On the recordMay 20, 2014
I am happy to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Well, we are off to a good start. We are finally recognizing that the Federal Government has a critical interest in our harbors, our ports, our inland waterways, and we are actually going to begin to spend taxes collected to maintain those things on those things. That is tough in Washington, to tell the truth. There is a great set-aside for small ports, who were zeroed out because of the Corps of Engineers' lack of funding. It doesn't deal meaningfully, unfortunately, with the Corps of Engineers' $60 billion backlog of critical projects, including dams and spillways. It didn't increase the tax or user fee on inland waterway users, even though they wanted it--they were begging for it--and even though Grover Norquist gave it a green light because of intransigence on the Republican side. No new fees, no new taxes for anything, we are just going to start to spend existing tax collections on what they were originally intended for. That is good. That is progress around here. What is going to happen in 2 months or a month and a half when the highway trust fund goes broke? It needs additional funds, and we are going to have to, at that point, suck it up and vote for a way to pay for our Nation's infrastructure, so we can continue to be a great Nation.
