The Senate Environment and public works Works Committee held a hearing on how infrastructure legislation can help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Senators and panelists discuss the best way to fund road and bridge projects. Good morning. I called his hearing to order. Before i discussed todays hearing i want to say a few words about what is happening in communities across the country today. This is a time of great pain and unrest for our nation. Americans are truly outraged by recent killings. Anyone who watched the video the murder of george floyd has to be horrified and heartbroken. The resulting peaceful protests about police abuse against any american citizen are important and necessary. They listen to the voices of africanamericans about police brutality. Some of the peaceful protests were hijacked by filing criminal, distraction, looting and arson stop. Those who commit these crimes dishonor the memory of george floyd and dishonor the cause and the Peaceful Protesters took to the streets. And to listen and to heal. The goal of this hearing today, rebuilding americas infrastructure will help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. We will examine how bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed by this committee will stimulate economic recovery and growth. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in an economic crisis. This Congress Considers what can be done to help the economy recover, funding the nations infrastructure should be at the top of the list. Investments in highways and bridges create jobs, reduce cost of goods and services and grows the economy. The Standard Poors study found 1. 3 billion investment in infrastructure results in 2900 jobs. In the cowboy state daily based on the university of wyoming economist rob godby expired Infrastructure Construction of a triedandtrue way of recovering an economy that has been impacted by a deep recession. Infrastructure investments create jobs to spur economic recovery. The senate has Bipartisan Legislation ready to go. This committee is taken steps toward renewing the nations Infrastructure Investments. Last month the unanimously passed two bipartisan infrastructure bills, americas Water Infrastructure act in 2020 and drinking Water Infrastructure act of 2020. These two bills will help create jobs and protect communities by rebuilding our aging dams, levees, portend drinking waters. A perfect complement to the primary focus of todays hearing, americas transportation infrastructure act which this committee unanimously passed and reported last july. This historic highway bill authorizes 287 billion over five years from the Highway Trust Fund. It will provide record levels of investment to fix roads and bridges to restore the economy. It increases funding and the certainty they need for planning projects. Now more than ever, to keep the economy moving ahead. The alternative to passing our bill would be to rely on shortterm expansion of the current law. This would be a mistake. Our Committee Heard expert testimony that monthtomonth extensions made it harder for states and communities to plan. In the past funding uncertainties from shortterm extensions led to project delays, cancellations and higher costs. These delays would hurt the economic recovery. We are less then four months from the Highway Trust Fund authorization, this cannot happen especially during these pandemic economic downturns. To make matters worse the Highway Trust Fund is rapidly approaching insolvency. From the pandemic the Congressional Budget Office, would become insolvent in 2021. With americans driving run out of money sooner. The medicine for roads and economy, help rural communities, it will help all 50 states. The report entitled transportation investment in response to economic downturns the National Academies of science, Transportation Research board concluded any future transportation Stimulus Program should allocate most funds according to established formulas. Our highway bill does that by sending 9 of every 10 directly to states for formula funding. The flex. To address transportation needs. What works for coastal cities may not work for communities in the heartland. The formula approach is the best method for rapidly aiding economic recovery for Infrastructure Investments. Americas transportation infrastructure act will speed up project delivery of cutting red tape and typifying agency reviews. Reducing the time it takes to get environmental permits means we can get project done faster cheaper, better, smarter. Speeding up project delivery the legislation will enhance safety. The bill target investments to fix our aging bridges, reduce fatalities, protect pedestrians that minimize wildlife collisions. Building saver, longerlasting road is one of the best ways to keep the economy moving forward. Passing americas transportation infrastructure act with two Water Infrastructure bills is critical for the nations economic recovery, look forward to hearing from today ask expert witnesses on this important topic, then turn to senator carper for his opening comments. Thank you for your comments. We used to serve to gather. They say words to be associated with and i would like to be associated with the words of that particular member. Now i try to be associated with your words today. I want to thank our witnesses, i want to thank mayor glad and fisher from louisville for joining us virtually and doing so in a difficult time. The mayor of louisville is especially challenging and our thoughts and prayers are with you and our gratitude is with you. The chairman said the recent murders of george floyd in minneapolis and i would add Breanna Taylor in louisville sparked widespread unrest across the country. Over the past week literally millions of americans have protested the death of an unarmed black american to make racial inequities and justice still pervades too many aspects of our society. One of those americans, in louisville, was shot and killed when protesting monday morning. David was a pillar in the community. For Law Enforcement for free. We since Learned Police officers involved, those who shot and killed cameras during the incident. The institutional failure created more feelings of anger or fear, frustration, helplessness throughout the Louisville Community and throughout the country. It will come as a surprise to some, many of our fellow americans are feeling real pain and suffering today and have been feeling it for a long time. Meanwhile our country is attempting to safely reopen and return to some semblance of normalcy in the midst of deadly pandemic the likes of which we havent seen in 100 years and we are facing the greatest economic downturn in the highest Unemployment Rates since the great depression. Most communities are calling for justice as lawabiding protests, others have experienced violent riots and looting. I dont believe it is hyperbole to say the soul of the nation, as it hasnt been in a long time. The unspoken question for us today as we gather, what do we do about it and what if anything does this have to do with improving service, transportation, infrastructure. It is our duty as Public Service to serve our constituents who havent voted for us. Right now that means listening to those among us who have often gone unheard and put ourselves in our shoes, golden rule, put ourselves in their shoes, not only acknowledge people of color are experiencing in our country and racism but to do something about it. Here is the good news. We can do something about it. In the midst of this turmoil lies opportunity. It is our job to find that opportunity and Work Together to move this country which we love and revere, as imperfect as we are. That brings us to the subject of todays hearing. Infrastructure can be a part, a big part of a greater multifaceted solution that brings equity and opportunity to our communities. Where and how we invest really matters. Infrastructure we turn on the faucet. Into the waterways and groundwater. In many urban areas where students have done almost impossible to keep up with their schoolwork because they lack internet access. Today we focus on a critically important part of the nations infrastructure, railways and Transit System. We dont always think of it this way, not only important in moving all kinds of cargo across america as well as using the American People the freedom to go where they need to go. Our transportation infrastructure done right can help to connect and uplift of communities by expanding access to opportunities such as schools and better paying jobs. It may not be accessible to those who always found themselves moving on the wrong side of the track. That is why we have to make sure the Infrastructure Investments we make help us create a more nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation for all of our communities. In delaware the construction of soon to be completed Christina River bridge is helping spur the redevelopment of south wilmington, part of the city that is prone to flooding like the ones we had last night occurred. Innovative measures not to address the flooding but to improve connectivity for residents. The new bridge with pedestrian and bicycle lanes expand access to new opportunities and jobs, thousands of jobs. It will facilitate and alleviate traffic in the area and also help to grow the Customer Base for Small Businesses along our burgeoning Christina Riverfront. That is the kind of win win investment we can and should be making infrastructure, those with environmental, community and economic benefits. As we discussed here in congress, in many ways the country can begin recovering from this pandemic and how to help all communities of need. It is more important to talk about investing in our nations infrastructure. Service transportation reauthorization the we unanimously approved out of this Committee Last july, it is a good start to addressing those two challenges, the chairman said the bill increased highway funding for 17 over baseline. At the same time our bill would help because the Climate Crisis by investing 10 billion in low emission and transportation projects for the next five years. I was talking with colleagues, john kennedy from louisiana, cindy smith from mississippi, they tell me 20 hurricanes are being forecast to occur or make it to the gulf of mexico this summer. Unbelievable. Making investments real requires dollars. Our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, how to direct funding for infrastructure and the urgent need to address the trust fund shortfall. In a few short months that conversation, this pandemic greatly affected the chairman has said used for nations infrastructure and how we maintain funding for it. The Public Health Safety Measures demanded by this pandemic, for user fees, registration and the like. A lot of counties in tribal nations are trying to balance their budgets by deciding between furloughs, service cuts and canceling contracts. We owe it to them to reauthorize Service Problems and in predictable ways. All that said investing in infrastructure, economic recovery is not sufficient on its own. The economic downturn is without modern precedent. It is likely with