Infrastructure bill doesn't address 'core' issues, Rep. Graves says

Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rep. Garrett Graves, R-La., explained that the bipartisan infrastructure bill is still receiving criticism because it doesn't address "core" issues. Rep. Graves argued the bureaucratic process involved to complete infrastructure projects is slow and "not responsive" to Americans' needs.

REP. GARRETT GRAVES: I think [the plan's] facing criticism because it's not focused on core areas of infrastructure. 

Look, our traffic and transportation problems across the country are absolutely profound. Yet, the bill tries to come in and fund tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars toward things like electric vehicle infrastructure, which only represents 2% of the vehicles on the road today. 

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It's not addressing the core needs of American infrastructure that is delaying our economy, that's impacting every American's life on a daily basis. And I think that's where the frustration really comes from.

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The reality is when you go ask the average American what infrastructure is and what their infrastructure priorities are, they're going to be pointing to roads and bridges in their community that should have been fixed decades ago. 

You can look across America today, probably 90% of the construction projects on our interstates and U.S. highways were ideas that our parents and grandparents came up with. The process has been overtaken by bureaucrats. It is slow. It's not responsive to the needs of the public. That is what we need to fix. 

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We need to provide a project development delivery mechanism that truly reflects the urgency of the transportation and the traffic problems that we have across America. We've got to fix that. 

To try to call all of these other things infrastructure, under this broad umbrella of social infrastructure, is a fundamental mistake. 

It's going to distract our nation's resources and end up taking dollars that we need to be investing in roads and bridges and putting it to other things that, quite frankly, the federal government has no business being involved in.

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