DeFazio: Use infrastructure investment to jumpstart economy

(Source: Progressive Railroading 04/29/2020)

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) today expressed concern about a report that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is opposed to the idea of infrastructure investment as part of a future economic rescue package.

News outlet Axios yesterday reported that McConnell, in a conference call with Republican senators, panned the idea of using a coronavirus stimulus bill to fund major infrastructure projects. The idea has been floated by President Donald Trump.

DeFazio responded to the report by saying a massive infrastructure spending plan would help fire up a U.S. economy that’s on the precipice of the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

“Just like the New Deal of the 1930s, the best way to restart our economy and put workers first is with a massive investment in the kind of infrastructure that will help future generations succeed — from better bridges and roads, to robust transit and passenger-rail service, to fully functioning ports and harbors, to modernized waste and drinking water systems and widely available broadband internet,” DeFazio said in a prepared statement.