Infrastructure

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam President, I join my colleagues today to address the ongoing discussions taking place in Congress among the executive branch and in communities across the country about the state of our Nation's infrastructure and how to improve it to propel our economy forward and enhance the quality of life in Arkansas and every State.

As a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I understand the importance of infrastructure investment. I have been a constant advocate for water resources development, surface transportation investments, and the expansion of rural broadband.

President Biden recently released a plan that claims to rebuild America, claims to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. While I agree that infrastructure investment must be a top priority, I have serious concerns about this particular proposal. The President should look to the successful example of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as a starting point for this critical bill. There are a number of bipartisan infrastructure-related bills in the Senate which have been thoroughly vetted and are ready to be passed. Instead, the administration is trying to reinvent the wheel.

My advice to President Biden is simple. The path to achieve long-term infrastructure improvement is through bipartisanship. Just weeks ago, the Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously passed the Drinking Water and Waste Water Act.

Last Congress, the Committee unanimously passed America's Transportation Infrastructure Act to provide resources and long-term certainty for States and local governments to build safer and more modern highways, railroads, and bridges.

These bills are just two examples of the good work the Senate has been doing to invest in our Nation's crumbling infrastructure. I am pleased to hear this Chamber may begin consideration of the Drinking Water and Waste Water Infrastructure Act this month.

Unlike the House of Representatives and the Biden administration, which continue to undermine bipartisanship by developing and advancing a progressive policy agenda, the Senate has been working in a bipartisan manner to find solutions for our transportation challenges.

If President Biden is listening, my message to him is this: Work smarter, not harder. There is no reason we need to start at the beginning of this process. The Senate EPW Committee has done the work which can and should be the basis for any infrastructure proposal.

I have always said that if you take the ``E'' out of EPW, we actually get a lot done in our committee. For a good example of the type of cooperation that can be achieved, look no further than the work of Senator Inhofe and former Senator Boxer. These two colleagues had little in common. However, they agreed on the importance of infrastructure investment, and they were able to usher major legislation through Congress through a collaborative and deliberative process.

The same is true for Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito. While these two have ideological differences, they have demonstrated their ability to work together to create a bipartisan product.

We want to work with the Biden administration on infrastructure to update basic public services, such as safe roads and bridges. With innovative financing and private sector investment, we will be creating jobs and keeping commodity prices low while remaining competitive in the global marketplace. However, we will not tolerate a partisan process where only one side gets to offer input with the end result being a liberal wish list of projects and priorities that have nothing to do with infrastructure investment.

Infrastructure is about as ripe as any area that we have to actually get something done of a major nature in a bipartisan, cooperative way.

I am back in Arkansas almost every week, and I can tell you what Arkansans want. They want us to be able to disagree while also being able to create a good commonsense policy. A bipartisan infrastructure bill is a way to demonstrate the President's willingness to work across the aisle. I am ready to create a path forward to update and modernize our Nation's infrastructure needs as well as make wise investments in our water systems, energy grids, and broadband deployment, where there is bipartisan agreement on the urgent need to act.

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