On the recordJuly 30, 2021
Mr. President, after weeks like this, I find it hard to explain to Floridians back home how Congress is actually working on behalf of their families. I think it is safe to say that every Member of the Senate believes we should be investing in infrastructure. For me, it is pretty simple. I believe we should invest in real infrastructure: roads, bridges, airports, and seaports. As Governor of Florida, I did just that. Over my 8 years as Governor, Florida invested $85 billion in real infrastructure across our State, and we did it while cutting taxes and fees 100 times and paying off a third of our State debt. In other words, we paid for these big investments in infrastructure by growing our economy and supporting job creation. That is what is important to Floridians, and I am immensely proud of our accomplishments. So I support doing the exact same thing at the Federal level. But what we are doing here just doesn't make any sense. Nowhere in the world does business happen like it does here in the U.S. Congress. We started this week with ongoing negotiations about a big infrastructure deal. Of course, outside of the small group involved in these negotiations, no one here had any clue what was actually being debated. We had no text; we had no real information on how much was being spent; and we certainly had no idea how this was all supposed to be paid for. Then, on Wednesday, we got the big news: A deal had been reached.…





