Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday, I was in Southern Maryland at the Thomas Johnson Bridge. This bridge was built in the 1970s. It connects St. Mary's County with Calvert County. There are critical facilities that are located in this region. I say that because this is an evacuation route. We have Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. We have Pax River. We have the Cove Point LNG facilities. When it was built, a few thousand cars traversed the bridge on a daily basis. Now over 30,000 cars trasverse this bridge. It is not safe. It is a two-lane bridge, and it needs to be replaced. Major accidents occur on a regular basis, causing incredible congestion, as well as risking people's health. I was there at the invitation of Senator Van Hollen. He could not make it physically to be there, but he helped arrange for a congressional earmark to help advance the replacement of this bridge. I say that because we need to deal with traffic safety in this country, and replacing unsafe bridges is just one part of that program. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2021 fatality report was just recently released, and the numbers are shocking. Nearly 43,000 people lost their lives on our highways in 2021. This is the highest number since 2005. We are moving in the wrong direction on traffic safety. It is the largest increase in fatalities since we have been keeping the records since 1975. Pedestrians and bicyclists, nearly 7,500 lost their lives in 2021.…”