Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, a transformative investment of $1.5 trillion to create jobs, protect our climate, and modernize our highways, hospitals, schools, broadband connectivity, housing, clean water, and energy infrastructure.

The American Society of Civil Engineers evaluated the state of the nation's infrastructure in 2017 and gave the U.S. a D+ grade. They estimated that we need to invest $2 trillion more than we are today to bring our infrastructure to a good state of repair. While this is a significant amount, failing to act will lead to an estimated $4 trillion in lower economic output, including the loss of 2.5 million jobs. With the economy still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, this legislation takes on an even greater urgency.

The Moving Forward Act is not only big, it is green. Climate policy is a cornerstone of the bill because the transportation sector contributes nearly one-third of our country's greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation invests $100 billion to make our public transit faster, cleaner, and more reliable, taking cars off the road and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These investments include significant funding for electric buses which will help transit providers such as SamTrans, VTA, and Santa Cruz METRO transition their bus fleets to all zero- emission vehicles by 2040. The bill also provides $1.4 billion to deploy electric vehicle charging stations across the country, $8.3 billion for state carbon reduction grants, and $70 billion to modernize the electric grid to support additional renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, and support an expansive electric vehicle charging network. Together these investments make the Moving Forward Act one of the most significant bills to address climate change ever considered in Congress.

In addition to emission reductions in the transportation and power sectors, the Moving Forward Act also includes significant funding for environmental restoration, including $125 million for the San Francisco Bay. These funds will support ongoing work to restore habitats for endangered species and protect cities like Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Redwood City from sea level rise. The bill also provides funding to reclaim abandoned coal mines, increase drought resilience, and clean up drinking water contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

I'm pleased that the Moving Forward Act provides $3.6 billion in guaranteed transit funding for the Bay Area, a 50 percent increase from the last highway bill in 2015. It also adjusts the criteria for several discretionary grants that will make Bay Area transit projects more likely to receive additional federal funding. The dedicated $2.5 billion for grade separations nationwide will benefit both Caltrain riders and communities along the Caltrain corridor which has 42 at- grade crossings, including the crossing at the top of the California Public Utility Commission's priority list. This funding will be a welcome relief to my constituents who are choking in traffic, with commute times in the Bay Area prior to the pandemic nearly twice as long as they were ten years ago.

The Moving Forward Act also provides $100 billion to ensure every American has internet connectivity. Tens of millions of Americans across the U.S. still lack basic access to high-quality broadband internet service. Access to high speed internet service is essential in the 21st Century, particularly as Americans are conducting more of their lives online during the COVID-19 public health emergency. I'm pleased that two of my broadband bills are included in this legislation. My bipartisan Nationwide Dig Once Act of 2020 is commonsense legislation that requires the inclusion of conduit--plastic pipes that house fiber optic cables--during federally funded highway construction. My Community Broadband Act protects municipal broadband networks from state laws that thwart the efforts of communities establishing their own networks.

The Moving Forward Act provides $10 billion for hospitals and community health centers to make critical capital improvements and rebuild their infrastructure to meet the growing demands on these health care facilities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, the bill also creates a pilot program to fund upgrades to state and local public laboratories, which are essential to our nation's testing capacity as we work to control and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The infrastructure investments in the Moving Forward Act create good- paying jobs that cannot be outsourced, promote economic growth, reduce our greenhouse emissions, and expand broadband to communities across the country. I'm proud to support this legislation and urge my colleagues to join me in voting for it.

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