Political Quotes

“I call on my colleagues and call their attention to a report issued last week by Transportation for America. The report identified 99 bridges in western New York, 2,000 bridges in New York State and 63,000 bridges nationwide as structurally deficient. This should not surprise us. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our infrastructure a D grade and the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 23rd in infrastructure quality. Our infrastructure is suffering from a crippling lack of investment and our country is falling behind because of it. Mr. Speaker, the United States has spent over $62 billion nation- building in Iraq. It is time to do some nation-building right here at home. There is work that needs to be done, and a lot of Americans need the work. So I implore this House, pass a jobs bill that includes $60 billion for infrastructure, pass a 6-year transportation bill, use innovative ideas like the infrastructure bank to create public-private partnerships and do it now. Given the state of our infrastructure and our economy, we can't afford to wait. ____________________”