Political Quotes

“First of all, Madam President, let me thank you and all of the floor staff and others who are here. I think on a beautiful Saturday at the end of July, we all wish, perhaps, we were somewhere else other than on the floor of the Senate. For the 30 years that I have been involved in political discussions in Virginia and some on an international level, we have had President after President and Congress after Congress talk about the generational unmet needs in infrastructure. We have seen our roads and bridges start to crumble. The estimates are that close to, depending on the survey, 14,000 bridges are in a decaying state, and in my State, over 700 bridges. We know the potholes in many of our roads and highways. We know our airports resemble third world nations, not the United States of America. We know our ports have not kept up with modern technology. We know that many of our shorelines are dealing with the unprecedented effects of sea level rise. We know after COVID that high-speed internet connectivity is not a nice-to-have but essential. It is something the Presiding Officer has taken a legislative lead on. We know that it is time to get past talking about infrastructure and finally doing something. That is why I have been proud to be part of this bipartisan effort, working with the White House, to produce a historic piece of legislation, $550 billion of new spending over 5 years that in every category I just mentioned will make historic investments.…”