Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the courtesy and leadership of Chairman Miller and the committee, following up on the good work you did earlier, to make sure that we do have schools of the future.
The schools are the foundation, the building block of a livable community, and green schools are the schools of the future. It is where America and the world is going in terms of being sustainable, efficient, and healthier.
But green schools are also the schools of today. This is an opportunity under this legislation, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, to be able to illustrate our environmental values, that young people who are in school will be able to see through the operation of this legislation that we are going to walk the talk, we are going to implement our values.
The provisions of this legislation will save money almost immediately because there is lots of low-hanging fruit. Indeed, in schools across the country in terms of green sustainable practices, it is not low-hanging fruit; it is picking the fruit up off the ground that will save energy, that will save water, that will be gentler on the land. It will put people to work. This is activity that is amazingly labor intensive. There are few investments that we can make greening our schools that will make more of a difference for people of all skill levels, whether they are casual laborers, they are skilled efforts, they are professional positions, to be able to make a difference.
In the State of Oregon alone, it is 62 badly needed million dollars that is not only going to circulate through the economy, but it is going to do things that school districts need and it is going to save them money for years to come.
I appreciate the fact that the bill includes how young people get to school as part of energy efficiency. A generation ago in virtually every school district in America, more than 50 percent of our children got to school on their own, walking or riding a bike. Today the national average is 15 percent. I work in some communities where it is far less than that.
By investing in ways to make young people be able to get to school safely on a bike or walking, we are going to reduce the carbon footprint while we make their footprint a little lighter. We are dealing with an epidemic of childhood obesity, and these provisions cycle back to make young people healthier.
This legislation will make the schools of today the schools of the future, and it will do it in the very near future. I am pleased to support it. I thank the committee for its work. The implementation of this legislation is going to make our community schools truly the building block of livable communities and make our families safer, healthier, and more economically secure.
