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[Page H1008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NEED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Malinowski) for 5 minutes.
Mr. MALINOWSKI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the
Transportation Funding Fairness Act and to express my hope that, after
we have come to our senses and reopened the government, this year
Congress will come together to fund the bridges, tunnels, railroads,
airports, and roads that we all understand America needs to prosper and
grow.
In the first decade of the 20th century, commuters in New Jersey
towns like Summit, Union, and Westfield could hop on a steam-powered
train, ride right up to a terminal on the dock in Jersey City, change
seamlessly to a ferry, and be in Manhattan within 50 minutes to an
hour, if there wasn't too much fog or ice on the Hudson River.
A hundred years of magical, technological progress later, and we have
managed to shave that trip by maybe a few minutes, if the trains are
running on time that day.
Decades of underinvestment in public infrastructure have taken its
toll on American greatness. Anyone who has traveled the world and has
seen the modern airports and seaports and fast rail networks that our
competitors are building would understand that.
Just in the last 2 months, as we have not even been able to open our
government, the Chinese Government has been busy approving over $125
billion in new rail projects--$125 billion.
No State suffers more from our lack of attention to infrastructure
than New Jersey, where twice as many people use public transportation
than the national average. To get to and from New York, 200,000 of us a
day still depend on just two rail tracks across the Portal Bridge and
through a Hudson River tunnel that our great-grandparents built in 1910
because they thought those 50-minute, turn-of-the-century commute times
were unacceptably long.
When the Portal Bridge opens to let boats pass today, a worker with a
hammer must sometimes lock it back into place while stranded commuters
wait, and that Hudson River tunnel has just a few years of life left.
If we fail to replace it in time, we will be dealing a crippling blow
to the economy of our region and our country.
That is why it is so urgent and important that we get the Gateway
Tunnel project built.
Madam Speaker, in New Jersey, when we say we want to build bridges,
not walls, that is not just a metaphor. We mean it literally. The $5.7
billion that would be wasted to wall off America from Mexico happens to
be almost exactly the Federal share of building a new Hudson River
tunnel that would keep Americans connected to each other and,
ultimately, to the world.
These are the real choices that we face. Is there any doubt what the
voters who sent us here would have us choose: building something that
millions of people living in my State and neighboring States say they
desperately need, or something people living on the border say they do
not need? A symbol of national progress, or a symbol of national fear?
Is there any question at all?
That is one reason why I am introducing this bipartisan bill today,
which is meant to clear one of the artificial obstacles the Department
of Transportation has placed in the path of the Gateway Tunnel.
The Department has argued that when States take advantage of Federal
transportation loans to pay some of their share of projects jointly
funded by the Federal Government, like Gateway, those loans don't count
as part of the State contribution to the project.
It makes no sense. State taxpayers, after all, are 100 percent
obligated to pay back those loans. It is like saying that I am not
actually paying for my house because I have taken out a mortgage.
Our bill makes crystal clear that States can use Federal loans to
cover all or part of their share of these projects.
Speaking of taxpayers, Madam Speaker, I represent a State where we
get only 74 cents back from Washington for every dollar we pay in
taxes. That is the worst ratio in the country. The average American
gets $1.12 back for every dollar he or she pays, courtesy of the
Federal deficit.
What we ask, with strong justification, is that Washington give a bit
more back in the form of investment in the infrastructure that powers
States like New Jersey and, in turn, enables us to power the American
economy.
I hope we will make progress on that this year and that this bill
will make the task a little bit easier
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