us for some time to come. We must rise and scale the crisis. In recent days conversations with dozens of colleagues on both sides, democrat and republican alike, there appears to be merging bipartisan agreement. We do our part to address the grave and unparalleled impact by state and local budgets by School District and local hospitals. We provide the assistance needed by continuing to invest strategically and dependably. And the transportation infrastructure of our communities. If we do im confident america will be off the ropes and on the road to economic recovery in the future that is stronger, more sustainable and more equitable for all of us. I dont know a lot of latin. I know little bit through my favorite words, carpe diem, seize the day, good words today. Another one, every time we vote, E Pluribus Unum through many we are one. We appreciate your comments and your leadership and the bipartisan nature of this bill. In a few seconds we will hear from our witnesses. I want to make sure the numbers now that you get a better sense of the order in which we are going to speak and ask questions, we will go strictly by seniority since so many members are joining us remotely. It will be easier to keep a record that day. We are joined by three individuals, Mister Stephen mccue of the american road and transportation builders association, Douglas Holtz he can holtzeaken and the mayor of louisville kentucky and the incoming president of the us conference of mayors. Your foreign testimony has been made part of the official hearing records, take your statement to 5 minutes so we will have time for questions, we start with you. Senator carver and other members of the committee, thank you for holding this hearing on the role of federal Infrastructure Investment can and should play an economic recovery. I am 2020 Cheeseman Stephen you of h css, National Committee that provides Software Solutions to help improve Construction Companies business operations. Let me begin by emphasizing two points. First, Shovel Ready Projects are not a solution to the current economic challenges. Transportation Infrastructure Improvement have positive job and salary impacts the real value comes from putting in longterm assets that increase the productivity of the entire economy. According to the federal Highway Administration movements over the nations highway account for 70 of the value of domestic rate. Industry like wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing are two of the largest users of Transportation Services in the economy and utilize freight shipments for 58 percent65 of their needs. Weve compiled each states top ten federal aid projects, the total number of projects and the type of improvements advanced that year. The dashboard use data from the federal Highway Administration to shift the conversation about federal highway investment from apportionment tables, and obligation chart to outcomes and benefits. The federal Highway Program is widely regarded as one of the most meaningful and popular of all federal Discretionary Spending activities. Now we can articulate why. As in example wyoming in 2010 use 309 billion in federal highway funds to advance 262 projects with a total value of 370 million. The largest legal recipient was recipient was a 20 million resurfacing project in sweetwater county. Of the federal aid projects, 66 were for reconstruction and repair work. This information that only demonstrates the value each state receives from highway investment but also highlights the potential numerous benefits from the fiveyear reauthorization proposal this Committee Approved last july. Americas transportation infrastructure act would increase highway investment 27 over the next five years. Your proposal includes commonsense policy reforms that will expedite the delivery of needed Infrastructure Improvements and maximize the impact of federal resources. More importantly the bills investment growth stands in stark contrast to the purchasing power focus of the past 15 years. Weve given each of your snapshot of how your states benefit from the highway investment in 2018. Imagine what could be accomplished with the resources you have proposed. Mr. Chairman, the recent forecast from the Congressional Budget Office said it could take a decade for the use economy to recover from covid19 pandemic is sobering. This outlook is disturbing in the context of the nations infrastructure deficit. State and local highway spending needed eight years until 2015 to recover from the pretty Great Recession levels white gdp recovery occurred in three years. That lack and i were in bridge improvements activity could illustrate the challenging road ahead for our Infrastructure Network absence of proactive action such as enactment of the americas transportation infrastructure act. Your proposal is both a robust Highway Program reauthorization and the foundational opportunity for economic recovery and growth. Mr. Chairman, the transportation Construction Industry is not here asking for federal relief. Instead we seek to be part of the solution to spur the meaningful economic recovery this nation so desperately needs. We urge the other Senate Committees with respect to the jurisdiction over their portions of the state transportation programs to act quickly in order to facilitate final passage of americas transportation infrastructure act. Thank you for convening todays hearing. I i look forward to your questi. Thanks for your helpful testimony. I would like to turn to mr. Doug holtzeakin. Chairman barrasso, Ranking Member , Ranking Member carper, members, thank you for the chance to be a today to talk about the role of structure and recovery from the pandemic, recession. With a minor correction to the Ranking Member, this is a downturn that is unprecedented in modern history. In the past two months we have seen a record fall and consumer confidence, a record decline in retail sales and without a week in which 6 million americans, filed claims for unemployment insurance, ten times larger in previous week in history. April we saw 20 million americans lose their jobs, get ten times larger than any single one month job loss. The previous one being the demobilization from world war ii. We saw the Unemployment Rate jumped over 10 . Again ten times larger than any previous one must month increase in unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office forecast that during the Second Quarter of 2020, the size of use economy which ranked by 11 . In the worst year of the great depression, 1932, the economy shrunk by 12 . 12 . We will experience a comparable decline this spring. So this is an unprecedented both in its source and its depth in speed economic downturn in the United States. And properly a lot of policy response has been focused on stating a further decline and reversing it. The Federal Reserve has moved quite aggressively to provide liquidity and additional lending facilities for the private sector. Congress has moved with remarkable speed and i think a tremendous scale to address this crisis with Families First and caterers and the paycheck protection increased efforts. You are to be complemented and congratulated for this effort. I think theyre exactly what the doctor ordered. But they are not everything were going to need. Theres a part of this recovery that was pointed out is quite important. The Congressional Budget Office points to a very slow return to the levels of Economic Activity that we had in january of this year. In their projection, unemployment remains quite elevated, over 8 and at the end of 2021. Theres a place in the response to this pandemic for durable longterm investments that can address that challenge past 2020, past 2021, and infrastructure is exactly right for that. This bill the committee passed last july is ideal in three ways. Ways. First of all it is clearly better than a failure to reauthorize or a choppy monthtomonth funding approach which would be a headwind to recovery thats already going to be difficult enough. Second, it addresses the supply side of the economy, the capacity to deliver goods and services through the supply chain weekly and efficiently. I think its just realism to expect that the virus will be around for a while. We will continue to face supply disruptions whether they be regional lockdowns or the ongoing need to reconfigure our economy to work in the presence of the virus. Businesses want to physically change a lot of their of the w. There will have to be ppe, testing, have to be whole variety of reorganizations that will cost money, make goods and services more expensive and inhibit the delivery of those in the economy. To the extent we can have policies which target the supplyside and provide Cost Reductions and efficiencies that will allow the economy to operate more effectively in the presence of those necessary, those left durable and everlasg impacts and i think those are an important part of thinking about policy Going Forward. And these are the kinds of investments that i think will be done well. Theres a sad history of taking what would be an otherwise sensible transportation or other Infrastructure Project and trying to frontloaded, rush it, call it stimulus and in the end undercut the objectives of the program. Thats not going on you. Using programs have been effective or well understood and the money will be distributed at the appropriate pace and that blood you working on red tape to have the project happen faster but they will come online at times the economy needs it in the years to come, and that something we need to also have in addition to the other dramatic efforts. So thank you for the chance to be a today and i look to the chance to answer your question. Thanks so much would test my and being with us today. Also joining us remotely is a greg fischer from louisville, kentucky, incoming president of the u. S. Conference of mayors. We appreciate you doing this. I know you committed to be here prior to the tragedy that affected the country right now. I know you have lots going on. We appreciate you being here. Were looking forward to hearing from you now. Thank you, chairman barrasso and Ranking Member carper, and members of the committee. Theres a doubt it is busy times in americas cities right now. I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the searing remotely, so thank you for the flexibility. I am a greg fischer, the mayor of louisville and Vice President of the conference of mayors as noted. I commend you all holding this time examination of how Infrastructure Investment can help get our country back on the road to recovery. Before i talk about that topic id like to acknowledge the crises that we on cities all across our country right now are currently facing, and as the covid covid19 pandemic and then have challenge in the streets of america, protesting so many things first and foremost among them the effects of systemic racism. My community is more in the death of Breonna Taylor and david mcatee, and we join americas nationwide in mourning the death of george floyd, ahmed rea and way, way too many others. Systemic racism hinders our progress as a nation. We have to learn to Work Together all levels of government to address the concerns of her africanamerican communities and implement real policy reforms to ensure justice, opportunity and equity outcomes for every american regardless of their skin color. Intersection plays a really big role in addressing some of those challenges locally. With your support mayors can promote Economic Growth through Infrastructure Investment. So lets talk about the impact of the coronavirus on cities. The conference of mayors has been doing everything we can to support our communities throughout the pandemic. We struggle to understand how winwin we will fully recover. We want to thank you and your colleagues for passing the cares act and taking other actions to help us at the local level. Yet despite the significant actions, unfortunately more needs to be done including providing Fiscal Relief for cities, counties and state governments. More relief that can be used more broadly to support the falloff enter general revenues. Congress must provide flexibility for cities like louisville to use our allegations for the Coronavirus Relief fund to address our revenue losses. Local governments need additional funding to support our ongoing response after december 30, 2020. We are working to finalize budget recommendations for the new fiscal year. That begin several cities on july 1, so we need action and resolution from congress essence we possibly can get it. The National Recovery must focus on metro areas. Our metro regions are the economic of Economic Growth accounted for 91 of the ghost of a thick product. Unemployment rates were higher in april and all 389 metropolitan areas according to data released by felis yesterday. Another 1. 