Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, this is a simple, straightforward amendment to ensure highway dollars are spent wisely and are used for highways. Specifically, it prohibits our limited highway money from being used for highway beautification.

We have over 65,000 bridges that are considered structurally deficient. We must ensure that our Federal highway dollars are spent improving our infrastructure.

From 1992 to 2001, over $1.2 billion was spent on landscaping and scenic beautification, and these funds could have been put towards ensuring our roadways and bridges are safe.

It does not make sense for the hardworking families in Missouri and all across this country to send in their money on April 15, every year, and to, perhaps, forego buying their child a new coat or shoes or making a house payment so that they can pay their taxes, just so that their tax dollars can go to planting flowers alongside the road.

Now, I am for a beautiful highways, like everybody else, but I think a private solution is better. Why don't we, like we have adopt the highway sections for picking up trash and making our roads pretty, why don't we have adopt a corner for landscaping projects?

Why don't we have local garden clubs adopt an intersection, or a Girl Scout troop or a Boy Scout troop?

Why don't we leave that up to local community leaders and individuals to plant those flowers?

I don't believe we should be using our hard-earned tax dollars to be doing this highway beautification, especially in a time when our roads are falling apart and our bridges are deficient.

There are potholes in roads that are endangering our families, endangering our children, and yet we are spending these hard-earned tax dollars to plant flowers and bushes along the road. We can't afford luxuries like this anymore.

It is time to spend our highway dollars on our highways, make sure our roads are safe, make sure our bridges are safe, make sure that those hard-earned tax dollars are used wisely.

So that is why I am offering this simple amendment, and I would urge my colleagues to support my effort to make sure our highway dollars are spent where they need to be spent and to make sure our money is spent wisely. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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