Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 4348, Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, Part II

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DeFAZIO. In a bitterly divided Congress along partisan lines, I think there is one thing we can all agree upon: America is falling apart.

Our Nation's infrastructure, according to two reports from commissions that met during the Bush administration when the Republicans controlled the House, the White House, and the Senate, came to the same conclusion: we are vastly underinvesting in our national transportation infrastructure.

We're not even spending enough to bring the Eisenhower-era investments up to a state of good repair: 150,000 bridges need repair or replacement; 40 percent of the pavement on the National Highway System needs to be substantially rebuilt, not just paved over; and a $60 billion to $70 billion backlog on critical capital investments for our legacy transit systems across America.

The good news is, if we make these investments, we'll put millions of people to work--and not just construction workers, not just engineers, manufacturing steel for the bridges, manufacturing for light railcars, for streetcars, first Made in America streetcars in 70 years being produced at Oregon Iron Works, and the components sourced from 24 States in the United States of America.

We have the strongest buy America requirements in our transportation sector, and I hope that we can agree, as we move forward through this conference, to strengthen those even more so we don't leak these precious tax dollars and jobs overseas like we do in so many other ways.

Now, I understand the reluctance of the majority, and they will prevail here today, to say, Let's do the Senate bill now and move on. Let's put people back to work starting next week. But I've got to caution the majority. They will prevail today, but these temporary extensions are costing us jobs. They aren't status quo, let's just extend 90 days and 90 days.

We are getting substantiated reports from the 50 States that they are delaying or cancelling transportation investments and projects for this construction season because of the uncertainty about Federal funding. Time is of the essence here.

In the northern tier States, we've got to get this bill done before we take--well, we've got a break next week, then we're back, I think, for 7 legislative days, then we've got a break the next week, then we come back for another 7 legislative days, then we've got a 10-day break after that.

We've got to squeeze in a little legislative work between these breaks. I believe that if we're determined that we can begin the conference as soon as we are appointed, and we could have this done no later than May 15 before we begin, two breaks from now, another break. So we've got to stop taking breaks and give the American people a break and put them back to work. Make the investments they know we need in our Nation's infrastructure.

I urge support for the ranking member's position.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source