[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5989]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         IT IS TIME TO STOP STALLING ON THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, on May 31, a looming deadline, the 
highway trust fund extension expires. I actually could have dusted off 
the speech I gave last summer, arguing against this ill-advised measure 
to slide it into this spring.
  As I pointed out then, we will be right back in the same spot. We 
will be stuck. We won't have a long-term proposal. We won't have a 
short-term proposal. We will look at another extension.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to stop the stalling. Everyone ought 
to make a commitment that this will be the last extension that we take 
before we give America what it needs, a robust 6-year reauthorization 
of the critical highway trust fund.
  Please focus on making sure this does not slide beyond the end of 
this Federal fiscal year because Congress doesn't act absent some sort 
of deadline, and do instead what we do best: stall, study, and 
sidestep.
  If we would actually start working now, the 5 months until the 
expiration of this Federal fiscal year, we can actually give the people 
legislation they deserve. It is not that hard; except if you never 
start, if you don't know how big the program is going to be, if you 
don't get down to business, it is difficult.
  Now, I hear that the simplest approach, the most direct approach--
raising the gas tax for the first time in 22 years--is somehow too 
hard, too difficult for Congress. It has been pronounced dead on 
arrival. It is off the table, according to our distinguished majority 
leader and the chair of the Committee on Ways and Means.
  Why exactly is it off the table? Why is this too hard for Congress? 
If it was good enough for Dwight Eisenhower to start the Interstate 
Highway System, if it was good enough for Ronald Reagan to call 
Congress to come back during his Thanksgiving Day speech, November 29, 
1982, to more than double the gas tax, if it is good enough for 19 
States--including, this year, five Republican States--to raise the gas 
tax, why is it too hard for us? Maybe it is because we have never given 
the people who care deeply about this a chance to make their case.
  The Republicans have been in charge for 52 months. We have not had a 
single hearing on Ways and Means on transportation finance. What if we 
allowed the Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the American Trucking 
Association, contractors, local governments, engineers, 
environmentalists, mayors to come in and make the case why they support 
raising the gas tax?
  Maybe if Congress did its job, if it listened to the people, if it 
allowed the broadest coalition you have seen on Capitol Hill on any 
major idea to come in, take a couple days, work with Congress, explain 
the issues, dive into the details, actually show politicians that even 
the public supports it, maybe we could do our job, maybe we could have 
a 6-year reauthorization, maybe we could put hundreds of thousands of 
people to work at family-wage jobs all across America, making our 
families safer, healthier, and more economically secure.
  Deadline, September 30--get down to work; have some hearings; do our 
job; produce the bill, and America will be better off.

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