[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7989-7994]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Brendan F. Boyle) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend 
their remarks and include any extraneous materials on the subject of my 
Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, this is 
Infrastructure Week in the United States, and while Hallmark may not 
quite yet be making cards to observe Infrastructure Week, I hope those 
of us here in Congress can take a moment to recognize that this is a 
unique opportunity to talk about the importance of the state of our 
Nation's infrastructure.
  This is a time, as I was mentioning, really to focus on all modes of 
transportation and our utility systems that most of us only tend to 
notice when they are broken.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of broken infrastructure in our 
country to notice lately. In fact, even President Donald Trump has 
recognized that the roads, bridges, and all the other underpinnings 
that make our modern world possible are crumbling and need urgent 
attention.
  So the President has vowed repeatedly, both as a candidate and as 
President, to invest at least $1 trillion in our infrastructure system. 
That was a key promise of his campaign and critical to his appeal to 
working class Americans, including in my home State of Pennsylvania.
  But that promise is, so far, as broken as our Nation's 
infrastructure. Instead, 4 months into his administration, this 
President is laying the groundwork to shortchange American workers and 
manufacturers. Mr. President, it is most disappointing.
  I stood Monday morning at Philadelphia International Airport. I stood 
with the former Governor of our State, Ed Rendell, who is part of a 
bipartisan group called Building America's Future. I stood with both 
Democratic and Republican Members of this body who happen to represent 
the greater Philadelphia area. I also stood with Senator Coons of 
Delaware, who, himself, lives not too far from the Philadelphia 
International Airport. We used that setting to talk about the 
importance of Infrastructure Week and reinvesting in our Nation's 
infrastructure today and for tomorrow.
  I mentioned in those remarks something that I am going to mention 
here tonight: 100 years ago, there was no doubt that the United States 
of America was the leader in the world when it comes to infrastructure. 
Our roads, our bridges, our waterway systems, our mass transit, and our 
gas lines were rated number one. Today, if you seek out the report of 
the American Society of Civil Engineers--these are not Democrats; they 
are not Republicans; they are really nonpartisan; they are civil 
engineers--we are rated a D-plus.
  The International Civil Engineers do not rate the United States of 
America in the top 20 when it comes to infrastructure. That should 
bother all of us, whether you are Democrat or Republican or Independent 
or nonpolitical.
  I have to say, as someone who believes in this country and believes 
that we should always strive to be number one, not even being in the 
top 20 bothers me, and it is simply not good enough. It is unwise 
economic policy.
  Part of why the 20th century became known as the American Century is 
because we were the number one world leader when it came to our 
infrastructure. How are we supposed to compete today and in the future 
if we are not even in the top 10 or the top 20?
  Mr. Speaker, for the needs of our infrastructure and for a myriad of 
other issues related to this, I have cofounded the Blue Collar Caucus. 
I have spoken on this House floor about the need for our country's 
leaders to pay attention again to our blue-collar workers and our blue-
collar economy.
  I am so happy that, while tonight might be specifically about 
infrastructure and that sliver of the overall blue-collar economy, I am 
joined in this effort with my cofounder, the co-chairman of this 
caucus, Marc Veasey of Texas. He will be speaking in a moment, as well 
as a few other members of our caucus, about the importance of 
reinvesting in our Nation's infrastructure and why that is critical to 
our economy.
  Mr. Speaker, if we really want to put Americans back to work and put 
them back to work not in low-paid jobs but in good-paying jobs--family-
sustaining jobs--the way to do it is to reinvest in our Nation's 
infrastructure. I have many other things to say on this topic that I 
will be saying throughout the next hour or so.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey), the 
co-chairman of our Blue Collar Caucus. He is someone who has been a 
real leader on this issue and feels just as passionately about it as I 
do.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from the great 
State of Pennsylvania for helping cofound the Blue Collar Caucus and 
just doing a tremendous job. As you know, the hardworking men and women 
of Pennsylvania, and particularly the Philadelphia area, have been so 
responsible for many of the things that have really made our country 
what it is, many of the great public works, many of the amazing 
museums, and many of the amazing things, bridges, just things like that 
that people take for granted that there was someone that built those 
things, there was someone that toiled possibly in the heat and in the 
snow, but they were able to bring home a good wage doing it. They were 
able to take care of their families. They were able to send their kids 
to college.
  I love when the gentleman talks about his family and the sacrifices 
that the gentleman's parents made working in a blue-collar job that 
ultimately helped him go to one of the most prestigious universities--
Notre Dame. So I just really appreciate the fact that the gentleman 
appreciates the hardworking men and women that really make this country 
great.
  We need to do more for them. One of the ways that we can do more for 
them is to pass an infrastructure bill. I don't think that there is any 
doubt about that.
  We know that this is Infrastructure Week. With roughly $700 billion a 
year that is being invested at the local, State, and Federal level, 
infrastructure is vitally important to our economy. We have to have 
good infrastructure to meet the basic needs of the American people. 
That may sound like quite a bit of money, but we can't spend enough 
money to repair and replace our crumbling roads, bridges, and other 
critical infrastructure.
  I listened to Elizabeth Esty last night, one of our colleagues from 
Connecticut, talk about the dangers that are involved in not investing 
in infrastructure and some of the deaths that tragically have occurred 
on American roads because of collapsing bridges and things like that. 
That is not what we want.
  We need for the American taxpayer to have confidence that the roads 
that they are driving on and that the airports that they are using are 
up to date, that we have the best ports, that we have the best transit 
systems in this country, and that we have the money to keep those 
things world-class systems and efficient systems in our country. They 
have to be safe.

