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Washington, D.C. — Today, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Rick Larsen (D-WA) spoke on the House Floor in opposition to the GOP Tax Scam, which will harm hardworking women and men in favor of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
His remarks are below:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democrats are for bills that invest in job-creating infrastructure.
We are against jamming through fiscally reckless bills that rip health care away from 13 million Americans and take food assistance away from millions of families so that we can hand out tax breaks to billionaires.
Democrats want to continue historic funding for transportation infrastructure and stronger, healthier communities.
Unfortunately, the Republican budget threatens our ability to enact job-creating investments this Congress in critical infrastructure like rail, clean water, ports, disaster preparedness—investments that every state and county depend on.
The budget leaves very little room, beyond this reckless bill, to make desperately needed safety improvements to air traffic control, to tackle the highway safety crisis, and meet Coast Guard members’ health care, housing and childcare needs.
And this bill causes immediate harm by yanking money from locally-selected projects that our constituents—in Republican and Democratic districts—are counting on, for no reason.
Our Committee has a lot of work to do this Congress, including a surface reauthorization bill and closing the funding gap in the Highway Trust Fund. Democrats stand ready to deliver bipartisan solutions.
I look forward to a future bill when Members of this body work together on these priorities, but this Big Ugly Bill and its attack on hardworking families is not it.