[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3315-3316]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   A REALISTIC INFRASTRUCTURE AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the tortured Presidential nominating 
process continues with generalities and insults, but maybe we could 
avert our eyes and attention for a moment and consider some real 
challenges that we face closer at hand.
  The backdrop in the metropolitan area in Washington, D.C., is that 
D.C. Metro has shut down for the entire day to deal with safety 
concerns--an unprecedented step. The bigger issue for most people in 
the region, for most riders and potential users, is the system's 
reliability.
  It is a symbol of a lack of resources and a lack of leadership, not 
just for Metro, but for the States of Virginia, Maryland, the District 
of Columbia, and the Federal Government itself. They have, sadly, been 
lacking in leadership, in vision, and providing the resources for this 
vital system for a region of approximately 4 million people.
  At the same time, we have a looming water and sewer crisis, almost 2 
million miles of pipe, in some cases long past its useful life. A water 
main breaks every 2 minutes. We have serious problems with system 
reliability with sewage.
  The city of Flint, Michigan, and its terrible situation with lead in 
the drinking water has captured attention, but it has also pointed out 
for people who look deeper that this is a problem that afflicts 
communities across the country. We have, according to the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, an overall grade, as a country, of D

[[Page 3316]]

dealing with sewer and water challenges.
  What if the major candidates would train their attention on serious 
proposals to deal with the infrastructure crisis already upon us? Not 
mere generalities, but let's talk about how they would pay for it. What 
is their vision to deal with multiple needs, and how would they set 
priorities?
  It is not really that hard. In a number of very red States, 
governments have stepped up to raise the gas tax and fund 
transportation. In metropolitan communities across the country, in red 
States and blue, people are dealing with their challenges, proposing to 
their communities funding and vision to solve the problem.
  I have got bipartisan legislation to establish a Federal water 
infrastructure trust fund to help start in that regard.
  We ought to fix the transportation funding. There is broad support 
amongst labor, business, profession AAA truckers to raise the gas tax 
and be able to deal with our transportation challenges.
  Finally, we should embrace technology in transportation, things from 
self-driving, autonomous vehicles, electronic payment for road systems, 
a road user charge being experimented on in the State of Oregon. These 
are mechanisms that would help us update, modernize, and make these 
systems more effective.
  And by the way, when you hear all those candidates talking about 
strengthening the middle class and the economy, these proposals would 
put millions of people to work at family-wage jobs in every community 
across America. It would strengthen safety and liveability and bring 
people together.
  You know, when we have faced up to infrastructure challenges, whether 
it is Dwight Eisenhower's interstate freeway system, what we have done 
in the past with clean water and clean air, those are things that are 
broadly supported by Americans. An infrastructure agenda, a realistic 
infrastructure agenda has the potential of bringing people together 
while it strengthens America, and it would certainly be a nice change 
of pace.

                          ____________________