Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), released the following statement after the Senate was blocked from considering the Rebuild America Jobs Act, which would have provided investment in America’s crumbling roads, bridges and airports, and would have established a national infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital to fund a broad range of projects.  A recent CNN poll shows that 72% of Americans support investing in infrastructure to create jobs.    

“Yet again, as hundreds of thousands of construction workers nationwide continue to sit idle without jobs as victims of our struggling economy, Senate Republicans have blocked through the use of a filibuster, consideration of a bill that would have injected immediate resources into rebuilding America’s deteriorating infrastructure.  Putting politics before the welfare of hard-working Americans, Senate Republicans turned their back on balanced legislation that would have helped to create jobs today and support our workforce and local communities in the future.

“The need for infrastructure investments in Maryland is very real. In our state, 359 bridges that motorist cross  – or one out of every 14 – are considered structurally deficient, according to a recent analysis.  More than 4.6 million people drive over these deteriorating bridges each day. Eight of the top 10 Maryland bridges in the worst shape are in Baltimore City or Baltimore County, with all of the top 10 along either I-695 or I-95.  The very bill blocked from consideration in the Senate today would have helped to jumpstart repairs to Maryland’s infrastructure and elsewhere across the country. Once again, I am disappointed that we could not come to some reasonable compromise to help create more American jobs and get our economy moving again.”