[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 12076-12082]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS OF AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back here on the floor 
once again. Tonight, we want to carry on our long-running discussion 
about how to improve the American economy, how to create jobs here in 
this Nation and move us all forward, how to rebuild the middle class, 
how to make sure that every family has the opportunity to earn a good 
living, buy a home if they want to, educate their kids, get health 
care, and enjoy the fruits of this great Nation.
  We often talk about this in the context of Make It In America. This 
is our jobs agenda. This is the agenda about how to rebuild this 
Nation, and there are seven different parts to it: trade policy, which 
we are not talking about tonight; we will talk a little bit about 
taxes; energy, that is another day; labor; education; and research.
  We are going to spend tonight talking about this issue, the 
infrastructure issue of this Nation.
  Let's see, in California, it is right smack in the middle of commute 
time, 5:15. I am from California, and I know that my constituents in 
the Sacramento area on that great Interstate 80 are sitting there in a 
traffic jam.

                              {time}  2015

  What a surprise. Or maybe they are on the Caltrain returning from the 
San Francisco area and held up behind a freight train that is probably 
carrying bulk and crude oil to the refineries in the Bay Area. They are 
waiting and waiting and waiting, whether they are on the road or on the 
train or on the bus, waiting and waiting and waiting.

[[Page 12077]]

  Folks, in case you didn't know it--and I know you did--we have got a 
transportation problem in America. We have got a very serious problem.
  So as we talk about jobs, as we talk about our Make it in America 
agenda, we need to talk about infrastructure, we need to talk about 
transportation, because this is a big, big issue for America. It is an 
issue that affects every single one of us.
  My district also has about, I don't know, 150 miles of Interstate 5. 
So as you travel from California and you head north, last winter or 
last year, you would get on Interstate 5, you would get past Seattle, 
and then you would come to a screeching halt. Why? Because the 
Interstate 5 bridge in Washington State, just as you got to the 
Canadian border, collapsed. Wow.
  How could that happen in America? How could it be that our bridges on 
a major interstate connecting Canada, United States, and Mexico would 
collapse? Well, it is because we did not maintain that. It is because 
our transportation policies are the previous century's policies and 
they don't fit in this century.
  So, all across America, you are going to see more of this. In a 
moment, I am going to turn to my colleague from New York (Mr. Tonko), 
and he will undoubtedly talk about the problem on that side.
  It was a big day here in the Congress, because today we did what we 
do so very well: we kicked the can down the road. We have a major 
transportation crisis. This isn't the ``bridge to nowhere,'' but this 
is where we are headed right now. We are headed for a transportation 
crisis, because in about 3 weeks, maybe 4 weeks, the transportation 
funds are going to run out of money.
  So, in an effort to deal with this problem. The United States 
Congress, led by our Republican leadership, did what it has done for 
the last 3\1/2\ years, and that is taken their can and kicked it down 
the road. We passed a stopgap temporary transportation funding bill 
that will provide us with another 10 months of funding so that the rest 
of the Nation's transportation systems--the State governments, the 
local governments, the cities, and even the Federal Government--will be 
perfectly unsure what the game plan is for the future years.
  How they will plan, nobody knows, because they don't know what to 
expect from the Federal Government in terms of funding beyond the next 
10 months, which is precisely where we are today. So, doing our very 
best, the repeated process of kicking the can down the road, we did it 
once again. Now, I will admit, I voted for it. We had no options, 
unless we wanted to lose several tens of thousands of jobs.
  This is what my State government gave to me. If we fall off the 
bridge and don't fund transportation, here is what will happen to 
California: 73,572 jobs will be jeopardized; 5,692 active highway and 
transit projects will come to a screeching stop, which is pretty much 
what the commuters are doing right now on Interstate 80 between 
Sacramento and Davis, where it is my district; and California has 
172,201 miles of public roads that will continue to be in very, very 
poor condition.
