Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, this discussion tonight is, I think, exemplary of the dysfunctionality of this place. No matter whose fault it is, we are not serving the public.

I just came in from the break on a Third World road from Dulles Airport here to the Capitol, and if anybody wonders whether or not we are falling behind other countries, visit China. Look at the percentage of their GDP being spent on infrastructure compared to ours.

I would like to talk about what we call T-HUD, which affects Americans in every single State in this country.

There is no Republican road. There is no Democratic road. There is no Independent road or Tea Party road or Black Panther road. We all have to live in this Nation and function on the roads we build, and the only people on this planet--the only people on planet Earth who can make a decision about TIGER and our infrastructure are people who were elected to sit in this place. It is us.

In the first 4 years of TIGER, funds were awarded to all 50 States. TIGER funds are nearly evenly dispersed across the Central, South, West, North, and East regions of this great country. The Department of Transportation is required by statute to ensure TIGER funds are awarded to rural communities, as well as urban.

These grants are used to build highways, repair badly damaged bridges, and upgrade rail. They are used to help communities who are struggling in this period of economic recovery to make key investments in their infrastructure and bolster local economies.

This bill would decimate TIGER funding, destroying one of the most successful Federal programs in generating bottom-up transportation solutions to our Nation's crumbling infrastructure problem.

TIGER has made a tremendous impact in my district, and I can recall the names of projects, from the Green Impact Zone, Troost Avenue Bridge over Brush Creek, all of these improvements in the communities have made my congressional district better.

Then last year, TIGER provided $20 million to help finance the 2.2-mile streetcar project in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The streetcar project will encourage economic development and housing, and along the line, we will also see a whole new community being rebuilt.

So, Mr. Chairman, I don't know what is going to happen, but I do hope that we can make a decision that, at least on the infrastructure, we can put partisanship and this political tribalism to the side and do what is in the best interest of the American public.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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