Political Quotes

On the recordJanuary 31, 2017
Mr. President, I support the nomination of Elaine Chao to be Secretary of Transportation. Ms. Chao has proven a capable manager. She has served in several administrations, including as Secretary of Labor and Deputy Secretary of Transportation. Her experience will serve the Transportation Department and the Cabinet well. At the Department of Transportation, Ms. Chao will be responsible for implementing one of President Trump's most ambitious agenda items--a massive investment in infrastructure. During the campaign, Mr. Trump proposed to invest $1 trillion to rebuild infrastructure over the next decade. And on November 9, 2016, President-Elect Trump said, ``We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.'' While we have received few details on the plan, I hope that Ms. Chao will work closely with Congress to identify needs within our States and invest broadly in roads, bridges, airports, rail, and transit. While I believe that public-private partnerships can be one avenue to drive transportation projects, we cannot rely on them to be the backbone of a transportation plan, as many communities would struggle to assemble the financing necessary to make such projects viable. Our Nation's public infrastructure has historically been a bipartisan priority.…
Said by
Chris Van Hollen
Democratic · Maryland

Share & report

More from Chris Van Hollen

Mar 6, 2025

Mr. President, I voted today to oppose cloture on the motion to proceed to the HALT Fentanyl Act. Our Nation and my State of Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl and related drugs, and I strongly support…

Congressional Record · 2025-03-06
Mar 14, 2025

Madam President, I want to thank Senator Collins for working on an emergency basis to fix this problem in the House bill. She said it well, so I only want to emphasize two points. One, what the House did does not save the Federal taxpayer…

Congressional Record · 2025-03-14
Mar 24, 2025

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated public servant and Marylander Mark Sweeney, Principal Deputy Librarian of Congress. With almost 40 years of unwavering service to the Library of Congress, Mr. Sweeney has faithfully…

Congressional Record · 2025-03-24
Mar 3, 2025

Without the warnings of extreme weather events, hurricanes, tsunamis, other things, people will die and others will suffer greatly, including huge property loss.

nbcnews.com

Other voices in this conversation