  So, given the options that our Republican leadership has presented to 
us--and, by the way, we don't do anything that they don't allow us to 
do--they gave us the opportunity to kick the can down the road. Okay, 
better than nothing, but not the solution.
  I would like to now turn to my colleague from the State of New York 
to talk about this system from your area, and then I would like to go 
back to what we should be doing, what we must be doing, which is to put 
in place a 4-year transportation program that actually solves our 
transportation and infrastructure problems, the Grow America Act.
  What is the view from the east coast? Any better than the west coast?
  Paul Tonko, my colleague, I yield to you.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend.
  Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is recognized for half the 
remaining time until 10 p.m. as the designee of the minority leader.
  The gentleman from New York is recognized.
  Mr. TONKO. I believe that is 53 minutes, Mr. Speaker?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is correct.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you.
  Representative Garamendi, let me, once again, thank you for leading 
us in this hour of discussion, 53 minutes worth of discussion, that 
focuses on the value added, the importance of investment in 
transportation projects.
  Back to our humble beginnings as a Nation, we were able to cite the 
relevance of having investments made in transportation. Whether it was 
to address public safety, whether it was to address the needs of 
commerce, or to grow our Nation, transportation investments have always 
provided that lucrative dividend that enables us to be just that much 
stronger as a Nation, and certainly to build our competitiveness to the 
ultimate.
  That is the wisdom here that comes with an associated investment in 
transportation. Now, we have throughout our history tremendously sound 
ideas of how we work together as a Nation with a vision, with a sense 
of purpose, that enabled us to move forward, whether that was investing 
in an Erie Canal that gave birth to a necklace of communities called 
``mill towns'' that enabled people to tether their American Dream in 
those given locations, as they were to find life anew here in their new 
country, or whether it was the Transcontinental Railroad.
  There was an investment, there was a plan, there was a vision shared 
by this Nation where we chose to go forward and invest those dollars so 
as to enable us to connect as a Nation, enable us to, again, sharpen 
the edge, the competitive edge of this country. Or perhaps it was an 
interstate highway system that found President Eisenhower working with 
Democrats and Republicans in Congress to put together this strategy, to 
have a better way to allow us as States, individual States, to, again, 
connect as a Nation.
  So, we have been, or should be at least, inspired by these chapters 
of our history that showed that when we had this vision, when we 
executed this plan, when we dug deep to make the investment, and when 
we were bold in our initiative, great things happened. There were 
tremendous responses that came to build commerce, to provide for public 
safety, and to, again, connect the Nation.
  Today, the saga is no different. We should respond again in robust 
fashion, and understand that in this new century it is important for us 
as we compete in a global economy to offer our business community the 
best sets of infrastructure investment so that we can move forward with 
that sound down payment that enables them to function and function 
well.
  What we have seen here in the House, as my colleague from California 
just indicated, was a delay tactic, a kicking the can down the road, if 
you will. And as it was the only game in town, that was a ``take it or 
leave it'' situation, where we did not want a trust fund to be emptied, 
and we moved forward with this effort.
  However, the leadership bringing their bill to this floor didn't even 
have enough Members of their majority to support this measure. So, they 
needed to reach to Democrats to say: okay, we will move forward with 
this short-term solution, it is not the optimum, it is not near what is 
needed, and so now the work should continue to put together a 
legitimate opportunity for us to avoid insolvency in the near future.
  What do we need to do? We need to have a long-term strategy, we need 
to go forward to avoid what could have been without action today 
700,000 jobs lost nationally and some 100,000-plus projects either 
delayed or coming to a grinding halt. We need to provide the 
predictability, the stability, for those groups that want to invest in 
our infrastructure.
  No corporation, no group out there, no business which involves itself 
in improving our highways and bridges will

