Jeanne Shaheen: “I come to the floor this morning to speak to the legislation that is pending before us, S. 1769, the Rebuild America…”

“I come to the floor this morning to speak to the legislation that is pending before us, S. 1769, the Rebuild America Jobs Act. This legislation, in fact, would put literally millions of Americans back to work rebuilding our Nation's roads, our bridges, our airports, and our railways. The bill that is before us has two components. The first is a direct $50 billion Federal investment in our infrastructure, and it would be split between roads, rail, transit, and airport projects. More than half of that would go to our well-established, formula-driven highway and transit programs, and that would include about $132 million for New Hampshire. The second piece of this proposal would create an infrastructure bank. That is legislation I cosponsored, and it has had bipartisan cosponsorship in the Senate. The bank, as it is structured, would be able to leverage public dollars to attract private capital, and that would, if it is successful, lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure over the next 10 years. It is a bipartisan idea, as I said, and it has attracted support from both the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Clearly, it is a good idea if it has both of those organizations onboard. Together, this legislation that is pending before us would mean immediate jobs for our construction industry. It has been one of the hardest hit by this recession.…”