For instance, in 1934, the Burlington Zephyr would get you from Chicago to Denver—
From Chicago to Denver—
in around 13 hours. The same trip takes 18 hours today.
I do not know if the Presiding Office is familiar with the Burlington Zephyr, which is a train that goes from Chicago to Denver, but what this writer is pointing out is that in 1934 it took 13 hours to make that trip. Do you know how long it takes today? It takes 18 hours. So we are moving in the wrong direction.
I know in Vermont—I do not have any statistics right in front of me but I can tell you—I believe very strongly—it takes longer to get from the southern part of the State to the northern part of the State than it used to, and the frequency of the trips is less than they used to be.
The trip from Chicago to Minneapolis via the Olympian Hiawatha, in the 1950s, took about 4½ hours. Today, via Amtrak's train, the journey takes more than 8 hours.
It used to be 4½. So in terms of our public transportation, not only are we neglecting, not only are we not moving forward, we are actually moving backwards.
At the moment, the only high-speed train in the United States is Amtrak's Acela, which travels the Washington, New York, Boston line.
And she writes:
And I use the term "high-speed" very loosely. While in theory the trains have a peak speed of 150 miles per hour, the average speed on that train is just about 71 miles per hour.
Once again, I read some statistics before, pointing out that China is building thousands and thousands of miles of high-speed rail. And here in the United States we are moving backwards. It is taking us a longer time for various train rides than used to be the case.
But it is not just trains. It is not just our roads. It is not just our bridges.
Well, it is also our bridges. Let me say a word on bridges. I think we all remember 4 years ago, I think it was, the terrible tragedy in the Minneapolis area, when one of their major bridges collapsed and a number of people lost their lives. That got the front-page headlines all over this country. I know in Vermont we closed down bridges. They are not safe to travel.
According to the Department of Transportation, 1 in 4 of America's bridges is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The numbers are even worse when it comes to bridges in urban areas, where 1 in 3 bridges is deficient—no small matter given the high levels of passengers and freight traffic in our Nation's cities.
So a huge amount of traffic—in urban areas one in three bridges is deficient, and in rural areas such as Vermont, one in four.
How are these bridges going to be rebuilt? It is likely not going to be done by local and State governments that right now are experiencing enormous economic crises. If it is going to be done, it is going to have to be done here at the Federal level.
I have to say that in Vermont we saw some significant improvements as a result of the stimulus package. In fact, in Vermont, recently, we have put more money in rebuilding our roads and bridges with very good success. I think the people of Vermont see the difference. In the last couple years, directly as a result of the stimulus package, we have made significant improvements on a number of bridges but nowhere near enough.
The point I want to make is that with our infrastructure collapsing, with the American Society of Civil Engineers suggesting we need to spend $2.2 trillion in the next 5 years just to maintain where we are, we have an agreement before us which puts zero dollars in infrastructure. According to this book:
We need to invest $850 billion over the next 50 years to get all of America's bridges into good shape.
Trust me, we are not coming anywhere near that right now.
But it is not just our roads. It is not just our public transportation. It is not just our bridges. When we talk about infrastructure, we also have to talk about dams.
On March 16, 2006, the Ka Loko Dam in Kilauea, Hawaii, collapsed, and seven people died when the Ka Loko Dam breached after weeks of heavy rain, sending 1.6 million tons of water downstream.
Dams are a vital part of America's infrastructure. They help provide for drinking, irrigation, and agriculture, and generate much needed power, and often offer protection from floods. Yet our dams are growing old. There are more than 85,000 dams in America, and the average age is 51 years. At the same time, more and more people are moving into developments located below dams that require significantly greater safety standards. But we have had a hard time keeping up with the increase in the so-called high-hazard dams. Indeed, we are falling further and further behind.
So the point here is, we have a major agreement. People are concerned about creating jobs. We are investing zero in our infrastructure, and dams are a very important part of our infrastructure, as are levees. And I suspect Senator Landrieu, who was here a little while ago, would have something to say about levees.
All right. So we are talking about an infrastructure which is collapsing. We are talking about China investing far more in terms of their GDP into infrastructure improvement than we are. We are talking about being in the midst of a major recession, where we desperately want to grow jobs, and yet this proposal does not add one cent into our infrastructure.
Now, again, I am going back to the very good book written by Arianna Huffington called "Third World America." She writes:
As bad as America's sewers, roads, bridges, dams, and water power systems are, they pale in comparison to the crisis we are facing in our schools. I am not talking about the physical state of our dilapidated public school buildings, although the National Education Association estimates that it would take $322 billion to bring America's school buildings into good repair.
I have been in schools in Vermont and elsewhere which were old and crumbling, and I have been in schools which are new and state of the art. I think anyone who has seen the contrast in terms of the attitude of the students in those types of schools will understand it is important to give these kids good places in which to learn and to grow. It means a lot to them when they see a building that is new that has state-of-the-art equipment, as opposed to one that is crumbling. It suggests to them what we as a society feel about them.
Arianna Huffington writes:
Nothing is quickening our descent into Third World status faster than our resounding failure to properly educate our children. This failure has profound consequences for our future, both at home and as we look to compete with the rest of the world in the global economy.
She writes:
Historically, education has been the great equalizer.
That is certainly the case.
That has been the incredible virtue of our public school system—
What we have taken as kids, who spent—my father did not graduate from high school. My mother did. That was it.
—and given millions of young people the opportunity to get a good education in school and be able to go to college and use their potential. The springboard to the middle class and beyond has been education. It was a promise we made to all of our people.
What we as a nation said is, regardless of your income, we are going to provide you with the best possible education in order to succeed in life. That is something extraordinary, that no matter what your income is, we are going to provide you with a great education. As a kid, I went to public schools, and I did have a very good education.
But something has gone in recent years terribly wrong, and we have slipped further and further behind many other countries. Among 30 developed countries ranked by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—
That is the OECD—
the United States ranked 25th in math and 21st in science.
So 25th in math, 21st in science.
Even the top 10 percent of the American students—our best and brightest—ranked only 24th in the world in math literacy.
There was another study, I think probably just a more updated OECD study, that came out just the other day, reported in the New York Times, where kids in Shanghai were leading the world in these types of tests as compared to our own students. They are studied. They have better schools, better teachers, more investments in their education. And there is a culture there. There is a culture. It is not fair to blame the kids.
Does anyone seriously believe in the United States of America we take intellectual development seriously? I was
