America Can't Afford to Wait Any Longer

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of passing the historic bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday.

In August, all 220 House Democrats came here on the floor and voted to support opening debate and to vote on this once-in-a-century bipartisan infrastructure bill this week. Why? Because America simply can't afford to wait any longer.

In New Jersey, our roads are the third worst in the Nation. One-third of our bridges are considered unsafe. Our transit has the worst on-time record in the country. Our train tunnel, which is critical between New York and New Jersey, 20 percent of the GDP runs through that corridor, yet the tunnel is 113 years old and literally crumbling. Moms and dads wait hours in delays to get home every night. It is affecting our businesses and our productivity.

Hurricane Ida and climate change destroyed so many family homes in my community just weeks ago.

The unfortunate reality is this: We just haven't made the investments we need in this country in infrastructure.

China last year spent $3.7 trillion outside of China on infrastructure, and yet here we are year in and year out calling for infrastructure week and to get it done, and nothing happens. Now is our opportunity to get something done for our country.

This historic bill, $1.2 trillion, will turn that around and put two million hardworking men and women of labor to work every year for the next decade. It will invest in electric vehicle infrastructure and the Gateway Tunnel, in rebuilding that. The tunnel I talked about that is crumbling, this is going to help fix it. It invests in roads and bridges and transit. Clean water to make sure that we get lead water out and forever chemicals out. It invests in broadband.

After the Problem Solvers Caucus, which I proudly co-chair, worked for months with our Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle--and so many of us worked on it here in this House--50 Democrats and 19 Republicans in the Senate voted for this bill. Everyone from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin to Mitch McConnell all voted for it and sent it to us early last month.

It is critical to the rest of the country and to New Jersey that we get it done. Not only because it makes these historic investments but because it is about the country coming together, Democrats and Republicans, to show that we can govern.

We need to get everyone on board this week, Democrats and Republicans, because this bill is simply too important for our country and our future. There is nothing partisan about fixing our roads and our bridges and tunnels. There is nothing partisan about investing in fighting climate change, which this bill does. There is nothing partisan about making sure that we have the resources we need for our economy to run and for people to get to work every day.

I urge my colleagues, every one of them, to come to this Chamber Thursday and to vote for this critical legislation. I know that working together, our best days as a country will always be ahead of us here in the greatest country in the world. And infrastructure is the best place to start; for our President, for our country, and for all of us.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source