John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you are talking about water. In just looking through the report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers, they have down here ``water systems,'' with drinking water, D; energy, D-plus; sanitation is another D; and wastewater, D. Just across the Nation, in terms of a modern water infrastructure, both drinking water--potable water--as well as the sanitation systems, we rank them a D. In other words, we are polluting. We have contaminated water to drink, and we have contaminated water going out the other end of the sewer plant. Let me just take a second to talk to you about a place where there is not enough water--California. We are in the fourth year of a major drought in California, Mr. Tonko, and you are talking about all of those water problems you have in New York. Perhaps you could put it on one of those tank cars and send it out to California, because we are in desperate need of water in California. Fortunately, last November, the people of California took note of this problem, and they passed a $7.5 billion bond to build the water systems of California. There are many parts to this--rebuilding the community water systems for small communities like you described. We have problems in California because communities are out of water. They don't have any water at all. That is part of it. There is another part in dealing with conservation so that we would conserve our water. There is another piece of it that deals with recycling. In fact, the fifth-biggest river on the west coast of the Western Hemisphere--from Alaska all the way to Chile--is the sanitation plants in southern California. You take, for example, water coming from northern California--500 miles, 5,000 feet in the air. You take it into southern California. You bring it in from the Colorado River--200 miles, 2,000 feet. You bring it into southern California. You clean it. You use it once. Then you clean the water to a higher standard than the day it arrives in southern California, and you dump it in the ocean. Hello. Anybody thinking? So the people of California said, Let's recycle, so recycling programs are going to be part of California's future. We need to build reservoirs. We need to take care of the underground aquifers, which are rapidly being depleted. Unlike in New York, we are depleting them in California, not only in California, but in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Oregon. All of these States are seeing a depletion in their aquifers. In California, we need to get with this. In doing so, what I would like to see us do here in Washington is to take our Federal water programs, which are several. We have a recycling program and a conservation program--title VI is the Central Valley Improvement Act--available to the entire Nation. We have the EPA with its water programs, the Department of Agriculture, obviously the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Corps of Engineers. For those programs that are California's, we ought to put them right underneath that water bond and augment, supplement, and drive forward that water bond that the people of California already voted for. We have our task in major infrastructure, in putting people to work, and in guaranteeing the future for California water supplies.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much. You keep bringing these issues so clearly to all of us. There are some among the 435 Members of this House who believe that the Federal Government should not have a role in these kinds of projects, and I think they are doing two things as they advocate that the Federal Government ought to get out of this business. First of all, they are ignoring the Constitution, which specifically says Congress is supposed to take care of postal roads. They are also ignoring the Founding Fathers. Washington asked his Treasury Secretary, Hamilton, to develop a program on advancing the American economy, and he came back with a program to build ports, postal roads, and canals. So this has been a long history of America from the beginning--that the Federal Government has a role in all of these. This morning, we had a hearing in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee about the highway bill, about the surface transportation bill. We note that the President put forward what I call the GROW AMERICA Act II--this is this year's version of last year's bill--that is for $478 billion, a 6-year program, $176 billion more than proposed last year, and fully paid for. I notice that the ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has joined us. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C., is with us now. This is her turf as ranking member of that committee. Thank you so very much for joining us, Ms. Norton. Share with us your thoughts on how we can grow America--grow the middle class, increase the paychecks for Americans, and build our infrastructure.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much for joining us tonight and your leadership on this whole range of issues. It is about tomorrow. Tomorrow will be solid for America if we build a solid foundation, and that foundation is the infrastructure. It is the research facilities, the sanitation, the water facilities, the highway and rail facilities. The President has made a proposal. It is up to us to respond to that. Six years, fully paid for, no increase in the gasoline and diesel tax, it is all there. All we need to do is grab it and grab the future in the process. I am happy for the opportunity to share this evening on building tomorrow's future. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI. They call for a big investment there. One of the things we think ought to be in this bill--in fact, it is in the bill-- is a very strong Buy America provision. This is a locomotive, electric locomotive for the Amtrak line here on the Northeast corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston, and this locomotive is 100 percent American made. It is made in Sacramento, California, of all places, by a German company, Siemens, who looked at the American Recovery Act, and there was $700 million in there to build these locomotives, and they said 100 percent American made. And Siemens looked at that and goes: $700 million, make it in America, we can do that, and they are doing it. These are now being deployed on the east coast line. But the next phase is a high-speed line between Washington and Boston, and that high-speed line calls for a new kind of train, high- speed train, and out of our committee we said that it is going to be built in America. Now, Mr. Tonko, here is where I turn this over to you. It turns out that one of the foreign companies, Alstom, which is a French company, has a manufacturing plant in upstate New York, maybe near your district. If so, you are going to have those middle class manufacturing jobs when this bill passes with a 100 percent Buy America provision.