                              {time}  2000

  According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, one out of 
every five

[[Page 7990]]

miles of highway pavement in our Nation is in poor condition. That is 
an estimated 56,000 of the Nation's bridges that are structurally 
deficient. Think about the truck driver who drives every day, think 
about the person who makes their living on the road. Think about how 
many families want their loved ones to travel on safe roads. Think 
about all of the families who depend on their loved ones to make a 
living on those roads. That is how they put food on the table at the 
end of the week, at the end of every 2 weeks, at the end of the month, 
however they get their check. They need to be safe. Those families need 
to know that those hardworking men and women who work on those roads 
every day and use them to help fuel American exceptionalism, they need 
to know that those roads are safe.
  Some estimates say that modernizing our infrastructure to meet our 
needs is going to require an additional $5 trillion in Federal spending 
over the next decade. Federal investment in infrastructure is an 
economic boost that can also create good-paying jobs for blue-collar 
workers.
  I have to tell you, many were encouraged, a lot of people that I 
know--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--they were very encouraged 
when the Trump administration floated the idea of a $1 trillion 
infrastructure plan. But instead of presenting a detailed 
infrastructure plan that puts Americans back to work, the Trump 
administration has basically offered a plan that lacks details. It 
doesn't really go into how we are going to get this done.
  The reports that I have seen say that the Trump plan, if you want to 
call it a plan, like I said, contains very few details. It contains tax 
incentives for private industries that make up as much as 80 percent of 
the cost of the bill.
  Let me tell you two reasons why that is bad. It would simply enrich 
companies that would have built their projects anyway, and the only 
private investment it would encourage is for projects that contain a 
funding stream such as toll roads.
  I have to say, if toll roads are the only choice that people have, 
they will maybe take them. But I know that a bipartisan group of 
Texans, and I saw this especially when I was in the State legislature 
before I came to Congress, they are really upset with toll roads. They 
feel we have too many of them, and they want to see the infrastructure 
investment that we need in this country to get our roads back up to par 
and to help relieve congestion.
  Encouraging private investment in infrastructure is not necessarily a 
bad idea, but it requires the proper oversight and the selection of the 
right kinds of projects. I have to tell you, there is a bipartisan 
group that believes in that. Both the Obama administration under 
Secretary Foxx and the Bush Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, they 
both agree that public-private partnerships are only able to address a 
small segment of what is needed.
  Without careful attention, we risk wasting taxpayer funds by giving 
big tax breaks to companies on the backs of hardworking American 
families.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk some more later about job creation 
and about Davis-Bacon and about some other things that need to be 
addressed, but I want to be sure that we hear from another one of our 
colleagues and friends from the Rust Belt, Ms. Marcy Kaptur who is 
here. So I am going to turn it back over to you so you can introduce 
her. When she talks about what is going on in the heartland and in 
Ohio, she works directly with those men and women who work in 
manufacturing and who work in construction. I bet you she has some 
things that we need to hear about dealing with infrastructure and how 
it can help our States and help our country.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the 
gentleman. As my colleague was just mentioning, someone who has really 
been a champion on these issues for decades, someone who intellectually 
gets it, but also speaks on these issues not just with her head but 
