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Mr. PASCRELL. I will make my comments directly to the Chair, Mr. Speaker.
We have short memories here. Ten years is a long time to remember, I will admit that, but it took the last administration in 2001 and in 2002--the first 2 years of that administration--to finally get us into the plus on private jobs.
You don't know what you're talking about. Mr. Speaker, we have selective memory here. This legislation is about private jobs.
They voted ``no'' on everything. They voted ``no'' on the stimulus. And yet the reports in the last 2 days indicate without that stimulus we would have been deep in, not only recession, but depression. Not our economists on this side of the aisle, our economists have concluded that.
There now have been six straight months of private sector job growth. I'm not making these numbers up. It's the truth.
Challenge them. I'll wait 10 seconds.
Now that I've waited 10 seconds, the data is clear. We all know that there is more work to be done. No one's saying that this is a perfect place for us all to be. That is why I strongly support the Invest in America Jobs Act. This bill will directly contribute to private-public partnerships that create American jobs.
Why don't you be for something? Come up with your own idea.
While this entire bill has seen many critical job creating provisions, I'm going to talk about just one part of the legislation, excluding water and sewer bonds from State volume caps.
This year the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the Nation's water and wastewater systems the worst grade of any infrastructure category. They gave it a D minus.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield 15 additional seconds to the gentleman.
Mr. PASCRELL. As a former mayor, Mr. Speaker, I understand that a strong water infrastructure is essential. Municipalities don't have the money. This portion of the legislation aims to repair our crumbling water infrastructure, while leveraging private capital to create jobs.
Every dollar invested in public water and sewer infrastructure adds $8.97 to the national economy. It's currently estimated there will be $2.5 trillion to $4.8 trillion in water and waste systems.
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