Mr. GARAMENDI. 2,800 miles.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Norton, you hit right on with your closing sentence. It is about the middle class; it is about middle class jobs; it is about growing the economy and laying the foundation for present and future economic growth. We could do that. The President's plan last year, which he called the GROW AMERICA Act--and I am saying this year we call it the GROW AMERICA Act II--is $478 billion. That is a lot of money, and we put that into the surface transportation. I was thinking about as you were talking about the surface transportation, Mr. Tonko, over there, and about the new Amtrak bill that just passed out of our committee. It will be on the floor pretty soon. It calls for a lot of investment for Amtrak on the Northeast corridor so that you can go from Washington, D.C., to your home up on the Hudson River. I think there is a rail line that goes up there.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak. I hadn't intended to talk on Medicare, although I think that the ultimate reaction to what we just heard is that the Medicare guarantee that has been the bedrock, foundation, for seniors really will terminate if this budget proposal that we just heard discussed for so long continues because it will basically give seniors an option not to have Medicare. I don't think we want to do that. This has been an extremely important program for more than 40 years now, and I want to look really, really hard at the proposal that is being put forth by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. What I came to talk about today is something that the President actually spoke to us about here in the Chamber in January, and it was middle class economics--middle class economics. How is it that we can grow the middle class which has been stagnant in its economic growth for the last almost 25 years now, not seen a pay increase, husband and wife or a single parent struggling to make ends meet here in America? The President came here and he brought to us this middle class economics. Why is it important? Well, basically, if the middle class is healthy, if the middle class paycheck is growing, the economy grows. It is an economy that is based upon the consumer, and the consumer really is the middle class. So it becomes absolutely important that we look at how we are going to grow the middle class in America. There are many different ways to do that. Obviously, we need to strengthen the wages that the middle class have. We have seen very little wage growth in the last two decades. We need to really make sure that the men and women that are out there working day in and day out have the increase in their paycheck. We have seen little tiny bumps now as we look across the Nation, and as more and more people become employed and the labor market becomes somewhat tighter, we would hope to see this. But an important element of this paycheck is the minimum wage. So we advocate for $10.10 minimum wage all across this Nation. We hope to get it. But what we really want to spend time on today is the infrastructure and how to really see the infrastructure--the foundation for economic growth--really be put in place in America. We now have until mid-May, May 15, to put in place a new version of the highway bill. Can we do it? We have to do it. If we don't put in place and extend the Surface Transportation Act, we are going to see contractors all across America shut down their work, new contracts for highways and bridges not go into effect but, rather, be delayed. So Congress has an enormous task at its hand, and that is to reauthorize the Surface Transportation Act. The current one? We kicked it down the road last fall. Well, the stop sign is right in front of us, so we need to get with it. We are going to talk about some of the elements in that. We know that if we put in a robust, full Surface Transportation Act, we are going to see the American middle class go back to work. Let me just show you some of the elements that are in that Surface Transportation Act. Here they are. Last year, the President proposed the GROW AMERICA Act. I am going to call this the GROW AMERICA Act II. So we are looking now at how we can do that. The President came out with a full, 6-year program, a very robust increase in the amount of money available for surface transportation--fully paid for without increasing the excise tax on gasoline and diesel. No, you are not going to see an increase in the pump because of this program. Now, the oil companies may stick you, but not the government. And so the President's plan, which we call the GROW AMERICA Act 2, has all of these elements in it: rail, a full rail program that is a freight program; how you connect the rail system, the highway system, and the port system; buses; light rail and the intercity transportation systems that are so important for our urbanization. We are seeing a major need for these buses, for the light rail, the metro systems across the Nation. Ports: 90 percent of the commerce comes through our ports, and so the ports--Los Angeles, Long Beach, in California, Oakland, San Francisco, and Sacramento in my district--are critically important. So there are all of these elements. We know we need to repair the bridges. We have a nice picture of the Golden Gate Bridge here. We probably should put the new Bay Bridge, or maybe we could actually put up this bridge. This actually happened about 3 years ago. This is Interstate 5 from the Canadian border to the Mexican border down the west coast, Interstate 5. Well, for about