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Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 3, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I rise to ask for a simple bipartisan amendment along with my fellow Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member, Representative Dan Lipinski of Illinois.

This amendment would make a minor modification to the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects grant program. This amendment would not change any dollar threshold or increase funding to the program, nor would it increase the cost of the overall bill.

Under the program set forth in the bill, large grants, as they are defined, meaning those in excess of $100 million, are eligible for four types of programs: one, freight projects on the National Highway Freight Network; two, highway or bridge projects on the National Highway System; three, intermodal or freight rail projects on the National Multimodal Freight Network; and, four, railway-highway grade crossings and grade separations.

However, the bill sets aside 10 percent of program funding for small projects defined as those projects that are less than $100 million. However, the bill only allows one of the previously mentioned four programs, freight projects on the National Highway Freight Network, to be eligible for this reserved small project funding.

Madam Chair, in my home State of Pennsylvania, the structural integrity of our aging bridges and roadways is a major concern of my constituents and a personal priority of mine. I seek to add the other three programs to be eligible under the small projects definition.

So I ask: Should a $50 or $95 million project to restore a crumbling bridge have less of a shot at program funding than a $100 million project? Or for the 55 short-line railroads in Pennsylvania, including three in my district, if they would otherwise be eligible for program funding to improve roadway grade separations, why should they not be eligible to compete for those dollars set forth for small projects?

Madam Chair, this amendment addresses this discrepancy.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

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