Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing Focuses On Highway And Transit Infrastructure Funding 20170408

Its a bill that provides very certainty and funding so our nonfederal artners can make smart long investments. Implemented by the u. S. Department of transportation. We look forward to building a infrastructure with our state and local partners and their oing to welcome today. I am grateful for this subcommittee hearing. I think it indicates that our subcommittee wants to get behind all of the interest that weve heard on infrastructure and see what we can really do. We know that a large infrastructure package idea, the idea of a large infrastructure package, which is on the minds of many in the administration and on our minds is not going to magically appear. We did a lot of and ill say, deservedly so, a lot of selfcongratulation when we passed the First Service transportation bill in 10 years, and i must say im very grateful, mr. Chairman, that it was a good bipartisan effort and i know you share with me the disappointment in order to get any increase whatsoever after 10 years, we had to make a sixyear bill a fiveyear bill. I dont know how long we can keep that kind of disinvestment from going on. I say disinvestment, because if youre not even investing in a state of good repair, much less the new infrastructure we need, youre not investing, we are disinvesting, and when i say disinvesting, remember how we built this country. Ever since this idea of the federal transportation infrastructure package was created by president eisenhower, the country has understood that you cant be a great country unless you continuously invest in infrastructure of various kinds. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that we face a shortfall just over the next decade if were trying to continue to fund the f. A. S. T. Act funding levels, and it says we need 17 billion more a year than f. A. S. T. Act levels at the federal level to improve our infrastructure and maintain a state of good repair reducing that backlog. Im very pleased that the president has said good things about infrastructure, so i hastened to get a hold of his socalled skinny budget and was very disappointed to see really unheard of cuts to popular Transportation Programs. So instead of investing after my hopes had been raised, for example, in transit, urgently needed to alleviate congestion, the president wants to stop all new investments in transit by cutting off the new starts program. Im grateful nevertheless for the continuing bipartisanship on this committee. I was pleased to sign a letter with chairman graves and the leadership of the full committee to urge the Appropriation Committee to fully fund all f. A. S. T. Act programs as authorized for the remainder of 2017 and the upcoming 2018 budget. Im still banking on a president who talks about a trillion dollars proposal, at least supporting us as we fight to maintain the meager funding levels we had. We know that the budget, im not terribly im not terribly pulling my hair out that the president s cuts will go through because no matter who is president , the appropriators always rewrite the budget. But i am concerned that the administration seems to be more enamored with pushing private capital and financing, which would end up making projects more expensive than traditional funding mechanisms and regulatory reforms than making investments. And investorcentered approach will do little to improve infrastructure across the nation. You simply cant build your infrastructure and expect that toll roads will somehow pay for it. There must be a revenue stream, and for the modern era in had american life, it is always with this committee and subcommittee. Nor can we streamline our way out of inAdequate Funding. Secretary child said recently, the problem is not money imagine saying that about roads and transit. The problem is always money. She didnt say that, that was editorializing. It was the delays to permitting processes that hold up projects for years making them risky investments are nationwide, undergo any rigorous environmental review. Most are what we see everyday, 90 are exempt from the categorization process and are exempt from rigorous levels of review. Also refutes the notion that more streamlining now is the prudent cost of action it concludes that additional streamlining provisions in the f. A. S. T. Act are actually slowing down the department of u. S. Department of transportations ability to implement the project delivery accelerations put into map 21, in other words, streamlining measures on top of each other before they can be implemented and simply does not help and frankly does not happen. I have always defended opportunities for Public Participation and continue to believe that it helps us improve the ultimate project. Community input and buy in are crucial to the successful and expeditious advancement of transportation projects getting public im sorry, gutting Public Participation in the name of cutting red tape is something that will harm our roads and well harm constituents who use our roads infrastructure. I dont believe we can reinvent the wheel when it comes to transportation and infrastructure, i just think theres no way around our obligation, as the congress of the United States to provide states and local governments with the funding and the flexibility that they alone know what to do with to produce smart and efficient projects, allowing the states who have the wisdom once we give them the money, to go ahead. I very much look forward to todays witnesses. Ive read the headlines about atlanta. And i85 will be interesting to hear what we can do and what you can do on that unforeseen circumstance. Thank you very much, and i look forward to the testimony. