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 programs which will get us to 100 coverage. Kids need broadband to participate no classes online. And make sure students who dont have access to these resources can engage with Remote Learning and authorize 12 billion to upgrade our 911 system. The pandemic has ex possibled preexisting weaknesses. So we invest 30 billion to upgrade the Health Infrastructure and thats for hospitals, Community Centers and other health care facilities. I urge my members to vote for this bill to move our nation forward and thank you again. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves mr. Speaker, i would yield two minutes to the gentleman from arkansas, Ranking Member of the rail subcommittee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from arkansas is recognized. A well crafted infrastructure bill could put millions of americans back to work and reinvigorate the american economy. We are not here to debate a well crafted infrastructure bill. This is a radical departure from map21 both in terms of content and process. It embraces radicalism and in fact, approximately 40 of this bills allocation will be spent on Green New Deal programs. When the g. O. P. Controlled the majority we consulted with the minority on map21 and fast act. The senate had a bipartisan climate title in their bill. To quantify how starkly partisan this bill, this bill has 388 amendments. This bill stands no chance of being signed into law. Despite spending 60 billion over five years. No one in the Rail Industry supports any providings in this rail title. At a time when all modes of Public Transportation is in doubt, this increases funding to amtrak and spends 13 times what fast act spent. Nd 160 times to amtraks National Network and guts rograms to give money to amtrak. And this bill aims to drive the system to the ground in the name of environmental extremism. This is the first surface reauthorization i will be voting against. Im glad some of my bipartisan amendments made in this markup and offers us a demrimps if the majority could have done to create a serious bill. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio just to the gentleman, i would have him recognize that the northeast corridor is a shared corridor freight and rail. When the portal bridge about goes or gateway tunnels, it is a 20 hit to the national economy. We are going to invest money there. That is about to fail and fail big. I yield two minutes to the chair of the education and labor ki, bobby scott. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Scott i rise in support of h. R. 2, the moving forward act and i want to focus on the fact that this infrastructure package includes our nations schools. For decades underserved students and educators spent every day in School Facilities without air conditioning and Roofing Systems that endanger their health. And g. A. O. Report this year confirmed more than half the School Districts need to repair unsafe and outdid ited systems in heating and air conditioning in most of their school buildings. These issues are not about comfort but equal access to education. Mr. Speaker, we all want to reopen our schools as soon as possible, but we cannot take this step when the centers for Disease Control guidance requires ventilation systems to prevent the spread of covid19. The reopening and rebuild American School tax provisions offer the solutions our schools need. This legislation will invest Construction Funds targeted at poverty School Facilities that put the health of our students and staff most at risk ap the schools will benefit from improvements in broadband that are found in the bill. School provisions in this bill will create two million good paying jobs at a time when we face historic unemployment rate. The moving forward act is critical to our nations economic recovery and critical to achieve equity in education. Mr. Speaker, i urge my colleagues to pass this bill so all students will have access to safe and high quality schools during the pandemic and for years to come. Finally, i ask unanimous consent to submit for the record a letter from the rebuild American Schools coalition to Speaker Pelosi and leader mccarthy in support of this legislation. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Scott i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves i would like to yield three minutes to the Ranking Member of the aviation subcommittee, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Graves. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Graves i thank the Ranking Member and thank you, mr. Speaker, for recognizing me. Mr. Speaker, i want to thank my friend from oregon and i do consider him a friend because oftentimes over the past few years we have beenier, we have been able to engage in constructive policy decisions and my friend does like to have those discussions, which is why i like him. I dont like to did he involve into partisan fighting but to listen to this bill and participate in this process, there are a lot of things that need to be addressed and the record needs to be set state. This bill has a long history in this committee, the Transportation Committee has a long history of being a bipartisan committee. As you heard, there were nearly 390 amendments filed, 390 amendments filed on this bill. 22 republican amendments are going to be accepted or voted on. 22. And most of them are going to fail. They are designed to fail. 148 democrat amendments are being accepted and going to be allowed to move forward. 