with her heart, and now as the climate in our country has, I think, 
evolved on some of these issues, some people are recognizing that what 
she was talking about for quite a while has been proven to be correct.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) who I 
am honored to serve with.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Boyle and Congressman 
Veasey for their leadership and the new energy and the innovative ideas 
that they bring here from their constituency on behalf of our country. 
It is a privilege to join you tonight and talk about the infrastructure 
of our country, a major infrastructure bill, and it is certainly 
appropriate during this infrastructure week.
  The whole vital topic of investing in a national infrastructure plan 
and investing in those who will help to modernize America translates 
into good jobs, as Congressman Veasey has talked about, and progress 
for America that Congressman Boyle has talked about.
  When we think about infrastructure, some people only think about 
roads and bridges, and we certainly need attention to those across our 
country. So many places throughout our Nation are in desperate need of 
repair. Frankly, the street I live on, there is a big sinkhole at the 
end of the street.
  Mr. Speaker, 17 percent of the roads in Ohio, my home State, are in 
poor condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. 
They estimate that the average Ohio driver pays an extra $475 a year 
from driving on roads in need of repair. Look no further than me. I had 
to pay $500 for a whole front end because of hitting a big pothole 
driving at home at night. So we know how much it costs.
  Let me urge President Trump and the administration not to limit their 
thinking on an infrastructure bill. Infrastructure should be about our 
roads and bridges for sure, but it should go far beyond that for 
modernizing the Nation.
  As the ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Energy 
and Water Development, I take very seriously America's responsibility 
to modernize the country for this new century.
  Our energy grid desperately needs an update, and power outages across 
this country attest to that. Our waterways need help, too. And our 
drinking water infrastructure, just in Ohio it is estimated will cost 
$12.2 billion over the next 20 years.
  As hard as it is to fathom, and I am sure the President hasn't had a 
chance to read the fine print on this, but the President's budget 
office proposed to zero out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative 
which is so vital to fresh drinking water in our vast region. The 
President has said he wants to help the people in Flint, Michigan. He 
campaigned there several times. But it is not an either/or. It is both/
and. You have to have funding in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative 
to take care of the water issues confronting the Great Lakes where 
algal blooms get larger and larger every year due to phosphorus and 
nitrogen runoff.
  Our waterways, our drinking water, are vital components of our 
national infrastructure. Over 11 million people just on Lake Erie 
alone, the lake that I represent, need that fresh water. The systems 
are very old. Some estimate in the cities, cities are losing 30 percent 
or more of the water distribution underground because of aging 
pipelines. We truly need to look both above the ground and underneath 
it.
  Through many of the counties that I represent, there are old septic 
systems in place, and 40 percent or more of them are leaking. They 
contribute to some of the problems that we are having in our fresh 
water systems. These communities need a helping hand and extra 
financing to help put their wastewater systems into compliance.
  I have also proposed a bill for a 21st century civilian conservation 
corps for needed investments in our States and national parks and 
forests. Ohio and Michigan alone need to plant 20 million trees to 
replace those that have been damaged by invasive species.
  I wanted to also mention, I represent, and I know Congressman Boyle 
and Congressman Veasey, we represent

[[Page 7991]]

