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

Floor Speech

r. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, our Nation is in the midst of a transportation and infrastructure crisis. In California alone, we have over 2,500 structurally deficient bridges in dire need of repair.

Current investments into transportation infrastructure are barely able to cover our Nation's most pressing needs, and critical projects in my district are the foundation of our growing economy. That is why in 2009 Congress created the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program, known as TIGER. TIGER grants have successfully funded projects to revitalize and expand infrastructure across the country.

A grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was to provide roughly 50 percent of the funding needed to upgrade the SunLine Transit Agency's operations management system in my district. These upgrades allowed SunLine to integrate vehicle location technology, scheduling systems, and automatic passenger counters into their Web site to provide riders with a gateway for simple information, like when the next bus is going to arrive and if it will have room for passengers, which is important for my constituents to reduce wait times outside in our desert heat. This technology has improved ridership, taken vehicles off the road, reducing our carbon footprint. There are other projects in my district that could receive TIGER funding should we adequately fund it.

The Coachella Valley Association of Governments has developed a CV Link project to connect eight cities in the Coachella Valley, with a new alternate transportation route to the busiest corridor in our valley. A TIGER award paired with local investment would be enough to make it a reality. The project would create 690 jobs and potentially generate $147 billion in economic benefits through 2035 from sources such as increased tourism, reduced vehicle emissions, improved health conditions, and new jobs.

Mr. Chairman, this is why it is essential that we do not cut successful grant programs like TIGER, especially as our economy continues to recover and unemployment rates remain high. Ultimately, this is just part of the lack of funding for transportation infrastructure's story.

Within a few short months, the highway trust fund, which is responsible for the vast majority of Federal transportation funding, will run out of money. This will bring hundreds of transportation projects across the Nation to a grinding halt, eliminate the thousands of jobs they support, and jeopardize our economic recovery.

As Representatives, it is our responsibility to put aside our differences and work together to find a pragmatic, fiscally sound solution to fix the highway trust fund. Our communities in our districts are depending on us to demonstrate leadership to help them rebuild roads and bridges and operate public transit lines that take people to work, to their doctor's appointments, to grocery stores and, ultimately, keep our economy moving forward.

We must serve the people we represent by doing our jobs to find a bipartisan solution that addresses a highway trust fund crisis so critical infrastructure projects in my district and across the country are not ignored. I look forward to working with Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member Rahall of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to get this done. I encourage all my colleagues to put aside partisanship and problem-solve this critical issue.

I want to thank Chairman Latham and Ranking Member Pastor for your great service. Thank you so much.

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