Providing for Consideration of H.R. Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I think it is important for the American people to know that it has been 5 years since we have been able to put pen to paper and develop a massive infrastructure bill going out to desperate Americans who can't find good roads, who need mass transit, who need housing, need better schools, and, yes, even in urban areas like the one I represent that is a combination of urban and rural broadband.
When we went into COVID-19, our children in our school districts did not have access to be able to have online classes. Yes, we need the Moving Forward Act and I rise to support it. As well as I rise to support and thank the Rules Committee for my amendment dealing with asking the Federal Aviation Administration to deal with all of those satellite aspects of aviation that have not been helped by COVID-19 funding.
In particular, I know for a fact that the parking companies at the airports have not received any COVID-19-related funding and that requires prioritizing of funding to those areas. My amendment would ask them to report on those areas that have not gotten funding, like the parking areas where there are a lot of employees, but then to be able to prioritize those areas.
We are going to continue working, however, on some very vital issues that I believe are important. And those are, in particular, large highways that destroy minority and African American neighborhoods. For example, the I-45 extension in my community is about to destroy 158 houses, 433 apartments or condos, 486 public housing, 340 businesses, 5 churches, and 2 schools.
There must be the implementation of the requirements under the environmental aspects, and that is why I also support the climate change aspects in this bill. But the environmental aspects must be looked at as well as the historic aspects to ensure that when you build, you build with the involvement of the community. I will ensure that that is going to happen.
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. My amendment creates a national program to reduce pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents by identifying locations where deaths have occurred and supports local efforts to address those conditions. It is very important to the Nation, very important to the State.
I look forward in going forward to be able to continue to work on these vital issues that were supported by any number of safety entities called under the umbrella of the road advocates. And I know that they will encourage us to work diligently on this.
To my constituents in Houston, we will work together on making sure that I-45 is not intrusive.
I support the Moving Forward Act.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this particular Houston Chronicle article of June 9. [From the Houston Chronicle, June 9, 2020] Interstate 45 Realignment Would Cut Through a Historic Black Neighborhood in Houston (By James Brasuell)
The construction of America's downtown highways destroyed thousands of black neighborhoods during the height of the urban renewal era in the 1940s and '50s--and a new impact study of a controversial highway project in Houston serves as a reminder that the racist policy never ended.
The latest estimates of the human cost of the Interstate 45 project reveal that the highway expansion would require the destruction of 158 houses, 433 apartments or condos, 486 public housing units, 340 businesses, five churches and two schools; the Houston Chronicle reported. The buildings that the Texas Department of Transportation seeks to demolish are disproportionately located in low-income communities of color, including many within the borders of Texas's first black-formed municipality, Independence Heights, a region of major historic significance.
BIPOC activists have long cited displacement and the destruction of black communities in their fight against the $7 billion megaproject, which would functionally rebuild most of the downtown freeway system in the process of expanding and rerouting the interstate. But the scale of the estimated destruction hits particularly hard after a week of civil unrest and consequent police brutality in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The Black Lives Matter movement is demanding that cities across the country defund their bloated law enforcement budgets and make reparative investments in black communities--precisely the opposite of projects like the I-45, which would raze black neighborhoods and destroy black wealth.
The relationship between highways and racial injustice exemplifies the kinds of systemic issues that many protesters are now seeking to challenge, Linda Poon wrote at Citylab last week. Policies that on their face may have appeared to be about easing transportation barriers and revitalizing cities were--and still are--often rooted in longstanding racial prejudice, and carried with them cascading effects that worsened pre-existing inequalities.
The highway would almost certainly result in an increase in traffic violence, too--a phenomenon that disproportionately impacts black communities. Black drivers are at serious risk, as well; three of Houston's highways already ranked among the most dangerous roads in the nation in 2018. The state of Texas itself warned that the I-45 project would cause disproportionate high and adverse impacts to minority or low- income populations; and that the project's [d]isplacement of bus stops could affect people who do not have access to automobiles or that are dependent on public transportation.
And that's not even to mention how the project will increase air pollution in black communities--a direct contributor to fatal COVID-19 outcomes that are contributing to the disproportionate death toll among black Americans-- exacerbate flooding, and reinforce segregation, which Streetsblog has explored in depth in the past.