urban communities, and many of those communities have housing that is 
100 years old. Some a little more, some a little less. Imagine if 
infrastructure could include weatherization so we could place new roofs 
on millions of homes across this country. We could train people how to 
do this. We could help bring up the younger generation.
  Also windows and insulation. If we look at the condition of America's 
housing stock, particularly following the collapse of 2008, if we look 
at saving Americans money that they currently spend on wasting energy 
because they can't afford to put on a new roof, windows, or insulate 
their homes, we could help millions of Americans. As we help to improve 
America's infrastructure, I really believe housing has an important 
role to play in this regard, especially with energy conservation.
  Honestly, as I close my remarks tonight, and I thank Congressman 
Boyle and Congressman Veasey for their leadership, Mr. Speaker, it is 
not only rewarding to work with them, it is fun, too.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans have been waiting for us and the Federal 
Government to really give them a helping hand up. I know working 
together on a bipartisan basis, we can produce an infrastructure bill 
that the country has been waiting for, as Congressman Boyle says, for 
decades. I know that our mayors, our county commissioners, and our 
Governors across the country would work hand in hand with us, and I 
think Americans from coast to coast would applaud what we are able to 
do here in order to help our country rebuild itself in this new 
century.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank 
Congresswoman Kaptur.
  I mentioned, Mr. Speaker, at the very beginning of my remarks that we 
kicked off infrastructure week on Monday morning at an event at 
Philadelphia International Airport. One of those Members of Congress 
who joined me for that event is the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Norcross), someone who practices what he preaches when it comes to the 
issues that most concern the Blue Collar Caucus, and someone who can 
really speak about infrastructure from many different perspectives.
  I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross).
  Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that kind introduction. It 
was a remarkable time sitting at the airport right there on the 
Delaware River and understanding how much we depend on safe, secure 
travel in those airports around the country.
  But to both Marc and Brendan, thank you for the Blue Collar Caucus 
and bringing to light many of the issues that at times we as a nation 
might have forgotten, quite frankly, those who work with their hands, 
those who are getting up each and every morning and going to work, 
having a job, taking care of their family, and I think focusing on that 
is so important.
  I am myself involved with the Building Trades Caucus, and we are 
talking about something that is near and dear to everybody's heart, and 
it is called infrastructure.
  In this day and age when people are wondering about what is going on 
in the country, I want to talk about the ``t'' word. No, it is not 
Donald Trump; it is a trillion dollars, and that is the number that 
people have been talking about that we need for infrastructure.
  Infrastructure means many things to many different people. If you are 
in Flint, Michigan, it is about having clean water. The pipes need to 
be replaced. We have a growing infrastructure that is many years old.
  When we think back about one of the major components of 
infrastructure in this country, during the Eisenhower administration, 
it was building the interstate system, from north to south, from east 
to west, connecting coasts, connecting cities, connecting States. And 
that is something that has been so important to us. But apparently not 
important enough to keep and maintain.
  I am very familiar with the systems that we have. I went to the other 
4-year school; it was called an apprenticeship program, an electrical 
apprenticeship that I spent 4 years in. After graduating, I worked up 
and down the Delaware River at refineries, on bridges, and on our 
infrastructure. We know how important it is.
  But in Congress, because of the Blue Collar Caucus and many others, 
we need to remember that the dignity of a job is so important. We have 
211 attorneys here in Congress, but there is only one electrician. 
There is only one carpenter. There is only one ironworker, and there is 
only one painter. Diversity comes in many shapes and sizes, and our 
Founding Fathers understood how important that was. They were farmers, 
printers, attorneys, doctors, all coming together and bringing those 
experiences into this very House, this very floor, to remember why we 
are here.
  Anybody who drove on a road to get here today understands what 
infrastructure means.

                              {time}  2015

  But somehow we haven't paid attention. We had the American Society of 
Civil Engineers brief us a few weeks ago to the Building Trades Caucus 
on the report card that they give each and every year: aviation, a D; 
bridges, a C-plus; ports, a C-plus; energy, a D; transit, a D. The 
overall report card was a D.
  If I had come home with a D on my report card, I know what my parents 
would have done to us. But somehow having the D on the report card for 
the very infrastructure here in the United States has been acceptable.
  Well, it is not. We are deferring this problem to the next generation 
when we owe them a responsibility of turning over our world to them in 
a little bit better shape, not worse shape.
  So when we look at that investment in roads, rails, ports, airports, 
it does something more than just to fix the very problems that we look 
at each and every day. It is about a job. What better way to put 
America back to work than fixing our own infrastructure. Nobody does it 
better than the building trades who have the training programs second 
to none and does not use one dime of public investment. All funded 
privately. Fifteen different trades coming together to fix our 
infrastructure.
  In addition to that, they do something that is really special. We all 
know the figure when it comes to those who put the uniform on to help 
protect our country is less than 1 percent. We have so many of those 
men and women who are coming home today, and there is a program that 
the Building Trades Caucus have put together called Helmets to 
Hardhats. Taking those who want to come home and start a career, took 
their helmet off and go right into an apprenticeship program, put the 
hardhat on. What better way to say to those veterans they are welcome 
home than to give them a job? But not just a job, a career.
  So as we continue to have the discussions day-to-day, the ``t'' word 
is about trillion dollars. It is about putting back into our country 
the investment that it is due.
  Mr. Speaker, I again want to thank my colleagues for coming here 
today to make sure that we remember those men and women who don't 
necessarily put on a suit and tie but have the dignity of going to work 
each day as blue-collar workers, and we are damn proud of it.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. I should have mentioned when I 
was introducing Mr. Norcross that he is the founder and the chairman of 
the Building Trades Caucus. When he talked about that one electrician, 
he was talking about himself. I understand from some of his former 
electrician buddies that he was a top-rated electrician. He is someone 
who has literally walked the walk.
  It now gives me a real pleasure to introduce someone who has 
represented Chicago and the Chicagoland area for a number of years, 
someone who also gets it when it comes to the issues that most concern 
the Blue Collar Caucus, and then specifically what we are addressing 
tonight in the Special Order, the need to reinvest in our Nation's 
infrastructure and put people back to work.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski).

