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

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, as the designee of the chair of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and pursuant to House Resolution 1028, I offer an amendment en bloc consisting of the amendments printed in part F of House Report 116-438.

Mr. Speaker, the Moving Forward Act is long overdue, and it comes on the heels of a devastating pandemic that has killed more than 125,000 Americans and shut down much of our economy.

The Moving Forward Act will repair our Nation's dilapidated roads, bridges, and public transit systems. It will rebuild our drinking water infrastructure, upgrade our schools and hospitals, and improve our affordable housing infrastructure. The Moving Forward Act will also create millions of jobs and help our economy to recover.

This en bloc amendment makes several improvements to H.R. 2, including the addition of new language that would support the infrastructure of historically Black colleges and universities, support long-term affordability of manufactured housing communities, remove lead in public housing, permanently authorize the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, and make postal offices more accessible for persons with disabilities.

These are positive efforts to more comprehensively address the infrastructure needs of this country, and I commend each of the Members offering an amendment included in this en bloc.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I am surprised the gentleman who serves on the Financial Services Committee has not been a part of all of the housing debates we have had, all of the information on housing.

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Ms. WATERS. I reserve the right to close, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I thank Chairman DeFazio for all of his hard work on the Moving Forward Act, and I especially thank him for including my Housing is Infrastructure legislation in this important bill.

My colleague from Ohio has expressed concerns that our committee has not sufficiently debated the housing provisions in this bill. But let me remind him that we held a hearing on H.R. 5187, which is the same text of the housing division in this bill, and that hearing was held in April 2019. We also had a markup on this legislation in February of this year.

So, I don't know where he was when all of this was taking place, but we certainly had sufficient hearings and markup on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that Democrats are committed to investing in and improving our Nation's infrastructure, including our affordable housing infrastructure.

Republicans continue to insist that these investments are irresponsible, but I contend that it would be irresponsible not to make these investments. When we have children living in housing that exposes them to lead poisoning and homes in flood zones that are not built to code, we are setting ourselves up for much higher costs down the road. We must make the responsible choice and pass H.R. 2.

Mr. Speaker, this is such a significant piece of legislation, legislation that speaks to the repair of the infrastructure of this country.

Bridges are in disrepair and have been deemed to be dangerous. They may fall apart, and some have. We have water systems in this country-- everybody knows about Flint, but there are a lot of more Flints in this Nation, with old pipes, pipes with lead, children exposed to water that could cause them brain damage for the rest of their lives. We have roads and highways that are in great disrepair.

The President of the United States wants to spend $2 trillion, and I am pleased about that.

I don't know what my colleague on the opposite side of the aisle is so upset about. He is talking about the Republicans didn't get enough amendments. Well, it is not our fault if they don't know how to craft amendments that are appropriate and that should be in this bill. Because in our Committee on Rules, Democrats have been very fair in the way that they have dealt with this.

I don't know what he is so upset about that they didn't get into this bill. No, this bill does not include investment in building a wall, if that is what they are interested in. We are not about building any walls to keep out immigrants from Mexico or anyplace else, if that is what they are interested in.

This bill does not do that. This bill is about making sure that our citizens get the support from their government that they deserve, to make sure that their communities are safer, that our schools are safer, that our drinking water is safer. This is about making sure that we put the resources into this country that are so desperately needed and much of which have been neglected for far too long.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of this bill and what it is going to do for all of our citizens in this country, north, south, east, and west. I am proud that the leadership of the Democratic Party in this government have taken this as a number one priority, and we are presenting a total piece of legislation that addresses concerns that all of our Members have said they have had.

Mr. Speaker, again, I am proud of the work that Mr. DeFazio has done, and I am proud of all the amendments that have been included in this bill. I am pleased that I have the opportunity today to stand here on these en bloc amendments and participate in one of the most important pieces of legislation this House could have ever presented.

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