objection. mr. durbin: roll call votes are expected during wednesday's session, if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until we believe what is here or here or out in the middle of anywhere you should have access to past reliable internet. we are taking you.

>> media, supports c-span as a public servicelong with these other television providers giving a front row seat to democracy. >> president biden traveled to new york to talk about the construction of a rail tunnel project under the hudson river being funded by the infrastructure bill joined by senate majority leader chuck schumer. >> 123. [inaudible] [laughter] [inaudible] [applause] ♪♪ ♪♪ [applause]

>> hello, everybody. what a great day, a great afternoon and it's so great to be here to celebrate the major milestone in the most consequential and for such a project in all of america. [applause] as many of you know for a long time now this project has been my passion, labor of love and after many false starts and obstacles placed in our way, gateway is full speed ahead. [applause] today's new dollars, gateway's future is assured. finally, finally, finally we can say gateway will be built. hooray, hooray, hooray. here comes a gateway. [laughter]

i want to thank governor hochul, governor murphy, bob menendez, cory booker, houston children, terry buttigieg, deputy secretary works for me for many years. for all their help on this project. why is this project so important? rail tunnels under the hudson river are an essential artery that moves countless people and goods along the entire eastern seaboard. the artery gets back to, the heart of our national economy would cease to pump. america would go into recession overnight. millions of people would lose their jobs, george washington bridge, holland and lincoln tunnel would be jammed with traffic 24/7. pollution would increase exponentially. all too often we as a society fail to look far enough ahead to plan for the worst case scenario in advance and avoid taking real

steps to prevent it but in this case thankfully we are looking ahead. gateway is finally coming down the track. my late father passed away a year ago taught me a lot of lessons that stick with me. he's right here right now. the most important was this. if you know what you're doing is right and if you persist and persist and persist, then you will succeed. we have persisted and now we are succeeding. when i started talking about gateway a decade ago, there were a lot of people refused to see the light. we all remember governor christie abruptly pulling the plug on the first iteration of gateway. one of the worst decisions any governor on either side has made. we had to start all over again.

i worked hard to stand up the gateway development corporation. we got the state of new york and new jersey to each agree to contribute to 5% of the cost of the project in exchange for the federal government entering 50%, thank you governors hochul and governor murphy. we painstakingly negotiated the technical principles of financing agreement for federal loans to the state would count as a local share of funding. once again we finally had pieces back in place and once again a republican bully tried to wreak havoc. as soon as donald trump took office, sabotaging gateway holding all administered of approval by completely bogus grounds, he said he wouldn't even negotiate on gateway until there was money to build his wall. he shut down the government for weeks when he invited me into the oval office to try to force

an agreement to build a wall and then maybe gateway, i had a few choice brooklyn works for him. no -- way. that doesn't mean we didn't make any progress during those years. we worked hard in the delegation, new jersey and new york to care tens of billions of dollars in appropriations for various federal spending accounts gateway could use most president trump was gone but what i couldn't have anticipated then was the best, the person who would replace trump would happen to be the best possible person anywhere to move gateway forward, mr. amtrak himself, joe biden. [cheering and applauding] a man, a president more interested in tearing down walls that separate us been in building them. thanks to his negotiation and

deep relationships on capitol hill was able to transform the cruel illusion of terms so-called infrastructure week after week after week into an infrastructure decade that will be funded by amazing $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act we passed into law and we are going to build the infrastructure decade -- for our union folks with tens of thousands of new good paying union jobs. all union, all good paying. [applause] as majority leader i make sure the bipartisan infrastructure law included formulas and allocations that will provide ample funding for gateway and many, many other good projects across new york, new jersey and across the country.

... >> gateway is finally leave the station. you can use whatever train met forum, anyone you want, but get on the joe biden express now because we are not stopping. [ appliance ] >> for four years the former president was

shoveling you know what and now we're going to put real shovels in the ground, wielded we real american workers. that's the basic con strays between this -- contrast between the president and the last. empty rhetoric versus experienced leadership. schoolyard bullying versus building consensus. personal grievances versus getting things done. it is my absolute wonderful, wonderful great pleasure to welcome to my beloved city the man that knows infrastructure public tran sis better than anybody in -- transit better than anybody in america and going to make sure that we get gateway done, the president of the united states, joseph biden.

>> chuck, thank you for the introduction. that was worth the trip. thank you, thank you very much. one person pushed relentlessly for the advanced gateway project and advanced railway in the region. i've heard from chuck time and time and time again and didn't let anything stop him because he

knows how incredibly critical it is for people's lives and the strengthen of the economy in new york and new jersey and across the country and that's chuck schumer and relentless and never gives up. no one has done more to make today a reality and this is truly chuck schumer day, pal. you got it done. chuck, you've done a hell of a job and big thanks to the rest of the delegation as well. the true champion of the state and always puts new york first and makes sure everybody in the military is straightened up too but that's a different story. mayor adams, where are you? good to see you, pal. thanks for the passport into the city and governor hochul, thank you. we got a chance to speak and governor murphy, your leadership has been vital to the project and the new jersey congressional delegation fought like hell to push forward all this entails

and i want to thank everybody here and i want to thank bob menendez and cory booker, two great senators from north carolina. while others tried to shut this down, i made clear this is a national priority, and i told you that i would get this done and we did it together. i want to thank representative gotheimer as well and two members of the new jersey congressional delegation, rob menendez, who's smarter than his dad and don goldman, i know because my son was smarter than i was. look, for being here, we got a lot of work to do and work to get together. you'll pay for that when you get home; right. i want to thank everyone from am amtrak. everyone from amtrak and fta is up here. from the gateway development commission is really important. thank you for your partnership.