a month and a half you weren't going to get very far on Interstate 5 because this bridge is right near the Canadian border, and it collapsed. So bridges across the United States are in desperate need of rebuilding. Many of them are decades old, some more than 100 years old; and, finally, highways. So this is the GROW AMERICA Act Surface Transportation Program that the President has proposed, about $160-some billion over a 6-year period of time. It is a large program. It provides a lot of money for all of the things we need to do: freight, intercity travel, buses, light rail, metro systems, ports, bridges, and highways. It is all there. There is a separate bill dealing with our airports. This is our program. This is what we need to do. When we do this, we are going to put America back to work. Now, one of my colleagues from California, the former speaker of the California Assembly, is here to talk about an element in this program. I welcome Karen Bass to this 1-hour discussion. Ms. Bass, if you would like to tell us what is going on in California. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, Ms. Bass. I really appreciate your support. You have been a leader in California for many years, despite your youth. We look forward to this. I am very familiar with the extensions that you are talking about in southern California. As Lieutenant Governor, we were working on many of those projects, and I really like that local hire. That is so critically important. We have this issue not just on big transit programs like yours, but we also have it on our military bases, two of which I represent. All too often, people are imported from other States to do work in our local communities, and I am going: No, no, no, hire local, hire local, buy local. Let me put one more thing up here, and then I am going to yield to my friend from New York because this is really his turf. Make It In America, Buy America. So when you are going to build these projects, let's do it with American-made products. I think this one, Ms. Bass, this is, I don't know, a problem that occurred in San Francisco. When they decided to rebuild the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, they decided to use Chinese steel. Some 6,000 jobs went off to China. The steel came back. It turns out that the steel had all kinds of problems: welding problems, structural problems. They are still dealing with this. This is really the ``San Francisco Made in China Bay Bridge'' On the other hand, my good friend here from New York, Paul Tonko, the Tappan Zee Bridge, across the Hudson River, both of them about $6 billion to $7 billion. This bridge made in America, with American workers, and American steel--and it is coming in on budget--not Chinese steel. I don't know, Ms. Bass, but when you talk about making it local, hire local, we ought to have Buy America, Make It In America, and then we can really see the jobs, not just the local jobs in the construction, but all of the other parts that go with it. Where is that train being made? It could be made in Sacramento by Siemens with American workers, made in America, our tax dollars hiring local workers and American-made products. It can be exciting. We can really build this economy. We can grow America, and we can rebuild the American middle class in the process. Mr. Tonko, congratulations on your Tappan Zee Bridge made in America with, as Ms. Bass would say, locally hired workers.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I, along with Rare Disease Caucus Co- Chairs Congressman Leonard Lance and Congressman Joseph Crowley, and Rare Disease Caucus Members Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Congressman Gus Bilirakis, submit the following Resolution: Whereas, rare diseases affect nearly 30,000,000 people in the United States and 350 million people worldwide, and therefore touch every State and Congressional district in America; Whereas, Noah Coughlan from Vacaville, California, is set to complete his third ``Run 4 Rare'' journey across the United States of America on July 4th, 2015 to raise awareness for rare diseases, making him the third and youngest person to complete this achievement; Whereas, the first steps of this journey were inspired by Catie and Annie Allio, two young girls born with Batten Disease, a rare disease that is heritable and which results in neurological degeneration that leads to death; Whereas, rare diseases and disorders affect small patient populations in the United States of generally less than 200,000 individuals, and there are approximately 7,000 rare diseases identified in the United States at this time; Whereas, millions of Americans have rare diseases for which there is no approved treatment, and people with rare diseases continue to face obstacles in accessing accurate diagnoses, sufficient treatment options, appropriate medical care expertise, and equitable reimbursement; Whereas, the Orphan Drug Act and the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act have helped to drive innovative and patient- centered advancements in research and treatment for rare diseases, yet there is much to be done; Whereas, for the 10,000 total known diseases, there are treatments for only 500, and new drug development currently takes around 14 years and over $2 billion, causing 95 percent of drugs development efforts to fail before a product is brought to market; Whereas, Noah completed the first Run 4 Rare in 2011, a 2,500-mile journey from California to Florida that spanned over four months and brought together families and supporters across the