Recognizing Infrastructure Week

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, later on this afternoon, in recognition of Infrastructure Week, I will be releasing the second annual overview of transportation and infrastructure priorities in my district, Washington's Seventh Congressional District.

The report features a number of high-priority transportation and infrastructure projects. The report was developed through conversations and roundtables, tours, workshops, and planning sessions across my district that my staff and I convened.

We have many cities in the district. People know the district for Seattle, which is very, very important, our Port of Seattle, an important institution, but we also have cities like Burien, which is right next to the Sea-Tac Airport, one of the fastest growing airports in the country, and is dealing with the many challenges that comes with that growth.

Each of the priority projects that are covered in this report serves our district by enhancing sustainability, improving the community, and contributing to economic growth and job creation.

My hope is that this report provides an overview of the types of improvements we desperately need to see in King County, the city of Seattle, Snohomish County, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lake Forest Park, Normandy Park, Burien, and the Port of Seattle.

Our challenge, Mr. Speaker, is to keep our district the most livable, sustainable, and welcoming community in the country. It is a challenge.

Just consider the facts:

In 2016, we spent 54.8 hours in traffic, giving Seattle the dubious honor of being one of the top 10 cities for congestion.

In 2015, the lowest earning 20 percent of households in our State spent three times as much, as a percentage of their income, on commuting costs compared to the highest income families.

Especially significant are transit options for my constituents. Transit makes the ultimate difference in being able to reach a place of employment easily, which, in turn, affects how constituents are able to provide for themselves and their families.

While Sound Transit has seen a 23-percent increase in ridership over the last year, we need to ensure that all communities are connected to transit networks and not forgotten.

As King County Metro found in a report from 2015, while 71 percent of minority communities live within a quarter-mile of a Metro bus stop, only 41 percent live within a half a mile of a stop that has frequent service.

Mr. Speaker, transit is also essential to addressing climate change. In our region, nearly 50 percent of our greenhouse gas pollution comes from transportation. In 2015, Washington State's transportation sector contributed 43 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, making it Washington's highest level since 2007.

Not only do we need to consider impacts to air quality but to water quality as well. In our region, clean water is essential to supporting our economy and national treasures like our salmon and our orcas. According to the Washington Stormwater Center, over 10,000 unique chemicals are found in urban road runoff, contributing to the continuing pollution of Puget Sound.

Yet not a day goes by where I do not draw from the innovations and examples set by our businesses, our individuals, and institutions in our Seventh Congressional District.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that we are a model for the Nation, whether it is through ideas brought to reality, partnerships formed across diverse interests, or new mechanisms developed to maximize the leverage of any financial instruments.

But there is a lot to do. Later this year, Congress will consider its annual budget and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2019, including, I hope, a potential infrastructure bill.

Democratic Ranking Member DeFazio spoke earlier about the critical need for the Federal Government to fund a bold infrastructure plan so that our businesses and our communities across the country can succeed.

That will put people back to work. It will put money into our roads, our bridges, our infrastructure needs, our water systems, our schools across our country, and our transit.

Mr. Speaker, that is what I am committed to fighting for here in Congress.

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