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member. I now turn to the Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Defazio. Rep. Defazio thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks for this important hearing. Ill just restate a few things because they do merit restating. We have a 836 billion backlog on that need, nearly 140,000 bridges need repair and replacement, over 90 billion just to bring existing transit up to a state of good repair, let alone build out new transit options for people, yet we havent increased the user fee here in wdashington, d. C. In the quarter of a century, over the past few years, 17 states have raised their gas tax and nobody has been recalled, nobody has lost their reelection and it has not been a controversy, the American People get it. Theyre tired of sitting in traffic. Theyre tired of blowing out tires, and theyre tired of being detoured around weightlimited or closed bridges. Theyre tired of the decrepit state of our mass transit. They want to see action. Im sending a letter to urge her to come down and work with congress to create a consensus around Real Investment and solutions for the nations infrastructure problems. Im hearing a lot of talk about infrastructure banks, private tax credits, and were doing to streamline the federal approval process. Lets address that briefly. First off most p3s are projects a billion dollars or larger. You have got to have a rate of return. We have got to attract the investment. They have to be told of some other way to recoup the investment. Theyre generally 5 to 1 public money to private money. Now, the speaker has said he wants 401 private money to public money. That means no more p3s. There are no investors are going to put up, you know, at a 401 ratio and do a p3. They generally put up 10, 15 at the most, and the rest comes from local bonding or state bonding, municipal bonds, whatever. So thats myth number one. Infrastructure, banks, private activity bonds, you know, those are new forms of local borrowing again they require a revenue stream, hence tolling or some other way of recouping the investment and, of course, they increase the cost. Now secretary chao, unfortunately, was given some alternate facts by somebody. Investors say theyre waiting to invest, so the problem is not money, its delays caused by permitting projects that hold up projects up years even decades, making them risky investments. No, thats not the problem. In fact, we made 42 major policy changes for streamlining in 21. Some of them have run into conflicts with the f. A. S. T. Act we did streamlining and more streamlining on top of streamlining, lets get all of that implemented and see if theres still any issues. I dont think youll find many. In fact, more than 90 of the projects go for it, which is basically filling out a few sheets of paper and might take you a month or two months at the most. That isnt the issue here. You cant streamline your way out of lack of funding. 4 of projects require Environmental Impact statements, and as Ranking Member norton noted, most of those are held up at the local or state level because of controversies surrounding those projects redesign and other things, which came out in hearings which are required under the process. Thats 4 of the projects. 96 dont even have to go through a rigorous environmental review. A recent report by the treasury looked at 40 economically significantly transportation water projects whose completion has been slowed or in jeopardy, ah, Proof Positive about streamlining. No, the report found that a lack of public funding is, by far, the major factor hindering the completion of those projects. So plain and simple, a provision in the f. A. S. T. Act that says if Congress Appropriates more money to transportation, it flows through the policies in the f. A. S. T. Act. We dont need to spend a year or two rewriting the policies, arguing over transit highway split. Arguing how much goes here or there, arguing we dont have to go through any of the policy debate. All we need to do is have the guts to put up a little bit of money and thats why i introduced the penny for progress. As ive said before, if anybody around here thinks theyll lose their election, if they vote on something that caps the indexization increase at one and 1. 5 cents a gallon a year, then you dont need to be here. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairmain graves thank you. We have mr. Patterson. Hes testifying on behalf of the american state highway and transportation officials. We also have mr. Gary thomas who is president of the executive director of the dallas area Rapid Transit, hes testifying on behalf of the American Public transportation association. Rep. Johnson thank you very much, mr. Chairman. As a representative from dallas, im proud to introduce not only a friend and partner, but a good executive who is mr. Gary thomas, president and executive director of the dallas area Rapid Transit, which we call d. A. R. T. , the largest growing metropolitan area in the country. He joined d. A. R. T. In 1988 and since grown it to the longest and largest at 93 miles long. D. A. R. T. Has become a leading example of how to effectively manage and grow flourishing Public Transportation. I happen to know they have strong relationships with our federal partners at us d. O. T. And the federal transit administration, thanks to mr. Thomas. Hes effective at cultivating Strategic Partnerships to meet the needs of robust Transit Network in the dallas metroplex. With that, mr. Chairman, i am proud to introduce mr. Thomas to the committee with great anticipaon to his testimony and his plea for money. Thank you, and i yield back. Rep. Johnson i thank you, mr. Chairman. Its my distinct pleasure to recognize and welcome my friend kasim reed mayor, of atlanta. I can think of no better witness than to offer the honorable kasim reed. Mayor reed, when he first came into office, he balanced atlantas budget and took care of the challenge of the unfunded pension system, which had been languishing for many years, thats been taken care of successfully six years ago. He has invested in hiring more Police Officers in atlanta. Our crime rate continues to go down. Mayor reed is the 59th mayor of the city of atlanta, serving in that capacity since 2010. Bipartisan way with federal stake holders on Economic Development and transportation issues. Atlanta experienced Economic Development and a population boom, for instance, his work with governor nathan deal and the Obama Administration to obtain federal support for the port of savannah expansion project has resulted in much Economic Development for the atlanta region and for the state of georgia. Upgrading roads and bridges and improve the citys transportation infrastructure. The city of atlanta under mayor reeds leadership is undergoing a historic 2. 