[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6588]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                     HIGHWAY AND TRANSIT TRUST FUND

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I want to offer my 
condolences to everyone who was affected by the derailment of Amtrak 
train 188 yesterday. The victims and their loved ones are in our 
thoughts and prayers today.
  This week, Mr. Speaker, is National Infrastructure Week. I rise today 
to underscore the importance of a long-term reauthorization for the 
highway and transit trust fund so we can address the urgent 
responsibility to repair and rebuild our roads, bridges, ports, and 
transit systems.
  There are just 6 legislative days remaining until the expiration of 
the highway trust fund. We are putting at risk 6,000 infrastructure 
projects and more than 600,000 jobs.
  The American Association of State Highway and Transportation 
Officials estimates that my home State of Rhode Island could lose $200 
million in Federal funding, $3 million in Federal transit funding, and 
1,689 jobs, and 40 infrastructure projects are at risk.
  Some on the other side of the aisle have suggested that we should 
pass another short-term patch rather than a long-term solution to the 
highway trust fund. If we are serious about rebuilding our economy, we 
need to be able to move goods, services, and information to compete in 
the 21st century.
  It is critical that we pass a long-term reauthorization of the 
highway trust fund that provides the resources we need to rebuild our 
crumbling bridges, roads, and schools and helps create good-paying jobs 
for hard-working Americans. Our constituents deserve nothing less, and 
our economic recovery requires this.

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