9 million americans filed unemployment claims last week, national Unemployment Rate may exceed 20 . If our economic output does not get back on track obviously our nation will be in trouble. As a logistics hub, louisville can attest that Infrastructure Investment creates jobs. Ubs employs more than 20,000 fulltime local workers are in louisville. Our infrastructure supporting gps has attracted hundreds of others businesses across multiple industries. We ask that you look ways to increase your funding for local jurisdictions. Cities will not be able to lead as we previously have in growing our share of revenue in infrastructure, including highways to support movement of goods. Mayors must have more say to ensure federal investment fulfills our community needs. In my full testimony to you all i talked about a reimagining the ninth street project, complete streets redesign of the corridor will help our city to heal the physical, racial, social divide between West Louisville and our downtown and neighborhoods to the east. I requested federal grants to help grow Economic Activity in the very places that need it most like our opportunity zones to improve quality of life, safety outcomes for all facility users. The plan includes dedicated transit lanes for our bus Rapid Transit system, our partners at the Transit Authority provide Transit Service to 40,000 riders daily, 80 of those trips are employees and students. Transit is important to economic and workforce development. Our residents and essential workers need access to jobs, education, commerce, healthcae services and clean air the matter what the zip code that they are in. I would like to convey our support for the committees efforts to address Climate Resiliency with carbon emissions. I i appreciate the sub allocatin of funds to local areas to support our reduction strategies. Local government need your help to harden our Infrastructure Systems to withstand natural disasters and extreme weather events like the flooding we experience locally here from the ohio river. Cities, counties and towns on and manage about every four out of every five miles of highways and streets managed to get by cities, counties and towns. We would welcome the commitment to support our needs in this area. In closing, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member and committee members, we support your to advance legislation to renew the nations surface transportation law, Infrastructure Investment to facilitate the job growth and economic recovery we desperately need. Encourage you to direct federal resources to our nations are two areas. On behalf of the conference of mayors i want to express our appreciation for the opportunity to join you this morning to share our views. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you have. Take you so very much, mayor fisher come for taking the time be with us today. I note you have a number of questions from members. We preachers, spirit well start with fiveminute rounds and i want to start with mr. Mccue if i i could. In a written testimony you commended this committee for developing the American Transportation infrastructure act with unanimous bipartisan support. The house the House Democrats at released the bill that was purely partisan, did not involve the republicans at all in the efforts and adjust when asked how important it is that surface transportation legislation advances in a bipartisan fashion as our committee has done . Mr. Chairman, transportation is one of the few areas that consistently receives strong support from both sides of the aisle. Surface to transportation bills in the past have historically when you add the votes have been bipartisan in nature. The house, the senate, the white house have all expressed interest to move in infrastructure bill forward this year. But were less than one or 20 days. When need an outcome so we need movement. Thats going to take true bipartisan support in both the senate and the house to move this forward. Mr. Holtzeakin come you talk about the needs of millions of lost their jobs in the country due to the coronavirus. How would projects help improve the economy, help create jobs and all types of Construction Projects equal when it comes to the longterm economic recovery or is highly spending particularly effective . So imagine that its three months ago when were essentially a full employment with record and put rates and across the spectrum. In the circumstances a welldesigned Surface Transportation Infrastructure program can continue to raise the productivity of businesses, they can continue to increase efficiencies and allow Cost Reduction for this businesses. That shows up as higher state of living for americas workers in the circumstances. Those benefits last for a long, long time and are arranged to have those programs in place continuously. In the circumstances there is the additional benefit of reviving some opportunities for work were others have disappeared. There is little question that even if we are quite successful at returning the 18 million individuals who were identified as temporarily unemployed in april, i suppose we miraculously got the ball back to work, we are going to have to find additional Employment Opportunities for many people who used to be hospitality and leisure and used to work in some of the theaters and casinos and cruise lines that are going to be diminished in scope and size over the next couple of years. There are new opportunities for employment, benefits to the economy, and the one i i want o emphasize in the circumstances is the impact in offsetting what will be a a more cost away rung americas businesses. To the extent we can offset that, thats a huge help. Im cognizant of my experience after the terrorist attacks in september 11, 2001. One. We realize we had a threat and had to address the threat that had to operate the economy in the presence of that threat. We didnt fully appreciate that the cost of a stent at at tsa, the cost of inspecting every container they came in, the cost of would take productive capitalism of the tasks. Back to that, we tried conventional stimulus multiple times, to no great effect because we were not addressing the problem. What i like most about this hearing and about this by person bill is it is targeted right on what will be the problem. I think thats a big change from what we knew back then. Thank you. You mention in your written testimony the infrastructures in dire need of repair. You urge congress to make Strategic Investments in infrastructure to spur meaningful Economic Growth. Want to talk about the difference between the amount of money we put into safe highways and bridges compared to the money we have put into transit in terms of what we need to do. U. S. Department of transportation estimates the investment backlog for highways and bridges is about eight times higher than it is for transit in terms of the backlog right now. The last two major hybrid authorizations, snow in hall was so involved in the last one, the last two highway, involving all of them, has provided over 80 of the funds authorized from the Highway Trust Fund go towards highways and bridges. Do you support maintaining this traditional highways transit split in our next authorization, about 80 highways and bridges, 20 transit . We support maintaining the traditional split wheezing between highway and transit spending. The solution is to increase both highway and transit investment and not suggest one is a bigger priority than the other. At a point in your chest when you talked about home state of wyoming, the 300 million in federal highway funds. The number of hundreds of Construction Projects, significant sensible investments in highway and bridge infrastructure like you just described. It helps wyoming. It benefits the state because every state has programs to this effect. How important to the Construction Industry is stable longterm funding for surface transportation Infrastructure Projects . It really boils down to certainty, like any business the difference between a shortterm or longterm bill is the same for our businesses. If you look out and you dont know where your funding is coming from next year, you make Business Decisions based on that. You make Business Decisions whether thats to purchase software, to buy equipment, expand your facilities. The same thing goes with state dot. They have no certainty of the funds, and in shortterm planning really leads to shortterm decisions. The whole key for successful Economic Growth is a multiyear bill against the states, gives the contractors the ability to plan and know what to expect. Hanky. Senator carper. Thank you. I would observe for the responses to this first questions youve asked that this isnt exceptional panel. Were delighted seriously. And we are blessed with a lot of great witnesses i think these witnesses are punching well above their weight and were glad you make time for us especially. Mayor fischer, will soon lead the lives not far from where my mother lived the last three years of her life and was just received the best care in the world, so a special one spot in my heart for kentucky and the people of kentucky. My first question to a fisher, as we think about making federal investment in our communities that can assist with economic recovery and bring equity and equality, how can we ensure that federal investments provide access and opportunity to all individuals no matter what neighborhood they live in or no matter what their zip code is . Can you just give us some thoughts on that, please . Yes, thank you, Ranking