Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am here to speak on the legislation that is pending before us. We all know this country faces big challenges. We face a declining infrastructure that is critical to our business. We need safe, reliable transportation if we are going to keep the flow of commerce moving. But as President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union Address, when American engineers took a look at our transportation infrastructure, they gave us a ``D'' grade. That is not quite failing, but it is certainly not very good. Our declining infrastructure threatens not only our safety but also our global economic competitiveness. America is falling behind economic competitors such as Europe and China which are making significantly more robust investments in their infrastructure. In the United States, we currently spend about 2 percent of our GDP on infrastructure. That is a 50-percent decline since 1960. China and Europe, on the other hand, spend close to 9 percent for China and 5 percent for Europe of their GDP respectively on infrastructure. We need to make the kind of smart investments that will help keep America competitive. That is why I am very glad we are moving forward with this bipartisan FAA reauthorization bill. It has been almost 4 years since Congress passed an FAA bill, and in that time our economic competitors have continued to invest in their 21st century aviation systems. Airports are critical to commerce and economic activity in all of our States.…”