Highway Trust Fund

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, there are only 2 legislative days left until the highway trust fund expires on May 31, and we do not have time to waste. Across the country, 6,000 critical construction jobs are in jeopardy, and 660,000 good-paying construction jobs are hanging in the balance.

In Michigan, we know how desperately this funding is needed. Seventeen percent of our roads are rated in good shape--only 17 percent; 38 percent of our roads are in poor, some dangerous--not fair, but poor, condition. It is unacceptable.

We must work together to find a long-term solution to repair our roads, bridges, and transit. Today our Republican colleagues have introduced a plan that just kicks it down the road again. This must be the last time. Funding the highway trust fund is about this Nation's future. It is about our competitiveness. It is about providing businesses and local and State governments the certainty that they need, and it is about good-paying jobs for working families.

It is time to end this culture of crisis and bring to the floor a long-term, sustainable solution to authorize the highway trust fund.

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