for liability and 60. in addition to getting folks out of cars and onto trains, we're goon help the environment as well and all the studies show and i've been harping on this since the mid '70s that every study shows you get from point a to point b an rail as fast or fastest as you can in an automobile. you don't take the car, you get in the train. that's how important this project is for up to 200,000 passenger who is take amtrak or the new jersey transit every single day.

the bipartisan law we're finally getting this done. the law is the most significant investment in rail, most significant investment in rail since we created amtrak over 50 years ago. and billions, billions ignoring the projects in the northeast corridor including replacing the existing tunnel. that's why it's so important, 2,200 trains. 2,200 trains run along the northeast corridor every single day. it was the bussiest in the united states and it's one of the busiest in the world and means and you happen down the coast for folks trying to get to work, businesses trying to shift goods and travelers trying to get to see families and as a u.s. senator, i commuted for 36

years every single solitary day the senate was in segments i traveled millions of miles on amtrak and i can tell you where all the delays were. not all on lincoln and delaware. i know it's a fact. if this line shuts down for just one day across the american economy, $100 million a day in costs. the major choke point and critical length for the busiest train station in all of america. this tunnel was open for business? 1910. i can't even walk through the tunnel and you can't see it. today over ten years later. the electrical components of the

tunnel. in 2020 there are over 12,000 delays. 12,000 and we know better and we're brighter than that and now we're going to prove it. we're going to rebuild the existing tunnel but we can't do that until we do a brand new entirely different and separate tunnel. you can't fix the first one without building a new one. that tunnel will run fastest speeds without interruptions and 100 miles an hour and the original tunnel under construction and that'll have major shutdowns. the one side breaks down and the

first concrete casing and chuck has been talking and talking and talking and talking and talking about. what's in your heart with the tunnel connecting the penn station. this is a critical step for everything else we're going to do with the rail period. work started in the hudson yards and new york and new jersey for example and last year we broke ground on the florida bridge in

new jersey. thanks to the infrastructure law, we're rebuilding two other bridges solitude and dock's bridge in north jersey. all told, this is one of the biggest and most consequential projects in the country. it'll take time. this is a multibillion effort between the states and the federal government. but we finally have the money and we're going to get it done, i promise you. we're going to get it done. [ applause ].

you think i'm joking, i'm not. when you commute every day you get told when things are falling apart. over the next several years we'll hit milestones with the east river tunnel here in new york, the bridge in maryland, connecticut river bridge and we're not stopping at all. this was rail. earlier this month i was in kentucky with the republican leaderwe're going to get it done. more than we're doing for example up in the bronx, we're

redevelopment with the hunts point terminal produce market, which handles 60% of new york's fruits and vegetables. 60%. we're expanding refrigerated warehouses and this following charging station and electric vehicles and the trucks can get in and out. staten island at arthur kill terminal site turning into the line and one blade of the new wind turbines in the new jersey

shore and one of the things about the infrastructure law that i'm most excited about and all american workers. all american workers. by the way all of it, all of it is union labor. to ensure major projects are handled with well trained, highly skilled workers and resolved students ahead of time

and safer work sites and avoiding disruptions and work stoppages that can cause expensive and extensive delays down the line. we're not just good for workers and taxpayers too. the hudson river tunnel project to 72,000 good paying jobs over this lifetime. labors electricians, carpenters, cement base and carpenters and good jobs to raise a family on. most don't require a college degree but they do require four years of partnerships and training programs and one of the reasons why the united states has the best trained worker in the world. that's not a hyperbole, we do.

it's about making things here in america again. it's about good jobs and dignity of work and my dad says joey, this causes joy of jobs more than the paycheck and about your dignity and about respect. it's about being able to try and look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay and mean it. he meant it. it's about respective self-worth and, folks, it's about dam time. for too long we've talked about asserting american leadership building the best economy in the world. but to have the best economy in the world, you have to have the best infrastructure in the world. people don't build factories

where there are not rail stations and not ports and access to highways. they don't attract businesses unless you have the best infrastructure. to get markets and create thousands of good paying jobs. along the way we stopped and ranked number one in the world in reservice connected and have topment and now ranked no. 9 and the united states is number 9. china is no. 8. now they rank no. 2. folks, too many good paying

manufacturing jobs moved overseas and cheap over air and submitting a product. the factories at home and close down the self-worth along the way.

>> an even shot and get up every morning and go to work and bust your necks trying to make an honest living. look, folks, i said it many times. wall street is important but it didn't build this country. the middle class built the country and unions built the middle class. [ applause ]. two strongest years of job growth in the history of america. we've created nearly 11 million

it's totaling 300 million in the entry, similar conductors and generating manufacturing and for four decades, we imported products and exported jobs. americans see the projects popping up across the country and sends an important message. when we work together like we did in the bipartisan law in the chips law, there's nothing we can't do.

when did it ever? name me a time. name me a time when america has gone through a crunch and didn't come out stronger on the other side than when they went in. we can get really big things done instead of losing confidence in ourselves. we can do anything. we really can. we can move this nation forward and another message as well. message of pride. pride in our country and pride is what we can do together. i stand here today and give you my word i've never been more optimistic about america in my entire life. we have to remember who the hell

we are. we are the united states of america. there's nothing beyond our capacity. nothing at all and it's starting right here. god bless you all and god protect our troops.