[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of infrastructure week, 
which is a joint effort by business and labor to highlight the 
dangerous conditions of America's roads and bridges.
  There are currently 69,000 structurally deficient bridges in America. 
Every second of every day, seven cars drive on a bridge that is 
structurally deficient.
  Congress said that we couldn't afford to rebuild the roads and 
bridges of America, so we only spent $50 billion a year in the last 
decade to rebuild America's roads and bridges--pathetically weak. We 
were told we couldn't afford it.
  But American taxpayers spent $87 billion rebuilding the roads and 
bridges of Afghanistan. We spent $73 billion rebuilding the roads and 
bridges of Iraq--off budget and unpaid for.
  Congress needs to get its priorities straight. We need to put 
American workers back to work and invest in our infrastructure to 
unleash the great potential of American businesses to grow the American 
economy.

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