Date: 2015-07-29
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. we are on a dangerous path. First. my Republican colleagues pulled two critical appropriation bills from the floor simply because their party cannot come to an agreement on a flag that represents a very dark time in our Nations history. Second. my colleagues across the aisle. rather than focusing their energy on passing comprehensive immigration reform. passed a poisonous antiimmigrant bill in response to an isolated incident in the city of San Francisco. pulling money away from our law enforcement funding for public safety. Then they refuse to reauthorize the ExportImport Bank. which helps ensure that Americans businesses can compete with their global competitors. And now the House Republicans refuse to come to the table yet again to provide a robust. longterm funding bill for our decaying infrastructure system in America. Why do we continue to refuse and cut services that our communities need? The American people need goodpaying jobs. safe and modern infrastructure. and efficient transportation in order to provide a better life for themselves and for their families. We need to end these stopgap extensions. How do we fix a broken bridge or a broken highway? Two months of highway funding will not do that. In my home State of California. 60 percent of our roads are in poor or mediocre condition. and. moreover. almost 30 percent of Californias bridges have been recognized by the Department of Transportation as structurally deficient. Just a little bit over a week ago. California residents experienced the reallife consequences of this statistic when the Interstate 10. which connects California and Arizona. collapsed. injuring a resident and shutting down the highway for several days. This highway is critical to our Southwest economy. which is already suffering from deficiencies because of our water infrastructure and the drought that we have going on. With more than 60.000 bridges throughout the United States in need of drastic repairs. failing to provide Americans with a longterm highway bill. we are putting jobs at risk. and we are putting our lives at risk. which is why my fellow House Democrats have come together to provide a 6year funding bill known as the GROW AMERICA Act. The bill will provide for $178 billion over 6 years. so that States and local municipalities can address critical infrastructure needs. This commonsense legislation would help pay for the investments by ending an unfair tax loophole and limiting corporate inversions. meaning that big corporations. when they are renouncing their United States citizenship. they do that in order to avoid paying taxes. Lets use that money for transportation investments here in America. Investing in local public transportation projects not only helps to improve our traffic flow. but it also helps create good jobs. As we look for ways to put our economy back on track. we must be mindful of the services that we provide to the American people. We need to stop slashing. and we need to start providing. We need to get away from sequestration and patchwork funding mentality to actually fulfill our duty as public servants to the American people. Our families. our roads. and our economy deserve a highway funding bill that will invest in Americas future. invest in better infrastructure. and invest in bigger paychecks for our hardworking families who are trying to make it in America.