mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. defazio: i want to reiterate the point i made earlier. outside of a minority of their caucus, i believe a majority of the united states house of representatives believe that federal investment using taxpayer dollars without creating deficit that federal investment in rebuilding our national infrastructure, the 150,000 bridges in the national highway system that need substantial repair or replacement, the steel that goes into those bridges that's made in america, the workers are american workers, the engineers are american engineers. the $60 billion back log in our existing transit systems, let alone giving americans more fuel efficient transit options, $60 billion. buses made in america. light rail cars, made in america. these are manufacturing jobs. engineering jobs. high tech jobs. these are not just construction job. the construction industry itself is devastated with double digit unemployment. and passing this 90-day extension, according to the association of general contractors a

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. defazio: i want to reiterate the point i made earlier. outside of a minority of their caucus, i believe a majority of the united states house of representatives believe that federal investment using taxpayer dollars without creating deficit that federal investment in rebuilding our national infrastructure, the 150,000 bridges in the national highway system that need substantial repair or replacement, the steel that goes into those bridges that's made in america, the workers are american workers, the engineers are american engineers. the $60 billion back log in our existing transit systems, let alone giving americans more fuel efficient transit options, $60 billion. buses made in america. light rail cars, made in america. these are manufacturing jobs. engineering jobs. high tech jobs. these are not just construction job. the construction industry itself is devastated with double digit unemployment. and passing this 90-day extension, according to the association of general contractors a

mr. defazio, the gentleman from new york, mr. bishop, we tried to bring that up and on the floor of the house. every turn in the road, at every corner in the road we get turned down in our efforts to bring up the bipartisan senate transportation bill. and it's not very often that you will find such a measure produced by that other body. yet they have done it at this time and we cannot get it brought up to the floor of this body. i thank the gentleman for yielding. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida. mr. webster: thank you, mr. speaker. pass the extension. reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will remind the members to refrain from trafficking in the well during debate. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, before i yield to the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio, i just want to point out something for my colleagues here. one of the reasons why many of us prefer the senate bill to even the house bill that you brought to the floor then split up and yanked from the floor is beca

mr. defazio of oregon. the chair: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for -- mr. conyers: as much time as he may consume. the chair: as much time as he may consume. mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman. we had at the end of last congress a tremendous bipartisan vote, 406-19, on repealing straight up the antitrust immunity, the insurance industry. the american people, no matter where they are on the affordable health care act, agree on one thing, insurance companies should not be able to get together and collude to either exclude people from coverage or drive up prices. yet they do. they have an exemption under a law from the 1940's. now, what the gentleman is offering found pretty good, but it won't get us there because 90% of the antitrust cases are private. and almost every single one of those cases is a class action. so if you preclude class action, you can pretend you are being tough with the insurance industry while you can wake at night and say don't worry about it because there won't be any litigation under this and you'll still be able to escape, collude. an

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes. mr. defazio: repeal and replace, at's what th republicans said they'd do. what's the replacement? apparently it's the ryan voucher plan whichwill stick it to seniors in the future. not too good of a replacement. but the other thing they're repealing that they don't want talk about is the repealing restrictions on age discrimination by the insurance industry, they would be repealing the restrictions on pre-existing conditions, to discriminate against people. redline them see lentionly by the insurance industry and they would be repealing the provision of reviewing excessive rate increases which has been already successful in california this year. so the republicans, you know, have come forward with this one part of the bill, they've already repealed l of obamacare, but now they're going to repeal it bit by bit because they don't want to do real things like deal with our transportation system and that. but there's one particularly objectionable part of this. they're going to pretend that the