[[Page 12078]]

take this method seriously unless they feel that, they sense that 
stability. So, let's go forward and be sound about the investments we 
will make in our infrastructure, and let's put together that long-term 
strategy, because as we have witnessed in the past, and understand it 
to be today, that investment in infrastructure is the rock-solid 
cornerstone of a stronger tomorrow.
  Representative Garamendi, there is much work to be done. There is 
work to be done that will require investments into infrastructure, 
transportation and infrastructure, in every region of this country. We 
know that. Let's get serious about the business, and let's avoid these 
short-term strategies that, again, get into areas where we smooth 
pensions, which can create another crisis of another kind.
  We need to do better than what was done today, and we need to go 
forward. There were attempts to improve this, but this was the measure 
that was put before us, and, again, people saw it as the only 
opportunity to avoid insolvency of that highway trust fund. So, here we 
are again challenged in this moment to go forward with much better 
vision, with bolder initiatives, and with deep-rooted commitment to the 
transportation needs of this Nation.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much. It is always good 
to be on the floor with you. Thank you so very much for bringing to our 
attention once again the history of this Nation, how it was built, the 
great infrastructure.
  There is a report card out on how our infrastructure is today. This 
was put together by the engineers and others who do this kind of work. 
I am just going to read through this: aviation--these are our 
airports--D; bridges, C-plus; dams, D; drinking water, D; energy, D; 
hazardous waste, D; inland waterways, D; levees, D; ports, C--whoa, 
that is good; public parks and recreation, C-minus; rails, C-plus; 
roads, D; schools, D; solid waste, B--I guess we can get rid of our 
trash, that is good--transit, D; and wastewater, D. So, the entire 
infrastructure is D.
  Do you want to know why? Well, here is the reason why. Short-term we 
run out of money.
  Let's take a look here.
  In 2002, we spent $325 billion on nondefense structures, all of these 
things I just talked about, and that was 2002, at the beginning of the 
Bush Presidency. And then every year after that--we are now down to 
about $225 billion.
  So $100 billion of investment, annual investment, disappeared, and so 
now we are running all of these D scores. It is fortunate that we are 
not asking for--well, I guess we are asking for reelection. We are in 
trouble.
  Just by the way, I got a phone call from my wife, and she said: You 
know, about the pickup truck, John. I said: What about it? She said: 
I've got to take it in, the mechanic says the wheels are out of 
alignment. I said: How much is that going to cost? She said: Somewhere 
over $100. On average, in San Francisco, $782 is spent on every car 
every year to repair for the damages of the poor highways in 
California. I don't think I have New York, Mr. Tonko, but I suspect it 
is no better there.
  Let's talk about the future. Excuse me, I am just stuck. I don't want 
to get stuck on the past, but it is pretty bad. Let's talk about the 
future.
  Mr. TONKO. Before you go there, let me just share this, because even 
though it is 27 years old as a memory, it is still vividly captured by 
so many of us that lived in upstate New York. When I served in the New 
York State Assembly, Montgomery County, New York, is my home area. We 
are a donor county to the New York State Thruway system. Twenty-seven 
years ago, ten lives were lost when a Thruway bridge collapsed. It, 
obviously, was a terrible price for those ten individuals to pay. Their 
family members and friends would remind us that there is no pricetag 
that we can put on that loss.

                              {time}  2030

  I can tell you the economic impact on many counties in that region 
was severe. Interestingly, no one from that home county, my home 
county, was lost in that tragedy. Some in New York State paid dearly 
for that tragedy, but people whose home States were far away from New 
York were lost in that tragedy.
  So that reminds all of us that we are all at risk, no matter where 
that deficiency may be, no matter where that lack of investment may 
fall. We are all at risk because we are interconnected, incredibly so, 
which is an undisputed fact. Any failure out there, any deficiency, 
challenges each and every one of us.
  And so when we talk about the future, that past history of lack of 
investment needs to remind all of us that there is a worthiness here 
that this should be a high priority.
  You talk about the delays that trip has measured. The impact on 
people within the capital region that I represent in New York is some 
$1,600 annually in terms of idle time, in terms of repairs required to 
their vehicles, in terms of accidents that might be caused by less than 
acceptable conditions on those roadways. So this is costing us, as you 
just indicated, annually.
  We need to understand that it is about public safety and it is about 
avoiding accidents and tragedies. It is about connecting the Nation. It 
is about investing in commerce. That is what this is telling us. It is 
the requirement of this Chamber and the United States Senate and the 
White House to come together and get things done.
  This President has urged us to accept his plans to close loopholes 
that will provide revenues in a long-term strategy, that will provide 
for work for millions of people in the trades industry, to put their 
skilled labor abilities to work for us as a nation and to make certain 
that future consequences like those that were faced in Montgomery 
County with the bridge collapse aren't repeated time and time again.
  Before we go to the future, I just wanted to set that tone for some 
very tragic situations that we as a nation have endured. I am speaking 
of one assembly district in one State, but I know across the country 
there have been these terrible situations where the infrastructure 
weakness gripped us with pain and consequence.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. No doubt about that. I am thinking about the Twin 
Cities. That was another bridge that collapsed more recently. These are 
real reminders of the necessity of dealing with the reality of 
transportation.
  Fortunately, there is a way to solve the transportation and the 
infrastructure challenges of this Nation. It has been proposed by 
President Obama. It is called the GROW AMERICA Act. It specifically is 
designed to rebuild our crumbling transportation system.
  It is a comprehensive plan. It deals with all of the various parts of 
the transportation and infrastructure system. There is a major piece 
for our rail. There is a major piece for inner city transit buses and 
transit within the cities. There is a piece for the ports, bridges, and 
highways. All of this is encompassed in the GROW AMERICA Act, which the 
President and Secretary Foxx of the Department of Transportation 
proposed a few months ago.
  The legislation was presented to the House of Representatives, 
introduced here in the House by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton about a 
month and a half ago, and it has simply sat there. The Transportation 
and Infrastructure Committee of this House has not taken it up, 
although it should.
  We should be holding hearings on this issue, because this is what we 
need to address: the rail system, the buses, the ports, the bridges, 
the highways, the freight systems; the movement of men, women, 
materials, and freight all across this country.
  The program is a very robust program, and over 4 years it will bring 
us almost back to what we were doing in 2002. Because in 4 years, we 
would be spending at the level of $325 billion a year over that 4-year 
period of time.
  But here is what it means for next year. If we were to pass the GROW 
AMERICA Act now rather than kicking the can down the road, beginning 
October 1, 2014, we would have $7.6 billion to fix our highway system. 
We would have $6.8 billion to improve public transportation: buses, 
light rail,

