Infrastructure bill. A vote on final passage is expected wednesday. May consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon is recognized. Our mr. Defazio our nation is conflonted with multiple crises, covid. We passed four bills in this house to deal with covid directly in terms of medical care, potential for vaccine treatments and mitigation of the incredible economic arm, the fourth bill is still lingering with an uncertain future in the senate. And then the murder of george floyd brought a long simmering crisis to a head for our nation. Last week, this house passed the justice in policing act to deal with systemic racism and policing. This bill deals with another crisis. Denied by the president and denied by most in his party. The existential threat of Climate Change to the world as we know it. To our nation. To our coastal areas. To our inland areas. To everything, our crops, our future, our childrens future, our grandkids future. Before us today is a long overdue transportation, comprehensive 21st century, the first 21st century transportation bill that moves beyond the eisenhower era and just reauthorizing the same old programs all the time. It also deals with the incredibly deteriorated infrastructure in this country. There is bipartisan agreement on that. It needs investment. But the last bill we did in the house was status quo funding. We need to invest much more to begin to deal with that crisis. This bill also deals with the other crises. It deals with covid in terms of we are going to need an economic recovery. This is going to look a lot more like, it already does, like the great depression. And we are going to need to put people back to work. We are going to need millions of goodpaying jobs. These arent just construction jobs. They are design, engineering, they are Small Business. They are manufacturing. Theres a host of people, everybody will be touched by this bill and the investments mr. Provide returns many, many times over. It also targets the largest single contributor to co2 pollution in this country. If you dont believe in Climate Change and co2 is a problem, you dont want to deal with it in a transportation bill. In fact, an alternative was offered by my colleagues, republican colleagues, in committee where we considered 300 amendments and they had one that was a substitute. It wouldnt reduce Carbon Pollution by one ounce. There is no crisis. There is no cry mat change. Donald trump said so. You cant cross the guy. So we wove the Climate Change provisions throughout this bill. They complained its not bipartisan. We have a disagreement in principle principal, and you cant compromise on principal. We are going deal with the largest source of Carbon Pollution in the United States of america here and now today this week we are starting. We have delayed too long. We are already a at dangerous levels. And we are also at dangerous levels. And also going to deal with systemic racism and secretary of transportation scragse. In lowering parts of the scrim nation. In lowering parts of the bill that december with houses, transportation. One particular provision thats critical to the transportation Infrastructure Committee, the disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. The committee has for years accumulated evidence and testimony attesting to systemic discrimination faced by women, minorities, their attempts to establish and grow and operate businesses across the country. Discrimination affects minority and Women Entrepreneurs at every stage of the process from access to investment to credit to bias treatment from customers, suppliers, regulators. To acute vulnerability to sudden economic downturns we have seen with the covid crisis. Unfortunately, even with the existing d. B. E. Program, discrimination still haunts us in the market to construct and maintain our federal Transportation System. We have documented this in testimony and today we have and will provide mounds of statistical evidence documenting this. I ask unanimous consent to submit a list of 30 studies. The speaker pro tempore the speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Defazio ill also submit an extensive statement for this on the record. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Defazio finally, we get to the issue at hand. The invest in america act, which is core of this infrastructure package. Its the biggest part, but there are many other important things. The president as a candidate campaigned on infrastructure. That gave us some bipartisan hope. We met with them a year ago last march at the white house. He asked the speaker, he said, nancy, what are you thinking . One to 1. 3 trillion. No, 1st9 trillion. Nope, 2 trillion. He bid us up. We said, good. We could spend that money productively. Then we said ok what do we define as infrastructure. Heres what the list was. Highways. Bridges. Transit. Rail. Wastewater. Drinking water. And broadband. All of those things are in this package at near the level that he asked. His number was a 10year number for 2 trillion. We are close to 1 trillion with those things in this package. There have been seven infrastructure leaks under the trump administration, the only product they have produced that directly addresses transportation infrastructure is their annual budgets, each of which has promote dramatic cuts in investment in transportation and infrastructure. Never, never we have heard they are on the cusp for producing 1 trillion bill. Now its a 2 trillion bill. Where is it . Where is it . Wheres the alternative . If its their alternative its status quo can funding and nothing that deals with Climate Change. Dont know where it is. This is the beginning of the Real Infrastructure week. