Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1599, Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1734, Improving Coal Combustion Residuals Regulation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I do just want to take a break from the GMO debate to talk about a huge problem confronting our country, and that is the infrastructure that is in disrepair, from roads to bridges to transit ways around this country.

The American people know it, and they are backed up in what they can see in front of them by a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers. They are the nonpartisan pros; they are the experts.

They have looked at the state of American infrastructure and given us a grade of a D-plus--D-plus. Nobody should be happy with a D-plus. The sad thing is that this Congress should get an F grade for failing to respond to the bad grade with respect to our failing infrastructure.

In the face of this big problem, what did the House do? Well, we are about to run out of money in 8 days. We are about to see the end of the authorization in 8 days; so the House of Representatives, instead of coming up with a long-term plan to address this issue, which is what we should do, came up with another kick-the-can-down-the-road Band-Aid approach. They said, we are going to provide an extension of the inadequate funding for just 5 more months, just to December of this year.

Now, we are a great country, and I think everybody knows that if you are planning to make major investments in infrastructure, whether it is our roads or our bridges or transit ways, you need a little more certainty and stability than that.

Certainly, the private sector couldn't plan on 5-month intervals, and we are asking these companies and these workers and these States to come up with long-term plans for our States and for our country on infrastructure, but we are only going to give them 5 months of certainty going forward. We think that is a bad idea. Guess what. Senate Republicans also think that is a bad idea. They came up with a 6-year plan.

Now, what we are providing this House today is the opportunity on the very next vote to vote for the opportunity to vote on a robust 6-year transportation infrastructure plan that is fully funded for the first 2 years.

How do we pay for that 2-year installment? We pay for it, Mr. Speaker, by getting rid of this egregious tax loophole that many multinational corporations are using to escape their responsibilities to the American taxpayer.

Here is how it works. You have an American company. Their headquarters are here; their people are here; everything they do is here. Then they go and they purchase a small company, a small foreign company, and they move their mailing address overseas to that small company, and then that American company benefits from the educational system we have here in the United States.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, they purchase a small foreign company, and then they move their mailing address overseas to that small company. They then say to the American taxpayer: Guess what. We don't have to pay any more taxes in the United States. We don't have to pay taxes for the infrastructure that we have that does support us. We don't have to pay for the education system that supports us. We want a free ride.

Now, we need to close down this tax break. More and more companies every day are taking advantage of it.

If you close that loophole, you generate $40 billion. And you use that money that otherwise would go to the bottom line of these corporations that are trying to escape their responsibility to the American people and you invest it in infrastructure right here at home. You help modernize your infrastructure, and you put more people to work.

We have introduced a piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker, to do that. The bill is H.R. 3064. And if we defeat the previous question, we as a House will have an opportunity to vote on a 6-year, robust transportation plan that is funded for 2 years by closing this egregious tax loophole that is being exploited by corporations.

Let's defeat the previous question. Let's do the right thing for American workers and American infrastructure.

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