[[Page 12079]]

and intracity rail. We would have $3.4 billion for our rail systems, 
like what you have here in the Northeast Corridor. Out in California, 
we have the Capital Corridor, the train system between San Diego and 
Los Angeles, and so forth. And we would have $1 billion for our freight 
transportation system, or a total of $18.6 billion more in 2015 to fix 
our crumbling infrastructure.
  This is a very robust investment and it covers all of these programs. 
Each of these programs are necessary in and of themselves, like the 
highway system, to fill the potholes so that men and women across the 
country don't have to, as I must do, take my pickup in for a front 
wheel realignment. And all of these other systems, like transit, rail, 
port and freight systems, we would be able to grow those. We would be 
able to begin to fix our infrastructure system, and we would put people 
back to work.
  Mr. TONKO. Right.
  What I like about the plan, Representative Garamendi, is that it is 
all-inclusive in terms of an umbrella approach that encompasses several 
policy areas. It is not just transportation, which is very valid and 
certainly urgent, but we also address environmental policy, energy 
policy, economic development policy, and urban policy.
  There are a number of strategies that come together into this one 
initiative that allow us to be smart about our investments and to be 
efficient. And isn't that what people seem to call for when they go to 
vote each and every time for Congress?
  People interpreted the 2010 election that the voters were saying 
government is the enemy, government is the problem, government is too 
big. I think the people said, no, we want efficient government, 
effective government.
  That is what a strategy like this provides. It incorporates planning. 
It incorporates investing on a routine scale so that we are not doing 
these catch-up games that require down payments of interest before we 
even get some investments made in infrastructure. So I like this.
  With the rail portion, we are talking about the most energy-efficient 
form of travel. In order for us to provide a benefit to the public or 
to commerce, a transportation quotient is an important factor in the 
household budget and planning that all of us do as households and in 
budgeting for business so that they can cut that factor and be 
competitive in landing the contracts for the work that they do. So rail 
is an important component for that vision of providing a sounder 
outcome. It is better for the environment, and there is less pollution 
as we become more energy-efficient in our travel.
  The next order of business is the connection with urban cores. 
Multimodal concepts enable us to again provide for the recovery of our 
inner urban cores. We have been lacking for sound urban policy in this 
Nation. It is time for us to have a heart for these urban cores and to 
put together smart growth strategies, which this sort of planning, this 
sort of vision enables us to do.
  And the list goes on and on.
  To your point, Representative Garamendi, we are going to put people 
to work, too. That is not a bad thing.
  Instead of coming up with dollars to sue a President, why don't we 
invest in our infrastructure? We are going to rush around this week and 
come up with ways to make certain that we can go forward with a lawsuit 
against the President. We are going to invest hard-earned taxpayer 
dollars to prove a point, to stage some sort of political theater and 
not do the sort of priorities that the American public is calling on us 
to do.
  They don't want this acrimony to be driven by additional digging into 
the pocket of the taxpayers. They want soundness and effectiveness of 
programs. They want to know that what we do will grow jobs, create a 
climate that fosters private sector job growth, enable us to be more 
competitive, enable our public to be more safe as we travel, and enable 
us to put people to work.
  That is what people deserve. They are calling for that sort of vision 
and initiative. We owe it to the American public to put into play this 
long-term strategy that we know deep in our hearts is the best thing to 
do.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, what is happening tomorrow? The 
Speaker and the leadership of this House are going to do a press 
conference to talk about suing the President?
  Mr. TONKO. And there is talk of how we will provide the dollars to 
make that happen.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. And we haven't taken up a transportation bill, have 
we?
  Mr. TONKO. Right. I think the approvals we are looking for here ought 
to come for sound investments that will bear benefits for generations 
to come--and in a multiple order of effectiveness for various purposes, 
from jobs to safety to connecting for commerce and the like.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Let's put aside that lawsuit tomorrow and all the 
foolishness that it is and at least let you and me and whoever cares to 
join in this talk about substantive issues the American people really 
want, which is to do our work to put together programs that actually 
meet the needs of the people.
  This is the President's proposal. I know the President has said if it 
has his name on it, it isn't going anywhere. So take his name off of it 
and let's just call it an American act.
  What is it?
  It is a 4-year program. It is 4 years of transportation 
infrastructure funding. As you said, it is holistic. It includes many 
different elements, including planning and research, as you just 
described. It is $302 billion over the 4 years, which is a substantial 
increase over what we are presently doing. It is fully paid for and 
does not increase the deficit.
  I love my charts. I hope the rest of you like them as much as I do. 
If you don't, I am going to show them anyway.
  What happens when we invest a dollar in infrastructure is we actually 
grow the economy by $1.57. So for every dollar we invest, we get 
economic growth. We increase the economy in this case by another 57 
cents beyond the dollar that we have already spent. And as you just 
said, you are laying in place the foundation. You have made the capital 
investment that will endure for years to come.
  Anyway, in 4 years, this GROW AMERICA Act is $302 billion over the 4-
year period. For transportation, the highway system has $199 billion. 
That is a 22 percent increase over what we are currently spending. In 
the area of transit systems, it is $72 billion over the 4-year period. 
That also is an increase. There is research, which we have talked 
about.
  The multimodal, this I really like. You talked about the transit 
hubs, and that is an important piece, but the multimodal freight system 
is the ports, the trains, and the highways all coming together.
  I know you have major projects in New York. You may want to talk 
about those.
  These are the hubs for which our economy grows because it is the 
export as well as the import from overseas. It is the rail system that 
then takes those containers of that cargo and puts it on the rails to 
go across the country--whether it is BNSF, or UP on the west coast, or 
the CSX rail system on the east coast--and the trucks, and they all 
come together in a hub. So there is actually $10 billion for those rail 
hubs. For the rail system itself to improve the Nation's rails, it is 
$19 billion over the 4 years.
  Then there are the special innovative programs that local governments 
want to do like the TIGER grants. These are local programs. That is $5 
billion.

