Cbc Supports Investing in Infrastructure

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOWMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Torres for that introduction and for yielding, and I thank him for his overall leadership and vision, not just for our country, but for the Boogie Down Bronx.

I thank Madam Chairwoman for her incomparable leadership, and wisdom, and vision for the CBC and for our country.

It is my honor to stand here with both of you to call for a big, bold, visionary infrastructure package that finally addresses the disparities in our economy. We like to think of America as the land of opportunity where anyone can achieve success and shape their own future with little more than hard work and determination. For many people, that is exactly the reality that they exist within, thanks to a little luck, determination, opportunity, and one-sided historical Federal investment.

Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would like to us believe that this accurately represents our history, but, unfortunately, most Black Americans have been written out of this narrative. Consider the world as it exists today in our history of the redlining of Black and Brown communities, as well as other racially biased policies of the New Deal. These divisions have always been rooted in Federal policy.

President Biden has said he considers this infrastructure package to constitute a generational investment in the American public and in communities like mine in the Bronx, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, and Yonkers. And now is the time for us to right the wrongs of that history.

The infrastructure package of 2021 must be rooted in racial and economic justice. We must uplift the care economy, fix our public housing, rebuild our crumbling schools, expand access to Medicare, and end our dependency on fossil fuels, among many other things. No American with this infrastructure package should be left behind.

As the White House considers this infrastructure package, let's take a deeper trip into our history. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, redistributing 10 percent of the land in the country, arguably constituting the single greatest wealth transfer in our history. African Americans never received their 40 acres of land after slavery, while White Americans received millions of acres of land which gave them the opportunity to self-actualize.

Housing now accounts for over 40 percent of household wealth, with much of this housing-related wealth stemming from Federal investments in homeownership during the New Deal. Because of redlining--one of the largest drivers of the wealth gap--of the over $1 trillion invested between 1934 and 1962, in 2021 dollars, less than 2 percent went to non-White families.

We can no longer attempt to build out the middle class on the backs of marginalized communities. We must make sure that the next round of generational investment incorporates everyone, beginning with those most marginalized.

If we make this infrastructure package inclusive and comprehensive, we can give every single American a job, a career, and the resources they need to flourish from the Bronx; to Mount Vernon; to Yonkers; to New Rochelle, New York.

If we have the courage to address the climate, economic, and racial injustices that threaten the human race, we can give our children and grandchildren a future they deserve.

We can either impart the full story of American history to our children or doom ourselves to relive it. In the case of infrastructure, an investment of this scale, repeating the failures of the past is unacceptable. To meet the promise of our democracy, we must give every person in our country an opportunity to both survive and thrive. That begins with a robust and comprehensive infrastructure package. This is our time. This is our moment.

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