Rebuild America Jobs Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here today to discuss the critical need to address our Nation's crumbling transportation and infrastructure system. The cracks in this system became abundantly clear to all of our country and, in fact, the entire world when, on the afternoon of August 1, 2007, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the middle of the Mississippi River, taking the lives of 13 Minnesotans and injuring so many more.
As I said that day, a bridge just shouldn't fall down in the middle of America, especially not an eight-lane interstate highway which is one of the most heavily traveled bridges in our State, especially not at rush hour in the middle of a metropolitan area, especially not a bridge six blocks from my house that I take my family over all the time to go visit their friends. That is what happened on that day, in the middle of a sunny day in the middle of America. Yet, years after that bridge collapsed and then was rebuilt, 25 percent of our Nation's bridges are still structurally deficient or obsolete.
I wish I could say the bridge collapse was the only tragedy my State has suffered because of a broken infrastructure system. It is not. We saw another one just this October in Goodhue County on Highway 52, which connects the Twin Cities with Rochester, home to the Mayo Clinic. Within a 10-day span, one intersection on Highway 52 between Rochester, MN, and the Twin Cities of Minnesota was the site of two fatal crashes that claimed three lives and injured others. Even before these tragic crashes, everyone agreed that an interchange was needed so that drivers weren't forced to risk racing across a four-lane, divided highway, but the county and the Minnesota Department of Transportation didn't have the funds to build an interchange which could have eased the situation and could have saved lives. The worst part is that intersection of Highway 52 isn't even the most dangerous stretch of that road. In fact, local leaders have marked other projects as higher priorities. Yet the funds aren't there, the money isn't there to address these problems.
These are just two examples of the impact of our infrastructure and transportation needs in this country. There are tens of thousands more in small towns and big cities from Maryland to Minnesota. That is why I have come to the floor to discuss the Rebuild America Jobs Act, legislation I introduced with several of my colleagues, including Senator Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. We have come together as Senators from all corners of the country because we recognize the urgent need for new and bold initiatives to rebuild America.
Our legislation would get the ball rolling on desperately needed improvements by establishing an infrastructure bank--something that has long garnered bipartisan support in the Congress--and directing $50 billion toward infrastructure. Both of these ideas, as I have noted, have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past. In fact, standing there with us this afternoon was Ray LaHood, a former Republican Congressman who is now the Secretary of Transportation under a Democratic President.
We have also said there is no such thing as a Democratic bridge or a Republican bridge or a Democratic or Republican highway. Transportation has always been a bipartisan issue in this country, and it must continue to be. That is why we are continuing to push this legislation. We may not pass it this week, but I know from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that there continues to be interest in moving ahead on infrastructure funding.
This legislation is about improving public safety so that no bridge ever collapses again in the middle of America, but it is also about creating better opportunities for our businesses and jobs. I say that because if we look back through history, it is clear that many of the major milestones that contributed to America's greatness were rooted in our infrastructure. Whether it was connecting the east and west coasts by rail in 1869 or the WPA in the 1930s or the construction of the Interstate Highway System that began in the 1950s with a Democratic Congress and a Republican President--Dwight Eisenhower--or even the amazing innovations of the early American auto industry, our country did not move forward because our leaders tinkered at the edges of the status quo. America flourished because of innovators such as Henry Ford, who once said: ``If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse.'' Then he turned around and built the Model T.
If Henry Ford were alive today, he would say that America cannot afford to take a horse-and-buggy approach to infrastructure. That is, in fact, what we have been doing. While other countries are moving full steam ahead with infrastructure investments, we are simply treading water.
In an increasingly competitive global economy, standing still is, sadly, falling behind.
China and India are spending about 9 and 5 percent respectively of their GDP on infrastructure. Even Europe spends 5 percent of its GDP. Yet how much are we committing right now? About 2 percent. The effects of this shortsighted strategy are increasingly clear. In its 2007 and 2008 report, the World Economic Forum ranked American infrastructure sixth in the world. That was only a few years ago, and yet we have already slipped to 16th place, putting our roads roughly on par with those of Malaysia and far behind those of Germany, Canada, and Hong Kong. This is a huge problem because the strength of our infrastructure is directly tied to the competitiveness of our economy. Just look at the numbers. As our country slipped in the rankings for infrastructure, we also dropped in the World Economic Forum's rankings on competitiveness. Last year we were in fourth place, and this year we are in fifth place.
