[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7021]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              LONG-TERM HIGHWAY TRUST FUND REAUTHORIZATION

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a long-term 
reauthorization of the highway trust fund.
  Just this week, Mayor Dumas from Attleboro, Massachusetts, came to 
Washington to tell me how another stopgap bill would negatively impact 
projects in his city.
  The bridges in my home State are some of the oldest in our country. 
Of the over 5,000 bridges in our Commonwealth, more than half are 
considered deficient.
  Every single day, cars, trucks, and schoolbuses cross our 
structurally compromised bridges nearly 10 million times. Those numbers 
underscore the urgency for our government to provide the critical, 
long-term investments in infrastructure that our constituents demand 
and deserve.
  Each time we approve a short-term patch of the highway trust fund, we 
are continuing the uncertainty and doubt that prevents States and 
municipalities from moving forward on projects that not only create 
jobs but keep all of us safe.
  Our refusal to even consider a lasting transportation plan is 
hindering our ability to maintain the infrastructure we already have, 
when we should be instead focused on new projects that increase our 
modern economy in communities across our country.
  It is time to fix this problem. It is time to invest in our country. 
It is time to pass this bill.

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