Political Quotes

“Mr. President, when our American government spends money on infrastructure, core infrastructure, we should look first to American companies and American workers. But this doesn't always happen. In fact, recently, there was a bid proposal in Alaska to build a bridge with America's taxpayer money and a Chinese company employing Chinese steel outbid the American company using American steel. This was a big surprise in that normally there is a framework that helps ensure American companies and American workers are able to do the infrastructure projects we are funding with our taxpayer dollars so we are creating jobs here at home. It turns out there is a loophole; whereas, this basic framework covers highways, it covers commuting rail, it covers passenger rail but doesn't apply to freight rail. This was a freight bridge on tracks that do not also have passenger trains on them. I don't know how many tracks in America only have freight and not passenger, but when everything got sorted out through the appeal process, that is what it came down to. This afternoon, we will have a simple amendment that makes this piece of the infrastructure more consistent with the rest of the infrastructure world. The industrial might of this Nation was built on American railroads made from American steel. We often say: Wow, there is a loophole you can drive a freight train through. In this case, you actually can drive a freight train through the loophole. That is what we need to fix.…”