Competitiveness is a huge element here, but it is not just about global bragging rights. Fundamentally, it is about lifting the parking brake that has kept our economy idling and addressing the major inefficiencies we have seen in our infrastructure system.
If we want to move to this next-century economy, it is going to be about exports. It is going to be about making stuff again, inventing things, exporting to the world. If we do not have the roads to carry the trucks to bring those goods to market or the waterways and the barges to do it or an air traffic control system that is up to speed on a competitive basis internationally, we are not going to be that economy that so many of our workers and so many of our businesses want us to be.
Failing to move ahead will have consequences no one likes. For example, it would not be altogether different from levying a multibillion-dollar tax on American industry. I say that because inefficiencies in infrastructure are expected to drive up the cost of doing business by an estimated $430 billion, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That is just in the next decade.
America spends 4.8 billion hours in traffic--just sitting there in traffic--every single year. When trucks idle in traffic on the highways or wait at port facilities to be loaded and unloaded or when freight trains sit waiting to pass in our congested rail network, our economy hemorrhages dollars, losing roughly $200 billion each year. To put that number in perspective, it is roughly 1.5 percent of our gross domestic product.
Increased transportation costs will make it more expensive for companies to ship goods and purchase raw materials. We can only expect that those costs would be passed on to customers.
Traffic congestion, as I mentioned, costs us billions. When I said 4.8 billion hours per year, actually, I thought: Did I get that wrong? Is it millions? But, no, it is, in fact, 4.8 billion hours each year stuck in traffic. That is $101 billion in lost revenue. That is $713 per motorist.
The bad news is that without action those numbers are only going in one direction--up. By 2020, it is estimated that our crumbling infrastructure will cost our economy more than 876,000 jobs and $897 billion in lost GDP growth.
As I alluded to earlier, the public safety aspect of this debate is also incredibly important, and it is something we cannot afford to ignore, particularly in the context of population growth. According to the Census Bureau, the American population is expected to add another 120 million people by 2050. That is a 40-percent increase in 40 years, and it is like adding the entire nation of Japan or more than three States of California. Think about that. We cannot stand still on our infrastructure. That is 120 million more people on our roads, bridges, tunnels, highways, and airports--structures that are already insufficient for meeting the needs of today's population.
But here is the good news. Addressing this challenge does not just make sense from a long-term competitiveness perspective, it also makes sense because it would be an immediate shot in the arm for our economy. We are still looking at an environment where too many Americans are out of work or have seen their hours cut back. And people who have taken it the hardest are people in the construction industry. In construction, the unemployment rate now is 13.3 percent--more than 4 points higher than the national average.
The Rebuild America Act will help get these workers back on the job. Here is how we do it:
First of all, we will need to make smarter decisions to stretch our transportation dollars further. This is a compelling case for public-private partnerships--we all know government cannot do this alone--public-private partnerships for private sector jobs. That is why the infrastructure bank part of the Rebuild America Jobs Act is so important. The American Infrastructure Financing Authority would provide loans and loan guarantees to finance projects that would otherwise be too expensive for any one city, county, or even a State to accomplish on its own. The bank would serve as an incentive for the creation of public-private partnerships and the mechanisms necessary for repaying loans once the projects are completed. This will help ensure the quality of projects too, because no private firm is going to invest in a project that is likely to fail.
The infrastructure bank would allow State transportation departments to move more projects off the books and to tackle other critical needs. So the Minnesota Department of Transportation could finally have the resources to focus on fixing Highway 52 and Goodhue County Road 9--or projects in Missouri or projects in Maryland or projects in Oregon. There are needs all over this country.
I wish to make an important point here that the American taxpayers need to know; that is, they would be protected as well. Projects would be considered and reviewed by expert staff, separate from the independent and nonpartisan board that would select the projects. There are strong oversight protections, and projects would have to be backed by a dedicated revenue stream.
