On the recordSeptember 13, 2011
Representative Yarmuth, let me add to your reality with my reality, one scenario being a couple of decades old now. In 1987, a bridge collapsed along the New York State Thruway system because of flooding. It came across a creek that you could walk across some years during the month of August. It had the CFS, the flow, equal to Niagara Falls with the flooding, and it wiped out a bridge. And I believe just about all of the tragedies, all of the loss of life, which was some 10 or 11 people, were not from the area. So we are all at risk with these deficiencies to which you alluded. So it is important for us to keep up the investments. As we saw this year, some 500-year records broken with hurricanes from the ravages of the waters of Irene and floods from the Tropical Storm Lee, wiped out infrastructure galore. And so now there is a need, a demand to have these bits of infrastructure restored and rebuilt; otherwise the economy suffers. I saw what rail meant to jobs in my district through the course of time. I saw what the canal meant not only for jobs in my district, but in the western movement, the industrial revolution. So infrastructure is important. I dwelled on innovation to economy, but you are so right to bring up the need for infrastructure and those improvements. I thank you, Representative Yarmuth, for your thoughts and hang with us because this is an order where we want to talk about job creation.…
