Pass Highway Transportation Funding

Congressman Dan Kildee
Congressional Record: 114th Congress, 1st Session
July 8, 2015

(Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, on July 31, the highway and transit trust fund will expire.

So what does the expiration of the trust fund mean to America, to American families?

It means the potential loss of over 600,000 jobs. It means the cancelation of major infrastructure projects. In fact, I heard this morning that five States have already canceled or delayed major projects because of Congress' lack of ability to do its work.

My home State of Michigan, we know more than anyplace that if we invest in our roads and bridges and rails, we grow our economy.

Other nations, instead of planning months ahead, are planning years ahead and building infrastructure. China, for example, is spending 10 times what we are as a percentage of their GDP on infrastructure.

Meanwhile, back in May, instead of thinking about the decades to come and hundreds of thousands of jobs, this Congress passed a 2-month extension, a self-imposed, manmade crisis, governing crisis to crisis on every big issue that we deal with.

We can't let this happen. This Congress needs to do its job. We need to come together in a bipartisan way--we can do it--and pass an extension of the highway trust fund that invests in America and puts American workers back to work rebuilding this country.

If we don't do this, we cannot expect our economy to grow. Congress has to act.