Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act- Continue

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise this evening to speak about our Nation's infrastructure. In just a few days, authorization for our Nation's transportation programs will expire. By August, the highway trust fund will run out of money. Our States and citizens will face the consequences of inaction in Washington.

Americans depend on our Nation's roads every day as they travel to work, bring their children to school, and transport goods to consumers. Transportation infrastructure is an essential component of our daily lives and for the national economy. As such, it must be efficiently maintained. But today, all across America, our highways and bridges languish in disrepair. Our citizens are no strangers to potholes, road closures, and ``expect delays'' signs. Moreover, as America's population continues to grow, expansion projects for our crumbling highways remain caught in bureaucratic redtape.

For decades, it has been apparent that excessive regulations, coupled with inadequate funding and financing, have delayed badly needed road projects. I have firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing our Nation's transportation system. In my home State of Nebraska, roads and bridges connect vibrant, urban communities with our open country.

Before arriving in the Senate, I served as chairman of the transportation and telecommunications committee in the Nebraska Legislature. And while there, I spearheaded a bill that eventually became law.

What is now known as the Federal Funds Exchange Program provides the State of Nebraska with the ability to voluntarily exchange Federal transportation funding for State transportation financing at 80 cents on the dollar. In exchange for giving up this Federal funding, counties and cities receive State transportation dollars with more reasonable regulatory requirements.

This program has been a great success in my State of Nebraska. For example, in Buffalo County, federally exchanged funding made a longstanding bridge replacement possible. A major arterial street in South Sioux City is up and running because of the program. In Scottsbluff, a city in the Nebraska Panhandle, they are using our State program to conduct important maintenance on city streets, and the program has also enabled Adams County to construct several bridges and a large culvert project.

Despite these accomplishments in Nebraska, States across the country suffer from very rigid, regulatory requirements and a shortage of transportation funding options. Our current system is broken. States not only need more options, but they need some relief as well.

In fact, the Congressional Research Service estimates that a lack of flexibility has caused major highway projects to take as many as 14 years to plan and to build.

The time has come to bring successful practices from Nebraska to Washington.

For this reason, I have introduced the Build USA Act. This bill will create a new funding structure for State transportation projects. Specifically, the Build USA Act establishes the American Infrastructure Bank. The bank will allow States to remit Federal transportation dollars.

States would then be able to receive 90 percent of this money back and retain control over the environmental, construction, and design aspects of highway projects. This new strategy will infuse more dollars into our transportation system, and it is going to provide States with greater flexibility so they can build and maintain their roads.

The revenues that are generated from State remittance agreements with this bank would also help fund other local infrastructure projects. Currently, the Federal Government only offers large-scale financing options for States seeking core infrastructure funding. So, as a result, smaller communities are often ineligible to receive Federal assistance for their projects, while major metropolitan areas benefit from easier access to financing.

Under the Build USA Act, bank loans would not be subject to a minimum project cost or size. The revenue from these loans could help local governments apply for core infrastructure financing at a rate that is going to be more competitive than the private sector.

The Build USA Act provides additional funding flexibility for those immediate transportation needs that we see all across this country. And, what is more, it accomplishes it without raising taxes.

Under this proposal, a voluntary 3-year repatriation holiday would be implemented to generate seed money for the bank's revolving fund operations. Recent estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation suggest that the first 3 years of a similar repatriation plan could raise as much as $30 billion.

Although some Members of Congress wish to save these revenues for an overhaul of the Tax Code, most of us do acknowledge that tax reform is unlikely to come to fruition in the near future. Meanwhile, our Nation's transportation needs are immediate. We better address them now. These dollars should go toward solving problems that our citizens experience every single day. As such, revenue should help provide a long-term solution to highway funding, not just a one-time jump-start or a shot in the arm, as some people have suggested.

This proposal is a long-term solution. It is a solution to issues that have plagued our Nation's roads for decades. Individual States must have the flexibility to address the unique needs of their local communities.

In order to address the transportation challenges facing our Nation, we need to have more options available. Although this plan does not address the immediate challenges facing the highway trust fund, it does represent a way to infuse new money into our Nation's transportation system, while it is offering States new solutions to get transportation projects up and running.

It looks to the future. This is a proposal for the long term. It is time that we start thinking outside the box. It is time to offer Nebraska's best practices to help the Federal Government help itself.

Our Nation needs to get moving, so I encourage all of my colleagues to look at this proposal, to consider this proposal, because it moves us forward into the future.

I yield the floor.

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