14822. Mr. Speaker, each one of us represents somewhere around 750,000 people. Why should only certain people be able to be represented . Then because of this crazy process we have here, we are going to take all of those amendments and combine them into seven votes and put in one poison pill and the whole thing dice dies. This is not how you build legislation. We have a republican president and republican senate. We should be working on this together because everyone supports infrastructure. Now on climate. Lets talk about climate, because the United States has reduced emissions more than the next 12 countries combined. The United States has. And as my friend from illinois noticed, we are the only country in line with the paris accords. There has been this little thing called coronavirus which has led the reduction in emission which be not imposing more costs on the poor among us. Those who have lost their jobs. The committee doesnt even have jurisdiction over climate and cant go out there and try to electrify these cars and not address the fact that you are going to take three to four times the electricity to power them. Where is the electricity coming from . We are going to make it up. This bill doesnt address the problem. And, mr. Speaker, the bipartisan Climate Committee that was created by Speaker Pelosi just should that report and providing the comprehensive plan to Climate Change. It was a partisan staff report. Did the committee knew it was going to be there and based the committees recommendations in this bill . No. This is completely disjointed and partisan and ignores the fact that we had 390 amendments and condense it down to seven votes. Our constitution republic is being hijacked and not being allowed to represent the people we were sent here to represent. 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 recognize the gentlelady from new york one minute. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. I appreciate the gentleman. This is landmark legislation that would make investments not only in highways, transit and businesses but schools and housing and it would set america on the path toward a gener future and investments in zero Emissions Technologies and authorize 25 billion for the Postal Service which has bipartisan support to modernize their aging fleet. It is critical that the Postal ServiceBegin Replacing its fleet of small trucks most of which which are now over 25 years old and the bill includes 6 billion and requires the Postal Service to install electric charging stations at post offices to help expand the infrastructure needed for electric vehicles. These measures will help the Postal Services meet its mission and advance sound environmental policy. I urge a strong yes vote on h. R. 2. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from new york yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. I yield three minutes to the gentleman from ohio, mr. Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs i rise in opposition to this infrastructure boon doingle bill which is focused on advancing the Green New Deal agenda. Instead of focusing on roads, bridges, and highway that is keep the economy moving and americans employed. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to defer funding streams to nonroadway infrastructure and leaves rural surface transportation in the dust. One of the major roadblocks in successfully reinvigorating our infrastructure is the mountains of red tape, paperwork, and bureaucracy involved with surface transportation infrastructure. This bill does nothing to reform the permitting process. It leaves in place a broken permitting regime that slows projects down to a dead stop. Contrary to what some may say, bureaucratic red tape has a direct impact on Infrastructure Investment. Project delays costs nearly 4 trillion in Economic Impact according to the associated general contractors of america. We can point to nations like canada, germany, and australia who have provide add robust and responsible Environmental Review process in just two years. Compare this to ours at 3 1 2 to five years to take just one federal agentcy, not including other federal agencies that add more time in the process. Finally, i oppose h. R. 2 for its lack of bipartisan participation. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle may try to point to an amendment here and there and call it bipartisan. But i have worked in a true Bipartisan Legislation that doesnt just tick off the boxes of partisan talking points. I have fought to pass legislation that gives hard work of Infrastructure Investment and permitting reform done while working with my democratic colleagues in the past. I can tell you from experience h. R. 2 is not that. Republicans were prevented from offering real input on this bill, one that has a broad application and diverse impact across every type of community in this country. Instead, republicans were shut out of the process. This is purely a left wing messaging bill with a grandiose nonsense thats far from reality and addressing the real world infrastructure concerns. For these reasons i urge my colleagues to vote no on h. R. 2 and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon is recognized. Mr. Defazio yield myself for one moment. Resiliency which they keep talking about on that side is a reactive policy to help our Transportation System survive with rising sea levels and extreme weather events. Mitigation dealing with Climate Change is proactive and will prevent us from having to spend a lot more money in the future on infrastructure. With that, i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from washington, d. C. , the chair of the surface transportation subcommittee, Eleanor Holmes norton. