Chair DeFazio Responds to President Trump’s State of the Union Address

Washington, D.C. —
Chair
of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter
DeFazio (D-OR) released the following statement in response to President
Donald Trump’s State of
the Union address:

“Tonight,
President Trump spent a great deal of time talking up the strength of
the U.S. economy. It’s true that CEOs and high-dollars donors,
especially those
hell-bent on gutting environmental protections, are doing better than
ever under this administration. But President Trump barely mentioned the
need to invest in our communities and help regular Americans by
rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
That is incredibly disappointing, because the reality is that three
years into his administration, President Trump has yet to put forth a
single new idea that would fix our roads, bridges, ports, airports,
water infrastructure, and transit systems, or show
any leadership on how our country funds significant infrastructure
investment. This is a massive missed opportunity.

“Fortunately, House Democrats aren’t waiting on President Trump to move forward and work on behalf of
all Americans. Last week, I stood with my Democratic colleagues
to unveil our framework for a five-year, $760 billion investment to
address our country’s most urgent infrastructure needs, from tackling
our growing maintenance backlog, to designing safer
streets, to putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions and
increasing resiliency. This framework is the launchpad we need to create
millions of jobs while curbing carbon pollution and building smarter
and safer infrastructure that meets the needs of
a 21^st century economy. We need to move forward with bold
action and real investment. What our country doesn’t need is the same
worn-out excuse from this Administration that ‘streamlining’ and cutting
environmental protections is the answer to making
progress on infrastructure.

“To
underscore the danger of cutting critical regulations and putting
polluters ahead of people, my guest to the State of the Union was Joe
Moll with the McKenzie
River Trust in Eugene, Oregon. Joe knows firsthand the perils of
rolling back clean water protections, which is a Trump Administration
gift to industry at the expense of the American people. The fact is
anyone who likes to fish or swim in their local lakes
and streams or who wants clean drinking water should be alarmed by this
Administration's priorities.

“While
I am disappointed the President said just one sentence about our
nation’s transportation infrastructure, my Committee will continue to
draft comprehensive
legislation to improve the lives of everyday Americans, while bringing
our nation's infrastructure into a state of good repair and ensuring the
projects we undertake are smarter, safer, and made to last.”