Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TRONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2.

For too long, western Marylanders have been left behind with little to no high-speed internet access. Without broadband, Americans can't access telework, telemedicine, tele-education.

It is time to take bold action. As Whip Clyburn said, just like we put down electricity in every home across the country 100 years ago, it is time we put broadband in every home across America today. This bill does just that by investing $100 billion for broadband development.

I also want to mention the Appalachian Development Highway System. Congresswoman Napolitano offered an amendment to strike a bipartisan bill that the committee had adopted unanimously last week. She is my friend, but we disagree.

This bipartisan commonsense bill will speed completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System, which is critical to Maryland and Appalachia. This program was first established under Lyndon Johnson's administration. Five decades later it is still not done. I ask my colleagues to oppose the Napolitano amendment and help us develop a bipartisan solution to complete the system.

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Mr. TRONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, and an amendment that I drafted to address the addiction epidemic.

But first, I would like to thank and call out Chairman DeFazio and the wonderful leadership that he has exhibited in thinking long term about our children and about the next generation. That is seldom seen here, and I really appreciate that. I also asked him to help us look at redistributing the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been over- appropriated--over-appropriated, not spent--to States that need it in the Appalachian Development Highway System.

Like COVID-19, every community in America has been hit by the opioid crisis, and we cannot afford to slow down our efforts to combat it. My amendment in this package would create a pilot program to help communities better understand the emerging drug threats in real time by implementing wastewater testing.

By understanding these threats, we can design public health interventions that match a community and their specific problems.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this amendment.

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