Blumenthal Remarks on Bipartisan Infrastructure Package

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal addressed members of the media following the release of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the measure in the coming days.

“This bipartisan proposal could mean billions of dollars to Connecticut’s roads, bridges, rail [and] broadband - a range of physical infrastructure that has been disregarded for decades and as a result has been decaying and degraded. We need to upgrade and modernize that physical infrastructure so people can get to work and our economy can recover,” said Blumenthal.

Following the passage of the infrastructure package, the Senate is expected to begin work on a budget reconciliation package.

“The best way to view this bipartisan proposal is that it is a very profoundly significant down payment - it’s a start - a good start, but only a first step. And we will be fighting for that second step, which is a massive, even more robust commitment to human needs, as well as the physical infrastructure. Human needs like daycare, for everyone. Making permanent the Child Tax Credit, providing for free community college, so that people can get the skill training they need to fill the jobs that exist right now and jobs in the future,” added Blumenthal.

Below are Blumenthal's transcribed remarks:

Thanks so much to everyone for joining us. I’m really pleased to be joined by my colleague and friend Senator Murphy just to provide some overview of the approximately $1 trillion dollar proposal that was unveiled last night and introduced in the Senate. And we’re here in Washington hoping that we will begin votes, actually this afternoon on amendments to that proposal. Some will try to make it better, some are poison pills to sabotage it. But our goal is to finish this bipartisan proposal by the end of the week, and then very very crucially move to a second package, a budget resolution that will be achieved through a reconciliation process requiring only 51 votes, a budget resolution that will be much bigger and broader than this one.

This bipartisan proposal could mean billions of dollars to Connecticut’s roads, bridges, rail, [and] broadband - a range of physical infrastructure that has been disregarded for decades and as a result has been decaying and degraded. We need to upgrade and modernize that physical infrastructure so people can get to work and our economy can recover. And the physical infrastructure we know very very well - it includes for example our rail - there will be $30 billion dollars in this infrastructure program in this infrastructure program for the Northeast Corridor, but that is only a small part of what is necessary. The Northeast Corridor Commission recommended $117 billion dollars over 15 years, this one- the bipartisan proposal includes $30 billion dollars over 5 years. It will enable repair, but not real rebuilding. And so the backlog of maintenance and repair can be addressed through this infrastructure proposal, but not the massive rebuilding that’s necessary for high-speed rail and that’s why Senator Murphy and I have been fighting so hard- and will continue to fight for bigger broader commitments to rail, and also roads, bridges, ports, airports- all of the stuff that makes our economy go - and goods and services delivered and people getting to work.

The best way to view this bipartisan proposal is that it is a very profoundly significant down payment - it’s a start - a good start, but only a first step. And we will be fighting for that second step, which is a massive, even more robust commitment to human needs, as well as the physical infrastructure. Human needs like daycare, for everyone. Making permanent the Child Tax Credit, providing for free community college, so that people can get the skill training they need to fill the jobs that exist right now and jobs in the future - skill training for welders, pipefitters, electricians, designers, engineers, carpenters - these jobs are open now but there will be thousands of them created in the future at places like Electric Boat where I was on Saturday morning for the christening of the Hyman Rickover, they will be employing massive numbers on the two Virginia class submarines to be built next year and in succeeding years- every year, two of them - and the Columbia class. Just one example of how jobs will exist that need to be filled and the skill training required to provide them.

So this proposal is encouraging- we’re going to move forward on this track. But a second track is absolutely necessary and both of them need to be done. And we should not leave town - we will not leave town if I have anything to do with it - before we move forward to pass this first step, and begin the second with a budget resolution. We can work out the details during August on that second step, but we need to move forward with a budget resolution.

This kind of commitment and investment are a moral and historic imperative. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity - we get this one shot - and we should use it for the sake of this country. We are really under a moral and historic imperative to move forward with these two tracks, and we can do them both - the first one will be bipartisan, the second we may need to do with Democrats by a 51 vote margin - on budget reconciliation. But both of them are necessary for our nation, and both of them are necessary for Connecticut.

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