After Four Years of Empty Promises from President Trump, Chair DeFazio Looks Forward to a Real "Infrastructure Week' under a Biden Administration

Statement

Today, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR) released the following statement:

"Despite all his talking and tweeting about investing in our Nation's crumbling infrastructure, President Donald Trump's most significant contribution to the conversation on infrastructure was turning Infrastructure Week into a running joke. As a result, the American people got four years of worsening congestion, increased carbon pollution, and further decline in the state of our roads, bridges, public transit and more. That's why earlier this year, after President Trump stormed out of what was to be our final bipartisan meeting, I went ahead without the White House and wrote a transformational bill that would finally move our infrastructure out of the 1950s and into the modern era, so we could start connecting communities and moving goods in ways that are smarter, safer, and made to last. My bill passed the House with bipartisan support this summer, but then, like so many other critical House-passed bills, the Moving Forward Act went nowhere in Mitch McConnell's do-nothing Senate.

"That all changes under a Biden administration. The President-elect has made it clear he is ready to work with Congress to deliver results for all Americans with bold investments in infrastructure that help everyone, from large metro areas dealing with unreliable transit and soon to be jam-packed highways, to rural communities that suffer from bridges in poor condition and deteriorating roads. And of course, "Amtrak Joe' and I share the goals of a robust national rail network and turning the transportation sector--the number one contributor to carbon pollution in the U.S.--into one that is clean, efficient, reliable and resilient to extreme weather events. President-elect Biden plans to "Build Back Better,' and that's exactly what our Nation needs to move our infrastructure into the 21st century while creating millions of family wage jobs, supporting U.S. manufacturing, and harnessing American engineering and ingenuity. I can't wait to get started."

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