Steve Stivers: “I thank Ranking Member Graves for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this en bloc amendment.…”

“I thank Ranking Member Graves for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this en bloc amendment. There is a lot of bipartisan support for an infrastructure bill, so it is a shame that today we are considering a political messaging bill that is dead on arrival in the Senate. Part of the reason this legislation will fail is that it is a wish list for progressive priorities, many of which are outside the scope of what Americans consider to be addressing real and immediate transportation needs. {time} 1130 The bill was drafted without any bipartisan input. As the ranking member on the Housing, Community Development and Insurance Subcommittee, I believe that housing and infrastructure are important enough to merit their own debates. While there are a few good ideas in this amendment, there are also a few bad ones. The underlying bill spends about $100 billion on housing programs. That is done without any debate in the House on the House floor other than this 15-minute debate. In fact, we haven't done much debate in the Financial Services Committee. Housing needs deserve their own debate. They deserve their own time. The majority would be wise to do hard work and bring truly bipartisan housing-specific bills to the floor. Instead they have chosen to package housing priorities with transportation priorities, which are both important, but it makes it less likely that either one of these will ultimately become law and be addressed.…”