[[Page 7992]]


  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I want to say, first of all, it is an 
honor to follow Mr. Norcross. As Mr. Boyle said, one of the very few in 
this body who is an actual member of the building and construction 
trades. I didn't intend to talk about this originally, but I just want 
to say it is very important that all of us in this Nation give more 
respect to the building and construction trades, and all the men and 
women in the trades who have built this Nation. These are great jobs 
that provide a good living for families, and they are building our 
Nation. We need to encourage more young people to go into the building 
and construction trades.
  I used to teach college. I was a college professor, but I know we 
need to make sure that young people today understand what a great life 
they can have, what great jobs these are in the trades.
  I want to thank Mr. Norcross for the work that he has done helping to 
build this Nation and now working here in Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Boyle and Mr. Veasey for their work 
on the Blue Collar Caucus. There are a lot of people in this country 
who think Washington has forgotten them, many blue-collar men and women 
who turned out in the election and I think were motivated in many ways 
by that feeling that they have been forgotten. Many of these are the 
blue-collar men and women who work so hard every day.
  We are here tonight to say we have not forgotten. We understand how 
important you are to our Nation and the work that you do, and 
especially tonight to talk about how important the work you do building 
and repairing our infrastructure is to all of us.
  There is a lot of infrastructure we have in this Nation that needs to 
be fixed, to be built. Ms. Kaptur talked about many of these different 
areas. One of them, of course, is in drinking water and sewers. So much 
of it was built right after either the early part of the 20th century 
or after World War II, and now it is deteriorating. I hear the stories 
all the time from some of my municipalities back home, saying that they 
are afraid that the pipes are completely gone, the water right now is 
just running through the hole that was left from the pipes. There is so 
much infrastructure we need to build.
  I want to focus especially tonight on transportation. I sit on the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. President Trump promised 
that he would have a $1 trillion bill to fund infrastructure. I think 
it is critical that, in these days where we have so many other things 
that we are focused on, we don't forget--and we have not forgotten--the 
fact that we need to do this infrastructure bill.
  Focusing on transportation, we all know we need our transportation 
infrastructure to get anywhere we are going. You get up in the morning, 
you take your kids to school, you go to work, you are going to the 
store, you are going to church on Sunday, anywhere you go, you need the 
transportation infrastructure. If it wasn't there, you couldn't get 
there.
  So we are talking not just about roads and bridges, we are talking 
about public transit. Public transit systems in many of our big cities 
are crumbling. We know that in Chicago. We know all the problems right 
now from that crumbling infrastructure. Something we oftentimes don't 
think about is that public transit, how critical it is, how important 
it is. So let's remember all of that. Let's remember the sidewalks, the 
bike and pedestrian paths, everything that gets people to where they 
need to go.
  Everybody knows the problems that we face. Everyone knows in their 
daily lives what we need to do, how much transportation infrastructure 
needs work. Chicago is oftentimes labeled the most congested city in 
America. If it is not number one, it is in the top three. We know it, 
but people all across the country know it. We need to do this work. If 
we do this work, first of all, we are putting people to work 
immediately building the roads, bridges, repairing the infrastructure, 
the rails.
  We also need to talk about the locks and dams on our inland 
waterways, things that many of us never see because we just pass over 
our waterways on the road, on bridges, and don't even see the vital 
waterways that also serve important roles in our country. And the 
ports. We need to invest in all of these.
  We put people to work immediately. But also what is important, 
besides the fact it helps us get around, helps us get to wherever we 
are going every day, is it also makes our economy more efficient. It 
makes American business more efficient. If we have an efficient 
transportation system in our country, American business is more 
efficient. And that is why so many of them, including the U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce, have been on this for a number of years, that we need to 
improve our transportation system so American business can thrive. And 
if American business thrives, more Americans get hired by businesses. 
Not just building the transportation infrastructure, not just working 
on it, but all businesses in America are more efficient, can hire more 
people. It makes our economy run.
  This is something critical. With everything else that is going on 
right now--and we know what that is, and we never know what is coming 
day-to-day--all these other things are important that we are talking 
about and that we are looking at. But we cannot forget--and the 
American people know this--that we need to do our work here and we need 
to pass an infrastructure bill, including a big transportation 
component to that.
  We are going to continue to fight for that. No matter what else is 
going on here, no matter what else you hear people talking about, we 
are here to say we need to do this. The American people know we need to 
do this. It helps all Americans, but especially the blue-collar 
Americans, the ones who have been suffering for many years in our 
country.
  One other thing. President Trump talks about buy American. I am happy 
that he came out last month and said the administration is going to 
look at how we can improve our buy American law so that when the 
Federal Government buys things, they are going to buy American-made 
products.
  But I have to say, if we want to do something immediately, I have a 
bill that I introduced, the Buy American Improvement Act, which closes 
a lot of the loopholes that exist right now in our domestic content, 
buy American laws. It extends buy American laws, domestic content laws 
to Federal spending that it is not applied to right now. For example, 
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for drinking water.
  It is important that we use American tax dollars to put Americans to 
work. It is great that the administration is looking at what can be 
done; but I have to say, this bill, the Buy American Improvement Act, 
we can get this done, get this passed, get this into law. When we pass 
that infrastructure bill, we will make sure Americans are being put to 
work with American taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to again thank the Blue Collar Caucus and Mr. 
Boyle and Mr. Veasey for all the work that they are doing, and the most 
important thing is for the American people. The American people need to 
know that we are here fighting for them, especially those blue-collar 
workers who think they have been forgotten.
  You have not been forgotten.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank 
Mr. Lipinski for his words, and I appreciate his membership in the Blue 
Collar Caucus.
  In going through this entire discussion on infrastructure, because 
there are so many things that we could talk about as part of this, 
certainly I would encourage those interested in this topic to read the 
report of the American Society of Civil Engineers. It is an 
overwhelming case for why we need at least a $1 trillion infrastructure 
plan really making up for decades upon decades of underinvestment in 
our Nation's infrastructure. We could certainly talk about that and 
talk about many different aspects of it.
  In the few minutes that we have remaining, I want to talk about its 
overall effect on our country. I am not

