Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise to support this amendment.

This amendment, as we know, would require the Department of Transportation to conduct a highway cost allocation study--the first one since 1997.

Vehicles are different than they were in 1997, and roadway use has increased significantly. This study will help us to analyze the direct cost of highway use by different types of users, and then compare that to user fee revenue contributions to the Highway Trust Fund.

This is about gathering roadway use information to inform decisions to address the Highway Trust Fund shortfalls. I encourage my colleagues to vote yes on the Lummis-Kelly-Cornyn amendment.

Thank you.
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Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I have great respect for my colleague from Utah, but I am in firm opposition to his amendment.

It would completely undo months of hard work, bipartisan hard work. The two major bipartisan infrastructure bills that Chairman Carper and I and the EPW Committee passed unanimously would be totally undone here. The bipartisan gang spent months carefully and considerably negotiating this agreement with the White House. All of these meaningful investments that I talked about yesterday would be gone: the new bridge program--gone; supplemental funding for the Appalachian Development Highway System--gone; broadband funding needed to help close the digital divide--gone.

We have come too far to throw all of this bipartisan work away on this substitute. Time is of the essence. Let's give our States the certainty that they need.

By the way, there is permitting reform in this bill, right here, as we look at it. Let's get this across the finish line. So I would urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment.

Thank you

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