                              {time}  2045

  It is a substantial growth in what we have been spending over the 
previous years, and you will remember the chart that shows the decline 
in spending. It is an opportunity for us to pick it up and push it 
forward at a much higher level, employing people, growing the economy 
in the process, and laying down the foundation--the concrete, the 
steel, the bridges, the rails--upon which the economy will grow.
  I know you have examples of this. Please, Mr. Tonko.

[[Page 12080]]


  Mr. TONKO. What I would add to your support of statements would be 
that, as we delay, as we do these gimmicks, as we do these kicking the 
can down the road scenarios, there are projects lining up. They are 
building up.
  We are not resolving the overall core of concern out there. In a way, 
projects are piling up. In New York, the American Society of Civil 
Engineers has given this country, as you stated earlier, a poor report 
card on our infrastructure.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me. Are you like California, with D ratings?
  Mr. TONKO. Yes. I mean, we have some tough, tough issues to deal 
with, and this report card from professionals is telling the story as 
it is.
  Today, nearly 13 percent of New York's bridges are deemed 
structurally deficient. Some 27 percent of the State's bridges are 
considered functionally obsolete. Now, that is piling up. It is not 
going to get better until we invest. As it piles up, these concerns or 
these benefits from this investment are not being shared with the 
country.
  Now, people don't want to hear about climate change and global 
warming, but at least see it as a way to be more resourceful with the 
energy supplies that we do have. If you can't buy into the notion of 
cleaning up the air to avoid carbon emission and methane emission, at 
least see it as a way to pull cars off the highway and allow for mass 
transit, public transit, to enable us to better address the capacity 
situation of our roads and bridges throughout all of our States, then 
see it as a way to bring under control the transportation cost factor 
for commerce.
  When you build this port system, when you connect with rail and 
highways and bridges and when you have the ultimate investment made in 
today's state-of-the-art infrastructure, you are providing this golden 
benefit to commerce, so that they can compete and can compete 
effectively in a global marketplace. It is driven by commerce, as is 
our public safety, as is our connectedness as a Nation.
  So there are many benefits here. The multiple facets of all of this 
vision that the President has shared with this Congress should not be 
kicked aside. You don't kick this away, like you did the strategies and 
the solutions for our infrastructure needs. You sit down at a table 
together and perform, as this Nation expects us to on behalf of issues 
as critical as infrastructure.
  We know what has to be done. Let's do it. Let's be the professionals 
as we come together in a bipartisan fashion and bicameral fashion--the 
legislative branch working with the executive branch--and get it done. 
We have been inspired throughout our history with those concepts of the 
Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the interstate highway 
system.
  Here is our moment. Do we let it pass us by, or do we move forward 
and get it done in grand fashion, where we are pulling cars off the 
road, enabling people to enjoy the public and mass transit 
opportunities as a Nation and where we have state-of-the-art port 
facilities so that we can ship our goods and so that we can enable 
commerce to be given that muscle it needs, which is the American way?
  Our grandparents knew about this. They handed us a better Nation. 
Where are we in this moment? As stewards of today's given strategy and 
policy, are we going to fail for the next generations? Or will they 
look at us someday and say: they got it, they did it, they did it well, 
and they did it with a sense of vision and planning and passion and 
commitment, and they scored for us as a generation, and now, we will 
build upon that success?
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Si se pueda. Yes, we can.
  Mr. TONKO. Yes, we can.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We can do it.
  It is interesting that we spend a lot of time talking on the floor 