country; Whereas, Noah completed the second Run 4 Rare in 2013, a 3,100-mile journey from California to Massachusetts that spanned 105 days and carried the hope and momentum of the movement over nine mountain ranges, across three deserts, and through 17 states; Whereas, Noah's third Run 4 Rare began at the Statue of Liberty on February 28, 2015 in honor of Rare Disease Day, and will be a 3,000- mile journey spanning 14 states; Whereas, Noah carries with him an American flag flown in Iraq given to him by the United States Air Force courtesy of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, representing the resilience of rare disease patients, the bravery they exhibit in the face of adversity, and the freedom they seek through awareness and treatments; Whereas, the Run 4 Rare effort symbolizes unity and hope across the United States for all Americans suffering from rare diseases, and all Americans who stand with them: therefore, be it Resolved, that we the undersigned (1) support the spirit and message of Noah Coughlan's Run 4 Rare; (2) express solidarity with the rare disease community by committing to the development, advancement, and completion of a bipartisan 21'' Century Cures Initiative to help accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of promising new diagnostic tools, treatments, and cures for patients; and (3) support a national and global commitment to raising awareness, advancing solutions, and celebrating the resilience and bravery of individuals with rare diseases and disorders worldwide.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 109 I am a ``yes'' vote. I could not return from a White House meeting in time to meet the rollcall. personal explanation

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Chief Tibbet of the Fairfield, California, Police Department on the occasion of his retirement. Chief Tibbet's career has been impressive. He began as a Police Officer with the Alameda Police Department in 1972. In 1980, he transitioned to the San Jose Police Department and was promoted through the ranks to Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain before returning to the Alameda Police Department in 2006. After serving as Chief of Police for four years in Alameda, he was appointed as Chief of Police for the Fairfield Police Department on July 6, 2010. Chief Tibbet had an immediate impact on the Police Department and the city. In the midst of staffing shortages due to the Great Recession and the State's release of more than 30,000 felons, he oversaw the Department's response to a series of high profile violent incidents. The Department remained extremely high functioning and proactive. Chief Tibbet was also a consummate advocate for the community. He fostered partnerships to expand the Department's outreach with neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and churches. His work with the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District to establish the Public Safety Academy and Sullivan Interagency Youth Services Center stand out in addition to his commitment to growing the P.A.L. program. Chief Tibbet was also a strong supporter for improving efficiencies through the use of new and enhanced technologies. Under his leadership, the Department secured numerous grants to maintain services during difficult financial times and deployed innovative technologies to protect the city. Chief Tibbet has been a valued colleague and leader, and his commitment to the City and community was evidenced on a daily basis.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Elly Fairclough's exemplary public service. Whereas, on the Twenty-Seventh Day of February, of the Year Two Thousand and Fifteen, Elly Fairclough will retire after twenty years of dedicated public service to Yolo County and Northern California communities; and Whereas, Elly began her distinguished career with California Supervisor and Assemblymember Helen Thomson, continued with Congressman Mike Thompson and concluded her service with Congressman John Garamendi; and Whereas, Elly's family, friends, and colleagues are thrilled about this most auspicious occasion and wish to acknowledge Elly with the recognition, love, and respect that she has most deservedly earned; and Whereas, Elly has been a bridge for local seniors, veterans, home owners and immigrants with her assistance as they navigated through the various agencies of the state and federal government; and Whereas, Elly represents the highest values of her community and has been a leading voice promoting women's equality; therefore be it Resolved, that we, Congressman John Garamendi of California's Third Congressional District and Congressman Mike Thompson of California's Fifth District, do hereby recognize and celebrate the life and accomplishments of Elly Fairclough, as well as offer her our best wishes for a happy retirement, good health, and happiness in the years ahead.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. There is no doubt about it--you can ruin your car real fast. That 5-mile road was a county road, I assume, it was not your personal road?