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman d. C. Is recognized. Ms. Norton i thank the chairman for yielding. This is one of the very few bills this is one of the that bills we are is moving forward during this pandemic and its named h. R. 2, which means it was of great importance even before the pandemic. The transportation bills we have been filing have been essentially flat funded. It is time we put some money into our Transportation System. So this is no mere extension. Our last bill was essentially that. There was no new funding on it. In fact, this bill breaks new ground. And i have been on this committee ever since coming to congress. Each transportation bill looks essentially the same as each other. However, with Climate Change you cant write those bills in the same way. You see attention to Climate Change throughout this bill. Ou see a fund for greenhouse emissions we have in this bill discretionary grants for electric vehicles. That was unknown, unseen in the last bill. We are paying special attention to disadvantaged Business Enterprises. We remember the george floyd killing. And we had not done a good job with these enterprises in my own region. We found that minority and omenowned firms were unlikely to receive contracts even if they seemed fully qualified. D of course in this district which staff and members use to get to the house, there is money for the almost for the metropolitan transit authority, almost half of federal employees in this region use that to get to this very house. Mr. Chairman, this bill breaks new ground and this congress should indicate that it is ready for 21st century bill. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman d. C. Yields back. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. I might point out that yes there are discretionary grants in here for electric vehicles, which is interesting electric vehicles dont pay for the use of that road, either, because the Highway Trust Fund still has yet to be addressed, has yet to be determined how we are even going to move forward, which is a huge frustration in this bill. There is absolutely no payfors. With that i yield two minutes to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Perry. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Perry i thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you, chairman, for the time. An efficient and effective infrastructure system is vital to our nations economic wellbeing. Vital to every citizen. They realize t thats why they are willing to pay for it as long as we do the responsible thing here. For years, mr. Speaker, federal policies have diverted funding away from the core projects and created a system that incentivizes waste. As a result you can figure it out, our infrastructures crumbling. The need for reform is acknowledged across the aisle, across the spectrum, both sides know there is an opportunity right here, especially with this president. Unfortunately, the majority has now squandered that opportunity for bipartisan reform. Instead they propose h. R. 2 which is a leftist wish list that doubles down on the policies that brought our infrastructure to its current deteriorated state n fact, the majority of the the 1. 5 trillion in spending under this bill, 1,400 pages unrelate to the repair and build out of our nations infrastructure. 2 3 of this spending 1 trillion created out of thin air in the two weeks since we had the discussion in the Transportation Committee, just dropped on us. We didnt even discuss it. After we left and marked up the bill, add the money, add the policy. Moreover, the majority has failed to even propose a way to pay for this liberal wish list. Instead stating it will be paid for by deficit spending. We dont always get it right but at least make it an attempt. Make an attempt. Our nation is 26. 3 trillion in debt. 3. 5 trillion of that occurring in the last couple months. The majoritys plan to bang roll their liberal bankroll their liberal wish list is reckless and threatens the very future of our nation. I sincerely hope this political theater will conclude shortly, mr. Speaker, and the majority will get serious about a serious infrastructure package. With that i yield the balance. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from missouri reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Yield one minute to the gentleman from mississippi. Mr. Thompson. Chairman of the Homeland Security committee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson thank you very much, mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from oregon for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, i rise in strong support of h. R. 2, the moving forward act. As amended by the managers amendment, this bill includes language identical to my bill, h. R. 1140, the rights for transportation Security Officers act of 2020. For over a decade representative nita lowey and i have worked by t. S. A. Frontline security workers the basic rights and Civil Service protections they deserve. On march 5 of this year, this body passed h. R. 1140, with 230 yes votes, including all democratic members present, and 14 republican members. Transportation Security Office ds are officers remain among the lowest paid federal workers. They do not receive regular salaries, basic Civil Service protections afforded to most federal employees. In recent years t. S. O. s have faced government shutdowns, staff shortages, increased passenger volumes, and increasingly difficult job responsibilities. Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill. I thank chairman defazio for including this critical language in the managers amendment. I urge support of the bill and yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from illinois, mr. Bost. