Speeches
Pelosi: 200 Years After Gallatin Project, We Must Again Invest in Our Infrastructure
03/11/2008
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House
floor this afternoon to express her support of H. Res. 936, honoring the 200th
anniversary of the Gallatin Report on Roads and Canals and recognizing the vast
contributions that national planning efforts have provided to the United
States. Below are the Speaker’s remarks:
“Two hundred years ago, around the time of the Lewis and
Clark expeditions and the Louisiana Purchase, a great president realized that
for commerce to flow in America, for people to move, and for our country to
flourish, we needed to build the infrastructure of our country.
“Mr. DeFazio described the immensity of that project,
designed by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under President Thomas
Jefferson. Secretary Gallatin said at
the time that his vision of roads and canals to unite our young nation could
not be ‘left to individual exertion.’
Contrary to the popular thinking of the time,
“From the beginning of our country, our founders and the
leaders of our country were entrepreneurs.
They were risk takers. They
believed in public-private partnerships, and that’s what this was.
“At the beginning of the 19th century, it’s important to
note there were barely 1,000 miles of canals in
“It is in the tradition of Albert Gallatin that 100 years
later, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt launched a similar commitment by
convening a White House Conference on Conservation to preserve
“In 2008, 200 years after Thomas Jefferson and Secretary
Gallatin, 100 years after Theodore Roosevelt, in keeping with the traditions of
visionary leaders like them, we are prepared to invest in
“Just as they did 200 years ago, these infrastructure
investments offer our nation job-creating opportunities to reinvigorate the
American economy. Anything we’re talking
about in terms of infrastructure means good paying jobs right here at home in
“Today, because of the leadership of Mr. Oberstar, the
distinguished chair of the committee, Mr. DeFazio, who opened the debate, Mr.
Duncan, thank you as well, and the leadership of Congressman Earl Blumenauer,
Congress has the opportunity to honor the genius of the Gallatin plan in, as
the resolution says, ‘establishing a more perfect union.’
“Mr. Speaker, I urge recognition of Secretary Albert
Gallatin, who with his plan encouraged the prosperity and national unity of