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today we are here to talk about improving americas infrastructure, something that we all agree needs to be done. If we were serious about doing that, we would be taking up a bipartisan bill to fix our highways, our bridges, and our transit systems. Let me remind everyone, three months from now highway and transit programs are going to shut down if we do not act. Every democrat and every republican participating today knows a bipartisan agreement is the only way that we are going to get this done. Thats why h. R. 2, which is nothing more than an enormous partisan wish list, is going nowhere. If this is a serious effort we wouldnt be talking about passing a 1. 5 trillion debt to future generations. We would be talking about real proposals to fix the finances of the Highway Trust Fund. Instead of majoritys pointing fingers at the president and republicans despite the fact that they wrote, they wrote the entire partisan proposal in the speakers office. But they want the American People to believe that its republicans fault they couldnt figure out how to pay for their bill. If this were a serious effort we wouldnt be talking about tacking on a multitude of unreasonable Green New Deal mandates on to our transportation programs. We would be talking about Bipartisan Climate Solutions that address resiliency and actual identifiable Serious Solutions like those contained in the republican alternative, h. R. 7248. If this were a serious proposal, we wouldnt be talking about creating more uncertainty and instability for states, transportation, businesses, workers, and our economy when everyone is crying out for certainty in relief right now. But thats exactly what we are considering today in h. R. 2. This is a bill that was formed by the speakers partisan agenda from the beginning and continued to balloon from there. Just over a week ago, the transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the majoritys 500 billion my way or the highway bill along party lines. Afterwards the speaker airdropped in enough new and unvetted proposals and provisions to triple, triple the size of the bill before rushing it to the floor. Im going to highlight just a few of these concerns in this bill. First, two out of every 5 surface transportation dollars, thats 200 billion, is spent on heavyhanded Green New Deal requirements. This bill widens the gulf between rural and urban infrastructure by putting programs and policies that benefit urban areas ahead of rural communities. If you follow the money in the bill, this is made very clear. H. R. 2 directs the largest funding percentage increases to these programs. This bill also puts restrictions on building new roads which further hamstrings small communities looking to grow. How can a bill that prevents states from building the roads that they need be called infrastructure bill . These are just some of the way that is this bill limits state and local flexibility to make decisions that best fit their own priorities. This bill fails to provide commonsense streamlining reforms widely supported by transportation businesses and workers, including reforms that were unanimously improved by the Senate Environment and public works committee. Projects that take years even decades to get approved cost more the longer they are delayed. So that means reducing delays would have the same impact as additional funding. This bill does nothing to make reviews more efficient. Finally, this bill relies on yet another general fund bailout and with the irresponsible spending proposal thats in this bill, the trust fund bailout will cost more than every extension and bill combined since 2008. And doesnt even attempt to fix the solvency issues with the Highway Trust Fund. This is completely irresponsible. If this messaging bill passes the house, thats as far as its going to go. And wont do a single to imaprove the infrastructure. Theres been so much uncertainty and predictibility created by the covid19 pandemic across our nation. With transportation businesses and workers, what they need right now is stability. This partisan process and seismic upheaval of our federal transportation programs, it robs them of that. This bill does nothing to move us forward. And is truly a shame. It really is. With that ill go on more later, with that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield two minutes to the gentleman from two minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Neal. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Neal. Mr. Neal americas infrastructure is in woeful disrepair. Our roads and bridges are crumpling. Many areas still lack reliable Internet Services and many places in the United States where tap water is not safe to drink. With more than 40 million americans out of work, the pandemic crisis has had a devastating impact and the consequences for our nation are apparent. The democrats moving forward act will create jobs, reinvigorate our commirks and also modernize our infrastructure. All corners of the nation will benefit from this package, including my home state in western and central massachusetts. Bold investments in broadband and the rail system are good news for our regions economy, workers, and students. Rail, 19 billion, perhaps well see our long held vision of rail transportation from boston to worcester to springfield on to pittsfield occur as well. This is smart and responsible. The