Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, let me initially associate myself with the comments made by Chairman DeFazio.

There is no question that the bill that he put together, the INVEST Act that passed the House, addresses the Nation's infrastructure needs in a much more significant way and addresses climate action in a much more significant way than the bill that is before us today.

I do want to say that this bill, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, while it is an important step forward and it is a critical step, it won't get us there on its own. It has to be paired with the Build Back Better Act. Together, these two bills will produce major progress for the American people. But without the Build Back Better Act, we will not see the progress that is necessary to create jobs and create good-paying jobs to advance our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, I want to talk a little bit about the legislation before us and the issues that are within the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The bill before us provides funding to improve and repair our Nation's electric grid, which is in urgent need of modernization. It invests in hardening the electric grid against extreme weather events and gives the government new authority to spur the development of transmission projects and grid-enhancing technologies that are necessary to meet our climate goals.

Our climate goals are immediate. Worsening wildfires, droughts, and extreme weather all prove the climate crisis is here and becoming more destructive each year. It is critical we invest in a more advanced and resilient economy. This bill begins to make those investments, and the Energy and Commerce Committee made the other necessary investments in its portion of the Build Back Better Act during its markup earlier this year.

Let me just explain. Clean, safe drinking water is obviously a basic human right. Yet, 10 million American households cannot trust the water coming out of their taps. This legislation includes $55 billion in clean water funding both for safe drinking water and for sewage treatment plants, but we need a lot more. That is what we do in the Build Back Better Act.

I am pleased this legislation includes dedicated funding to replace lead service lines and remove toxic PFAS forever chemicals from local water systems.

It also includes funding for electric vehicle supply infrastructure. Right now, the U.S. market share of plug-in and EV sales is only one- third the size of China's. We must do a better job at keeping pace with our economic competitors, and the Build Back Better Act would do a lot more with regard to electric vehicles.

With broadband, the bill invests $65 million and marks the beginning of a renewed fight to close the digital divide and ensure that every community, regardless of ZIP Code, has access to reliable high-speed internet. This bill also invests in a permanent affordability program, which represents real progress on behalf of all families struggling to access and afford a basic internet connection.

Mr. Speaker, since this bill represents bipartisan compromise, neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted. I remain concerned that it undermines some of our most core environmental statutes, like the National Environmental Policy Act.

As Mr. DeFazio said, this bill is the best we are going to get from the Senate. That, coupled with the Build Back Better Act, will help us revitalize and modernize our economy, provide additional relief to struggling families, and combat the worsening climate crisis.

I do want to explain, once again, that I do think we need to couple this with the reconciliation bill that has come out of the Budget Committee, the Build Back Better Act. Otherwise, we will not achieve the goals that we want.

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