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Whatever it took, you got it done. A couple of things that I think are also important as we go about this infrastructure, and that is: Who is going to provide the material? I want to give you an example of why it is important that we honor the Buy America laws that exist today. We have had Buy America requirements in laws for almost 50 years now, and those requirements simply say that if it is our taxpayer money or your taxpayer money, then it should be used to buy American-made products and materials. Now, out in California, we have the San Francisco Bay Bridge. This is about a--what do we have here--$3.9 billion project. Excuse me--it is not $3.9 billion; it is about $6 billion. It is $3.9 billion over budget. This project replaces the old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge connecting the two cities across the bay that collapsed during the 1989 earthquake. The bridge went out to bid, and the contractor said: I can use Chinese steel, and it will be 10 percent cheaper if we use Chinese rather than American-made steel. So the State waived the Buy America requirements. They didn't use them. They went out and bought Chinese steel. Well, they got 3,000 jobs in China and overbudget and poor material. In fact, today it is reported in the California newspapers that one of the major bolts, which is a 25-foot bolt, and I don't know, it must be several inches across, that holds down the main pier to the bridge is cracking. So we have a problem here. Now, New York is undertaking a bridge across the Hudson River. It is called the Tappan Zee Bridge, and it is made with American steel. American steel is being used. The total cost is $3.9 billion--notice, that is the cost of the overrun in California. There are 7,728 American jobs, and it is 100 percent made in America. When we go about this infrastructure, I want to make very, very sure that we maintain the Buy America requirements. We can do it. I am going to put up one more placard here. This is one of my favorites. This is a brand-new 100 percent American-made electric locomotive for the Washington, D.C., to Boston Northeast corridor. About 70 to 80 of these will be made. In the American Recovery Act--you remember the stimulus bill-- somebody wrote in $700 million for Amtrak to buy new locomotives, and they said: 100 percent American-made. General Electric looked at it, other companies looked at it, and a German company looked at this $700 million or so and 70 to 80 locomotives, 100 percent American-made, and they go: We can do that. So Siemens, a major international German company, had a manufacturing plant in Sacramento, and they set about to make 100 percent American- made locomotives. They built double the size of their factory, hired several hundred new workers, and they went out across the United States to find all the parts. They are now building 100 percent American-made locomotives, a major infrastructure project, great for American jobs, great for the future. This is one of the first ones that came off the lot. Now, my final point and then I want to turn this back to my colleague from Minnesota. Today, on the east coast, Amtrak is going out to bid for 28 new high-speed train sets to travel between Washington, D.C., and Boston at maybe half again as fast as the current trains, so you can zip between the two cities--Washington, D.C., and New York--in, I don't know, 2 hours or less. They want--Amtrak--wants a waiver from the Buy America provisions, and I am saying: No way, period. This is American taxpayer money that is going to be used. You are going to buy America, we are going to make those train sets in America, and we can do it. Yes, we can--si se puede. We can do it. We can build these things in America and create good middle class jobs in America, just like Siemens is doing in Sacramento when they are making 100 percent American-made locomotives in Sacramento. This is an opportunity for us as we build our infrastructure, as we put together the surface transportation plan, as we take the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. Keep in mind and always keep in place the Buy America provisions, so that your tax money is used on American-made equipment and employing Americans making those things. I am sure this is important up in your area, as well as it is in Sacramento, California, on the edge of my district, Mr. Nolan. I know it is important to me, and I think it is important to Americans, that we use our tax money to buy American-made products that are employing Americans.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, in California, you would have 150 opinions if you had 50 people.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, here it is, the San Francisco Bay Bridge built with Chinese steel. They built a brand-new, one of the most advanced steel mills, making one of the most advanced types of steel in China-- 3,000 Chinese jobs, zero American. Then the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York, American steel--probably some of that iron ore from your district goes into making that steel.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you so very much for joining us this evening. I want to bring up just one more issue, and then we will call it a night. America is blessed with a lot of energy. We have seen a resurgence of American energy here in the United States. We have seen us go from an importing Nation--we can be an exporting Nation. One of the things that the American gas industry wants to do is to export a strategic national asset, that is our natural gas. It has allowed us to have one of the lower energy prices in the world. That has allowed for a resurgence of manufacturing in the United States. There are other factors. Clearly, the ability to have low- priced natural gas is one of the ingredients in the resurgence of American manufacturing. Now, the gas industry wants to import a lot of gas so they can get two or three times more for the gas overseas. I want to be really