To. Our leadership in the house is committed to a longterm bill. So again, instead of pointing fingers at each other, lets figure out a way to move Forward Together and i believe we will. With that, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from oregon. Mr. Defazio i yield are you ready . I yield to the gentleman from minnesota one minute. Could i inquire as to the time left . Before we proceed. The speaker pro tempore you have four minutes. Mr. Defazio i yield the gentleman a minute and a half. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Speaker, members of the house, the simple truth is, as has been articulated so well here today by my colleagues, that this nation desperately needs a longterm transportation funding bill to repair our nations crumbling infrastructure, not another kick the can down the road shortterm, temporary, convoluted fix. Last week, congress appropriately honored the late chairman of the Transportation Committee jim oberstar, with the naming of his Hometown Post Office in chisholm, minnesota. Mr. Nolan what a wonderful tribute it was to chairman oberstar. But here we are once again, kicking the can down the road on the issue that jim oberstar cared most about. As chairman, jim worked hard to ensure the committee drafted good strong, Bipartisan Legislation. Thats what we need here today. The Transportation Committee if the Transportation Committee were allowed to do that, i have every confidence that we would indeed write a longterm transportation funding bill. Mr. Speaker, the fact is, the trains are running off the tracks, the bridges are falling down, the Wastewater Treatment facilities are overflowing, so lets do right by our good friend, the former congressman, jim oberstar. Lets create a longterm fix to our National Transportation and infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, i would also like to ask unanimous consent to insert an article recently into the record at this point. Thank you mr. Chairman. The speaker pro tempore without objection. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise . Mr. Shuster may i inquire how much time each side has . The speaker pro tempore seven minutes. Mr. Shuster theavend other side . The speaker pro tempore 3 1 2 minutes. Mr. Shuster i recognize the gentleman, mr. Graves. Three minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I appreciate that very much. I want to associate myself with the words of my colleagues who just spoke on the need to do this and the need far longterm transportation bill. I remember chairman oberstar working diligently to try to do that and the six or seven extensions we had but never did come up with a transportation bill. Thats why were working so hard to make sure we have a good, bipartisan bill. I do rise in support of h. R. 3038. Its going to extend the current transportation law until december 18, until we can get that longterm bill in place. As chairman of the committee on highways and transit, i believe its critical for critical for congress to come together on this bipartisan longterm, sur vas surface reauthorization. In my home state of missouri we have 10,000 bridges begging for our attention. Last month i held a hearing on the Transportation Needs of rural america. Our roads an bridges demonstrate why we need a strong federal program. Its critical to moving people and goods and to the Overall Health of this economy. Im committed to working with chairman shuster and chairman ryan and others to get a reauthorization bill done. Federal surface transportation programs are set to expire at the end of the month. Chong has to act to ensure the programs continue the sol generalcy and the Highway Trust Fund is addressed. State and local governments need to plan for projects with confidence. They need certainty, not just for the next five or six months but for the next five or six years this bill enables us to continue our bipartisan efforts on a reauthorization bill which we hope to accomplish by the end of the year. We have a tremendous opportunity to secure that bill thats going to improve rebuild modernize our nations transportation system. Its time we come together to do that. I want to thank both the chairmen on their work on h. R. 3038. With that i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from oregon. Mr. Defazio i yield the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer, one minute. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Blumenauer i appreciate the gentlemans courtesy and could not agree with the chairman more. I personally think its time to stop pointing fingers, theres enough bipartisan blame to go around. We didnt quite do the job when the economy was in free fall. I know a number of us would have written the recovery act differently. But the point is, we are here now with the challenge to fund it. And six republican states have increased the gas tax already this year. Ive got a proposal thats ready to go, that could be passed in two weeks and the committee could have the resources to actually fund the bill. But it could be other options. I know the Ranking Member has a barrel tax, a proposal to index the gas tax and bond against it. I dont care what it is that we do i do care that we dont continue to stall. It was exactly a year ago today we were standing here on this moment saying, dont wait until the end of the year, we have to get on with it because well be right back here a year from now and we are. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Blumenauer its time to act. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Shuster continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon. Mr. Defazio does the gentleman have additional speakers or no, ok. Id yield one minute to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Boyle. