Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 2, the INVEST in America Act.

There is no doubt America's roads need repair. The proposal before us, unfortunately, consists of empty promises and wasteful spending.

During my tenure as a local elected official, I saw firsthand that large public works projects can happen without exploding deficits. While mayor of Knox County in Tennessee, my office leveraged resources to increase our paving capacity fivefold. It made significant progress on the largest public works project in county history, all while continuing to pay down our debt.

These improvements didn't just happen. They required difficult discussions with a range of local stakeholders, while ensuring fiscal responsibility.

At almost $1.5 trillion, Mr. Speaker, in spending, this bill doesn't attempt to find long-term solutions to our highway transportation needs. Instead, it increases bureaucratic red tape and explodes costs in a thinly veiled attempt to implement the partisan Green New Deal.

Congress has spent $3 trillion on the COVID-19 virus in recent months. Simply put, this is unsustainable and is fiscally reckless at a time like this.

I serve on the House Budget Committee, in which we haven't passed a budget in quite some time up here, and I am willing to work across the aisle to find some solutions that put people to work meeting our Nation's infrastructure needs without crippling future generations with mounds of debt. That is why this Congress needs to pass a real budget, Mr. Speaker, instead of piecemeal spending plans and election year messaging bills like this one.

I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 2 and to get back to work doing real legislating in committees and on this hallowed House floor.

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