Celebrate the Bicycle

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, I am here this morning on the occasion of the 24th annual National Bike Summit to celebrate the bicycle. It was an honor to kick off the annual bicycle ride through the Capitol this morning with several hundred enthusiasts.

We had a lot to celebrate. The infrastructure bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, has unleashed unprecedented investments. We have $1 billion a year for the Safer Streets for All Act, and we have already $1.7 billion committed. There are over 1,000 communities that are dealing with plans for their bicycle network.

Madam Speaker, there is a lot of dissension here on Capitol Hill. You may have noticed that it is hard sometimes for people to agree, but we are celebrating bike partisanship.

The bicycle brings people together to be able to burn calories instead of fossil fuel. It is the most efficient form of transportation ever designed.

There are exciting programs internationally. The World Bicycle Relief program has distributed three-quarters of a million bicycles to developing countries. A health professional in sub-Saharan Africa with a bicycle can see three times as many patients and do so more safely.

We have opportunities in terms of being able to extend the range of activities for our children. Legislation I have been working on for years in terms of the Safe Routes to School Program has been extended to include high schools now.

I started the week watching grade school bike bus with young people surrounded by a rope moving as a bus on their way to school.

The bicycle helps eliminate the congestion around our schools in the morning, and it gives young people a sense of freedom while it encourages their health.

During the pandemic, people turned to the bicycle for recreation in a way that was safe, and it extended their recreational experience.

Bicycle tourism is having a profound effect in rural and small-town America as people discover the joy of looking at the countryside at 10 miles an hour instead of 70. It is also good for the economy because people on bicycles tend to actually spend more than people who are racing through neighborhoods.

This notion of burning calories instead of fossil fuel, I think, is profound. We are working to extend activities for e-bikes. Part of our legislation has more e-bike charging stations, and the e-bike makes any bicycle commuter into a regular, effective commuter, extending their range.

It has contributed here on Capitol Hill. When I first came, there were a few of us who were biking. You would see an occasional bike messenger, but now we are looking at massive investments even in our Nation's Capital.

One of the things I am most proud of is bicycle lanes in the center of perhaps America's most iconic street, Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a whole range of investments that have been made in our Nation's Capital to make it more livable.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to greet these bicycle warriors, welcome them to Capitol Hill, learn about the opportunities in this new legislation, and then work with them to implement it in their relationships. After all, the bicycle is the indicator species of livable communities.

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