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Boyle thank you and i want to thank my colleague. This is just embarrassing. It is embarrassing that were here talking about the umpeenth patch for the umpteenth time. Other countries are wondering if were still interested in leading. Lets forget the shortterm patches, lets finally deal with the problem. The previous speaker, mr. Blumenauer, is exactly right. Before coming here as a state legislator in pennsylvania, we, democrats and republicans, banned together and cast a very politically tough vote. It was the right thing to do, both democrats and republicans did it, and now were finally building bridges and repairing roads that we neglected for 20 years in our state. Its time for the u. S. Federal government to do exactly the same right thing. Bite the bullet and lets show that an america that in america we can solve big problems and we can lead again. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Shuster continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman continues to reserve. The gentleman from oregon. Mr. Defazio i believe i have 30 seconds left. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is correct. Mr. Defazio i would yield myself the balance of the time. You know, investing in infrastructure in america has always been extraordinarily bipartisan. Over the entire time ive been here. Recently weve kind of gone off the tracks. But it means we both have to cooperate on policy and on funding. And for the life of me, why the Republican Party has drawn a line in the sand in saying, we cannot have user feebased investment in transportation, which benefits people who drive cars, pickup trucks, buses, everybody who moves goods in america, we cant do that anymore, weve got to come up with some fanciful tax reform which may or may not happen, its very sad. I proposed doing away with the retail gas tax, imposing a barrel tax. Where some of the costs would be paid by exxonmobil, wall street speculators, opec, saudi arabia, and yeah, theyd probably pass a lot of it through at the pump, but that would be a fair way to move forward to make the massive investment we need to put hundreds of thousands of people back to work and get america moving again. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Shuster thank you mr. Speaker. My colleague from oregon makes a good point. We are not spending the kind of dollars, at least were not spending wisely the kind of dollars i would say, also add to that to fix our infrastructure problem. But we do face more difficult times today than we did when we set up the fund in the 1950s or even in the 1980s, as the economy grew, and then in the 1990s the economy grew. Today we have an 18 trillion debt. Republicans want to make sure this is fiscally responsible. We want to make sure were just not layering Something Else on top of the American People. But more importantly, i hope my colleagues join with me to continue to reduce the Regulatory Burden that we put out there to people that build the roads, who operate on the roads, the states that have to come up with the plan to building them, so again, theres a lot of work to be done. I feel confident that chairman ryan and his committee will be able to come up with the funding level, so that we can continue to work to get a sixyear bill which i think is essential, to this nation, to give the certainty we need to help boost the economy but a vote against this bill is a vote in favor of shutting down these vital programs, putting transportation projects and jobs across the country at risk. And furloughing federal employees. Mr. Speaker, i urge all members to support this bill and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. At this time ways and means will debate 30 minutes. The gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Ryan, and the gentleman from michigan, mr. Levin will each control 15 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Ryan. Mr. Ryan thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself as much time as i may consume. I rise to speak in favor of this. Heres basically what were trying to do. We want to get to a longterm highway solution. We believe that for the sake of jobs, the economy, certainty planning big projects in our states, we want to do a multiyear highway bill. Typically a multiyear highway bill means a sixyear bill and thats our aspiration and our goal. We know were not going to write that bill in the next two weeks. We know we need at least two or three months to write that bill. Unfortunately the Highway Trust Fund has a fiscal shortfall in two weeks. So were here to extend the Highway Trust Fund through december 18, to give us the time we need to put together a multiyear solution. That costs 8 billion just to do that. What we use are revenueclines measures, to make it easier for revenuecompliance measures, to make it easier for people to file their taxes more easily. Not a single fee increase, not a single tax increase is in this bill to finance the extension of the Highway Trust Fund solvency to december 18. For example, tas fees, tas fees t. S. A. Fees, t. S. A. Fees are not being increased. Theyre staying exactly the same as they are, so nobody getting on an airplane will see anything different. The difference is, we keep those fees going to mandatory spending. We keep those fees going to where they are, instead of going into Discretionary Spending where they can be spent in addition to other spending, to buy walling off that money so congress cant go spend it somewhere else, we save money by doing that. Things like this are what we do, savings for the taxpayer, tax compliance, easier to comply with your taxes making sure that fees dont get spent in other areas, are some important fiscal savings that we have to make sure that we can extend