Republicans Are Addressing the Major Crises
Floor Speech
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Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight some of the stated goals of the INVEST in America Act.
The INVEST in America Act creates and sustains good-paying jobs, restores global competitiveness, tackles climate change, modernizes infrastructure, and spurs long-term economic growth.
These are laudable goals that most if not all of us here support. However, Mr. Speaker, when you focus on the rail title, the INVEST in America Act misses on all of those marks and, in fact, has the potential to turn back the clocks on our envy-of-the-world freight rail system.
Freight railroads provide excellent, high-paying jobs, with a Class 1 freight employee's compensation averaging $132,000 per year.
On competitiveness, the freight rail industry met the demands of our Nation during the pandemic by never closing and continually moving the goods we needed to preserve public health. They did all of it, I might add, without asking for any bailout money.
On the environment, freight railroads are also the most fuel- efficient way to move freight over land. On average, railroads move 1 ton of freight more than 480 miles on 1 gallon of fuel.
On modern infrastructure, unlike the rest of our Nation's transportation system, our freight rail system receives the highest grade from the civil engineers for their infrastructure, a B.
On economic opportunity, freight rail's economic impact in 2017 alone manifested itself in over 1.1 million jobs, $219 billion in economic output, $71 billion in wages, and nearly $26 billion in total tax revenues.
The freight railroads can meet all of these goals because the railroads, not the American taxpayers, spend the $25 billion annually needed to improve and maintain their infrastructure. Private companies are simply better custodians of infrastructure networks than the Federal Government, and we should be utilizing that simple reality, not bemoaning it.
While President Biden, Secretary Buttigieg, and Chairman DeFazio regularly profess their love for trains, the truth is that it only extends to the highly subsidized passenger version.
The INVEST in America Act spends almost $100 billion on Amtrak. Amtrak ridership was already collapsing outside of the Northeast Corridor before COVID. Where passenger rail makes sense, private companies like Virgin Trains are building new passenger lines.
The rail title couldn't include provisions to accelerate the deployment of new safety technologies on freight rail but ensures that French toast will be served on every Amtrak train. It does nothing to expand freight rail service by moving new and in-demand products like liquefied natural gas but will pay to roll empty Amtrak trains through new parts of the country.
If Amtrak is so good and deserves an 850 percent funding increase from the previous rail title, I challenge everyone voting for the INVEST in America Act to use Amtrak instead of an airline the next time you need to head from your district to the Capitol.
This rail title is too expensive, too damaging to the economy, and too partisan to pass. However, it is not too late to work together.
I introduced an amendment to the Rules Committee to strike the entire rail title. The base text is simply too flawed to fix, and we must do better.
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