careful here, I don't want to drive up the price of natural gas, but if we are going to export this strategic national asset, then we ought to consider two other strategic issues for the United States. One of them is the merchant marines. These are the American sailors and American ships. Our military is absolutely dependent on the merchant marines. We ship a lot of things through the air on the big C- 5As and the C-17s, but it is a small percentage of what we need if we go to Iraq or any other part of the world with our military. The merchant marines have historically, from the very earliest days of this Nation, been one of the key strategic assets in the United States. A third strategic asset is the U.S. Navy and the shipyards that build the naval ships. Those shipyards are absolutely critical. If we didn't have them, would we go to China to have them build our aircraft carriers and our submarines? I don't think so. The shipyards are a strategic asset, absolutely essential for American defense. You have got these three things: the natural gas, a strategic asset; the merchant marines; and the shipbuilding. Here is a key to American jobs, and that is, if we are ever to export natural gas, it will be done in liquefied natural gas. You take the natural gas, you compress it into a liquid, and you put it on an LNG-- liquefied natural gas--ship. This is an example of one liquefied natural gas ship. Sometime this year, a company--Cheniere--located in Texas will begin exporting LNG from a facility in Texas. They will need about 100 ships to export the full capacity of that LNG export facility. My sense of this is let us use that export of a strategic national asset to build and to grow the other two strategics. We should require that any LNG shipped from the United States be shipped on American-made tankers with American crews, thereby lifting up the ability of our Nation to grow its economy and to maintain its strategic defense industries--shipbuilding and the merchant marines--at the same time we ship and export a strategic asset. What does it mean? It means that the shipyards in America in the next two decades would be busy. American workers would be in those shipyards, they would be making the ships, so it would be the shipbuilders. You can imagine what could happen in the ports around the United States--in Baltimore, in the south coast, along the gulf coast, and in California, San Diego, up in Washington, and even San Francisco--an opportunity to build our economy with, once again, infrastructure, a different kind of infrastructure, this is moving infrastructure, the great ships that will be all across the oceans of this Nation and in the harbors around the United States, American ships, American-built ships, American sailors, exporting American liquefied natural gas. Si se puede--yes, we can. We can make it in America. We can rebuild the American economy. We can focus on middle class economics with the infrastructure systems that we must build, the foundation for future economic growth, and the foundation for American jobs today. Make it in America, build America, build our ports, our water systems, our highways, our bridges, our airports, our sanitation systems. Let us have the American Society of Civil Engineers come back with an A-plus rating when they look at our airports, an A-plus rating when they look at our rail lines, our transit lines, when they look at our transit systems, when they look at our waste disposal systems. We don't want to be a backwater. This is America. We are the people that can build for the future. All it takes is the Senate and the House to pass a 6-year surface transportation bill and infrastructure bills that are fully funded, that provide the foundation for middle class jobs, middle class economics, putting Americans back to work, and building this Nation's future. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, there is no doubt that if we were to pass--well, we don't have a choice. If we don't pass a bill in the next 2 months, 2\1/ 2\ months, all public works, transportation programs, will come to a screeching halt. There will be no more Federal money, and it will simply stop. So we have got work to do. As you say, if the committee could have its way, we could put together a good bill. There has been a long history here of the transportation bill being a bipartisan bill. We can do that. If we don't--let me just go back through this. I get stacks and stacks of paper, and this one caught my eye. It is entitled, ``Infrastructure Investment Creates American Jobs.'' I said: Well, that is kind of a pretty good cover there. It has roads, bridges, ports, and so forth. It is the Duke Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness. So it is the Duke University. Here they say: Old and broken transportation infrastructure makes the United States less competitive than 15 of our major trading partners and makes manufacturers less efficient in getting goods to market. Underinvestment costs the United States over 900,000 jobs, including more than 97,000 American manufacturing jobs. Maximizing American-made materials when rebuilding infrastructure has the potential to create even more jobs. Relying on American-made inputs can also mitigate safety concerns related to large-scale outsourcing. I am with you, Duke--Duke University. I am from the west coast, and I have problems with some of these east coast athletic teams, but, hey, I am with them on this one. Infrastructure creates American jobs. This is something that I have used over and over again. This is