"While Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio stunned many in Washington with his retirement announcement yesterday, he’ll leave behind a career of more than three decades fighting for big infrastructure and climate change spending.
DeFazio, 74, who said he would leave Congress at the end of his term in January 2023, described the passage last month of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the expected passage of the “Build Back Better Act” as the culmination of his 36-year career in the House.
As chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee since 2019, he played a starring role in crafting both pieces of legislation — which contain some provisions of his “Moving Forward Act” that House Democrats passed last year.
“The biggest thing I’ve always wanted to accomplish was a major increase in investment in America’s crumbling infrastructure. I started on that quest in the first term of the Obama administration. And finally, it culminated in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act this year,” DeFazio told local Oregon reporters yesterday, following the announcement."