All of this is part of the reason this infrastructure bank has always had bipartisan support. Senator Kerry has worked very hard on this legislation, as have many of my Republican colleagues. They have suggested a similar model in the BUILD Act, many of the sponsors. The BUILD Act has 10 bipartisan cosponsors.
Beyond bipartisan congressional support, an infrastructure bank has earned the support of people as far-ranging as from the chamber of commerce to the AFL-CIO.
With the initial infusion of $10 billion that the Rebuild America Act proposes, it is estimated it could leverage private investment to generate between $300 billion and $600 billion for infrastructure improvements. The infrastructure bank is the kind of bold and new action we should be taking as a nation.
Coming from a State, as I do, where there is a large rural population, I also think it is important to note that rural America--whether they are in South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, or Nevada--should not be left behind. The infrastructure bank would be structured so that the kinds of projects that are important to rural regions, such as clean drinking water and sanitary sewer systems, could also compete for loans and loan guarantees.
Right now, too many repair and replacement projects in our Nation's drinking water and sanitary sewer systems are endangered by a lack of funding. According to the 2008 EPA survey of needs, Minnesota needs $4.1 billion to upgrade our drinking and sanitary water systems. And in 2011 alone, my State has $400 million worth of projects that are just sitting there.
Clean water projects are vital to the safety and health of our communities, particularly our rural communities. We all benefit from projects that can promote public health, protect our environment, help create jobs, and support local infrastructure. Let me give you an example. In southwestern Minnesota, we are working on a three-State effort--consisting of Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota--to get water to 20 communities. The region's current lack of water has brought economic development to a standstill in
an area where there are all kinds of possibilities for development in an agricultural community. According to the manager of the Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water System in Minnesota, this lack of clean water has forced the community to turn away businesses that would have otherwise opened in the area, including a large dairy plant, a large cattle-feeding operation, and biofuels plants. That is just in the last 5 years. In other words, the community has lost untold jobs and economic growth because it lacks the water.
Importantly, the infrastructure bank that the Rebuild America Jobs Act would create also includes technical assistance to rural communities. Five percent of the initial investment to capitalize the bank would be designated for projects in these very areas. That is $500 million for rural America.
As we move forward with this conversation, we cannot lose sight of the critical importance of the multiyear surface transportation bill. This is something we need, and we need it now.
The surface transportation bill gives certainty to State departments of transportation so they can make the multiyear planning decisions on how best to spend Federal and State resources.
The certainty of a multiyear bill also benefits the private sector. Once States know how much they can put toward infrastructure projects, they can begin contracting with companies--private companies--in engineering, design, and construction. These are companies such as Caterpillar, which employs 750 people at its road-paving equipment manufacturing facility in Minnesota. I visited there in August. Caterpillar's employees are the kind of people who are out there on the front lines of American industry. They are people who make the slogan ``Made in America'' not just a slogan; it is real. They depend on the certainty that only a multiyear Transportation bill provides. We have an opportunity to give them that certainty.
I know Chairman Boxer and Senator Inhofe have been working on this out of their committee, but I did want to keep in mind that as we work on the rebuild America jobs bill, as we work on the Transportation bill we are talking about today that I would like to get passed by the end of this year, that we also are cognizant of the fact that there is a very important 2-year bill they are debating at this very moment.
When we look at the state of our Nation's infrastructure, there is no escaping the fact that we are far from where we need to be. Our 21st-century economy depends on a 21st-century transportation network. It is that simple. Fixing our infrastructure is one of the best possible ways to strengthen our Nation's most basic foundation--the channels we use for everything from commerce and exporting to emergency management and disaster response.
But I also believe it is about bringing America back to the brass tacks. We know we have to do something about our debt, and I personally believe we can get there with a balanced approach, with spending cuts and looking at closing some of these loopholes. But even then, we must focus on what will move our economy forward in the long term. We simply can no longer base our economy on being a country that just simply churns money and shuffles paper, simply being a country that consumes, that imports and spends its way to a huge trade deficit. That has not worked.
What we need to be now is a country that makes things again, that invents things, that exports to the world. The only way we are going to make that happen is if we have the roads and the bridges and the rail and the barges and the airports to carry these goods to market. That is what this is about. We cannot put it off any longer. We must move forward now in a bipartisan manner to get this done for our country.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
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