here in the Chamber about government regulation and red tape and all of 
that. In the GROW AMERICA Act, there are major reforms to speed up 
projects, to move projects faster--to get the concrete poured, to get 
the bridge built, to get the airport up and running.
  Those reforms are very, very important. They, along with the overall 
bill, are languishing for lack of a hearing, for lack of action. We 
really have the opportunity to not only put the projects in place, but 
to put them in place faster with the reforms that are called for in the 
GROW AMERICA Act.
  I was starting to talk about the TIGER programs. This is an 
opportunity for our local county, city, State to put forward innovative 
projects. For example, the systems that you were talking about, the 
transit hubs, those can be proposed. They can be graded based upon 
their utility, on their usefulness.
  Those are then grant programs--public, local, State, together with 
the Federal Government. This is a substantial increase. I know these 
are very popular in California. We keep lining them up, but there 
hasn't been sufficient money. In the GROW AMERICA Act, there is a 
significant increase. Some $5 billion would be available for these 
innovative transportation projects.
  What is there not to like in this? It is fully paid for--interesting. 
It is fully paid for in two ways--one, on the existing excise tax on 
gasoline and diesel. It is not increased, but is still the same. Then 
the balance--that is, the increase--is to be paid for by closing tax 
loopholes on corporations.
  It is interesting that today, as the President was talking about this 
and also talking about closing tax loopholes on corporations that are 
offshoring American jobs, The Wall Street Journal--that rather famous 
and quite good newspaper--carried on its front page, ``The Race to Cut 
Taxes Fuels Urge to Merge,'' a cute headline.
  Then, in The New York Times, another headline on the very same 
subject reads, ``Drug Firms Make Haste to Elude Taxes.''
  So right here in these two national newspapers are examples of the 
kinds of tax avoidance games that are being played by American 
corporations to avoid paying their fair share of the American taxes.
  The President, in the GROW AMERICA Act said stop it, stop these kinds 
of tax loopholes, tax breaks, that American companies are taking to 
avoid paying their share of the burden of transportation. He wants to 
close these loopholes, and here are two that clearly ought to be closed 
immediately.
  Mr. TONKO. When you look at that strategy, Representative Garamendi, 
you sense the fundamental fairness.
  I look at projects like the efforts in New York where Governor Cuomo 
is leading this effort to make certain that we invest in the rebuild of 
the Tappan Zee Bridge. That takes traffic from the greater Metro New 
York area, the New York City area, and moves it along into upstate New 
York and into the Northeast area of our country--a major thoroughfare 
with a huge price tag.
  Now, if we partner with our States, that is helping those individual 
States to endure, to provide for the resources needed to build these 
major projects and to do them well. Otherwise, it falls upon the local 
taxpayer and on State income taxes and what have you--or whatever the 
State revenue supplies are--so that there is this partnership that is 
strengthened when the Federal Government leads with a strong commitment 
to infrastructure improvements.
  Now, in looking at the safety, the stretch is miles long as we travel 
from that metro area on the Tappan Zee Bridge into upstate New York. It 
was in need of improvement for quite some time, and I applaud the 
Governor for leading the effort now in putting it together, but, again, 
the Federal partnership here is important.
  For us to continue to ask middle-income America to pay the bill--they 
are already saturated with these efforts. They know that they have been 
stressed out.
  What this measure does is provide fundamental fairness again. It is 
not just about the projects done, the vision shared, the implementation 
of a plan. It is about a revenue side that comes together in a 
progressive fashion, in socially and economically just fashions, to 
make certain that there is an equal sense of responsibility to bear in 
terms of providing for the infrastructure improvements that we as a 
Nation, as an American society, require.