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from illinois is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Bost thank you, mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Many of you do know and maybe some of you dont know that i grew up in a Family Trucking business. I know how important transportation workers are. How important they are to the American People. In the past few months they have been on our nations Truck Drivers maintenance kruse, Public Transit workers, and other essential employees stepped up and delivered the goods. It is our duty to support them and insure while they do their jobs they are kept safe and they can do their jobs effectively. Unfortunately, this legislation falls far short on that goal. Instead of adequately investing in our nations roads, bridges, for better conditions for our truckers and motorists, the speaker and her allies chose to double down on their liberal Green New Deal wish list. Instead of working together in a bipartisan manner, which has always been done at least over the last 15 to 20 years from what i understand before, they forced it through transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a partyline vote. With this legislation my colleagues on the other side are saying that when it comes to our nations infrastructure, it is quite literally my way or the highway. That, i believe, is a dangerous route to take. And i think that the American People will wake up to the fact with this continuing partisan games on something that is so important that has been done in a bipartisan manner before that finally they will speak up and say that they have had enough because many of us have. With that 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 illinois, chair of the rail subcommittee, mr. Lipinski. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from illinois is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Lipinski as chair of the rail subcommittee and coauthor of h. R. 2, im proud that we have the robust road, rail, and transit bill that our country needs to start fixing our Transportation System and put americans back to work. I want to thank chairman defazio for his strong leadership on this bill. H. R. 2 is a historic bill for rail infrastructure. Containing a record 60 billion investment a 400 increase. It was a priority for me to include for the First Time Ever in a surface reauthorization a ommuter rail policy section. In addition to the 57 increase in funding for Public Transit, commuter railroads are made eligible for the significantly grant d 7 billion program. And the top amtrak steaks g station us used stations used by commuter railroads have special access to these funds. In another first, we established a grade separation Funding Program at 2. 5 billion which will help alleviate the problem of blocked rail crossings across our nation. For amtrak, we are making a record investment of almost 30 billion. In the highway and transit division, i want to high white the 37 increase in funding to our states for roads, a greater focus on improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, and increase in funding for University Transportation centers. Including one on autonomous and connected vehicles. In addition, a 9 billion Grant Program focused on advancing projects of national and regional significance is included. Which can help bring the create rail Modernization Program in northeastern illinois to completion. Significantly improving the flow of freight across our nation. Mr. Speaker, h. R. 2 will put hundreds of thousands of americans to work, make american businesses and workers more efficient, cut down delays on our roads and rails, increase safety, and implayoff our improve our environment. Lets get this done for the American People. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i yield one minute to the gentleman from california, mr. Lamalfa. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california is recognized for one minute. Mr. Lamalfa thank you to my colleague, our Ranking Member. The many problems with this hyper partisan bill, one of the most troublesome is the price tag, 1. 5 trillion, completely ignores the need for how we are going to pay nor t. So the majority has decided the president must come up with the way to pay for t. Like heres our shopping list. Right here. We are going to send it out of the house and maybe out of the Senate Without a way to pay for it. No member of the administration is charged with that responsibility. Constitutionally, its assigned here at the house of representatives. If the democrats are serious about fixing our infrastructure, work with a way to us, the republicans. Now, there will be some hard out. To figure it does it raise the gas tax . Does it make people pay for they drive . Or especially my home state of california with the highest cost anything, adding yet new taxes. Hat said, we are here to discuss about it. Were supposed to have a little interaction. Has bill, unfortunately, not. So we push another partisan wish this floor, make the president figure it out. Unfortunately, it doesnt have a chance to work this way. Back. D the speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from missouri reserves. The gentleman from oregon is recognized. Defazio i yield one minute the gentleman from new jersey, a member of the committee, albio sires. The peaker pro tempore gentleman from new jersey is recognized for one minute. Mr. Sires thank you, mr. Speaker. To thank chairman defazio for including a provision in that will have a National Infrastructure financing. Our states are riddled with are too old, roads that are in disrepair, and thats falling apart. Regionally, a nationally significant project, projects everyone can agree on are important and need to be built, have language wished for languished for years because of no federal help. This bill changes that. Am proud to say that this bills provision on projects of national and regional victory for is a the gateway project. New jersey knows how important done. To get the project the whole region knows how mportant the project is to its economy. This bill puts 9 billion into that pot. Money for ovides Clean Energy Investments to keep money for an, resiliency projects to protect us from stronger storms, and for Public Transit to keep cars off the road. A reason theres no reason we cant have a modern, fficient, clean National Infrastructure. This bill puts us on our way, and i am proud to have been the Development Since the beginning. I am proud to cosponsor, and i sk everyone to support this bill. