Political Quotes

“Infrastructure investment creates jobs in southern Illinois and nationwide while repairing highways, bridges and mass transit. The TIGER grant program is critical to infrastructure investment. We must fully fund this program. Two great examples of successful TIGER recipients are in southern Illinois. America's Central Port in Granite City, Illinois, which was a BRAC'd Army installation, has leveraged Federal dollars with State and local funding to connect rail lines and four interstate highways with the Mississippi River. Because of that investment, there are more private jobs at America's Central Port today than government jobs when it was an Army support center. Another Southern Illinois TIGER grant recipient, the Alton Regional Multimodal Transportation Center, will allow passenger transfers between high-speed Amtrak trains, regional transit, bicycle, and even pedestrian trails. TIGER not only creates jobs, but better ways to get to those jobs. At a time when we need to grow our economy and invest in our infrastructure here at home, it is a mistake to cut this critical program. I urge my colleagues to restore its funding. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.”