Matt Cartwright

Mr. CARTWRIGHT

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of the 4th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. This bill does so much, and we are so proud here tonight to talk about it. It is a win for the American people no matter which way you slice it. Building out our first ever national network of charging stations so families can travel coast to coast in electric vehicles, making high- speed internet available and affordable for every household in America, especially those rural, hard-to-get-to places, cleaning up brownfields and Superfund sites, as well as plugging, as I said before, abandoned mine lands and orphan wells to stop pollution and protect public health and to build up our resistance to superstorms, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes that cost us billions of dollars in damage, $99 billion last year alone. This bipartisan infrastructure deal is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America, and a majority of these jobs, as Representative Boyle pointed out, do not require a college degree. So the question is, what does it mean to us? What does it mean to us that we have passed this magnificent, enormous investment in American infrastructure, this belief in our Nation's future? Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) to describe what it means to him and his 1st District constituents.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. You also mentioned competition, and Congressman Boyle brought that up. And you also mentioned how much is going into broadband internet availability in Rhode Island. How does that affect competition and the ability of Rhode Islanders to compete?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I think Mr. Cicilline is right. I think competition is maybe the biggest point of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Competition that will not only grease the skids for our companies to bring their products to market and to innovate and to compete with companies all over the world, but maybe more importantly, to allow our individuals--as Mr. Cicilline just pointed out--to make the most of themselves. It was about 80 years ago that we had the Rural Electrification Act in the United States, and it did pretty much the same thing with electricity because you had pockets, little corners of America, rural places mostly, that didn't have electric power. And to think how far they would have been left behind if 80 years ago the government didn't make the effort to include all of America as we moved forward into the modern age of electricity; it is the same thing with internet connectivity, isn't it?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, another thing we did in the past to invest in ourselves was the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. This was something that the greatest generation did, Madam Speaker. They came back from World War II--we just honored a World War II hero of the Bataan Death March--but these folks came home from all of the privations and sacrifices and suffering that they went through in the war, and what did they do? They sacrificed more for us for the future, what was then the future, what is now us. They sacrificed for us. They built the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. What did it do? It greased the skids for American companies, enabled companies to bring their products to market faster and more cheaply and in a way that enabled them to compete with every other country in the world. This is the kind of investment that makes America win in competitions all over the world. You don't have to be an engineer to understand these things. You don't have to be a mechanical engineer to know that this is exactly what we need to be doing in the United States of America these days. It was a wonder that it took until now. Certainly, my entire time in Congress I have been waiting for a major infrastructure bill to come through to beef up our roads and our bridges; our water systems and our sewer systems; our broadband internet; and move us into the next century to compete with China, Europe, Russia, and all of the places that would do away with us if they could beat us. It was just yesterday afternoon that this bill, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was signed into law on the south lawn of the White House. And who was sitting next to me in the chair to my left, but Representative Paul Tonko of the 20th District of New York, who happens to be a mechanical engineer, and he knows one or two things about making things work; making them work better, more efficiently, faster, and cheaper. What does it mean to you, Representative Tonko, that we pass this bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act? Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. So we have all been seeing these images of 75, 80 cargo ships off the coast of California, Long Beach, Los Angeles, waiting to get in because we are starting up our economy after the pandemic was shut down. Obviously, it is not something we went to school for--shutting down an American economy and starting it back up-- but that is what we are doing, and we are muddling through it. And there are some painful price hikes here and there because of it--hard to say how long they will go on. But the one thing that struck me was all of those containerships full, they told me that it takes 7,000 tractor-trailers to unload a containership. That is 7,000 containers on a ship, and over 70 or 80 ships out there in the harbor. All of these manufactured goods coming from China. And it said to me, we read about the trade imbalance, we learn about the trade imbalance, we learn that China is out-manufacturing us and we are buying their goods. But, man, until you see those ships out in the harbor offshore, it doesn't really hit home how much they are beating us at manufacturing. What does this bill do to address that?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. And I like the point about how shutting down for the pandemic, it kind of taught us a lot of things about our own economy, about the pockets of, for example, the gig workers nobody was thinking about at the outset; we had to include them in the relief money. But, man, when we saw these ships piling up offshore, it really brought home to me really how we are being out-manufactured and we have to pick up our game. Investing in our infrastructure, what do you think? Is it going to help?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. It is a victory for America that we will treasure and favor for many years to come.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. We are talking about the top marginal tax rate, which is in the 30s right now. Am I correct in that?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. You can continue.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, the gentleman was discussing the necklace of communities that followed the Erie Canal. Earlier on this evening I was talking about how Amtrak assessed that restoring passenger rail in northeastern Pennsylvania would result in about $87 million per year of additional economic activity along the line.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Does that hold water?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. It is true, isn't it, that the Build Back Better Act and the bricks and mortar infrastructure act, they work together, they dovetail to achieve the visions you are talking about?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, we are here tonight to talk about these amazing bills coming up having to do with our investment in the United States of America, both in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act. These two bills taken together will create millions of American jobs rebuilding our infrastructure and building clean energy technology to combat climate change. Together, the Build Back Better Act and the infrastructure package are expected to create 2 million jobs a year on average. They will reward work by cutting taxes for working families and lowering costs on the things that keep folks up late at night, like healthcare, childcare, and home care for aging relatives. We are going to pay for that investment and those investments in our Nation and in working families by making sure that the ultra-wealthy and the corporations pay their fair share. The Build Back Better Act will not add to the deficit, and no one making less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in taxes. That is the promise that President Joe Biden made, and we intend to keep it. Now, Madam Speaker, we have here Representative Brian Higgins of Buffalo. He is a ninth-term Member from western New York, and prior to serving in Congress, Representative Higgins was a history and economics instructor at SUNY Buffalo State College. Representative Higgins also served in local and State elected office. Congressman Higgins has been a fierce advocate of stronger regional and national economic policies. Congressman Higgins currently serves on the Ways and Means and Budget Committees. Congressman Higgins is also the Democratic chair of the House Northern Border Caucus. Congressman Higgins is the chair of the House Cancer Caucus, and he is a House lead on the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins).