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time id yield two minutes to the mr. Leman from pennsylvania, smucker. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. R. Smucker thank you, mr. Speaker. Id like to thank the Ranking Member for yielding. R. Speaker, i rise today in opposition to this partisan infrastructure bill. Can work this house together and can accomplish things for the American People. That members ago from both parties came together unprecedented an pandemic to pass the cares act, bipartisanship saved thousands and thousands of jobs, millions of jobs, and the livelihoods of Small Business owners all across this country. Of a new e face challenge, repairing our infrastructure, democrats have different path. Theyve chosen to go it alone messaging bill that is not a serious effort to improve and oads, bridges, railroads. Now, i offered a number of amendments to improve the including some bipartisan proposals which i offered with my colleagues on side of the aisle. While i appreciate that one of is e was adopted, the fact this legislation was drafted ith no consultation with republicans. This bill will cost taxpayers an astounding 1. 5 trillion, disproportionately favoring centers at the expense of rural america. Ut the real cost of this bill is the missed opportunity. Our better time to address infrastructure needs when Interest Rates are as low as are now and when we want to to boom conomy begin again . I remain committed to supporting legislation which would in improving vest our transportation infrastructure in a way that states additional flexibility to meet their unique onerous mandates. Yet, this bill doesnt do that. This bill kicks the can down the than advancing those badly needed priorities. Urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, 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 one minute gregorio can le macho sablan. The speaker pro tempore the recognized. Mr. Sablan thank you, chairman defazio, for allowing me to today. Highlight how h. R. 2 helps americas schools. Coronavirus the crisis already in significant need of repair. Revenue shortfalls are communities cut teaching staff, not during a time when they can invest in facilities. Will give 100 billion from the education to s are front loaded address needs to recon figure schools to meet c. D. C. Guidelines. Helps the 16 illion students nationwide ithout internet access, gain highspeed internet. And there is money set aside for insular schools who are particularly challenged. Defazio for man adding the Mariana Islands to which i alert system asked and is included in h. R. 2. I urge my colleagues to vote yes h. R. 2 and i yield back the balance of my time. Tempore the o gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time id yield two minutes to the gentleman from florida, mr. Spano. The peaker pro tempore gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Spano thank you, mr. Speaker. Strong o express my disappointment in this legislation. For months weve been discussing bipartisan transportation package, both President Trump and leaders in congress from both parties expressed their could be struck to repair our crumbling infrastructure. Iven the rise in unemployment, due to covid19, now is the perfect time to invest in and create re american jobs. But sadly, this bill missed this onceinageneration opportunity. Democrats presented their bill to the Committee Without any nput from republicans whatsoever which is clear from the price tag. Coming out of committee, the had a 500 billion price tag. It. Out any way to pay for but democrat leadership has now dded an extra 1 trillion to it. 40 of all the money in this package goes to Green New Deal to include nd fails deregulatory provisions which ould easily stimulate the economy and make the government work for the people rather than against them. Toffered multiple amendments make permanent one of the most efficient trump policies, the ne federal decision policy for nepa authorizations. Currently major infrastructure rojects need to be approved by multiple agencies. N average takes 4 1 2 years to complete. Experts estimate this costs more than 3. 7 trillion in lost and lost economic gain. Just yesterday, President Trump tated that unnecessary permitting delays are, quote, one of the most significant impediments to improving our infrastructure. Amendments would streamline this process by allowing applications to deal with one agency rather than several and would require nepa authorizations to be finalized years. Two as we look to recover from covid19 and pay off the debt incurred in responding to the these are inefficiencies we simply cannot afford to ignore. I urge the house to recommit the back to committee until we can come together and draft a solution that implements these real es and will provide relief for the American People. Americans are sick and tired of bills. Ng 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. Defazio i yield myself a moment. To the response gentleman, 93 of federal aid go forward ects under categorical exclusion. have an environmental analysis, a simple process. Yes, 3 go through a nepa process. Projects in urban areas, often controversial, gives the public and everybody a chance to into that. And by the way, all the studies say the biggest barrier to investment is lack of funding. And id note the fast bill froze thatng and the bill before froze funding. The last time we increased democrats e when the were in charge in 1994. With that i yield to the entleman from georgia, mr. Johnson. