Rep. Peter DeFazio, a longtime friend of our union who chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, will be a key ally in our union’s work to ensure that American job creation and union rights are a top priority when Congress invests taxpayer money to improve and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and transportation systems.
Making this pledge clear, DeFazio recently said, “America cannot afford to keep limping along with crumbling infrastructure, some of which was built in the 19th century. It’s time to get serious, put millions of people to work...and get America moving again and competitive in the world economy.”
In the last Congress, DeFazio introduced the Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), a wide-reaching infrastructure bill that would address many of our nation’s needs. The legislation would grow and support U.S. jobs by prioritizing domestically-produced components for infrastructure projects. H.R. 2 passed in the House, but not the Senate. Looking ahead to this year and President Biden’s commitment to transform our infrastructure, lawmakers are preparing for a renewed push on this and other infrastructure bills.
“If implemented correctly, this is exactly how we put millions of people to work and Build Back Better. I am thrilled to aid the administration’s effort and help turn our transformational infrastructure bill into a game-changer for American jobs and manufacturing.”
DeFazio has partnered with our union to support countless labor-friendly reforms, and has earned a 93 percent pro-worker lifetime voting record according to the AFL-CIO.
Recently, DeFazio voted in favor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and authored legislation to strengthen the Buy American Act.
In 2016, the USW presented our union’s Paul Wellstone Award to Rep. DeFazio. This award recognizes an unwavering champion of workers’ rights in memory of the Minnesota senator who died in a plane crash in 2002.
Sources: http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org and transportation.house.gov