Nick Rahall: “Tomorrow, on Friday, the President of the United States will be in my congressional district talking about jobs and the…”

“Tomorrow, on Friday, the President of the United States will be in my congressional district talking about jobs and the economy. Unfortunately, although I was invited, and I appreciate that, I will not be with the President because I will be here in the Halls of Congress working on a bill that very vitally affects jobs and the economy, this transportation and infrastructure legislation. I commend the gentleman from Minnesota (Ranking Member Oberstar) and the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski), the ranking subcommittee member, for the hard work that they have put in on this legislation. Jobs and the economy. That is what this is about. This legislation is the quickest way to put American working men and women back to work. For every $1 billion invested in our Nation's infrastructure, we are talking about 46,500 good paying jobs, not hamburger-flipping jobs; we are talking about good-paying jobs for our economy. The $318 billion passed in the Senate bill, the $275 billion pending in this legislation is not sufficient to do the job. The President's own Department of Transportation has said that $375 billion is what is necessary just to, quote, 'maintain current economic growth.'”