Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Representative Garamendi. Quickly, the infrastructure issues are heavy duty. It is not just traditional roads…”

“Thank you, Representative Garamendi. Quickly, the infrastructure issues are heavy duty. It is not just traditional roads and bridges. It is airports and rails and subway systems, it is mass and public transit, but it is also communications, it is also the energy grid. We have a system that was designed for regional activity with monopolies, and now we are transmitting electrons, wheeling electrons from region to region, State to State, nation to nation. So upgrades are essential. An infrastructure bank bill could assist in great ways to make that all happen. Today, again with the visit of Vice President Biden to the 20th Congressional District of New York, specifically to Albany, the history of the Erie Canal was addressed. In the early 1800s, a huge effort was made, a difficult task, to sell an idea in very difficult times. But it was again in those difficult times that we had our shining moment, and what we did was create out of a small town a huge port. We developed a New York City that we know today as a robust area, metropolitan area. And the corresponding result: a necklace of communities dubbed ``mill towns'' that became the epicenters of invention and innovation that allowed for a manufacturing boom to take hold. While we addressed quality of life to people, not just in New York, not just in this country, we inspired a westward movement, and we affected the quality of life of people around the world.…”