Transportation Infrastructure

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased to join with my distinguished colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida, as we discuss an issue of great importance to my district and, quite frankly, to every Member of Congress: transportation infrastructure.

Last week our Nation endured a terrible tragedy as Amtrak Northeast Regional train 188 derailed in Philadelphia on its way to Trenton en route to New York. That accident killed eight Americans, including one of my constituents, injured more than 200, and disrupted service on the busiest rail corridor in the Nation for nearly a week.

In the days since the accident, investigators have indicated that high speeds may have played a significant role in the derailment, speeds that were more than double the limit in that stretch of the track. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have used those details to deflect attention away from discussing our Nation's investments, or the lack thereof, in rail and all of our other surface transportation infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, burying our heads in the sand and waiting until an accident indisputably caused by lack of funding or maintenance to discuss that funding is dangerous, irresponsible, and, frankly, unacceptable: dangerous because millions of Americans every day are driving across dilapidated bridges, riding on outdated trains, and stuck in endless traffic when traveling to work, to school, and medical care; irresponsible because news coverage and the looming highway trust fund depletion have made transportation infrastructure a national focus; unacceptable because transportation infrastructure has traditionally been a bipartisan issue that affects how every single one of our constituents gets where they need to go. Still we stand here today waiting for the House majority to bring forth a good-faith, comprehensive surface transportation reauthorization that makes investments to give us the transportation system--rail, car, air, and sea--that we need.

Transportation infrastructure is critical for the businesses and employers in our district that ship goods to consumers across the globe. Transportation infrastructure creates good-paying jobs here, jobs that can't be outsourced, and jobs that will actually give working Americans a chance to climb into the middle class and beyond.

But like I mentioned earlier, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would rather have us wait until an accident that we can attribute to infrastructure decay to invest in our roads, our bridges, and our railways. In fact, a Los Angeles Times report recently noted that the last time Congress significantly increased Amtrak funding was 2008, following the 2008 Union Pacific-Metrolink crash in California that killed 25 people.

This year, the day following the Philadelphia crash, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted to cut Amtrak funding by one-fifth. That is wrong; it is just plain wrong. It is insane, and it is out of touch.

Earlier this year, my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues and I introduced the People's Budget, a budget that would fix our economy so that it will once again provide opportunity for everyday working class Americans. A key provision in the People's Budget was an investment of $820 billion to close our Nation's infrastructure gap, funded by raising the gas tax by just 15 cents for the first time in more than two decades so that we can maintain and improve our Nation's infrastructure.

Unfortunately, instead of the People's Budget, Congress passed a far more dangerous Republican budget; and unfortunately, our infrastructure continues to crumble. Our roads are frequently congested, limiting productivity for millions of American workers; our airports appear run down compared to their competitors in Europe and Asia; and rail speeds around the world have long eclipsed even Amtrak's fastest trains.

Our bridges continue to deteriorate and present real safety hazards, and our ports are in terrible disrepair, having negative economic impact. In fact, a report last week in The New York Times noted that while the train that derailed was traveling well above the speed limit, at 106 miles per hour, its speed was about half of the average speed of a French train from Paris to Marseille.

Federal and State investments in infrastructure have plunged in recent years, even as economists have repeated over and over and over again that infrastructure spending would bring massive economic benefits and overhaul our transportation networks. This has to change before it is too late, Mr. Speaker.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus is here on the floor today to implore our colleagues to put transportation spending front and center. I know that the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) agrees with me. I want to thank her for her leadership as a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), who shares our passion about the importance of funding a comprehensive transportation bill.

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