On the recordJune 15, 2021
At the same time, Madam President, America's roads and bridges are in dire need of attention by Congress. Every year, the American Society of Civil Engineers evaluates the state of our infrastructure and issues a report card to let us know how we are doing. Well, America is barely passing with a ``C-minus.'' Texas is faring slightly better than the rest of the class, with just a ``C.'' I believe Republicans and Democrats alike think that rebuilding our roads and bridges is important. We even share the same goal of expanding the definition of ``infrastructure'' to include broadband because we saw during the current pandemic that broadband is no longer a luxury. It is an absolute necessity, whether it is for telehealth or whether it is for our children learning remotely or for people working remotely from home. Even as bipartisan negotiations continue, though, the majority leader is eyeing the prospects of a partisan bill that would circumvent the normal legislative process and would be entirely a partisan product. But we know that in a 50-50 Senate, bipartisan work on shared priorities is not impossible. In fact, we did it just last week. Last week, we saw a great example of what can be accomplished if we will work together to achieve an outcome. ____________________
Source
govinfo.gov