[[Page 7993]]

talking about dollars and cents. I am not talking about in a tangible 
way. I mean something that is not tangible, that you can't exactly put 
your fingers on; and that is the spirit of America.
  Mr. Speaker, something that Americans have always been known for is 
our eternal optimism. So much so that if you are friends with folks in 
Europe and in other places, they would always gently make fun of 
Americans for being so optimistic, for our undeniable, unending belief 
in the power of the future; that tomorrow will always be better than 
today.

                              {time}  2030

  Yet we know, Mr. Speaker, in recent times too few Americans are 
feeling optimistic about our country's future. All the polls are 
showing that. There has been a pretty dramatic turn in just the last 
20, 30 years in how Americans feel about their own personal futures and 
the future of this country.
  Part of what leads to that, part of it is stagnant economic wages. I 
have talked about that at length on the floor as part of a previous 
Blue Collar Caucus hour. Part of that also, though, is the sense that 
we are not building anymore; that 100 years ago we were building, that 
we were launching the first airplane; that 50 years ago we were going 
to the Moon.
  In the Eisenhower era we were building the world's best highways. But 
in today's day and age, we don't build anymore. That growth is 
happening in Asia and in other parts of the world.
  So just imagine what that would do not just for the economy, not just 
for our infrastructure, but imagine what it would do for the spirit of 
America if they saw a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill take hold, if 
they saw our roads being rebuilt and new roads being built, if they saw 
the investments that we can make in our mass transit and our intercity 
rail.
  I happen to represent a district smack dab in the middle of the 
Northeast corridor. I met today in my office with the chairman of The 
Northeast Maglev project, a project to take a technology that exists 
today in Japan, build it here in the United States, and make it 
possible that you could get from New York City to my district in 
Philadelphia in a half hour, that you could get from New York City to 
Washington, D.C., in 1 hour instead of the 3 hours that it takes today. 
That would have a transformative effect. No other place in the world 
has the maglev. Even in Japan, which has invented the technology, it is 
only in a small snippet.
  So making sure that we can move forward in a bipartisan way, actually 
achieving something with Democrats and Republicans working together 
with this administration, we would send such a signal beyond the 
substance of the issue itself. I believe that we would have a dramatic 
effect in improving the way that the American people feel about their 
future and the future of our country.
  Mr. Speaker, literally, over a million jobs will be created by a $1 
trillion infrastructure bill. I wanted to speak about the importance of 
making sure that those are high-paying jobs and why the Davis-Bacon Act 
is linked to that, but knowing that my co-chairman will speak about 
this issue, I am happy to turn that over to him now to speak about that 
issue and others that are affected by this.
  As it may be my last time speaking on this, I thank my colleagues for 
their passion on this issue. I appeal to the White House, to President 
Trump specifically: Please work with us on this issue. It is, I 
believe, the single best way we could unite Democrats and Republicans 
in the House and the Senate. We can get this done. It is something that 
must get done. It would put millions of Americans--that is not an 
exaggeration, by the way. It would put over a million Americans back to 
work. It is critically needed for today and tomorrow, and I appeal to 
this White House, even in this hyperpartisan, fractured time, to work 
with us on this issue and finally, 4 months after taking office, unveil 
your infrastructure plan.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey), my colleague and 