Member. This is a tremendous opportunity to show the power of the citizens money at work as we dedicate and increase allocations responsible for minority business participation in these contracts. A lot of the Infrastructure Development in our city will take place in and around communities of need in and manf them are operatives those as well. I would like to echo the prior comments on the consistency that we could have this around funding year after year, would allow the creation of more minorityowned businesses as well, to give them the certainty they can move forward, that they can employ local workforce as well. These are good jobs in infrastructure and we have ample opportunity for the work in our city. For instance, we have 300 million of maintenance that is required just honor sidewalks and roads alone while our local governments become increasingly strapped for other needs. Theres no question there could be an equity overlay on this. Our City Government uses a Racial Equity lens with all of our investments systemized to what we do and would be a tremendous opportunity to lift up our communities in need. Thank you for that response. Sometimes we focus too much here on capitol hill on where we disagree. I like to focus on where we agree, and one of the biggest issues several of you have commented on is how did do we y for this stuff that were talking about, how to pay for our roads, highways and Transit Systems . Heres a couple of areas where think democrats and republicans and folks on this Committee Led by our children chairmen agree. We believe that things that there were having is with painful, not just put it on a credit card and content at your debt as if it doesnt matter. We agreed that hose to use our roads, highways bridges and Transit Centers have an obligation to pay for them. We agree theres no Silver Bullet when it comes to paying for transportation infrastructure but there a lot of silver bibis and some are bigger than others. We agree the source of funding must be predictable and it must be sustainable. It cannot be stop and go. The last thing folks need in the building roads, highways, bridges, Transit Systems this wondering whether the money would be the next week or the next year. With that in mind let me just ask from each you, mr. Mcgough has anyone ever mispronounced during . Maybe a thousand times. My question of you, mr. Mcgough, what advice would you have to give us, my colleagues and me and our staff the importance of paying for infrastructure . How to convince maybe come , gis advice and convince reluctant Members Around the country on the need to pay for the transportation infrastructure works and how to structure some existing fees and new fees in order to avoid a negative impact on our economy and to be sustainable even after we transition away from motor fuels over the next decade . Thank you, senator carper. We have long supported a motor fuels tax increase as the most effective transparent and equitable way to pay for surface transportation Infrastructure Improvements. As you mention, senator, there is no Silver Bullet to a complex problem. Thats why weve been steadfastly consistent in supporting any and all highway user fee proposals since the Highway Trust Fund revenue crisis begin 12 euros ago. I would tell you it is going to take a unique combination of a a number of things, and we agree wholeheartedly that users of the system should be paid and for anything thats worthwhile will cost us dollars to do that. Thank you. Doug . So i think looking forward, and ive written on this and weve had this conversation, that motor fuel taxes are not the appropriate base anymore and it makes sense to move toward Something Like a vehicle miles tax with adjustments for weight and axles which cause damage to roads and bridges, and thats the invoice. You want to end up there at some point in the future, when it is feasible. And then working back you could legislate that now implement it over time so that the Highway Trust Fund become sustainable. But it dont think you should raise taxes in 2020. Im not even sure about 2021. Is not the right time to sort of provide additional headwinds to the economy, so have the conversation, get it financed in a durable and Sustainable Way and i think its the future but it dont think you should do that this year. Id like to say the vehicle miles traveled is the future. We need a bridge to the future. We need a couple bridges to the future. Thank you for that. Mayor, your thoughts please, then my time is expired. Thank you so much. The funny has to come from somewhere and part of this is kind of a Culture Shift that we need have in our country where citizens are proud other infrastructure. We have the ohio river bridges project, 2. 5 billion project completed five years ago paid with tolls. So user fees. But in america i talked the Great American dream. We want everything but we wont dont want to pay. We had to get back to time well look at our City Building and are infrastructure and whatever we invest, say that makes me feel good, just like having Public Health properly funded as well. As we talk about the money lets talk about the collective about we are proud as americans and these are the kinds of things we find together. Where to look to the future with more electric vehicles, as noted with reality tax vehicle miles traveled, occupational taxes directed her transit authorities as well and the gas tax is part of that i believe so its a portfolio of deficit of diversification with an umbrella pride around it where mckinsey we invest in things that help us out, that something is required for Strong America and im happy to be an investor in that. I like that, umbrella of pride. Thank you very much. Snow in office. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im going to get into another subject here, and id like to address senator inhofe. First of all, the fcc has just done in order which wouldve allowed to repurpose the spectrum around gps. This would have a devastating effect on military. I chair the Senate Armed Services committee so thats where my concern was. In fact, there was one general pettus had this would propose quote the most significant noncombat threat to our National Security of my lifetime. Thats what a big deal it is. We had a great hearing, people understood it, was articulated. But it also affects everybody else, all of america, and we had i think, we were allowed 30 days to file a motion for reconsideration or a petition for reconsideration of this thing, and r8 is two seasons there are eight petitions, and you filed his petition with the American Farm bureau and the association of equipment manufacturers. What i like to ask is can you speak to the impact of this order this would have on your members and on the Construction Industry . Thank you, senator. The transportation Construction Industry is using more new innovative equipment on job sites from past survey into utilities, grading control, enhanced material applications. This equipment uses gps. The legato proposal network show significant interference with gps and other signals likely. And interference would be disruptive on job sites and contribute and jeopardize the safety and will most surely cause project delays. Currently theres over 900 million gps receivers nationwide and 99 of those operated by the private sector. None of which will become state under this order. Even more concerning if you look at the job site level, when did you have interference, the fcc order is to direct you to 1800 number. It seems the logical that you would have construction workers not realizing whether interference is coming from and that would not cause project delays as far as getting to a time of resolution. We would urge the fcc to revisit their orders and impacts the elect out of order on everyday users that depend on a reliable gps system. I appreciate that entering this hearing i did take the time to look up and find that legato is actually spent well in excess of 1 million on lobbyist. Their busy after working. Some it is as concerned about the amount of money thats going to be involved in this thing. The second thing, thought i would mention to mr. Mcgill, is as a chairman said i check the score for quite a while. This is one area people in washington, every time to want to spend money they call it an investment. In this case it actually is an investment. It has an effect on Everything Else that comes up. We see the return on this investment when companies locate new facilities in the community. We have experience that in the state the state of oklahoma. Id like to have you kind of elaborate a little bit about how, what kind of return we would get on this investment. Well, as repairs and upgrades are made to the highway street and bridge networks, drivers, physicist, shippers will all say time and money. These are as a result of decreased congestion, less money spent on vehicle repair and safer roads. The study commissioned by the u. S. Treasury Department Found for every dollar in capital spent on select projects, the net economic effect range from 3. 50, to seven dollars. The trucking sector estimates 74 million of added cost of goods due to congestion on the road. Were spending without the economic. We just dont see it because of the cost of our business of. I also want to say both of my good friends the chairman and vice chairman that this is an area where it is popular. Its about the only tax you can find that is popular. I can remember several of our good friends without mentioning names who are a few years ago running for governor were talked about spending and all that. They made the mistake of talking about infrastructure, and immediately they were jumped on. So there is a very strong, positive effect that we have when we talk about how were going to be doing funding. Thats going to be a problem. And i appreciate one of the statement you made about this is not the time that can be done, but the fact that eventually is going to have to be done. I appreciate it very much and this committee. I get more comments on this bill, i would say to the chairman, and anything else when i go back to oklahoma. Thank you, senator inhofe. Senator cardin. Thank you, mr. Chairman and let me thank all of our witnesses. Its a good followup to send it in half, the two of us are in total agreement. Infrastructure does bring us together. Its a critically important area for us to make advancements your Car Committee has always worked in a bipartisan manner, and now that we all recognize that over the last several decades weve seen a decline in the percentage of our economy thats been devoted to infrastructure spending, we need to do Smart Investments coming out of covid19, and i deeply appreciate the comment by doug in regards to how we pay for it now. I am for paying for it but coming out of this covid19, we are looking for how we can create jobs. We recognize that if we put trillions of dollars into the economy because you know the impact of covid19 has had on our economy. Now when you do look at how we can create the jobs that are lost from covid19, and investing in infrastructure gives us that opportunity to create jobs, but at the end of the day as senator inhofe