Political Quotes

“I really appreciate what my colleagues have focused on. Mr. Altmire referenced the infrastructure deficit in this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers does a 5-year assessment. The latest assessment gave American infrastructure grades of C, C minus, D, with a total unmet need over the next 5 years of $2.2 trillion just to bring it up to standard. They have done another interesting study talking about the cost of not dealing with the improvements. Hundreds of billions of dollars of cost are going to be visited upon the American public because we don't bring our water infrastructure up to standard. I see from my friend from western Pennsylvania that we leak from our underwater pipes in this country 6 billion gallons a day, enough to fill 9,000 olympic-sized swimming pools that would stretch from the Capitol, where we are standing, to my friend's district in western Pennsylvania. We can do better. The notion of talking about the consequences of not investing in American companies--I appreciate both of you talking about that bridge segment. The $400 million that was invested for an inferior product was money that didn't deal with our manufacturing infrastructure here. It meant not only we were giving money to our competitors, but there were thousands of American workers who didn't have the work and the suppliers and subcontractors that would have been part of the manufacturing chain. In my district, we are constructing the first American-built streetcar in 58 years.…”