President Obama Calls on Congress to Approve Infrastructure Spending

by Kelsey Schappell | 05/14/2014 | 7:48pm

President Obama Calls on Congress to Approve Infrastructure Spending

The president visited Tarrytown, NY to urge Congress to move forward with funding for crumbling infrastructure across the country.

President Obama used the Tappan Zee Bridge as a backdrop to call on Congress to quickly approve funding to the fix the nation’s roads and bridges. 

The building of a new Tappan Zee Bridge is one of eleven projects he wants to speed up by cutting red tape. The president said the United States' infrastructure currently ranks 19th worldwide. For him, that's unacceptable.
 
"We've got ports that aren't ready for the next generation of cargo ships," he said. "We've got more than 100,000 bridges that are old enough to qualify for Medicare."
 
The President urged Republicans hesitant to approve funds to put partisan politics aside.
 
"They're more interested in saying 'no,' because they're worried that maybe they'd have to be at a bill-signing with me, than they are at actually doing a job that they know would be good for America," said the president.
 
President Obama said if the Highway Trust Fund isn't replenished by summer, over 700,000 construction workers will be out of a job.

 

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