has pointed out we also have an economy that can perform better for the people in our community as well as give us greater economic competitiveness. So at the end of the day we end up with a product that helps our constituents and our economy. Im a strong proponent of looking at a robust infrastructure package on and our committee has or to pass the bill on this in order to come out of covid19 with a stronger economy. My question is to mayor fischer. As we look at putting together an infrastructure package, every community is different. I was proud to work on a bipartisan way to create the Transportation Alternative Program which gives additional funding at the discretion of local governments for what is best in their community. In my state of maryland we need to have a balanced approach in infrastructure, transit is critically important to the people of the baltimorewashington region. We want to invest in transit. We want to invest in neighborhood Improvement Projects. We dont want to see one size fits all at the national level. So as a mayor kenney tells how important it is to have discretion as to how this petition programs are handled in your community and having the ability to be a partner in developing those types of transportation programs . I appreciate the question. Obviously i think the best government is the government that is closest to the people. We have longterm plans in terms of that will create a vision a decade at the nearterm plans, what it is were trying to do today. To give you some perspective on the challenge, louisville represents about 33 to our state gdp but we get 3 of the funding for transit, or roads. So theres this huge disconnect in terms of where the economy is being created in with the money is flowing towards that. So the more we can tie that into our local Transportation Planning and tie that into our materials that feed into her highway systems to complete streets when people sit outside and enjoy a great restaurant in louisville, that type of systemic approach towards transportation, and sidewalks on top of that, it is really important to create a great city, a city where traffic is moving as seems this possible reducing congestion and making sure our air quality is as good as we need it to be. I thank you for that. In working with senator inhofe and senator capito, we recognize our states are different. We tried to get flexibility so that can work in all parts of her country. Its one of the reasons why we had a unanimous vote in our committee and help as we move forward, yes, it is important to invest today in infrastructure. We may not pay for it completely but thats to get our economy a contract. This a good investment, like weve done already in the cares act, so let us look and do in smart way but give the flexibility to the states and local governments to do what is best for their community. I guess i thank you for your testimony and i think of our witnesses, and i just underscore what send in upset. We will work bipartisan to get a strong infrastructure package moving in this congress. Mr. Chairman, could you yield to me for just a minute . Yes. Listening to what he was saying, unfortunately everybody says we need to invest in transportation and infrastructure. Almost never drinking once a this is the time to do it. Always around the corner. We accused in recent weeks and months the term turning on the economy light switch versus a dimmer. With respect to funding i agree, 2020 i dont believe is a right time to raise taxes or fees. But i think we should start turning up the dimmer switch in 2021. Its always around the corner, on the horizon. Next year. I think we might be able to turn on the dimmer switch and provide some of the revenues that are needed and just send a signal were not going to walk away from this and so he put it on our nations credit card. Taking. Thank you. Senator capito. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here today and i joined my voice in the course of being very excited about infrastructure package. Senator cardin and i worked this door subcommittee and we build a lot of sustainability materials and everything into this to hopefully build a longer life. I want to ask the mayor a question quickly. On the flexibility that youre asking for, because this is an issue, and senator sullivan has a built asking for the dollars that it onto smaller states have come and use the for city, county and state lost tax revenue. Would our state taxes has a a s tax and i would include that in the package of tax revenues that would be important to a government. Do you have thought on this in terms of what you see in kentucky or in louisville . Yes, our gas tax has been a decline source of revenue to the state for quite some time as a result of that we get less and less every year as well, but i would definitely have this open bucket of all the Funds Available so we can look at it in the system and allocate those to the places we have the most vehicles miles being traveled with the greatest economic impact. Went to take care of our world brothers and sisters as well. The dynamism of the economy in city certainly in louisville and throughout the rest of the country as well. So the more we can look at it in the system and not balkanized into these different funds i think thats the way we maximize funding. West virginias 1020 in the guest expert also to the credit of our state we passed a state referendum to get to go that raised our gas tax and said this is important to us as citizens to have our potholes filled and new construction and all of the things and a mountainous state, in a rural state is sometimes are difficult to maintain. Mr. Mcgough, would ask you about bridges because this is my state also we have 21 of her bridges are deficient. When we were writing this highway built that weve all talked about today one of the setaside i worked hard and want to make sure we were able to include is a 6 billion set aside that dedicates to breach repaired. Weve seen some large bridges across the country collapse to calamitous endings, we also know in all of our areas we have bridges that can be used cant be used for school buses or have your trucks and are a danger in the community. My state is one of these. You highlight that in some of your comments but when we asked to report on this, they said we are making better progress in a bridge repair then may be the artba process in the report. Are you aware of that discrepancy in those report . Im not aware of the discrepancy. Im aware we are gaining ground on fixing our bridges as far as percent deficient. When you look at that, the number of years, decades that it would take to fix our bridges, thats the real challenge. The dollars still need to be coming in to be able to fix the lines that are deficient, so while it may look better yeartoyear, the real challenge is how many years is about going to take, in your case, in your state to fix those deficient bridges. Right and thats why insisted we include this in the package because its important not just in my state also a lot of other states. Just on the issue of Construction Companies now. I know a lot of them have gotten the loans, a lot of them, some of them it seems like when youre on the highway theres a lot of construction but im sure its a lot less than it was. What are you seeing in terms of safety of your workers . What racing in terms of rebuild . Mr. Holtzeakin, i dont know yet if you have, and what you see this Construction Industry could outpost out of where we are right now. I think the important part. I guess what i would emphasize is that the supply chain is an important part of economy, and keeping it going in the face of the virus is a priority. Its one of the things we managed to do pretty well. If you truck drivers, rail personnel, cargo pilots and the attending cruise, they should be a top priority for ppe and the ability to continue to operate as a go forward. The virus is it gone. We will have at least over sustain period to protect them during the course of the job. Thats not to diminish the First Responders and the health frontline workers but people forget about the thought of economics of the supply chain sometimes and thats very important. We had a hearing in congress yesterday that this was really hit hard on, particularly in areas that might be forgotten like rail or other areas. The rail folks have been forgotten. Its important. They move a lot of cargo. Right. I think my time is over. Thank you. Thanks so very much. I think senator whitehouse would be next. He has been in the room and it has been followed me. Right now he made had to step away which would turn us to senator gillibrand. Are right. And my can you hear me . We can now. We hear you very well. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, thank you for holding this hearing today. Im really grateful we have this chance. It should go without saying the impact of code 19 on new york has been massive and has been felt in every part of our economy including our transportation system. Our transit agencies across the state are experiencing staggering losses in revenue due to sharp decreases in ridership. Thats true in new york city and a smaller cities across the state. They all need her help. Public transit is an absolute lifeline for new yorkers. The mta has experienced a decrease in ridership of more than 90 during this pandemic. This decrease is not because people in new york all of a sudden no longer want or need Public Transit. Its because people need to stay home in order to stay safe. But despite the decreased ridership, it remains absolutely essential that our subways, buses and rail contingent operate so that healthcare workers can get to the hospitals, take care of sick people, and so people can continue to get the groceries and make other essential trips. For so many of our citizens, particularly our lowest Income Community members and communities of color, those are the ones who are hit hardest by covid19. Public transit is not simply a choice. Its actually a necessity. Continue to provide federal funding to replace the lost fare revenues are Public Transit system doesnt shut down is also essential. Once this crisis is passed as it will, writers will come back. We have to ensure transit agencies have the resources necessary to ensure they are sick or limiting transit and relying on more meaningful traffic in against the publiciy like new york is not the answer. It will leave those who can afford to drive in gridlock and congestion, and those who cant, transit. The people left stranded will include seniors, people with disability, our veteran community and many of the workers who have proved to be so essential during this pandemic. And thats while appreciate the opportunity to hold this hearing today, to talk about the role of infrastructure in our recovery, we need action by this senate as well. We need to listen to our states and cities that need our help, and they need that help right now. Infrastructure legislation in his sin is almost always but a highway on the recovery bill would not be a bipartisan approach to address the true needs of this unprecedented crisis. Mayor fischer, my question for you is, what do we need to be doing