If the destructive potential of the I-45 project is all too clear, the benefits of it are dubious at best. Decades of studies of the effect of induced demand show that highway expansions do not relieve congestion or stimulate meaningful economic development--facts of which Houston advocates have been reminding officials since the earliest days of the project.
The I-45 project has always been a massive boondoggle that perpetuates structural racism--and our national conversation over the last week (and the much longer-standing conversation among BIPOC activists over the past decades) only underscores how deeply misguided it has always been. But as activists push to defund all the institutions that kill, harm, and destroy black communities and black lives, there is perhaps no better moment to stop it, once and for all.
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of this body and an original cosponsor of the legislation, I rise in strong and enthusiastic support of the rule governing debate of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, and the underlying bill.
H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, is a more than $1.5 trillion plan to rebuild American infrastructure--not only our roads, bridges, and transit systems, but also our schools, housing, broadband access, and so much more.
The bill makes a bold down payment on sound investments that address resiliency and climate change to address the impact of extreme weather events on a wide range of critical infrastructure.
By investing in families, workers, and communities across the country, we can support American manufacturing and ingenuity and create millions of jobs that cannot be exported, all while putting our country on a path toward zero carbon emissions, making communities and roads safer, and addressing long-standing disparities.
Mr. Speaker, this transformational legislation makes robust investments in the infrastructure necessary to support the well-being of all Americans and connect them with the services and opportunities needed to succeed in the global economy, which will create millions of American jobs rebuilding our country, so desperately needed in light of its wreckage by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is way past time to act on a major effort to improve our nation's infrastructure.
The World Economic Forum ranked the United States is ranked thirteenth among nations with a score of 87.9 percent.
The infrastructure score is calculated based on the following factors: road connectivity index, quality of roads, railroad density, efficiency of train services, airport connectivity, efficiency of air transport services, linear shipping connectivity index, efficiency of seaport services, electrification rate, electric power transmission and distribution losses, and exposure to unsafe drinking water, reliability of water supply.
It is essential that our nation make investments in infrastructure because it enables trade, powers businesses, connects workers to employment, creates opportunities for struggling communities, protects the nation from an increasingly unpredictable natural environment, and allows the country to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, our nation's airports experienced a significant economic impact due to COVID-19 and the level of support to airports and airlines has been generous, but not enough, especially regarding what I have learned about airport parking service areas.
I thank the Rules Committee and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for allowing the Jackson Lee amendment that requests a report on all areas at airports that have not received funding and asks that funding be prioritized for these areas, which include airport parking.
There are two Jackson Lee Amendments H.R. 2 that are important to the constituents I serve, so I will continue to work with the Committee and leadership as the bill moves through Congress to have these concerns addressed.
The Jackson Lee resolutions were intended to protect documented and locally recognized historic places in the areas planned for development in anticipation of the designation of a National Historic Trail that would travers the area of Houston where planned I-45 construction will occur.
Earlier this year, H.R. 434, the Emancipation National Historic Trail Report Act became law and it paves the way for the establishment of only the second nationally, recognized historic trail that chronicles the experience of African Americans in their struggle for equality and justice.
The law directs the National Parks Service to conduct a study of 51 miles starting at the historic Osterman Building and Reedy Chapel in Galveston, Texas, the location where news spread of the Emancipation Proclamation finally freeing the last slaves in the United States.
The historic trail will follow a path along Highway 3 and Interstate 45, north to Freedmen's Town, which will include Independence Heights, and Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas where freed slaves settled.
Local preservationists have labored for generations to secure historic sites in and around the planned route of the proposed new national historic trail and have lost significant buildings to past highway projects, specifically to those projects related to past I-45 construction, which cuts through Independence Heights the first black town to receive a charter from the state of Texas.
The project, which has not begun yet is scheduled to begin in 2021 and is expected to cost at least $7 billion and will rebuild most of the downtown freeway system along I-45, Interstate 10, Interstate 69 and Texas 288 and assorted ramps.
These plans for I-45 construction should trigger National Historic Preservation Act obligations because the National Parks Service has a Study to conduct regarding the history of the area.
Unfortunately, some may consider that once a historic place is removed, the ability of researchers, historians or preservationists to tell a complete history is limited-and in some essential ways they are correct.
History is best experienced and not just heard or read, which is why we must preserve and protect the places that are left for future generations.
I will continue to work with the Committee of Jurisdiction an the Jackson Lee Amendment that compliments the programs described in section 1619 Nationwide Road Safety Assessment of H.R. 2.