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Johnson i thank the chairman and, mr. Speaker, i h. R. 2,ay in support of the moving forward act. Legislation mative will revitalize our nations infrastructure, including our vulnerable communities. The last several weeks have once the brought attention to legacy of vulnerability black minorities d other suffer at the hands of a global ealth crisis, a shuttering economy, and systemic racism. With this backdrop, people of should not assume that massive infrastructure bill has little to do with them. In fact, there are many aspects 2 that are intended to assist people who have routinely left behind. And ne of the most powerful is the disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. This program, when properly and enforced, ensures that businesses owned by a fairnd minorities have chance to compete for federally projectstransportation and contracts. Home state t in my of georgia found that women and minority owned Construction Contracting businesses earned about seven cents on the minority women and owned subcontracting businesses the about 39 cents on dollar. This is unfair and this evidence limited tod its not any one region. The data underscores the for the d. B. E. Program. Im proud to see it this bill, and im proud to have been part of reauthorization. We must right wrongs of business in this country and rograms like the d. B. E. , the disadvantaged business Enter Program will help us do just that. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. He gentleman from oregon reserves. The gentleman from missouri is recognized. Mr. Graves thank you, mr. Speaker. T this time, id yield two minutes to the gentlelady from west virginia, mrs. Miller. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized. Mrs. Miller we need to put an nd to the highway robbery before us. The transportation and Infrastructure Committee has a history of bipartisan cooperation. Political games to strengthen the backbone of economy. However, after the democrats power grab in this years funding bill, thats sadly no longer the case. Legislation, this my colleagues across the aisle either asked for nor accepted input from me or any of my republican colleagues. A bill throughed the committee with so many qualities youd think they would have wanted it to fail. Committee, theed bill was gutted by bipartisan amendments solely because they party. Troduced by our and it is expensive. T the outset, this legislation cost nearly 500 billion over five years. On another y tacked trillion in the last week. It cuts money from where we need it and throws taxpayer dollars at problems that dont exist. And bridges are failing, and projects, many like h in west virginia, are underfunded. Our state amstrings governments and adds red tape flexibility. Rather than bridging americas my n and rural divide, colleagues want to put the big cities first and ignore rural ommunities but still stick us with a bill. We need all of america to strive rom appalachia to the heartlands, the rockies to the rust belt. We need to build up our entire a modern create economy that offers success to everyone. Here we are debating a bill to gives two of every 5 the Green New Deal. His is partisan messaging, not meaning. Policy. I am disheartened, i am i am disgustednd that politics continue to take precedent over the needs of our country. People want and need better roads. Many ese reasons and more reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all the information you need to stay in touch with congress, federal agencies, and state governors. Order your copy online today. Cspans washington journal. We are taking phone calls live on the air. We will discuss policy issues that impact you. Morning, michigan congresswoman Debbie Dingell will join us to talk about the coronavirus pandemic. The conversation continues with republican congressman larry dishon on legislation to increase testing. Watch washington Journal Wednesday morning and be sure to join the discussion with phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. Live wednesday on the cspan networks, the house returns at 9 00 a. M. To continue work on the democrats infrastructure bill. A vote on final passage expected in the afternoon. That is on cspan. On cspan 2, the senate meets at 9 30. Members are debating the 2021 defense programs and policy bill. Cspan 3, then House Foreign AffairsCommittee Hosts a hearing on chinas National Security law in hong kong. Cspan. Org,ay on the house Small Business committee holds a hearing on the Economic InjuryDisaster Loan Program which provides an advance of up to 10,000 to Small Businesses who have lost income due to the pandemic. At noon eastern, the House Select Committee on intelligence looks at u. S. China relations and the impact on National Security and intelligence. Next, a look at scams and conspiracy theories during the coronavirus pandemic. Medical experts, victims of disinformation campaigns and legislators from both the u. S. And canada talked about the challenges they are facing, hosted by George WashingtonUniversities Institute for data, democracy, and politics. This is an hour and ten minutes. Welcome to our continuing conversation about the flaws of big social media platforms in response to the disinformation campaigns around covid19 pandemic, a very serious situation, obviously, where lives are literally in the balance. Im frank sesno affiliated with the George WashingtonUniversity School of public affairs, affiliated with the institute of data and democracy in politics which is presenting this event together with the International Grand committee on disinformation. I will be your moderator and your timekeeper. I will continue this conversation with our distinguished panelists and guests. If you are a journalist joining us, feel free to put your question ith