Cory Booker: Investments Into Northeast Corridor And NYC Metro Area Pay 'Dividends For Us All'

2 months ago

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) celebrated federal investments into the Gateway rail project.

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Transcript

00:00I want to thank Chuck Schumer for his extraordinary leadership to have a New

00:05York senator who's also the leader of the United States Senate. It's one of the

00:10reasons this project has gotten done. He was right to thank his wingwoman

00:14Kirsten Gillibrand. I of course want to give a lot of thanks to New Jersey's

00:19senior senator who but for his leadership we would not be here in Bob

00:24Menendez. Of course I'm standing before two of the greatest governors this

00:29region has ever seen in Hochul and Murphy and I tell you I know this from

00:34my personal interactions with Phil Murphy. This was a laser priority and

00:40focus for him and again these governors without their support we would not be

00:45here but I want to make it clear I was a senator for the last decade. I've been

00:49working on this project since the day I walked into office. I still remember

00:54having Obama's Secretary of Transportation in my office with our

00:58then-governor working on this project. It was so frustrating to me when President

01:03Trump came in and blocked the process. We couldn't even get environmental reviews.

01:08If there's any reason why we're here today it's because when President Joe

01:13Biden was elected he said this is the number one infrastructure project in the

01:18United States of America and I want to thank President Joe Biden for his focus,

01:23for his commitment, and for helping us in Congress, in the Senate, to deliver

01:28what we see today. Please give him one more round of applause and I know this

01:36is a regional project. People think of it in that way. They think of it as a project

01:39between New York and New Jersey but that's simply not true. This is a great

01:44American project. This region of New York and New Jersey is the most

01:51economically productive region in all of America and one of the most

01:55economically productive regions in all of the world. Investments here pay

02:01dividends. In fact a dollar in our regional infrastructure bring back four

02:07dollars of economic growth. This Northeast Corridor that when it's choked

02:12it clogs up the entire northeastern seaboard, we know that it's only about

02:172% of the landmass of America but it is 20% of our economic strength. If there is

02:26going to be a strong, a successful, an economically powerful area of the

02:33United States of America, this is it. And so investments here for the American

02:37taxpayer pay dividends for us all. When it comes to American economy, American

02:43jobs, when it comes to American well-being, America's quality of life,

02:47this is the region that fuels an outsized proportion of our country's

02:53strength. And so today is a celebration of who we are. We as a nation from our

02:59canal systems to the transcontinental railroad, we are a nation from aviation

03:05and to sailing the seas and shipping, we are a nation that has always said that

03:11we are going to show the world a way. And so today is a day of making

03:17investments, the biggest investment of taxpayers in a transportation project

03:21ever. This is a day that we come back to being who we say we are, a nation that

03:27invests in itself so we can grow our nation, grow our economy and continue to

03:33lead the world. And I'll tell you this, what makes me particularly excited

03:39is that this is just not an infrastructure investments, just not for

03:43the overall economy. The dollars being invested here will create tens of

03:49thousands of union jobs affecting hundreds of thousands of people,

03:54families and Children who will not only see solid jobs and solid well being but

03:59good health care and a brighter future. When we invest in ourselves, the

04:04dividends that we pay cannot be measured. This region for decades to

04:09come will be benefit that will benefit from this investment. And so I close

04:14with a simple understanding said by a man far greater than any of us will

04:18speak today, which was martin Luther King. He said in a spiritual sense the

04:23truth about the power and interconnectedness of us all. He said

04:28in the letters in the Birmingham jail that we are all caught in an inescapable

04:32network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Well, that is true

04:38in the spiritual sense, but we must make it true in reality. We must make it

04:42true in our lives, our connections to one another, the community that we

04:46create at a time that there's so many shearing forces trying to drive our

04:50country apart. Well, this today we celebrate that spiritual truth in

04:54practical, measurable ways. We deepen our connectivity,

04:59we strengthen our network. We say to the present and point and say in the

05:05present and point to the future that better days are ahead. A tighter,

05:09greater community is before us and we in America are making these states even

05:14more united. Thank you.

Cory Booker: Investments Into Northeast Corridor And NYC Metro Area Pay 'Dividends For Us All'

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