[[Page 12081]]

  Let's go forward and be the bold pioneers, if you will, of this 
generation and show people that we didn't miss the opportunity to 
invest in America. This Nation, as great as she is, with this economy 
as strong as it can be, requires assistance through our wonderful 
history, and this is not a surprise. It should not be a surprise. We 
need to constantly upgrade and improve and maintain our infrastructure.
  Tonight, we have spent a lot of time, Representative Garamendi, 
talking about projects and initiatives that can move us forward, but 
there is also a commitment that needs to be made to the maintenance and 
operational costs of these systems.
  If we don't commit to that, it sooner or later catches up with us, 
and then there are requirements for huge bond acts, or there are 
various ways to come up with strategies, and when you come into moments 
like this, you will have resistance from certain thinking, 
philosophical approaches in government, and it makes the job all the 
more difficult.
  We know what needs to be done. We have been bolstered by our rich 
history. We were at our best when we invested in America. Let's learn 
from that. Let's seize the moment.
  Let's go forward and commit to commerce, to safety, to the general 
public--to the needs of the general public. Let's provide for that 
strength of America, for that pioneer spirit that has always driven us.
  I know I have talked about this so many times when I have been with 
you on the floor, but the pioneer spirit was on display when we built 
that Erie Canal. It was on display when those manufacturing towns built 
their factories.
  It was on display when so many of our ancestors as immigrants came 
here and tethered their American Dream. They climbed that economic 
ladder. They ascended with those opportunities to provide for their 
families, for their children and grandchildren to go forward.
  That is us. That is the synergy of this Nation. That is the passion 
of the American public. We deny that when we deny the vision, the plan, 
the investment, the policy, the initiative driven right on this floor 
that ought to be bipartisan in nature. Make no mistake about it--
bipartisan in nature.
  Let's move forward. Let's have that plan. Let's have that vision, and 
let's commit to this future.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We certainly can do it. We certainly ought to do it. 
Our predecessors have done it. There are 435 of us here in the House of 
Representatives, and the question is: Are we willing to do it?
  It can be done. This plan, GROW AMERICA, is fully paid for. Yes, some 
corporations that are skipping out on their taxes would have to 
participate, and they should. They ought not be tax dodgers.
  This is a very interesting plan put forward by our colleague John 
Delaney, a Representative from Maryland, that would take those profits 
that these corporations have stored overseas--profits that they have 
not paid taxes on in America--to repatriate, to bring that money back 
to America.
  His program would generate, over a period of 10 years, $720 billion 
to be used in public-private partnerships to build our infrastructure. 
There are many, many ideas about how this could be paid for. The 
President has laid out a plan not to raise the gasoline and the diesel 
tax, but rather to bring about some tax fairness, and corporations 
would be required to pay their fair share--all of it good.
  I suspect we have maybe another 5 minutes or so, but I want to bring 
up one of our favorite subjects. I am going to put this up.
  Here we are with the GROW AMERICA Act and all of the things that 
could be done. This is back to Make It In America. I love this photo. 
It is one of my favorites.
  I know, often, you travel on the train from New York down to 
Washington, D.C.--or back--right about now. This locomotive, which is 
the most advanced electric locomotive in America, made in America, was 
paid for by a Make It In America strategy.
  Part of the transportation program--the American Recovery Act--back 
in 2008 said that they put aside about $700-plus billion for Amtrak all 
across the Nation to be used for improving the Amtrak system.
  They said that that money would be used to build locomotives, and 
they said 100 percent American-made. Siemens, a German company, said, 
oh, $700 billion for locomotives made in America, we are a German 
company, we can build those in America.
  So in Sacramento, California, in the infrastructure program, Siemens 
has built a 100 percent American-made locomotive, and it is going to be 
operating very soon on the Northeast corridor.
  This is a good thing. This is how we can rebuild the American middle 
class. This is how we can create jobs, using our infrastructure 
investments to build jobs in America.
  It is a fundamental piece of our Make It In America strategy of 
rebuilding our manufacturing sector where you do have good, solid 
middle class jobs, where a family can earn a living without both 
husband and wife having to work all the time or maybe two or three 
jobs.
  We are talking about the American Dream being restored, and the 
infrastructure is a fundamental piece of that--not just because it 
moves the economy, not just because it is foundational to economic 
growth, but because it is American middle class jobs.