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I have been listening to our colleagues across the aisle complaining about so-called socialist tax increases that we have in store. Does the gentleman know what the top marginal tax rate under the Eisenhower administration was?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Ninety-one percent under the Republican Eisenhower administration during the 1950s. And what happened to that 91 percent, if the gentleman knows?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I want to talk about a few things. I want to talk about jobs, tax cuts, and lower costs for American families. First, jobs. Together, under the Biden administration, we have already created nearly 5 million jobs this year. Growth is up. Wages are up. And unemployment right now is down below 5 percent. Together with Build Back Better, the bipartisan infrastructure bill will create millions more jobs, good-paying jobs, American jobs, union jobs, jobs that cannot be outsourced, cannot be offshored. This infrastructure package makes the largest Federal investment in public transit ever. It is the largest Federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak. In Pennsylvania alone, the State will be opened up to over 3 million people with access to Amtrak. In northeastern Pennsylvania, Amtrak has assessed that adding a line to reach northeastern Pennsylvania will add $87 million a year in additional economic activity in Pennsylvania. These are amazing, smart investments, investments that we have to make in our country if we expect to compete with Europe, with China, with Russian, places that are investing in their infrastructure. We are talking about the largest investment in clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in American history. This is how we avoid catastrophes like what happened in Flint, Michigan, where little kids got brain damage from drinking lead-tainted water from pipes that hadn't been replaced in over 100 years. This infrastructure investment will ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet. This is the kind of investment that the Federal Government knows how to make. This is the kind of effort that we have succeeded at before because we have seen it. Eighty years ago, it was the Rural Electrification Act, which brought electricity to places in America that did not have it and would not have it today if the government hadn't brought that into effect. The Rural Electrification Act did essentially the same thing with electricity that we intend to do with broadband internet access. We can't leave people behind. That is what we do if we continue on the same path we are on. This infrastructure bill helps us tackle, maybe most importantly, the climate crisis by making the largest investment in clean energy transmission and electric vehicle infrastructure in history. Build Back Better will work with the infrastructure package to make even more investments in electric vehicles and other clean energy technology to combat climate change while making our economy more competitive. Rebuilding our infrastructure means rebuilding our middle class. It means jobs, jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Before I move on to tax cuts, I would like to recognize a fellow Member from Pennsylvania, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon. Mary Gay Scanlon is a second-term Member representing Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District. In Congress, Representative Scanlon has continued her work as a lifelong advocate for children and families. Representative Scanlon currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Rules Committee. She is vice chair of the House Committee on House Administration. Congresswoman Scanlon and her husband, Mark, have three adult children. They currently reside in Swarthmore with a lot of pets. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon).

