Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today the Senate has begun work on
legislation that would provide our States and communities across this
great land the resources and reliability they need to soundly invest in
our transportation infrastructure. After a full stumble start when our
friends across the aisle decided to block our ability to proceed, they
reconsidered, thankfully, and I am glad to see them join us to move
forward on this sensible, bipartisan bill.

To this Senator, the most important part of the bill is that it
doesn't kick the can down the road--at least not in the way we have
done more than 30 different times. We have had more than 30 short-term
transportation patches, which is a terrible way to do business, and
frankly it should be embarrassing to us that we haven't been able to
come up with a better solution.

While a 3-year transportation bill is no panacea, it represents
progress and avoids a lot of the unpredictability and wait-and-see
problems our States have had when it comes to planning longer term
projects. Fortunately, this multiyear bill restores some sanity by
providing resources over a consistent and dependable period of time. It
is actually a 6-year bill. We have come up with a bipartisan group of
pay-fors to take us 3 years out, but then hopefully we will continue to
work on trying to find a way to pay for the last 3 years without adding
to the deficit and debt, as has happened in the past.

This bill is really forward-looking, and this legislation provides
the foundation for more commerce, more efficient travel, and more
public safety by enhancing our transportation networks. In doing so, it
provides for a more stable economic climate for the next generation, as
our States plan to meet the needs of a continually growing population.

I am thankful in Texas that with strong economic growth and a lot of
people moving there--voting with their feet, as I like to say--from
other parts of the country, we know the value of good infrastructure.
And when the highway fights in Washington, DC, froze to a standstill,
Texas stepped up to the plate and refused to wait.

One example of that action that I mentioned earlier this week came
last fall when Texans voted last November to overwhelmingly approve a
measure that would provide an additional $1.7 billion to upgrade and
maintain our vast transportation infrastructure. This came from a
surplus in our rainy day fund. That proposal was approved with more
than 80 percent of the vote, and in so doing, Texans clearly
prioritized improved infrastructure and understood that by making our
roads more efficient, we can decrease the 44 hours of car time that
Texans spend stuck in traffic annually.

The vote also showed that Texans realized that our State is poised to
grow significantly. In fact, our economy, which grew 5.2 percent last
year compared to 2.2 percent nationwide--one reason our economy is
growing is because people are coming to Texas to pursue their dreams.
We are going to need better roadways to absorb the estimated 18 million
vehicles expected to be added to our roads by the year 2040. This bill
will help Texas manage the influx of people and vehicles so that we
will have the transportation infrastructure to support the millions of
new people who will call Texas home in the not too distant future.

Texas has long known that good transportation infrastructure is part
of what has made us the economic powerhouse we are today. Take, for
example, the farm-to-market roads that opened more than 70 years ago,
with the idea that our farmers and ranchers needed a reliable
transportation network to get their livestock and crops to town. So
basically our farm-to-market roads gave our rural areas more access to
the towns and cities that purchased those goods. This helped Texas
agriculture--a substantial part of our economy--and made it even more
competitive by providing a reliable method to transport our grown and
raised goods to market--first around the local community, then around
the State, and now around the country.

Of course, I was pleased, along with a lot of folks in the
agriculture sector in Texas, that we passed trade promotion authority
with the promise of opening up even more markets around the world.

Many generations have benefited from the investments we made in
infrastructure to help them get efficiently from point A to point B.

Just as the farm-to-market roads provided a more reliable
transportation network throughout rural Texas, this legislation
includes vital resources that will upgrade rural routes and freight
corridors in addition to improving the overall safety and efficiency of
nearly 20,000 miles of major roadways in Texas.

While it is not perfect, as the Presiding Officer knows, this bill
represents some progress. I wish I could say we have solved our
transportation problems in perpetuity, but I don't think that is
possible. But doing it for 3 years beats the dickens out of another
short-term patch, as I mentioned a moment ago, and kicking this can
down the road does nothing to support the next chapter of population
and economic growth.

As we continue to discuss and review this legislation, I am going to
continue to encourage our colleagues to consider just how much our
entire country needs to strengthen the infrastructure projects that
will hopefully help that 2.2 percent growth which we experienced in
2014 nationwide go upward and upward because that will create more jobs
and more opportunity.

We have also seen that under new leadership, starting this last
January, we have been able to make incremental progress in a number of
areas on a bipartisan basis. Frankly, given the response I heard from
many of my constituents last year when they complained to me about the
dysfunction here in Washington, DC--even though, again, they are not
necessarily saying we have met the mark, they are seeing that we are
trying to work hard on a bipartisan basis to meet their needs, and I
think this bill represents that kind of progress.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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