to make sure that our Public Transit agencies are able, safely and reliably operate during this pandemic . Thank you, senator. Theres a multitude of challenges in our city and we have a whole need for social distancing when you are on our Transit System as well. Our Transit System, the local government funded it at about 10 million a year and runs a deficit as you all know. Its a question of how to operate in this new environment . Some people are now suggesting that people need to accumulate more in cars to stop the spread of the virus. We are in this tremendously dynamic role right now where people are really not sure what the edges are, and oftentimes they are polar opposites of each other when they are given. So within those constraints we are working on safety issues without our Transit System, as we get our economy back to work. But if i could i just want to say one of the thing. Around america right now in our downtown areas most of our businesses are boarded up literally. While we are focusing on the pandemic we got to get a relief valve so that our streets are on so we can open up the economy as well. Thats just a reality we have in our cities right now where the house is burning more or less. Its much home or in our cities but i want to emphasize on top of the coronavirus this is a real issue and we dont understand how much long its going to be going on but weve got to be speaking to our people to say we understand and heres what were moving forward to what we expect our economy to be coming back. Can you talk about some of the benefits of having a reliable Public Transit system on the Economic Development and the ability to recover . Absolutely. When you think about the impact on the coronavirus, the people that were most impacted were our frontline workers who in most instances would be our africanamericans, are latino community. Obviously everyone everybody if the disproportionate impact of covid19, 23 of our population is africanamerican,. So the ability to a Public Transportation to get these folks safely to work to a a job that pays a living wage by the way, which is that happen here, is absolute center. Also housing solution, every city in america has a low income area that oftentimes is not where the jobs are. In our housing strategies to of housing, Affordable Housing throughout the community so people can get to jobs is also an important part of a longterm solution. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Senator cramer. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And Ranking Member carper both, and to this outstanding panel. I agree with senator carper, weve got the 18 in front of us and appreciate this discussion the a team. Ive been a strong advocate for including transportation infrastructure as part of recovery since the very beginning, because it has a number of advantages and some of your talked about that. First of all does have the advantage of creating immediate stimulus. Although it is not the primary purpose, building things stimulates the economy. People working statement the economy. It has the additional advantage of profitability of the private sector, the movement of goods and services, taurus, products whether they are manufactured in st. Louis and going to california or tourist going to yellowstone or delaware or corn and wheat going from north dakota to feed a hungry world. But thirdly it is the responsibility of the federal government to lead highway transportation bill and other infrastructure transportation, transportation infrastructure. So its a perfect time to do it. To that and thats what i wrote an oped at the beginning of discussion about the recovery promoting this. Im glad were having the strength to do exactly that. Dr. Holtzeakin, i have appreciated your a lot. In your reference to a patient stretchable to the supply capacity of the economy over the medium to long term. Very well said. In fact, in north dakota when oil was booming and everything was high, high, prices were hi, labor was high, concrete was high priced, everything to build anything was very high price but we needed to do it. When Oil Prices Went back down our state had the wisdom in the foresight to continue building the infrastructure. When the costs of everything were lower. So when they came back, when the prices came back and the boom came back we were well situated. I think theres a good example for us to follow. My question for small for you, dr. Holtzeakin. We are good at this town in kicking the can down the road, right . Would you just as an economist maybe share with us some perspective on the difference between or the advantages to a longterm, well thought out infrastructure built versus say a shortterm, even a oneyear extension . I think there is an enormous difference. If you only have a shortterm extension, you are going to build things that of some sort of return over the shortterm but they may not be the best thing over the long term. Now you have effectively diverted the funds to an unproductive use when you should have built them into better longterm plan. My frustration with a lot of the proposals that have come up over the last couple of years, big infrastructure bills, has really been twofold. Number one they start by saying infrastructure and present everything is infrastructure because you want to get in. The good thing is, it is what it is. Its a surface transportation reauthorization and thats a part of infrastructure and good. The second thing is the shortterm focus. Again and again and again, we can spend a trillion dollars this year, and maybe you can but isnt a better thing to do to take a system that identifies highvalue projects and fund them in a sustained way so they benefit for a long line time . Its refreshing to see that approach. Mr. Mcgough, i think from the construction standpoint theres some efficiency to his point, to longterm plan, is there not . There is both the efficiency and the productivity, especially for a longterm planning standpoint. Even if you think out five years, thats longterm, we need in the nation the ability to rebuild a lot of our roads and bridges. If you look even at the artba report for your individual states, those numbers of new lane miles is only set at 4 across the country. Most of those dollars are for reconstruction and repair of things along those lines, or additional lane within existing rightofway. So very important that we maintain that course and that we put a robust bill in front of the full senate, and ultimately in front of the president. Let me throw hand grenade into the middle of the room. Our president is a builder. Hes a developer and he loves Interest Rates and diverting site both publicly and a private conversations we should borrow a couple trillion free dollars, by that i mean interestfree, to which i i tell it is still tha. We should bar a couple trillion dollars and do it big. Does that make sense, whether its a couple choate or half 1 trillion, doesnt make sense in this economic time to do Something Like that, mr. Holtzeakin, from your economics template . No, thats not a good way to form but the problem i dont think. If you are barring a trillion dollars you still have budgetary tradeoffs in which going to go and you should put it in its most highvalue juice, and to just come advance the size of that will be infrastructure to find some of without checking other potential investments is a mistake. I like approaches that have an objective which is highly connected National Surface Transportation Network with efficiencies. Thats a well formulated problem that i can understand funding. Taking 1 trillion and throwing it at everything under the sun is not a well formulated approach. Thank you. Senator braun. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First of all i dont think anyone of us i dont think theres anyone of us here that is simply that infrastructure across the entire spectrum and senator gillibrand is right, n some places you need that in many places will be made the hard decision, i was sitting on the roads and Transportation Committee and ways and means, and got into the stark reality when i filed the Highway Commission of highways out the door of the committee room. That allowed enterprising local governments to put more skin in the game and we teed it up the next year and have got this early stages of a road project in place. Now, i dont know how what were dealing with now is going to impact that, but somehow we have got to convince people here where we borrow money for everything we do. We dont even cover. Maybe 23 of our current budget, were borrowing to cover it, so its no good. We got 48 out of 50 stake holders that will willing to pay users fees in indiana this come and can have and say, we want to pay more in road taxes and i know that diminishes in effect each year. How do we how do any of you convince the people that use the roads to come here and convince us that we need to adjust a user fee up that hasnt abouten changed since 1993 . Mr. Mcgoo can you start first and id like to move around the horn. Weve been consistent in supporting any and all highway user fees and we believe that the users of the systems should use that. I know through the years that people have stepped up and said theyd be willing to pay more. And i mentioned just from the ro roads, safer roads and what its costing truckers, ultimately being passed on to you and i in the cost of our services. I think its time for congress and the president , what was agreed, you know, what has been said since 2016 and whats been said this year is to move forward with a bill to fix and put in a longterm sustainable multiyear bill that we can count on, as an industry, and its been shown through the years to be bipartisan. Its one of the more popular programs. If you poll the American People. I think that its time to make some tough choices and move forward. Thank you. I dont have a magic solution to that, but i think one of the real hurdles is making sure that theres a strong connection, an observable connection between the fee and the ultimate service that people get back. And if they feel theyre paying a, quote, user fee and they dont see a highway that is being kept up in good shape and is congested, they start to wonder, is this really worth doing . And that becomes a problem and then its just literally a tax. Its not a fee for service and so structuring the fees as close to the ground so people can see the link between what they pay and what they get, i think is a key part of the problem right now. Thank you. Mayor, when you answer the question, we have a thing called Community Crossings grant in indiana where we offered county and City Governments the ability to get more money from the state if they put a little more skin in the game. Do you have anything like that available to you . And what do you think of that idea to kind of stretch the federal dollars that might come in on any project as well, thats a separate thing, but a way to maintain and pay for roads, paid for primarily by city and county governments . Senator, thank you. My neighbor here just to the north of us, we do not have a program like that, but anytime you can get that kind of leverage or match that we are totally want to take advantage of a situation like that. I can just provide an observation of the cities around the country and different mayors. To the previous comments, when citizens can say if i pay this fee and im going to see this project come to fruition, you see a very high rate of success in those projects, in the neighborhood of twothirds. Youre seeing billions and billions, could be trillions of projects. Basically being locally funded taking place around the country right now. Theres been an increase in the local government matching in federal funds in particular, the charts that i provided to you all showed that local governments increase in funding has gone up 116 from the period 2001 to 2015, versus the federal governments 55 . So youre seeing more and more activity from local governments in these areas with more difficult budget situations. A prime example of what youre talking about, too, is the bridge that connects to your state and my state and the ohio River Project driven by user fees, tolls. And its helped to create jobs, im a business guy that happens to be mayor, but the movement of transit throughout our city and our region as well. So last thing, kentucky does not an i allow specific refere. In referendum on local projects, let them pay if they want to pay. Thank you. Senator bosman. