Here’s what I saw in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood today:
I saw a community coming together to replace an obsolete old train station with a new, energy-efficient one that connects two high-employment areas.
Yesterday, in St. Louis, I saw the construction of a land bridge that’s designed to let residents and tourists better access the city’s famous Archway.
Our infrastructure projects — the roads we pave, the tracks we lay down, the bridges we build — they bring out the best of us as a country. We build big things. It’s our history.
That happened because our Administration took steps to expedite the permitting process for these kinds of projects. And today, we announced that we’re doing the same thing for 11 more accelerated projects — from Boston’s South Station to the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
But there’s more that’s got to be done to make sure this country’s infrastructure projects get the funding they need. That’s something only Congress can do, and they’re running out of time to do it.
If our Congress doesn’t act soon, the funding that pays for our transportation projects will run out. The Department of Transportation won’t have a dime to go toward more than 112,000 projects happening around the country. Nearly 700,000 good jobs would be at risk. And some states are already slowing down projects because they’re anticipating this inaction.
Think about that for a second.
These states are putting American jobs on the line because they’re actually expecting their legislators to refuse to do their jobs.
It shouldn’t be that way, and you can play a role in changing it by making sure everyone knows what’s going on and what it means.
Thanks.
Vice President Joe Biden
Be a Seed for Change 