On the recordJuly 15, 2015
I support workers and the important transportation and infrastructure jobs they do. They deserve the certainty and support that a long-term, well-funded highway funding bill would provide. H.R. 3038 is not that bill. Our infrastructure is rated a D+ by the American Society of Civil Engineers. A transportation system that was once the envy of the world has fallen into disrepair. We've passed dozens of short-term extensions over the past decade, and they haven't done the trick. We know where this bill will leave us: infrastructure projects won't be planned beyond December, long-overdue projects will hang in limbo, and workers will be left wondering if they'll spend the holidays unemployed. Every business owner, worker, and state and local official I have spoken with has asked for the same thing: a long-term, well-funded bill. In order to do that, we need to make a commitment to filling the funding gap from the gas tax--which has not been increased in more than two decades. I support gradually raising the gas tax to pay for our infrastructure priorities. I also joined 184 of my Democratic colleagues in supporting a motion that would have paid for a long-term, well-funded highway bill by preventing corporate tax inversions--the process of moving corporate headquarters overseas. Just one Republican supported that proposal. Doing either of those things would sustain the vital infrastructure investments we need.…
