WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) spoke on the Senate floor today in support of the Rebuild America Jobs Act, which was introduced Monday to help address America’s jobs crisis by investing in America’s crumbling infrastructure. Senator Coons is an original cosponsor to the bill.
– As Delivered on November 2, 2011 –
I rise today because this week, once again, the Senate of the United States has the opportunity to create jobs.
To find a way to work together to make a real difference in the long-term strength of this nation, and to finally punch back against this recession, which has taken so much from the working families of our states.
I rise in support of the Rebuild America Jobs Act, a bill that will invest $60 billion in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work. Investments in America’s infrastructure are investments in America’s future and they could not come at a more critical time for our country, our communities, or our future.
The rest of the world is pouring money into its infrastructure, because they know that it will not only make it easier for them to recover from this recession, they know it will make them more competitive for their long-term future for their people, for their countries, for their economies. At a time when our competitors are pouring money into fixing, expanding, building their infrastructure, we’ve turned off the spigot.
We are starving, Madam President, our roads and our bridges, our sewers and our water systems, our tunnels, our ports, our runways, our railroad tracks – we’re starving them of the repairs they need to function properly, not just today, but to lay the groundwork for our competitiveness of the next generation of Americans.
China today, one of our greatest economic competitors, is spending 9 percent of G.D.P. on infrastructure. As anyone who has visited China in recent years knows, all across the nation of China, there are gleaming new highway systems, brand-new ports, brand-new airports and runways, brand-new transportation infrastructure that connects newly built cities, leaping from the ground as if by magic, because they’ve invested enormous amounts in a modern infrastructure.
Europe, broadly, is investing 5 percent of G.D.P. in modernizing their infrastructure. In the United States, where modern infrastructure has for a generation made us the envy of the world, we are today investing just 2 percent of our G.D.P. This is foolish.
Few people argue that infrastructure isn’t important, Madam President. In fact, it’s one of the few things that seems to enjoy broad support here in this chamber, in this city, and in this country.
Folks as disparate as the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agree, investing in modernizing our infrastructure is critical not just to putting Americans back to work but to get America working for our country’s future. They support both the idea of an infrastructure bank, because they know investing in infrastructure isn’t just about rebuilding our roads, it’s about rebuilding our economy.
When companies make decisions about: where to locate, where to build a new factory, where to expand production, where to lease a new office – infrastructure is always at or near the top of their list. Proximity to a highway means everything if going to run or expand a factory. Being close to a port is critical if your products need to be exported overseas, and access to airport and railways is imperative if you want to do business outside your community or our country.
High-speed internet can be every bit as important as these century-old transportation technologies and can be every bit as important as clean water, modern ports, or new railroads.
Infrastructure is important in every state of our nation, Madam President, and especially so in my coastal state of Delaware. The Port of Wilmington brings four million tons of goods through Delaware each year, providing high-wage, high-skill jobs to the longshoremen and the communities immediately around our port that rely so much on its vital link to the global economy.
Railways allow Amtrak to connect business men and women from New York to our financial services sector, to our legal and banking community in Wilmington, and it’s one of the busiest railroad stations in America.
I-95 connects truckers and corridors up and down the East Coast to our little state. As folks have known, for far too long, one of the worst choke points on I-95 was in our state. I used to get calls all the time, Madam President, in my role as county executive, because folks mistakenly thought it was somehow my role to modernize this highway.
It was John F. Kennedy, who cut the ribbon on this modern interstate highway and we, frankly, have failed to invest in keeping up with the times, in keeping up with the growth in traffic, in keeping up with the tempo of global commerce since then.
Delaware has finally solved these problems, Madam President, with the leadership of the Obama Administration and this chamber, the investments that were made in infrastructure over the last two- years. We finally have solved that choke point on I-95. Today motorists move through at great speed, pay their tolls to Delaware, and are able to get on their way – north and south – and engage in commerce at the speed that the modern economy demands. That’s what we seek here to do nationwide. That’s what the Rebuild America Jobs Act can do.
For the last 25 or 30 years, we’ve been building off the infrastructure built by our parents’ generation hoping a bandage here, an ointment there, a little wire, a little bubblegum would be enough to get us through another year, but that’s not a strategy for laying the groundwork for a great future for our children. It’s not even a strategy for keeping up.
The choke points on America’s roads can’t be allowed to choke America’s economy for the next generation. One-third of our nation’s major roadways are in poor or even mediocre condition, and a quarter of our bridges have been rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
They’ve even faced the human suffering and reputational disaster of having bridges collapse across this country in recent years.
We have failed to invest in our future.
As a country, we can keep swerving to avoid these potholes, but eventually we’re going to hit them. The Rebuild America Jobs Act would fill that pothole, would make smooth the rough places of this nation and accelerate our economic growth for the future.
I’m a cosponsor of the Rebuild America Jobs Act, Madam President, because this bill would fill the pothole we’ve been avoiding for decades. It would rebuild 150,000 miles of American roadways, maintain 4,000 miles of train tracks, upgrade 150 miles of airport runways. It would restore critical drinking water and wastewater systems for our communities and strengthen our energy infrastructure. In short, Madam President, it would make us competitive, I would put people back to work, it would get us on the right road to a sustained recovery. It would put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work in that sector of the economy that took the first and hardest hit from the recession.
More than two million Americans who worked in construction have lost their jobs, since this tragic recession hit, including 8,000 in my home state of Delaware, alone. We’ve got thousands of folks in the skilled building trades ready to go.
They just need us to get over our differences, find a way past these endless, mindless filibusters, and get them to work. This week we have an opportunity to invest in those people and invest in our country.
Infrastructure is such a smart investment, and in this economy and in this competitive global environment, where our allies and competitors are outstripping our investment because they see clearly the road to the future.
We simply cannot afford to continue to refuse to act.
Madam President, it was one year ago today that the people of Delaware elected me to represent them in Washington, and every day since I have wondered when this chamber was finally going to come together across the partisan divide and start moving on jobs.
The persistent partisanship here that has plagued this body is, in my view, not worthy of the very real human needs of the people who sent us here.
Last month, folks in this Congress, mostly from the other party, prevented us from acting on jobs not once, not twice, but several times. I don’t understand the strategy here, but the endless filibusters must stop.
I know there’s debate over how we’re going to pay for this particular proposal to put $60 billion into infrastructure. As Senator Bingaman commented just before me, this is a modest increase in revenue for the very wealthiest Americans that I believe is justified in this critical economic time.
Too many of my neighbors, too many of my constituents are out of work, and, Madam President, I don’t think we have a choice. We need to act. The president is right. We can’t wait to act. The Rebuild America Jobs Act not only invests in jobs today, but in our economy for tomorrow. We can’t wait any longer, Madam President, to fill this pothole.
This bill deserves bipartisan support, and I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for it this week.
With that, I yield the floor.
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