WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) called on House Republican Leadership today to take up bipartisan legislation the Senate passed to extend funding for transportation. The federal government’s authority to spend money on highways, bridges, and transit systems expires Saturday. Himes spoke on the House floor today and discussed the importance of investing in transportation to create and preserve jobs and to protect the safety of every American who travels on the nation’s roads.
The transcript of Himes’ floor statement is below, and you can watch the video here.
Madam Speaker, I live in the village of Cos Cob, Connecticut, where years ago a major bridge spanning the Mianus Harbor on Route 95 fell into the Mianus Harbor killing a number of people, devastating the quality of life in the area, and hurting businesses up and down the coastline. It fell into Mianus Harbor because we failed to invest in our transportation infrastructure. We failed to do something that we all understand is critical to our economy and just plain good sense. On June 30, thousands of projects like keeping the Mianus Harbor Bridge intact will come to a halt because this House will not approve a re-authorization of the transportation bill. That’s bad economics. It’s bad for jobs, and it's bad for safety. So what do we do? 74 Senators, lots of Republicans and lots of Democrats, passed a two-year bill that would keep the funding going and preserve or save or create two million jobs. But not in this House. No, in this House we've got to get the president to approve Keystone. And we should do that, but let’s do it separately and invest in jobs and our infrastructure.