Ed Pastor: “Joel Hefley was a dear friend of mine. We worked together on the Ethics Committee. I have to tell you, Joel and I would…”

“Joel Hefley was a dear friend of mine. We worked together on the Ethics Committee. I have to tell you, Joel and I would talk about his 1 percent across-the-board cuts. While the Republicans were in the majority, they failed. They failed because Republicans and Democrats knew that in this particular bill, Energy and Water, you had the chairman and the vice chairman working in cooperation with Republicans and Democrats looking at the priorities and developing a bill that would invest in the infrastructure of America. As you know, Mr. Chairman, for many years the investment in infrastructure has either been static, and in many cases has been declining. Hearing after hearing after hearing, we had businessmen, barge owners, operators, grain operators coming to the committee and saying you need to invest more money in the infrastructure of America because it is the commerce that the Mississippi River handles. It is the commerce that comes into our harbors. It is the commerce that is driving America and making it a productive country. And so when you have the business community, elected officials coming to you and telling you that there is a decline in the investment in infrastructure, it is the Subcommittee on Energy and Water that begins to respond to that need. As an example, in Brunswick, Georgia, the request came that we need to deepen the harbor so that the harbor can allow more ships to come in and be able to continue that driving engine, commerce.”