from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. He is the former economics adviser for Senator John McCain when the Senator ran for the United States Presidency. He put it this way: For every dollar invested in infrastructure investment, $1.57 is pumped back into the American economy with well paying, middle class American jobs. This is just really critically important. The question for us, and the reason we are here on the floor and the reason we are talking about this issue of middle class economics and now transportation, is that we are up against another timeline here. We have got the transportation cliff, we have got a bridge that is collapsed, and the question is: Will this Congress provide a transportation bill that can bridge this collapsed bridge and rebuild it? I think we can. I know we must. My fear--my fear--Mr. Nolan, is that we have become really, really good at something we used to play when I was a kid, and it is called kick the can. We have become really good at kicking the can down the road rather than just coming to grips with the reality that we have to have a long-term transportation bill. There are many reasons for it. These are long-term projects, and over the last I guess almost 7 years now we have not had a long-term bill. The longest one has been a 2-year bill that passed 2 years ago, and that doesn't give the planners enough time to plan these long-term projects or the assurance that the money, the Federal money, will be there; $478 billion, 6 years, fully paid for, doesn't increase the gasoline or diesel tax but requires American corporations that have run away from their obligation to this Nation by hiding their profits overseas to bring those profits back and tax them accordingly. That is the President's plan. It is all there for us. Can we do it? I don't think we have any choice. I think we have to do it, Mr. Nolan. I don't know how you feel about it from Minnesota, but I know in California that we are in the midst of a major drought, and this is going to be the fourth year of a major drought in California, and it has been at least 30 years since there have been any major water infrastructure investments in California. Our economy in California is paying dearly for it. About one-third of the rice fields in my district are fallow. If you go further south into the San Joaquin Valley it is probably about the same percentage. Cantaloupes, cotton, and other kinds of row crops, tomatoes, are not being planted. We have to have in California investments in our water infrastructure. One of the things that my Republican colleague--and Mr. Nolan, you spoke about bipartisanship--my Republican colleague from my area, Mr. LaMalfa, he and I are going to introduce tomorrow a piece of legislation to build a very large, offstream reservoir called Sites Reservoir. It is about 1.8, 1.9 million acre-feet of water. If that had been built a decade ago, the drought would still be very difficult. There would be a lot of trouble and a lot of lost opportunity. But at least we would have a very significant amount of water available stored in that reservoir to help us along. So we are going to do that. That is a major infrastructure program, and we will see if we can participate here at the Federal level with the participation that the State of California voters have already approved, a $7.6 billion bond act in which there is money for storage, both aquifer, underground, as well as surface storage, probably including the Sites Reservoir. So there are things we can do. And this is a piece of legislation, we will present it to the Congress and the Senate and hopefully it will move along. Mr. Nolan, I am sure that you have projects up in your area that are important, and perhaps you would like to pick up here.

Mr. GARAMENDI. This was the bridge across the Mississippi in Minneapolis?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Nolan, I thank you so very much. The folks in the northern Minnesota area are blessed to have you return after a 32-year hiatus. You came back with a fire in your belly, and you are ready to go.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, there is no doubt about the importance of it. If you want to build good middle class jobs, a lot of those jobs are in the infrastructure. It may be a hardhat job out there putting up the steel and the concrete, the ironworkers or the cement masons or the operators of the heavy equipment. All of those are really good middle class jobs, no doubt about it, wherever they happen to be across the Nation. But also, in the back office, somebody has to do the accounting; somebody has to do the design work--the architects, the draftsmen and -women that are involved. So these jobs permeate the entire economy. And it is absolutely true that if we can fund--that is, pass--a 6-year, robust transportation bill that is fully paid for, Americans would go to work in middle class jobs. That is the first effect: people will have jobs. And in building the infrastructure, you then lay the foundation for future economic growth. You have seen this in your area. I was thinking about your call for the family to be able to enjoy the fruits of life. And I am thinking about you have got some heavy-duty hunting country up in your area. You are out in the backwoods of Minnesota, if I recall.

Mr. GARAMENDI. And in between are bear, deer, and fish.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I think it is May 15.

Mr. GARAMENDI. You were on the committee.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Work with the kids on their homework.