Roy Blunt: “I rise today to speak on this infrastructure jobs bill, and actually I think my good friend from Minnesota has done a…”

“I rise today to speak on this infrastructure jobs bill, and actually I think my good friend from Minnesota has done a great job of explaining why we need to be focused on infrastructure. I think if I was going to summarize my comments, as they might compare with hers, they would be that we need to be focused on the longer term problem. We certainly do have a committee that is working on a 2-year bill, and here we are spending time today talking about a bill that I think is likely not to happen. Even if it did happen, would it be better than a 2-year bill? Of course not. Does it do anything better than the traditional infrastructure focus of the country that includes communities and cities and States instead of Federal bureaucrats? Of course it does not. We need to be focused on the right thing, at the right time. The top concern on American minds today is righting our Nation's economy, having an economy that creates private sector jobs. While we take different approaches to addressing this issue, I think the Congress is genuinely united in understanding what the goal should be; we just have such a difference of opinion as to how to get there. What role does infrastructure play in private sector job creation and competition? It plays a critical role. In fact, it is one of the few places where the Federal Government actually can take actions that specifically create private sector jobs.…”