Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. MULLIN. Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I stand in front of you today in support of H.R. 5021, the Highway Transportation and Funding Act.

We, as a body, stand here all the time and we talk about creating jobs. What we need to do is create an atmosphere where jobs can thrive.

If this bill for some reason doesn't pass, we are talking about putting over 700,000 jobs at risk. In Oklahoma alone, that is 200 construction jobs at risk.

We need time. Yes, this Congress, this body, every now and then we push things down the road, but we are truly trying to find a real solution. The Senate bill just didn't give us enough time. This will push it through May and allow us to look at a long-term funding solution.

Now, either we are going to stand up as a whole and say, yes, this is our responsibility, yes, we are going to provide the industry confidence that this body is going to stay with them, or what we say when we are talking about creating jobs really doesn't mean anything.

Look, we have an opportunity here to build confidence in construction workers and contractors that we depend on every day. We rely on them to get to and from work. When we go to our local stores, we depend on them to make sure the goods are delivered there. And are we going to continue bickering about it a little bit or are we going to stand up and say, let's make sure you are funded? Let's stand up and say, we support you, we are going to make sure that industry and the 700,000 jobs that are there, we are going to make sure that you go to work tomorrow.

Let's make sure that we stand together as a body and invest in our infrastructure.

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