Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and, more importantly, I thank him for his tremendous leadership. His understanding of infrastructure in our country and the way to build it in a green way to honor our commitment to our children is something that is a blessing to the Congress.

For decades he has served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he has done so in a way that has taken us into the future.

But we haven't had a bill in a while, and so I thank him for his INVEST in America Act that he had earlier that is not all reflected here, but nonetheless hopefully we will see some provisions in the Build Back Better Act.

I rise in support of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Support for this legislation is bipartisan, bicameral, and respectful of the needs of workers and communities across the country.

Following the vision of President Biden, the bipartisan infrastructure bill addresses a great need in America which has been neglected for decades, as I mentioned. Our roads, bridges, and water systems are crumbling. Some water systems are over 100 years old, Mr. Speaker, made of brick and wood. Our electric grid system is vulnerable to catastrophic outages.

We must not only rebuild the infrastructure for the 21st century economy, we must rebuild the middle class, creating good-paying American jobs and turbocharging American competitiveness and growth. These are connected.

Again, I thank President Biden. He said: I am happy to work in a bipartisan way in order to have an infrastructure bill where we come to agreement, but I will not confine my vision to that piece, that legislative piece. We must build back better.

I think it is very important to note for people across the country who have seen infrastructure in the past come in and divide their communities, perpetuate injustices, environmental injustice in their communities, that it is necessary for us to build back better in a way that empowers.

When I say ``rebuild the middle class,'' it is about jobs, but it is about jobs in a new way; more inclusive for women, for people of color, for younger people to be engaged and trained with workforce training to participate in the new economy. With jobs and justice.

In the past our infrastructure bills have reinforced that environmental injustice and divided communities. The Build Back Better Act will undo that. With the passage of this bill, accompanied by the Build Back Better legislation, with its equity piece, much of that injustice, as much as possible, will be reversed.

It is about building up. It is not about trickle-down: Oh, this is what we are going to do and a lot of people will benefit and maybe you will get some of it. No. It is about meeting the needs of people, both for the water needs or transportation needs or infrastructure needs in many ways, but also that starts and then builds up.

Along with the Build Back Better Act, this prioritizes some aspects of justice and opportunity.

Let me be clear. While the investments in the bipartisan infrastructure bill are strong, historic down payments to build back better, we are not confining our vision--as the President has said, he is not confining his--for rebuilding infrastructure to this legislation.

We all know that we have to build back in a responsible way to meet our green climate initiatives, our goals, and our responsibilities in that regard.

Passing an infrastructure bill is always exciting for what it means in terms of jobs and taking our country into the future, and it has always been bipartisan over the years here. Not for a while because there was resistance when President Obama was President. We passed a bill, but it was not of the magnitude that we needed.

This is a step closer to a once-in-a-generation investment in our infrastructure, as the Conference of Mayors have said. Now we must go further to build back better.

I urge strong bipartisan support for this legislation.

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