Section 1619 establishes a program for states to focus on the issue of pedestrian and bicycle safety.
The Jackson Lee Amendment seeks to include in this program a role for local governments who are foremost at the head of efforts to reduce pedestrian and bicycle deaths and injuries.
On a national basis, about 25 percent of pedestrian fatalities in 2018 occurred at intersections or were intersection-related.
Most pedestrian fatalities occurred at non-intersection locations.
The total number of pedestrian fatalities for the 10 largest cities increased by about 7 percent from 2017, with 613 fatalities to 2018 with 655 fatalities.
During the 10-year period 2009-2018 the number of pedestrian fatalities increased by 53 percent, while the number of all other traffic deaths increased by 2 percent.
On average, about 17 pedestrians and two cyclists were killed each day in crashes. Together they accounted for one-fifth of traffic deaths. (NYT)
The Jackson Lee Amendment broadens the section to address safety and the emerging popularity of other forms of personal transportation such as electric scooters.
The Jackson Lee Amendment supports local efforts to address the conditions that may contribute to deaths to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety.
A rough count by The Associated Press of media reports turned up at least 11 electric scooter rider deaths in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018.
In Austin, Texas, public health officials working with the Centers for Disease Control counted 192 scooter-related injuries in three months in 2018. Nearly half were head injuries, including 15 percent that were traumatic brain injuries like concussions and bleeding of the brain. Less than 1 percent of the injured riders wore a helmet.
According to a Consumer Reports survey conducted in March 2019, 22 percent of people who have spent time in an area where they saw e- scooters available for rent said they had used one at least once.
They found that many scooter riders (27 percent) are uncertain of the traffic laws they should follow.
Among people who have ridden an e-scooter, 51 percent ride on the sidewalk, 26 percent in a bike lane, and 18 percent in the street but not in a bike lane.
The role of local government is essential to addressing the problem of pedestrian and bicycle injuries and deaths.
This Jackson Lee Amendment is supported by: Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Transport Workers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Center for Auto Safety, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, Truck Safety Coalition, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, Parents Against Tired Truckers, and the Trauma Foundation.
More generally, I support the Moving Forward Act because it provides:
1. $100 billion for affordable housing to create or preserve 1.8 million affordable homes;
2. $10 billion for child care facilities, designed to generate additional state and private investments;
3. $130 billion for school infrastructure targeted at high-poverty schools; and
4. $30 billion for health care facilities, including hospitals, community health centers, and laboratories.
Mr. Speaker, the Moving Forward Act connects all Americans to essential services and economic opportunity by providing:
1. $500 billion to rebuild and reimagine the nation's transportation infrastructure;
2. $100 billion for affordable high-speed broadband internet for all Americans;
3. $25 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other programs to provide clean drinking water; and
4. $25 billion for the United States Postal Service to modernize postal infrastructure and operations.
All of this infrastructure funding I have fought for. Also, there are additional provisions in the bill that will help put us on the path to becoming a stronger, safer, better and more prosperous America, including:
1. Ameliorating hazardous living conditions and building a more environmentally sustainable housing stock;
2. Removing contaminants like PFAS from drinking water; and
3. Modernizing our energy infrastructure with an emphasis on renewable energy.
While this legislation would be necessary under any circumstances, the coronavirus crisis has magnified and accentuated the need for federal investments to put Americans back to work building a long- lasting foundation for a stronger and more equitable America.
I urge all Members to vote for the rule governing debate on H.R. 2 as well as the underlying bill.
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Mr. MORELLE. Mr. Speaker, I would just note that bipartisanship is a two-way street. While some may suggest that the majority is at fault, I would argue that there was a lack of a good-faith effort on the part of the minority to engage in meaningful dialogue on things like climate change and the importance of making sure we have infrastructure investments in our schools and in our healthcare systems.
Mr. Speaker, I do note, while this is certainly a very, very important issue, cyberattacks on the United States, both on government and our private sector, I think what is equally troubling are physical attacks and bounties placed by Russian leaders on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. I don't see any note of that in the resolution.
But the bigger issue here is that we have a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill in front of us. I would certainly join with my colleagues in any resolutions on Chinese and Russian interference in American activities. The work in front of us, however, is a $1.5 trillion transportation bill desperately needed for American citizens throughout this country.
Scanlon), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.
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