co-chairman.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Boyle. I really 
appreciate the points he has made tonight, just so timely. It is so 
important that we talk about those things during Infrastructure Week 
and the Blue Collar Caucus and the role that the caucus is playing in 
pointing out a lot of these things that need to be talked about.
  Again, when you talk about the infrastructure bill, if we had a 
legitimate trillion-dollar infrastructure program and it were enacted, 
we could put the United States back on a prerecession job growth path 
and, some people say, create close to 11 million jobs.
  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, infrastructure spending 
today--that is what we spend on infrastructure spending right now--is 
directly responsible for about 15.5 million direct and indirect U.S. 
jobs, and you are talking about average salaries of $68,000 per year. 
That is 28 percent above the U.S. median income. We know that 
infrastructure jobs pay well. There is absolutely no doubt about that.
  Investment in infrastructure also adds more indirect jobs in 
manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and an increasing demand for 
steel, glass, concrete; and all those things get the job growth growing 
in America.
  According to Georgetown University, more than half of the new 
infrastructure jobs will go to high school graduates and even high 
school dropouts. So many of our young men who find themselves dropping 
out end up in the incarceration system, but we know that, if we can 
find high school dropouts a job and they are not left behind due to 
economic changes and economic factors, we can help those young men.
  According to that same analysis, jobs and occupations that are 
expected to grow with greater infrastructure investment pay more than 
typical wages for high school graduates. Engineering and management 
jobs, which usually require higher levels of education, also offer good 
opportunities. However, even construction and transportation jobs 
associated with infrastructure projects provide higher earnings than an 
average job for high school graduates. The Blue Collar Caucus advocates 
not only more jobs but, again, better quality jobs.
  I used to hear people talk around the dinner table or the domino 
table or the card table when I was growing up. People wanted to know 
where the good jobs were, how can you get on at a good job. That is 
what I am talking about: how we are going to create more of those.
  The Davis-Bacon Act, you heard Representative Boyle talk a little bit 
about that earlier, about how important that is. We should be troubled. 
When you start talking about good jobs, good-paying jobs, we should be 
troubled that congressional Republicans have taken steps to repeal the 
Davis-Bacon Act.
  I want to talk a little bit about the Davis-Bacon Act, but first I 
want to talk about why the Davis-Bacon Act is important. A lot of times 
in Washington, D.C., we start talking about these terms. People at the 
Chamber of Commerce, they know what Davis-Bacon is, but maybe the 
average person has no idea what Davis-Bacon is.
  People don't come up to me at the Dollar Store in Fort Worth and say: 
Hey, Congressman Veasey, hey, Marc, what are we going to do to protect 
Davis-Bacon? But people do stop me at the Dollar Store and say: Hey, 
Marc, what are we going to do about putting some more money in our 
pockets?
  That is what Davis-Bacon is all about. That is where the Republicans 
fail the American worker.
  The Davis-Bacon Act requires that certain contractors and 
subcontractors responsible for carrying out Federal contracts pay their 
laborers and mechanics the prevailing wages for the area. That is what 
I am talking about when I say putting more money in your pocket, 
putting more food on the table, being able to make that light bill, 
being able to make that car bill, being able to make that truck 
payment.
  I want to sell more cars. We have a General Motors plant in 
Arlington, Texas, that makes some very good SUVs, good-paying union 
jobs, good

