Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It: today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took to the Senate floor to highlight the need to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“With the potential for hundreds of bridge repair projects alone, this investment in Ohio, combined with our strong Buy America rules, means job creation in every region of our state,” said Brown on the Senate floor. “It is keeping the promise I’ve made to Ohioans my entire career – that I would fight to ensure that the industrial heartland would be the engine of opportunity that drives us into a 21st century economy.”
Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below:
Today, I rise in support of legislation that will make the generational investment in infrastructure that Ohio communities, and our nation, have needed for years.
This investment is all about jobs:
Creating good-paying, union jobs; rebuilding bridges; replacing lead pipes; and manufacturing next-generation, energy-efficient buses.
Better connecting people with jobs through transit and bridges and highways.
Getting people the broadband they need to go to school and prepare for the jobs of the future.
Supporting manufacturing jobs throughout Ohio, including at Cleveland-Cliffs and AK Steel and Nucor and other suppliers through the strongest-EVER Buy America standards, making steel, iron, and other components in Ohio for all of these projects.
Taken together, these investments are a recipe for job creation all over Ohio – in communities large and small, rural and urban, from Appalachia to the shores of Lake Erie.
For too long, Washington has ignored these places, while Wall Street has outright preyed on them.
That ends now.
We are investing in the people and the places that make this country work.
I hear from mayors of both parties, in towns all over Ohio, about their visions for their communities and the projects they want to undertake.
They know all the opportunities we can unleash – they just need the investment. It’s time for ALL of our communities to share in this country’s prosperity.
That’s what we’re doing with this bill.
I want to focus on a few key provisions that will be so critical to Ohio.
Right now, there are more than 3,200 bridges across Ohio that need repairs to make them safer and to reduce congestion, so people can get to work, kids can get to school, and we can move goods that support Ohio jobs.
Many know the Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky. It carries 3 percent of the country’s GDP every day, but it is dangerously outdated.
Many of us have fought for years for federal investment to rebuild it.
Three and a half years ago, I introduced the Bridge Investment Act, to put Ohioans to work repairing and upgrading Ohio bridges, with American iron and steel.
This week, we are on the verge of getting it done.
It will provide a grant to pay for half of the cost of replacing the Brent Spence Bridge, and the additional funding in the package will support the remainder of the project.
We expect Ohio to get at least: $9.8 billion for federal-aid highway assistance, including $483 million of formula funds for bridge replacement to supplement the Bridge Investment Act.
It’s not just Brent Spence that needs help – it’s the Western Hills Viaduct, it’s I-70 over the Scioto River, it’s US-30 in Richland County, it’s the Broad Street Bridge in Columbus, it’s the smaller bridges on rural farmlands that let farmers get goods to market.
I talked this week with 81-year-old Howard Krueger – he lives in Wyoming, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He’s retired from Proctor and Gamble, and a few years ago, as he was driving, a piece of the Western Hills Viaduct fell on his windshield.
It’s a pretty visceral example of what we all know–– our nation’s infrastructure is literally crumbling. We need this investment.
Think about the economic potential waiting to be unleashed when we fix all of these crumbling bridges––the kinds of bottlenecks that frustrate commuters, farmers, and businesses in Ohio every day.
I want to thank our bipartisan cosponsors of the Bridge Investment Act, particularly Senator Inhofe, and my early partners in this effort, Senators Wyden and Whitehouse.
I must also thank Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito of the EPW Committee for their continued support.
Mr./Madam President, the Banking and Housing Committee also provided a major piece of this infrastructure package.
This bill includes record investment in public transportation.
This package contains historic funding for public transportation, $90 billion over the next five years. That’s a $40 billion increase, the largest ever.
That’s going to connect people with better jobs, promote equity, and help our planet.
The Banking and Housing Committee held extensive hearings this spring on infrastructure and transit.
We heard from Ohioans like Darryl Haley, who heads the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, and Mayor Horrigan of Akron.
What we heard over and over again is that we need to revitalize these essential systems––whether in Cincinnati or Youngstown or Akron.
We are providing $1.5 billion so that cities like Cleveland and Philadelphia can replace rail cars that date back to the Reagan Administration and earlier.
This bill ensures that public transportation receives more than 20 percent of the new investment from the Highway Trust Fund. It’s consistent with the historic 80-20 split between highway and transit programs.
With this bill, we’re taking a huge step toward electrifying the transit bus fleet, providing over $5 billion for the “Low-No” program.
These funds will also retrain workers who maintain our current diesel fleet: every electric bus purchase will keep and create good-paying jobs.
I am also pleased that this bill will support investments in flood mitigation, an important issue that the members of the Banking and Housing Committee have worked on.
It’s obvious how some of the job creation in this package will happen. You want to rebuild a bridge or lay down rail tracks, you hire American workers to do it – and none of those jobs can be shipped overseas.
But, this investment is different from those that have come before it – for the first time – every single one of these projects will come with the strongest-ever Buy America rules.
That means we get more job creation for every single dollar of taxpayer investment.
Throughout my time in the Senate, I have worked to strengthen our nation’s Buy America laws at every opportunity possible.
We know that these laws weren’t strong enough––when San Francisco built its new Bay Bridge, a loophole enabled it to be made entirely of Chinese steel, from a company owned by the Chinese government.
I have worked with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to strengthen Buy America laws in the Highway bill, in the Defense Authorization Act, and in the Water Resources Development Act.
But these efforts have been piecemeal.
That’s why I asked Senator Portman to join me in introducing the “Build America, Buy America” bill on President Trump’s Inauguration Day, and we’ve worked with other leaders on Buy America, like Senator Baldwin.
Four years later, with a new president, we are finally getting it right.
We’re putting in place a clear, comprehensive standard: American taxpayer dollars should support American jobs, period.
These historic investments will support Ohio’s manufacturers, not their foreign competitors.
With the potential for hundreds of bridge repair projects alone, this investment in Ohio, combined with our strong Buy America rules, means job creation in every region of our state.
It is keeping the promise I’ve made to Ohioans my entire career – that I would fight to ensure that the industrial heartland would be the engine of opportunity that drives us into a 21st century economy.
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