                              {time}  2000

  It is the hardhats. It is the welder putting together the new 
locomotive. It is the engineer designing the system. It is the 
accountant. It is the secretary handling the paperwork. It is America 
building each future.
  The President has laid out a good plan. Is there some way better to 
do it? Put your ideas on the table, my colleagues, put your ideas on 
the table.
  How can you do better than this GROW AMERICA Act? Let's get about 
doing it. This is our future. This is America's opportunity, and it is 
fully paid for, doesn't increase the deficit. In fact, it will grow the 
economy and provide us with those middle class jobs.
  I know, Mr. Tonko, you have been at this for your entire career, as 
have I, and to be here in Congress, at this moment, when we had an 
opportunity, we missed it today. We missed the opportunity today to 
grow the American economy, and instead, we kicked the can down the 
road. Better than nothing, but not good enough--nothing to be proud of.
  Mr. Tonko, a few seconds--I don't know how much time we have.
  Mr. TONKO. I believe we probably have about 5 minutes now. I think we 
go to about 7 minutes after.
  Look, I think what you point to--the gentleman from California is 
absolutely right on. It is a ripple effect. It is not just the rail 
tracks that are developed, the railways that are developed. It is not 
just the highways and bridges. It is incorporating rail cars.
  Now, here is a ripple effect. As we have grown the efficiency of the 
system, now we are building, manufacturing rail cars, putting people to 
work, alternatively-fueled vehicles that can enable us to continue in 
that effort to reduce carbon emission and methane emission, making 
certain that, again, we go through this whole process, coming out more 
environmentally sound.
  So, yes, today's vote was a big disappointment, in terms of what we 
could have accomplished. It was that short term, get out of this 
immediate challenge, and let's go forward.
  There is not that vision. There is not that full indepth plan that is 
required of us, and certainly, we fell short--far short of the mark 
that should have brought us across the finish line and enabled us to 
say, hey, we scored really well here, we put together a sound package.
  This is about putting a strategy together that enables us to advance 
all of these cutting-edge technologies that enable us to strengthen the 
manufacturing base of America where these ripple effects reach us into 
our communities.

[[Page 12082]]

  You talk about the locomotives of today and the future that are 
driven by the intellectual capacity of workers and researchers in this 
country. I think back on the industrial heritage of Schenectady, New 
York, that I represent here in the House.
  The American Locomotive Company, ALCO, was producing tremendous cars 
that enabled us to again have that richness of rail history.
  Well, you know, all through our history, there have been those 
decades and chapters that have inspired us because we met the task, we 
came ready to deliver, and we were not going to let any force stop us.
  That is the greatness of America. That is how we achieved. That is 
how we climbed to our mountains, where people noticed America, where we 
were that beacon of hope, where the best things came from this Nation.
  Are we ready to settle for second best? Fifth best? I don't think so. 
So let us move forward.
  Other nations are investing in their infrastructure. You hear it all 
the time, about rail systems in Europe and Asia. You hear about the 
improvements that people have made with subway systems and the like.
  We know that we have got the smarts to do it. We have got the 
intellectual capacity to lead not only this Nation, but the world, and 
as we go forward, let us be proud of the fact that we can come 
together, make things happen, and have that long-term strategy, which 
was just not here today for that vote. It was not here today for that 
vote.
  I will repeat myself. The Republican majority didn't have their votes 
enough to pass the measure, so they obviously didn't believe in what 
they were doing, and it is unfortunate. It was the only game in town. 
It was the only plan placed on the table.
  We need to do better than this, and we can. So our bright days of 
tomorrow lie ahead of us, only if we are ready to muster up the 
boldness to make it happen.
  Representative Garamendi, to you to close.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. It is time to close. We can build America. We can 
build our infrastructure. The President has laid out a worthy plan, 
comprehensive, and all of the elements of the infrastructure that we 
must do. It is fully paid for. It is a good starting point.
  Maybe there is a better way of doing it, but we cannot get it done 
with short-term, kick the can down the road bills, such as was passed 
today, but that is better than not doing anything.
  This is the American future, and the question for all of us, 435: Why 
did we come here? Did we come here just to pass the time, or did we 
come here to really build America?
  We are going to Make It In America. We are Americans, and we will 
make it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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