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes. mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise to urge members to vote against the previous question. why would we do that? because we need to invest in america's crumbling infrastructure and the republicans are totally incapable of producing a transportation bill. here's a little bit of review of history. february 8, 2011, chairman micah, we'll have a bill by -- chairman my ka, we'll have a bill -- chairman mie ka, we'll have a -- chairman mica, we'll have a bill by august. fast forward, we'll have one extension -- they didn't get it done by august. then in november, house to pass highway bill. that was november of 2011, it's 2012. now the republicans are saying they need another 90 days to get agreement in their own caucus. they're never going to get agreement. there are 80 members of the republican caucus who believe there is no federal interest. get this, no federal interest in a national transportation system. it should devolve to the 50 states, back to the good old days when

mr. defazio: paid $4.01 a gallon at home in oregon last weekend. there's a lot of people get long-term plans, drill now, drill here, drill everywhere, conservation, whatever. there's nothing we can do in the short-term. well, there is. 70%, 70% of the oil futures, the supply of oil, is owned by speculators on wall street and other places around the world. 70%. the head of exxonmobil testified that about $38 a barrel is due to speculation. that's the head of exxonmobil because we are paying 38 bucks a barrel for speculators on wall street. goldman sachs says, well, it's only 22 to 28 bucks a barrel. let's take the lowest number, 22 a barrel. that would lower regular gas by 64 cents a gallon if we got rid of the speculators. i proposed a tax of .01 per transaction that would drive most of these speculators out of the market and raise revenues. it's time to get rid of the speculators, provide price relief to americans, and have -- then we can talk about a long-term plan for energy self-sufficient -- self-sufficiency. the speaker pro tempore: for what

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: this is a photograph from 1956 before we had a national transportation policy in the united states of america. if the republicans are successful with their budget and with their vision, this will be the future for the united states of america. there's a substantial number of republicans on that side who've drunk the cool aid of a guy -- kool aid of a guy named grover norquist and we should devolve transportation to the states. that is -- that's right. our national transportation policy will be set by the 50 different state. well, this is 1956, before we had a transportation policy. this is brand spanking new kansas turnpike. look where it ends, a farmer's field in oklahoma because oklahoma chose not to build their section. that's the way things used to be and that's the way they want things to be again. we are now on the precipice of basically walking away from investment in our nation's infrastructure. 150,000 bridges need to be repaired. 40,000 of the pavement needs to be to

mr. defazio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes. mr. defazio: repeal and replace, that's what the republicans said they'd do. what's the replacement? apparently it's the ryan voucher plan which will stick it to seniors in the future. not too good of a replacement. but the other thing they're repealing that they don't want to talk about is the repealing restrictions on age discrimination by the insurance industry, they would be repealing the restrictions on pre-existing conditions, to discriminate against people. redline them see lentionly by the insurance industry and they would be repealing the provision of reviewing excessive rate increases which has been already successful in california this year. so the republicans, you know, have come forward with this one part of the bill, they've already repealed all of obamacare, but now they're going to repeal it bit by bit because they don't want to do real things like deal with our transportation system and that. but there's one particularly objectionable part of this. they're going to pretend

mr. defazio: i still agree with that quote. we shouldn't play politics.been a partisan issue. you have made it into a partisan issue. that quote was when you were opposing a 90 dash day extension. i was saying don't play politics by opposing a 90 dash day extension at that point inime. we are too far down the road and we didn't have an alternative then. we have an alternative now. pass the senate bill. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will remind members to address their remarks to the chair. the gentleman from florida. mr. mica: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve his time. the gentleman from west virginia. mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i'm honored to yield two minutes to the distinguished ranking member on the house education and work force committee, the gentleman from california, mr. miller. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. mr. miller: mr. speaker, americans all over the country know that our economy is improving, that the unemployed number is coming down,

mr. defazio from oregon -- and we had one message. the message was, speaker boehn boehner, do what every great speaker has done before you: reach out to the other party, come to the table, and get 218 votes and pass this. so far we don't hear anything like that. and i am very worried, and i am concerned. why? mr. president, 1.4 million construction workers are unemployed. that would fill up 14 stadiums -- football stadiums. 14 super bowl football stadiums filled with unemployed construction workers because we've had such a downturn in housing. we asked speaker boehner respectfully, take up the bill. put these people to work. our bill will save 1.9 million construction jobs, and it will create up to 1 million more. so we can take this 1.4 million, hire 1 million workers and, mr. president, you would bring down that unemployment rate way, way down at 17.1%. how about our businesses? our businesses need help. 1,075 organizations -- the vast majority of them are businesses, have begged us to do this bill. so we say to speaker boehner resp