the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. Now, the other point i would simply make is, we believe that we have a chance of writing a big multiyear bill. Thats why were seeking this extension. If we didnt think that we had the chance and the opportunity on a bicameral, bipartisan basis, to do a sixyear highway funding bill, then we would just two do a twoyear bill like the other body is attempting to do. We think we can do a multiyear bill multiyear bill. We think there are ways of doing it, things that are important for the economy things that are important for our businesses we think thats an opportunity and thats something that were exploring on a bipartisan basis. So for that reason and many others i urge adoption of this. I think it makes sense. The last thing we want to do, and where i come from in wisconsin, the way we say it is we have two seasons. Road construction season and winter. The last thing we want to do is see Road Construction stop at the beginning of august. We need to give our construction, our highways, our people who are filling these Construction Projects, a little certainty, at least getting to the winter, so they can finish the building season while we work out a longterm highway solution. With that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from michigan. Mr. Levin i yield myself such time as i shall consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Levin well here we go again. A bill from the majority, theyve been in power over four years, and the result is another patch. We need to do better. We know the state of highways and the infrastructure in this country our National Infrastructure receives a dplus grade, getting worse every day. So its said we need multiyear and thats so true. It is also being said that there needs to be a bipartisan bicameral bill. And i want to just talk to the chairman to talk to this entire house, to talk to the congress, having also met with the administration. There is no way to have a multiyear bill, five, six years, unless it is truly bipartisan involving democrats and republicans. Democrats as well as republicans in both houses. Weve come up with some ideas, were suggesting today, for example, passage of the stop corporate inversion act, that many others and i introduced some time ago. So, we need to consider everything. And i want to close this way. We will not have a multiyear bill if lines are drawn not in sand but in concrete. If the majority takes the position that some ideas cannot be considered its likely to lead infrastructure to another dead end. We need to do much better, multiyear, bipartisan both houses with the administration. If we dont do that, the rest is talk. This delay has caused millions of jobs. Everybody, including the majority, now talks about middle income stagnation. Part of it is because weve been stagnant in terms of an infrastructure bill on a longterm basis. That has to stop. We need to put a big red sign that says, stop in front of the majority of this house and the entire house in the congress and get busy on a bipartisan basis on a highway longterm bill. All infrastructure. I now reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from michigan. The gentleman reserves. The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan mr. Speaker, i think the gentleman from michigan has more speakers than we do. So if its all right by him, why dont a few of the speakers on your side of the aisle go. Mr. Levin well be glad to do that. Were so full of vigor on this, we have lots of speakers. The next speaker i yield a minute and a half to, mr. Becerra, a member of our committee, who is also chair of our caucus. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for a minute and a half. Mr. Becerra i thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, in the greatest, most capacitated nation on earth, there is no excuse for so many crumbling roads and bridges, and for the evergrowing traffic gridlock and congestion that we see every day that we try to get to work. Theres no reason why hundreds of thousands of men and women in the Construction Industry today should remain unemployed because this Congress Wont do its job of replenishing the Highway Trust Fund. Its crazy. We know that when we repair a road or a bridge we put an american to work and we make it easier for all of us to get to work so we can be more efficient. Here we are for the 34th time doing a patch to the Highway Trust Fund. Which doesnt help any city or county in america, because you dont build a road or build a bridge or retrofit a bridge with two months of funding or five months of funding. You need six years to know how much money you can rely on. Because that contractor doesnt buy cement or lumber for two months or six months. They buy for four or five years. Because for them time is money. My god. We are costing the american tax people a ton of money by doing these people a ton of money by doing these constant patches. Instead of just spectate, we should be coming up with the funds to have ose roa built and repaired, those bridges built and repairedto replace those aging buses a trains that stop us from being efficnt. Mr. Speaker, its time tdo it the right way the long way, a longterm fix, not this shortterm fix. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Ryan at this time id like to yield to the chairman of the select revenue committee, mr. Reichert, three minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Reichert i thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, i rise in support of todays legislation that will ensure that our countrys infrastructure needs are met. Look, the bottom line is, were all here we have agreement on a lot of the discussion that we having today. We all want a multiyear highway bill. We all recognize that thats what our com