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman. I appreciate that you mentioned potholes, and you don't have to be from Pennsylvania to understand the scourge of potholes. I will say that in my hometown of Scranton, there was a study done about how much it costs car owners every year to play the pothole slalom every year and hope that you don't damage your car. They do damage their cars, and it costs on average $1,400 a year for car owners to drive over these rough roads. It is something that only the government can do, fix the roads, pave the roads, fix the bridges. Thank you for mentioning that. In fact, I would be remiss if I did not mention, the Susquehanna River flows through northeastern Pennsylvania and it bisects the two towns of Pittston and West Pittston. And there are only two bridges over the Susquehanna at Pittston to West Pittston, and one of them is out right now. It is out because it is really old; it hasn't been maintained properly because the money wasn't there, the investment wasn't made, and we didn't get the job done. This is exactly why we have to make these investments. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her time this evening.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I want to go back on the question of infrastructure for a moment. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins), our colleague from Buffalo.

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins), for his time here this evening. Madam Speaker, we have talked about creating jobs, and Build Back Better is about creating jobs. It is also about helping workers keep more of their hard-earned paychecks by cutting taxes for the middle class. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, the child tax credit's monthly tax cuts are already helping parents put gas in the car or pay for childcare so they can go to work and help fuel our economy. The latest data analyzed by the JEC found that these tax cuts are generating more than $19 billion in spending in local economies each month throughout our Nation. The data are clear: When working families keep more of their hard-earned money, that is more money pumping into local businesses and supporting even more jobs. That is why we are working to continue those tax cuts and more through the Build Back Better Act. Democrats passed the child tax credit and the American Rescue Plan without a single Republican vote. That is right. Every single Republican voted against more money in the pockets of hardworking families. Now, it is Democrats who are working to extend the child tax credit. This contrast could not be clearer. When Democrats control the Congress, we cut taxes for working people. When Republicans control the Congress, they cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires and corporations. And they leave middle-class families out to dry. Madam Speaker, we are joined tonight by an esteemed colleague, Representative Paul Tonko of the Capital District of New York. He is a six-term Member of Congress from Upstate New York and a lifelong public servant. Throughout his career, he has been a strong fighter for the environment and sustainable energy, and he currently serves as the cochair for the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Coalition Caucus and a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Representative Tonko is a longstanding champion for the working class by advancing policies that create jobs, provide economic opportunity, and ensure that senior citizens are able to retire with dignity. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I request a colloquy with the gentleman from New York. Is the gentleman trained as an engineer?

Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Tonko. We have an engineer on his toes here this evening who has picked up on a lot of the points that have been made previously. For example, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon and Representative Tonko both brought up the similarity between expanding broadband internet access to all of the rural places and all the nooks and crannies and hollers in this country. The similarity between doing that and enacting the Rural Electrification Act 80 years ago by President Franklin Roosevelt, if we hadn't done that so many people would have been left behind, literally, in the dark. If we don't do this, we are going to leave Americans behind in the quest for knowledge and keeping up in the modern economy by use of high-speed broadband internet. Another thing Representative Tonko just mentioned, Madam Speaker, is about filling jobs. I represent northeastern Pennsylvania, and I talk to employers a lot, employers of manufacturing jobs, employers of retail and restaurant jobs, and the lament has been constant. With manufacturing jobs, it predated the pandemic, it was that we can't find people trained-up to do our work. We can't find people who know how to run CNC machines, the modern version of the lathe, to manufacture parts in their businesses. The Build Back Better Act includes a lot of money for workforce development. It is a big favor being done for employers, for companies that do manufacturing work; but it goes beyond that. As Representative Tonko just mentioned, there are so many families, single-parent families, where either the mom or the dad, probably predominantly the mom, is home watching kids and doesn't have options for childcare or for pre-K that would enable them to go out and go back to work. That is what we are seeing right now after the pandemic. In fact, we have Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in my district, and the chief executive officer of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce did a survey and touched on the very point Representative Tonko just made. The survey showed that of the people who took themselves out of the workforce because of the pandemic, in restaurant and retail jobs, of those people, 54 percent of those who have not gone back have not gone back because they are watching kids at home because of the scarcity of options for childcare. Remember, when you are working in a restaurant or retail, if you are bussing tables, you are not making enough money to hire a nanny. You are not making enough money to get the top option in daycare. That is why the Build Back Better Act comes in handy. What it does is--above all, remember this--it does a favor for those small businesses, those employers that are trying to fill those jobs that are open and are going begging for people to come fill them. The Build Back Better plan, by establishing universal pre-K and also beefing up childcare options, gives those parents the ability to go back to work and fill those jobs and power our economy. What do you think, Representative Tonko?