Peter DeFazio

Mr. DeFAZIO

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Johnson), the chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, and a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), a member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is remaining?

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman), a member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus), the chair of the Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Brown), a member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Bourdeaux).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Williams), a new and esteemed member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Malinowski), a member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on both sides?

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stanton), a member of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms. Davids), the vice chair of the committee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, we have heard a lot from their side that we should have worked with them. They offered an alternative. They have talked a lot about how we are not putting money into bridges and highways. We are putting in $333 billion, and they put in $310 billion, and I am not even sure that they included anything on safety. They had zero on rail--zero--and status quo for transit. That is a 21st century transportation bill? As I mentioned earlier, we have built 35,000 lane miles in the hundred largest cities. Guess what? They are running out of space. They have to tear down neighborhoods to build any more, and it is not working. Congestion is six times worse than it was 35 years ago. Americans waste $170 billion a year in congestion. Business wastes time in congestion. We need to solve these problems, and we have to look at new ways of solving these problems. What we have been doing since Dwight David Eisenhower was great at the time. It doesn't work in the 21st century. They continue to deny the threat of climate change or even the existence of climate change. I tried to say: Okay, you can't acknowledge climate change. Trump won't let you do that, and fossil fuel contributors won't let you do that. How about this? You acknowledge that there is a business case to be made. GM is going all electric, all electric in 2035. Where are they going to charge? You have four companies making 80,000-pound tractor semis. Fred Smith, FedEx, going all electric in the near term--no place to charge them except at fleet headquarters. They have to be able to charge on the road. But, no, we shouldn't invest in EV charging. We should just keep doing the same thing. We should keep polluting the atmosphere. But they do believe in resilience. We have to build up Louisiana and other places, Florida, to deal with sea level rise. Why is the sea level rising? We have to deal with extraordinary, unprecedented climate events. We have to deal with those in rebuilding our infrastructure. ``Oh, no. Why is that happening?'' ``Don't worry about that.'' We will do that, but we will not go to the root cause. We are doing all three. We are rebuilding resilient; we are rebuilding America and creating jobs. We are making the country more efficient. And we are dealing with climate change. This is the 21st century. Deal with the threats of the 21st century. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendments en bloc, which provides for the consideration of 19 amendments. The amendments contained in this en bloc amend various provisions of the bill. They would strike some of the highest priorities in a bill. We just heard an impassioned speech from the gentleman from Louisiana, talking about Louisiana sea-level rise, sinking, and all that, and wanting to take on China and the world economy. Well, guess what? They are building the future. That is EVs and AVs. And they want to strike all of the provisions in the bill that will provide for electric charging. So Fred Smith, no liberal Democrat going all electric with FedEx. GM, going all electric. Four truck manufacturers making 80,000-pound capable tractors. No charging stations in America. Oh, that is not supposed to be the future? That is the future. That is the future. And we also--yeah, we deal with climate change. And I know you don't believe in climate change on that side of the aisle. That is fine. I wish you lived up where I do. You might just get a sample of what the future is like. Now, this strikes the Fix-It-First requirements that prioritize state of good repair. Oh, great. Let's go lay down more lane miles; 35,000 lane miles, the hundred largest cities in America in the last 25 years, and congestion is six times worse. It is called induced demand. Don't provide transit alternatives. They kill transit. They kill rail. We are just going to build more highways. We are going to pave over the entire city. How much of it are you going to knock down? It is not going to work. It didn't work. It hasn't been working. So it is time to do something different. It is time to fix what we have, the Eisenhower legacy, 47,000 bridges in the National Highway System in desperate need of repair or replacement, tens of thousands in rural areas and counties, new programs in this bill to deal with those rural areas and counties. They take out the $4 billion Clean Corridors program, as I said, for EV charging and hydrogen fueling. Madam Speaker, $8.3 billion for carbon pollution--they don't believe in carbon pollution because the parts of the fossil fuel industry that are enlightened are big contributors, and Donald Trump says we can't believe in climate change. So, okay, got to take that out. It prohibits any expenditures out of the highway trust fund, except for road and bridge construction. That means no safety. We are having record numbers of pedestrian and cycling deaths, and this bill is going to make it safer for people to use alternative modes in urban, suburban, and rural areas. I am building a bike lane on a highway in a rural area that is heavily trafficked by bikers to a winery in my district where there have been fatalities. But, no, none of that. None of that in the bill. We don't care about the pedestrian deaths. We don't care about the cycling deaths. We don't care about safety. None of that. None of that is in their proposal. They say we are not doing enough on highways. We are doing more than $20 billion more than they are on highways and bridges. But, oh, we are ignoring the problem. No, we are not. They eliminate the Capital Investment Grant Program in its entirety. They allow the transfer of rural and small urban transit funding to highways. I represent a very, very large district, bigger than a number of your States, and I have a lot of rural areas and small cities, and they want to have some options for transit. You would eliminate that. Okay. It eliminates rail funding: no Amtrak, no passenger rail. Highways are funded at a lower level than we do, and that is going to take care of the problem. That is kind of laughable. These are just some of the really bad ideas in this amendment. This is not the path to the future, not the path to the 21st century. It is the path of the failed policies of the late 20th century that don't work anymore. We also need to hold States accountable. I know some States don't like that. They don't want to be held accountable. They don't want to fix it first. They don't want to be held accountable for fossil fuel pollution. If you don't believe in climate change, you don't care: What is the problem with fossil fuel pollution? So this is ``Groundhog Day'' on their side of the aisle. Let's bring back the failed policies of the 1990s and the early 2000s. Yes, they were bipartisan, but they didn't deal with 21st century problems. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the balance of time on each side.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), who is the Chair of the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 508, I offer amendments en bloc Number 4.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Absolutely, I concur with the gentleman.