ways and Means Committee contributed the largest tax investment in combating Climate Change that congress has ever made, and its in legislative form, and in legislative language this. Legislation promotes investments in clean energy, technologies, incentivizes the greening of the fleet, rewards Renewable Energy projects, engaging in responsible labor practices, where priorities on workers rights and wellbeing. We are going to keep working to make sure that we can have more green jobs that are good jobs, not only in the space of Renewable Energy production, but in the production of zero emission vehicles as well. Prioritizing green jobs will also mean prioritizing manufacturers whose Raw Materials will power the green economy. This is a unique opportunity for all of us, for our investments in our communities, our businesses, and in our workers to come out on the other side of this crisis stronger than ever. I urge support for this legislation. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from organizeon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves mr. Speaker, i have an inquiry. Indicates we are in session in session or the committee of the whole . The speaker pro tempore we are in the house. Mr. Graves ok. Thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time i would yield three minutes to the gentleman from illinois, Ranking Member of the highway subcommittee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from illinois is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you to Ranking Member graves. Thank you for leading the charge on this committee and the fight against this partisan bill because its a shame, we stand before you today debating a partisan surface transportation bill which includes 1 trillion worth of airdropped provisions. Mr. Davis many of which do not fall under the jurisdiction of our transportation Infrastructure Committee. In years past, surface reauthorization has been a very bipartisan affair. This is because we knew then as we know now that a partisan bill will lead to failure. Over the paths year, every conversation i have had with transportation stakeholders, the resounding message was please pass a longterm bill. And avoid an extension. Unfortunately, the process thats played out ever since the democrats introduced their surface transportation bill has pointed to only one conclusion, we are being set up for an extension. This is unacceptable as an extension doesnt provide the clarity and certainty of longterm reauthorization provides to our states and to our local communities. Today youre going to hear from democrats that they couldnt negotiate with us because our party wouldnt engage on climate issues. I have had conversations with the chairman months ago expressing my willingness to work on every issue. So instead of saying republicans wouldnt engage on climate issues. It was democrats who wouldnt engage with republicans. Now, i know just like every other bill that comes through this house, obviously a partisan reauthorization bill is President Trumps fault. President trump wanted to do infrastructure. Instead of following the partisan processes that the majority criticizes that the white house does, they implement their own partisan process. And when you talked about climate, the United States of america is the only country that is actually reached emission standards in the paris climate accord. We are doing our job as america, but lets stop sacrificing our roads and crumbling bridges to the Green New Deal activists who dont want to talk about what america has done successfully to attack Climate Change already. Lets stop it with the Climate Change issue where two of every 5 of this bill goes to Green New Deal priorities. Lets talk about building highways and bridges and stable and less volatile trust fund. If we are going to have another infrastructure week, unfortunately this infrastructure week is going to turn out like the ones before, its going to be failure. We will come up to the september 30 deadline for this current bill and instead of moving forward in a bipartisan way, this infrastructure week is going to turn out like the rest of them. Lets negotiate a bipartisan bill. The only chance we have to avoid costly extensions and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from missouri reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, frank pallone. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Pallone i thank mr. Defazio for all he has done with moving forward and i rise in support of this legislation. No better way to jump start our economy and create good paying jobs and modernize our badly aging infrastructure and help us significantly to combat Climate Change. Covid19 has wiped out 600,000 Clean Energy Jobs stifling our economy. This bill will rerebuild our economy with 70 billion investment in clean energy. The sweeping investment will upgrade the electric grid to accommodate more Renewable Energy and invest in Energy Efficiency which will help homeowners save money. And we make a major investment in developing electric networking and addressing the need to address Greenhouse Gas solutions. The covid19 pandemic has put a spotlight on how critical it is to have clean and safe water. This bill invests 20 billion in Drinking Water programs and 2. 7 billion for the Brownfields Community can transform factories into Community Centers, parks and new businesses. The pandemic has demonstrated the need to ensure that families across the nation have access to highspeed internet and provide 100 billion to fund broadband pr