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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the Regional Leadership Council, took to the House floor to highlight Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments across New England. Trahan delivered the speech as part of a Special Order Hour with other Regional Leadership Council Members to highlight the accomplishments of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

“By the time the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has allocated its last dollar in 2027, it will have improved the lives of every single American. It will have made thousands of roads and bridges safer for parents to get their children to school. It’ll have shortened commutes – giving workers back precious time each evening to spend with their loved ones. And it will have reduced car maintenance costs caused by crater-sized potholes that are the bane of every family’s existence.” said Congresswoman Trahan. “This is the kind of progress presidents of both parties have promised for decades, but failed to deliver. But President Biden and the Democrats in Congress got it done. And bridges large and small – from the iconic Golden Gate to the Basiliere Bridge in Haverhill, Massachusetts – are finally going to be completed because of it.” 

CLICK HERE or the image below to view Trahan’s speech on the House floor:

Trahan supported passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $110 billion in new federal funding for bridge and road upgrades across the nation. Over the five-year life of the law, Massachusetts will receive a minimum of $4.2 billion for road improvements and another $1.1 billion for bridge replacements and repairs. Additional funding is available through competitive grant programs, including the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program that delivered $21.4 million in federal funds to Lowell to repair four bridges across the city. The legislation is delivering more than $9.5 billion in federal funding to the state of Massachusetts.

As a member of the 13-seat Regional Leadership Council, Trahan works with senior Biden-Harris administration officials to ensure the successful implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other key pieces of legislation passed over the last two years.  

A transcript of Trahan’s remarks as delivered is embedded below:

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Congresswoman Lori Trahan

Remarks as Delivered

Floor Speech on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

September 13, 2023

I want to thank the Chairman for yielding and for his decision to highlight the unprecedented investments being made in regions across our country. Over the past two years, every single state across New England has benefited mightily from President Biden’s Invest in America Agenda.

We’ve heard already from my esteemed colleagues on the Regional Leadership Council about the lifesaving health care savings that families are starting to feel, the good-paying manufacturing jobs we’re creating, and the tremendous strides we’re making to close the digital divide.

Each of those are being felt on the ground in my home state of Massachusetts and in every state in the region. Tonight, however, I’d like to focus on a singular issue that has disproportionately improved the lives of almost every family in New England – President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Mr. Speaker, New England is home to some of the oldest roads and bridges in our nation. In fact, the bridge where the shot heard ‘round the world was fired in Concord, Massachusetts – in the district I have the honor to represent – is still standing to this day. And Battle Road, which connected Concord to Lexington nearly 250 years ago, is memorialized for folks across the country to come experience for themselves.

Of course, not every bridge or road is that old, but there are thousands of these critical pieces of infrastructure across New England that are decades or even centuries old, and due to year after year of divestment from Washington, state and local governments have struggled to keep up with increasing repair costs for a long time.

Mr. Speaker, this was a problem I saw play out firsthand as a kid growing up in Lowell. The state came in and built what was supposed to be a temporary bridge – the Rourke Bridge – over the Merrimack River. The plan was to come back and replace the bridge in a few years, but that never happened. The temporary Rourke Bridge is still standing – albeit hardly – 40 years later. And until we took up and passed President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there was no telling if or when it was going to be replaced. But this landmark legislation is delivering [over] 150 million dollars to finally get this project done. That’s the kind of impact this once-in-a-generation investment is having in communities across New England.

In Woodstock, New Hampshire, the Green Bridge on Route 175 was one of the first projects in the country to receive funding from the infrastructure law, and in New London, Connecticut, over 320 million in federal funding is supporting the rehab of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge on I-95, a critical corridor that supports more than 42,000 vehicles each day.

Mr. Speaker, by the time the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has allocated its last dollar in 2027, it will have improved the lives of every single American. It will have made thousands of roads and bridges safer for parents to get their children to school on time. It’ll have shortened commutes – giving workers back precious time each evening to spend with their loved ones. And it’ll have reduced car maintenance costs caused by crater-sized potholes that are the bane of every family’s existence.

This is the kind of progress presidents of both parties have promised for decades, but failed to deliver. But President Biden and the Democrats in Congress got it done. And bridges large and small – from the iconic Golden Gate to the Basiliere Bridge in Haverhill, Massachusetts – are finally going to be completed because of it.

I’m proud of the work we did with President Biden to pass his Invest in America agenda, and I look forward to the work ahead as a member of the Regional Leadership Council under Chairman Hoyer’s tremendous leadership to make sure the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is successfully implemented.

I thank the Chairman for inviting me, and I yield back.

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