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represent the views of County News Online
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We Build Big
Things
By Vice President Joe Biden
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.
Thanks.
Vice President Joe Biden
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