[[Page 7994]]

union-made SUVs, American-made SUVs, and you don't get that with lower 
rates. You get that with the prevailing wage rates that Republicans are 
trying to do away with. That is what everybody needs to understand.
  Ensuring workers are paid a fair wage is extremely important, 
especially for blue-collar workers. Prevailing wage laws provide 
protections for both construction workers and the taxpayers. They 
ensure that all contractors bidding on public construction projects 
will pay family-supporting wages and that they also ensure projects 
will be built to the highest standards by skilled, safe, and well-
trained construction workers.
  Numerous studies have shown, contrary to the claims of corporate 
interests, that Davis-Bacon wage protections do not increase taxpayers' 
costs. That is the one thing that you are going to hear from 
Republicans and downtown business interest people when they want to 
keep income inequality growing in this country instead of trying to 
stop income inequality is that Davis-Bacon drives up wages because it 
allows families to put more food on their table. I think that is a 
doggone shame.
  Fairly paid craftsmen added value to our investments in 
infrastructure, and Davis-Bacon must continue to be included in any 
infrastructure plan. Repeal of Davis-Bacon would decrease the quality 
of blue-collar jobs, and that is a loss that we cannot afford. A repeal 
of Davis-Bacon would decrease the amount of money that you take home 
every week or that you take home every 2 weeks, however often you get 
that check, however often you look for that direct deposit so you can 
make those bills. If we repeal Davis-Bacon, you will not be making 
those bills as easy as you were before.
  You need to let your Republican Member of Congress know that you want 
to bring more money home, that you want these prevailing wages, that 
you do not want to lose these, that it would be absolutely devastating 
for your family.
  Another area that Blue Collar Caucus has talked about, another area 
that we are going to continue to talk about and that Congress should 
press forward on in great speed is the Buy America provisions. They 
have to be in any infrastructure package that we pass.
  Buy America generally requires that projects carried out by State and 
local governments use U.S.-made iron and steel and that they also 
require domestic production and assembly of other manufactured goods be 
made right here in the good old USA.
  These projects--again, mainly highways, public transportation, 
aviation--are vitally important to our economy, and ensuring that these 
projects are made with quality American-made goods means that we get 
better value and that we put our own people to work. All of this means 
more and better jobs for hardworking Americans out there.
  As we set about rebuilding America's infrastructure, we have to make 
sure that we are building an economy that works for everyone and not 
just the corporate interests in this country because, again, we have to 
do something about income inequality in this country. It is very real. 
Productivity is up. People's paychecks are stagnant. That is why people 
still feel the economic pinch and the economic pain, because they see 
the growth, they see the technology, but they don't see their paychecks 
getting any fatter--but they do feel themselves struggling more and 
more and more. We have got to change that.
  I would like to again thank Representative Boyle just for being an 
advocate for the hardworking citizens in the Philadelphia area in his 
district, just for being a voice on this, and other Members of Congress 
that came out tonight--Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Lipinski, and others--because we 
know that this is important.
  We have to keep talking about this. We cannot continue to let the 
American worker fail. We cannot continue to let the American worker's 
dollar not grow while we see our economy grow and while we see new 
technology and fat cats getting rich, seeing corporate America getting 
rich but the average, everyday American just continues to fall further 
and further behind. It has to end. It has to end.
  Congress needs to work together to do something about that. I am glad 
that the Democratic Party in the United States House of Representatives 
is taking the lead on this issue.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the 
balance of my time.

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