Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Boyle. I really appreciate the points he has made tonight, just so timely. It is so important that we talk about those things during Infrastructure Week and the Blue Collar Caucus and the role that the caucus is playing in pointing out a lot of these things that need to be talked about. Again, when you talk about the infrastructure bill, if we had a legitimate trillion-dollar infrastructure program and it were enacted, we could put the United States back on a prerecession job growth path and, some people say, create close to 11 million jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, infrastructure spending today--that is what we spend on infrastructure spending right now--is directly responsible for about 15.5 million direct and indirect U.S. jobs, and you are talking about average salaries of $68,000 per year. That is 28 percent above the U.S. median income. We know that infrastructure jobs pay well. There is absolutely no doubt about that. Investment in infrastructure also adds more indirect jobs in manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and an increasing demand for steel, glass, concrete; and all those things get the job growth growing in America. According to Georgetown University, more than half of the new infrastructure jobs will go to high school graduates and even high school dropouts.…”