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you all for being here. We do appreciate it very much. Mr. Holtzeakin, youve had a very distinguished career in being policy, Economic Policy and have been a great help in the past and i think you made a statement about Shovel Ready Projects and thats great. That creates some job, but the real benefit that comes after that if they are worthy. President eisenhower because of military reasons built the interstate system. As a result of that, we were became the leader in the sense of being able to move goods and services, also. That lessens prices to consumers, thats a great thing. Now, with globalization, not only are we worried about, again, being efficiencies, helping our producers now, you know, selling to our own population, but also trying to compete with globalization. Can you talk a little about how important it is as we try to end the logistics, and the how important that is, trying to compete with a worldwide economy . Were in constant competition with countries around the world, and workers around the world. We have to make sure that our workers have at their disposal the best technologies and the most efficient operating surroundings. There are some very particular things that come up again and again, not all which are solvable in this committee, but you know, the connectivity between different modes is an ongoing problem in the United States. Now, ports to trains and trucks to airplanes and you know, those are and theres some high congestion areas that jump out on the west coast and a couple in solving those has a big impact on the domestic economy, but also a big impact on our competitors. Spent a lot of money internally getting stuff in and out and i think thats very important and, you know, there are some things that we know Going Forward are going to be more important. I think, you know, were not going to see commercial air travel for leisure purposes be what it used to be, but air cargo and the capacity for planes to fly closer together, greater volumes, air traffic that looks forward is better. These are the things that are Core Infrastructure for 21st century when youre competing globally. Yesterday i was in a hearing in the va committee and the secretary of the va was there. He was telling us that in the last few weeks, few weeks, theyd hired thousands of va employees using the abilities that under this very difficult circumstance that were in, normally that would take a year, you know, its amazing. Can all of you all talk about and well start with you, mr. Mcgough, about the importance of a one or twoyear project that could be a one or twoyear project actually being closer to a decade project . If we could just reduce some of the and again doing it in the correct way. A great example is the bridge that fell down in minneapolis. That was done in a year. That project, i dont know how long it would have taken if you know, if you did it in the conventional way, how important is that . How would that save us money and allow us to get some of these projects done . Well, you know, what you have in the bill that you passed last july when i said common sense reforms, a lot of it is codifying the one federal decision and getting the lead agency when it comes to transportation. We would look to the d. O. T. , but being able to get reviews down to a twoyear window and moving forward, thats where a lot of your challenges come with moving projects forward, its the time to get construction started and as youve seen in projects that have been fast tracked for accelerated delivery, that those road blocks get out of the way and you see what happens. What we need, as a nation, is some of this common sense policy reforms where the average person, if you told them how long to get a project off the ground, they find it hard to believe thats true. We need to shrink that time line. And its enormously important on a project basis, obviously, but as a flavor of what is really at stake, my organization keeps track of every regulation issued by the federal government and over the eight years of the obama administration, it issued a major regulation, something that would cost the private sector more than 100 million. A total cost of 890 billion or 100 billion a year. The Trumps Administration approach to registry budgets has essentially stopped that in its tracks and theres been a modest increase. It was a negative coming into the pandemic. Thats an enormous difference in economic performance, we saw that. In this pandemic the emergency wavers that weve seen across the federal agencies allowed people to do things flexibly and respond quickly and thats been a huge success. If the extent that you can make the progress in your bill or codify things under emergency waivers, i think that would be valuable. Mr. Mayor, can you do it quickly . Or the chairman is going to yell at me. Okay, ill be quick. Thank you. Great project management cannot be replaced and what projects are streamlined and we always want safety as a forefront of all of these things. As for do that, weve got to remember theres equity issues around the environment. There has to be an Environmental Justice issue on all of these things so our low income neighbors dont feel like, here we go again, the well get the short end of the stick. And one more thing, value engineering, we took our ohio rivers project 400 billion budget down to 2 1 2 billion dollars and its a beautiful piece of infrastructure. Having a different way of looking at projects from functional is important so you can maximize this and senator, there are hundreds of billions of dollars of Shovel Ready Projects available to date throughout america as well as as we work out untangling our bureaucratic mess he is on the other side. So people can get started to go to work today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator van holland. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you, Ranking Members and the witnesses who are here with us today. And let me discuss say at the outset that i was pleased to be part of the bipartisan vote in our committee and the Epw Committee in support of the highway authorization bill, a fiveyear bill. As you know, mr. Chairman, the Senate Banking committee which i also serve on has jurisdiction over transit, sat Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over heavy rail. We have not marked up a transit bill in the Senate Banking committee. I would look forward to doing it just as soon as possible. So its hard to compare whats happening Epw Committee with the house. As you know, the House Infrastructure Committee has jurisdiction over all of those components. Not just highways, but also transit and heavy rail. I hope we can get moving in the senate on a bipartisan bill, but i would insist before any final vote in the United States senate on a highway bill to be merged with a bipartisan transit bill. This is a fiveyear authorization bill that were talking about and it needs to include transit. You know, i just checked and every infrastructure bill thats passed the senate in recent times has had both roads, but also transit. And it needs to stay that way. So, i hope we can get moving in the Banking Committee and the Commerce Committee as fast as the Epw Committee did. I commend you for moving quickly on that piece. Really, we need all of those pieces to come together just as the house needs to come together in all of those elements. Mayor fisher, thank you for acknowledging in your opening comments the painful issues that we have to sort out as a country with respect to the systemic racism that are manifesting themselves again and again and again. Most recently with the murders that you mentioned. We need to get to the bottom of all of those issues. I do believe as part of making sure we have an economy that works for everybody, we need Good Transportation systems, both roads and highways, but importantly, Transit Systems. So, could you talk about the importance to the city of louisville about transit and whether you agree that as we move forward in the senate on the bill that passed the dpw committee, its also essential that we move forward on the transit reauthorization . Thank you, senator. Yeah, i just want to reemphasi reemphasi reemphasize the cries that were hearing from the streets of america, thats all of america, folks. We cant say were going back to business as usual. If thats the case, this will continue and continue and continue not just to the economy as well. What can we make that sends a signal on the short end of the investment stick for a long period of time that their lives are going to become better. Public transit is one of those ways, because our africanamerican communities, our low income communities disproportionately in our city, which is primarily a carbased city. It works well, gets them quickly to their job. The average user of Public Transportation is twice as long. People who dont use Public Transportation, multiple stops, trying to get groceries and taking care of kids. Its complicating over what they already have. And send a message to the people that are suffering, i hear you. Thats the most important thing that we hear what theyre saying and what theyre talking about thats critical to be a part of this bill. Thank you. On the financing question, because as we all know, epw has authorization jurisdiction, but we need the money to make all of this really work and a question on financing and mr. Holtzeakin, its good to connect with you again, even virtually, but im curious during this period of time weve just essentially had emergency 2. 