Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in support of a long-term surface transportation bill.

It's disappointing that Congress once again has failed to propose a long-term solution to invest in our nation's roads, bridges, and rails.

The bill being brought to the floor is nothing more than a Band Aid: however, without this temporary fix, the Department of Transportation would be unable to fund new obligations to repair America's crumbling roads and fix our Nation's vast infrastructure problems. The reality is our nation's investment in infrastructure is woefully inadequate. These shortfalls hurt our constituents and damage our entire economy.

In Alabama, twenty percent of our major city streets are in poor condition. Driving on deteriorating roads costs motorists approximately $1.4 billion a year.

Across our country, an estimated one in three fatal traffic accidents is caused by roads that are in poor or mediocre condition. Moreover, The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that one out of every nine bridges in the U.S. is structurally deficient.

By building the infrastructure of tomorrow, we would create thousands of good-paying construction jobs that help more hard-working Americans earn a living.

Investing in our infrastructure would also enhance our economic competitiveness by reducing transit costs and travel delays.

We can't continue to kick the can down the road--we must do better by our constituents. There's no reason why Congress cannot pass a long-term plan that would fix our aging infrastructure and boost our nation's economic development.

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