McAdams Sees Urgent Need for Bipartisan Transportation and Infrastructure Bill

Statement

Congressman Ben McAdams says a measure to improve roads, highways, bridges and water infrastructure is overly partisan, not targeted, and too burdened by red tape to ever become law and therefore he could not support it in the House. The Moving America Forward Act (H.R. 2) is a $1.5 trillion package combining a broad range of bills, including several bipartisan stand-alone bills that McAdams said he does favor.

"This bill is an unfunded wish list without any effort to figure out how we're going to pay for it. The last several months have seen unprecedented levels of spending to get us through the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, but we can't continue to spend trillions of dollars on every priority by adding it to the national credit card. We have to invest in our country's infrastructure, but we have to do it in a fiscally responsible way," said McAdams.

McAdams said public transportation items he pushed for, such as more funding for zero emission buses, transit-planning grants and eligibility for double-tracking FrontRunner are included in the legislation. Also included is new renewable energy infrastructure development on public lands and additional investments in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

While there are many elements of the bill he supports, McAdams said he's opposed to the total cost, with many of the provisions paid exclusively by deficit spending.

"Modernizing our transportation system is too important to our economy to be stuck in Washington gridlock. Make no mistake, Democrats failed with this bill. I am committed to working with Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate to get this done," said McAdams.

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