3, you know, trillion dollar spending to respond to the emergency of covid19. I think all of us recognize that investing in our infrastructure is one of those longterm investments that will pay dividends to our country. Interest rates are low. I have supported a while variety of fansing mechanisms, but im interested at this point in time whether you think deficit financing infrastructure makes sense for our economy. So, as i said in my opening remarks, i think there is a place for this kind of an Infrastructure Investment in the recovery strategy. The emphasis has been on front loading things and unemployment insurance. Thats been highly effective. Believe it or not this disposable personal income went up 1. 2 trillion in annual rate and thats stunning. Its because of the cares act and the 3 trillion of government transfer. Thats been the focus. I think there does need to be a longer term more patient approach. As a matter of doing business, in 2024 i would hope it would be paid for and you would have a good user fee in place. As a matter of doing business in 2020 its less important. The response to the crisis is more involved now and that involves taking care of the economy at the expense of tightening up the budget. There will be harder work to be done past the pandemic, but now is not the time to do it. Just briefly to follow up on that, look, we all want a five year paid for bill, that would be the best thing, but as i understand, your answer, you do support some immediate Infrastructure Investments as part of the Emergency Response that would be paid for like the rest of the emergency bill by deficit financing, is that correct . Yeah, part of it can be deficit financing, i have no problem with that. I want the infrastructure to be a sensible longterm program in other circumstances we would do. Id like it online so its benefits accrue in 2021 at the earliest, 2021, 2023, part of the strategy. Thank you all very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator carper. Thank you very much. I want to go back to something that doug holtzeakin said to us or maybe in the beginning, opening statement, but i think he alluded to the fact that the state and local governments, they vote fairly regularly to raise user fees to pay for infrastructure in normal times. These are not normal times. Over 30 states voted to pay for roads, highways, bridges, transit and so forth and we find that where its perilous for even to tiptoe close in a fullblown economy, the largest in the last 11 years and were still almost fearful to say what we ought to pay for transportation infrastructure. Theres a reason why something thats so hard for us is really relatively easy at the state level and one of the reasons why is the ability that a state lathe has or a governor has, speaking as a former governor and putting together capital budgets. It says these are the projects we want to build county by county by county. And roads by roads. In order to be able to afford those and have the benefits in the counties or cities, were going to raise a user fee. It might be a couple of pennies, dimes or nickels or whatever. In delaware, delaware is a 1 miles south and 50 wide. And a significant part of the shares, we have like other states do. But i go to the ribbon cuttings or any significant almost any significant transportation Improvement Project that has state, federal money. I go to the ribbon cuttings at the end of the day and i explain to people that are there, we are going to have a great project and a ribbon cutting, look what weve done, but what weve also paid for and other is how we pay for it. We can do that in delaware, but harder in california or texas. We tell our constituents why we will raise a user fee and the benefit for that. Im going to say i agree fully with doug. The future is amount of vehicle miles traveled. It doesnt matter a truck or van, using gas, using diesel, using electric, using hydrogen for fuel cells, it doesnt matter, you ought to be paying your fair share, if you have a heavier vehicle that creates more damage then you pay more through the vehicle miles traveled. Thats where we ought to go. If i could use a light switch and do that like tomorrow, thats what i would do. We dont have a light case for many, but could use a dimmer switch, but we could use it in a smart way vehicle miles traveled. Two quick questions, mayor fisher, we thank you so much for your leadership and wish you well in louisville and the constituentsy that you have there the presidency of the National Constitution of mayors. We talk about uncertainty and we look or still look at uncertainty with respect to the economic recovery. How does that uncertainty affect efforts to budget, including your transportation budget for the coming year, which i believe starts july 1st and how important is it that any federal relief come prior to the start of that fiscal year or maybe soon thereafter as possible . Thank you, senator. Its ability on the outlook is extraordinarily important right now. Prethe riots and going on around america, the demonstrations and civil unrest, wed furloughed about 400 people. If we do not get more relief from the federal government were talking about 600 to 800 people more out of a job. 60 of our budget is made up of First Responders, so the people that were asking for to help us get through the pandemic and now keeping peace in our streets, their jobs are at risk. And to spend that kind of message in todays environment just boggles the imagination. What well do, well use our Rainy Day Fund to get through as much as we can. They desperately need a signal from the u. S. Senate and washington, help is on the way, here is what it looks like so we can keep our cities running, if we cant get our government returning, the economy is not coming back. It was tough enough with the unrest, there was loss of jobs, loss of stability as well. If you guys cant pass anything before july 1st, thats a broad signal, here is whats coming, its coming in mid july or august. We need to say yes, its coming or you guys are out on your own. Any early ability would be appreciated by people all over in the cities and towns. If i could ask a question. Mr. Mcgough, a lot of cities have Rainy Day Funds. Today, they have approaching 400 million which is a lot for a little state. Not going to be 400 million the end of this year, i assure you. And a lot of cities have Rainy Day Funds are quickly depleted due to the the virus and now facing prospects of running out of money as we are in delaware not too far down the road. Our Transportation Fund was critical. But our state and local partners provide maybe the lions share in many distances for Transportation Funding. Question. If federal funds remain consistent how can funds in related industry be impacted boo i by state and local revenues . Can you agree that some loss of state and local funds is critical to economic recovery and growth . Senator carper, i would agree. I believe from at least the state d. O. T. Standpoint, it would be a back stop that the loss in revenues from their portion of the motor fuels tax decreases, is significantly affecting their budget. 10 states, you know, have currently canceled or delayed projects to the tune of 5 billion. 32 states have projected that they expect to have cancellations or delays in projects. The money for the state d. O. T. s is just for preservation and this doesnt change the need for a robust or multiyear infrastructure bill. Thats what its really going to take to get our economy back on track and get the growth that we need. Mr. Chairman, a closing thought with you and our colleagues, thanks again for this hearing. I want to thank our staffs for helping to put together just a terrific panel and not everybody was able to participate. We have, as you might know, a bunch of other hearings going on and some of them really important, too. Not everybody could be here, but its been a wonderful hearing and wed like to follow up or continue to follow up with you down the road. Mr. Chairman you and i have talked about leadership before and i think a lot about itten i know you do, too. And leadership is currently out a step when marching to the wrong tune. Leadership is currently out of step and others marching to the wrong tune im not sure who said that. And another said leaders of purveyors of hope. Think about that, leaders are purveyors of hope. And a lot of reasons for economy and the other plus here is hope. And theres a lot of people in our country right now who dont have a lot of hope and we can help provide a good measure of that, a good shot in the arm to say, we can Work Together and affect us in our everyday lives, our features. Thats whats at stake here and im encouraged that were doing the right thing. My hope is we, by our example, we can encourage those in the senate and house to do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you so much for your leadership and your partship in this entire process, we have letters supporting what were doing for the hearing. Id like to enter into the record letters of support we received, recognizing the need for highway legislation and the bill that weve passed in a bipartisan way and including letters from the American Association of highway transportation officials. The Portland Cement association, the national stone, gravel and sand association. And its america, and its america stands for the intelligence Transportation Society of america. So we have all sides covered here, senator carper. Without objection mr. Chairman i would ask unanimous commit to submit a report benefits of transit and safety, quality, Economic Development and more, turs out 1 billion in transit can turn into Economic Growth. Thank you for your testimony, i agree with members of bow both sides of the aisle that we have the ateam here. Members may submit questions for the record and we ask that you respond to those so the hearing record will stay open for the next two weeks. I want to thank the witnesses for your time, your testimony, thank you mr. Mayor for joining us remotely. The hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] live wednesday on the cspan networks, the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on policing practices and accountability. The committee will hear from George Floyds brother and family attorney ben crump. Other witnesses include mark more yell of the urban league and one from the Legal Defense fund. That 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan. On cspan2, the Senate Returns at 10 a. M. To continue work on a bill to fund the National Parks and public lands. And on cspan 3, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin joins the head of the Small Business administration to talk about implementing the Small Business in the cares act. And here is streaming live wednesday, 10 a. M. The Senate Health committee looks how the coronavirus will affect the new school year for kthrough 12 students. At noon eastern, a House Oversight hearing on the challenges that essential workers are facing during the pandemic. Also at that time, a House Financial Services subcommittee holds a hearing how the coronavirus impacts renters, follow those hearings online live on cspan. Org. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs prming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. This week the senate is working on a bill to address the maintenance backlog for National Parks and public lands. Several senators are als
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