to deal with this.
  I hope that my Republican colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee 
will join us in at least having a hearing, listening to alternatives, 
working together to analyze the pros and cons of the various approaches 
going forward. I hope that every Republican and every Democrat makes a 
commitment that we are not going to adjourn for the year until we 
provide the American people, the businesses and communities that depend 
on it, a robust, well-funded, stable highway transportation trust fund 
with dedicated funding. That was the key to President Eisenhower and 
the success of the interstate freeway system. That has helped us with 
aviation. It has made a difference in terms of transit.
  The American people deserve no less than us our doing our job--robust 
funding, stable funding, dedicated funding that will allow American 
communities to have the partnership of the Federal Government that they 
need for the infrastructure they deserve. I strongly urge my colleagues 
to reflect on this, and I hope each American makes clear their desires 
and their expectations about how Congress meets this responsibility.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening, and 
I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________