6 billion expansion of the metropolitan atlanta Rapid Transit authority, or m. A. R. T. A. , as well as expanding and completing such as atlantas belt line, which is a 22mile stretch of trails and transit around the city on the abandon railways. This project has opened up a lot of Economic Development in terms of new housing and rehabilitated housing, new residents coming in, businesses opening up, communities being created that are walkable, likable, and interconnected, and also at the same time, he has presided over the opening of the Maynard Jackson International Terminal at the Atlanta Airport as atlanta matures into a world class city. He is overseeing currently a 6 billion expansion of the Hartsfield Jackson airport, an international airport, the worlds Busiest Airport at the same time, building a state of the art stadium world class facility with the retractable roof for the falcons. So much that we can talk about mayor kasim reeds leadership of atlanta. Hes leveraging the strength of partnerships with the state of georgia, college and universities in the private sector to build an innovative transportation infrastructure that ensures mobility and creativity for atlantas residents, businesses and visitors, all taking place while atlanta remains an affordable city where every day working people can afford to live, work, and play. With that im proud to introduce to this committee, mayor kasim reed. Chairman graves thank you, mr. Johnson. With that ill ask consent that our witnesses full statements be included in the record. Without objection, that is so m ordered. Since your written testimony is going to be part of the committee, the committee will please ask that you limit your summary to five minutes. With that, mr. Patterson, well start with you. Mr. Patterson i am here to testify on behalf of odot. First we want to thank you, mr. Chairman, and other members of your committee for your leadership and efforts to increase the efficiency of delivering transportation projects in collaboration and cooperation with the federal government. The state d. O. T. s continue to seek opportunities and create solutions to solve the deteriorating Transportation System. All of us have come to realize traditional funding is important that serves as a partial solution to the problem. The f. A. S. T. Authorization of 305 billion for federal highway, highway safety, transit, Passenger Rail programs from 2016 to 2020 could not have have been timelier and supporting our transportation infrastructure. Equally importantly involves major problematic policy reforms contained in both the f. A. S. T. Act. It is our hope that congress will feel comfortable in seeking additional reforms that will provide further opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Transportation Programs and project delivery while remaining responsible stewards of taxpayer resources and both human and natural environments. Moving forward, we must develop a modern revenue model for serving our transportation investments. The days of tax consumption for a fleet of ever increasing fuel efficient vehicles is nearing its end. What we consider what we consider innovative funding today must and will become a new normal for funding transportation. Until that time, it is imperative that the annual Obligation Authority and the f. A. S. T. Act be fully honored, the structural cashflow deficit in the Highway Trust Fund be resolved, and the schedule of rescissions of Contract Authority be abolished. Even in todays environment of financing solution, it remains imperative that direct funding of transportation investments remain the primary focus. The reality remains the most transportation projects cannot generate adequate revenue to service debt or provide the return on investment required by private sector equity holders. Everyone recognizes that the f. A. S. T. Act only provides a nearterm solution to the transportation funding. That is because the Highway Trust Fund continues to remain at a crossroads. The Highway Trust Fund has provided stable, reliable and sometimes substantial highway and transit funding for deck ka since its inception in 1956, but this is no longer the case. Since 2008, it has sustained through a series has been sustained through a series of general Fund Transfers now amounting to 140 billion. According to the january 2017 baseline of congressional of the Congressional Budget Office, the Highway Trust Fund spending is estimated to exceed receipts by about 17 billion in fy 21 growing to about 4 billion to 2027. Furthermore, the Highway Trust Fund is expected to experience a significant cash shortfall in 2021 since it cannot incur negative im sorry, since it cant incur negative balance. Estimates a 40 drop from 2020 to the following year from 46. 2 billion to 27. 7 billion. In the past, such a similar shortfall situations have led to the possility of reduction in federal reimbursements to states on existing obligations leading to a serious cashflow problems for states and resulting in project delays. Based on the federal surface Transportation Programs long track record efficiency and flexibility, we recommend that any increase in federal funds should flow through the existing f. A. S. T. Act based Program Structure rather than through untested approaches that require more time and oversight. Though the certainty certainly significant benefits from investment and transportation infrastructure goes well beyond shortterm construction jobs created, a well performing Transportation Network allows businesses to manage inventory and move goods across more cheaply a variety of suppliers and markets for their products though the certainty certainly significant benefits from investment and transportation infrastructure goes well beyond shortterm construction jobs created, a well performing Transportation Network allows businesses to manage inventory and move goods across more cheaply a variety of suppliers and markets for their products and get employees reliable to work. Congress should encourage the u. S. D. O. T. To implement the provisions of the f. A. S. T. Act fully consistent with the legislative intent. An example of the d. O. T. Regulatory action is the onerous and unanticipated requirement regarding metropolitan planning organization, npo coordination. Although state d. O. T. And theyre already added significant legal and administrative that will serve to constructive and flexible approaches to planning and programming being implemented by states and npos today. Along with the companion legislation to repeal this rule, we appreciate your committees prompt action last week to bring this before the house rule. Mr. Chairman, thank you for conducting this important hearing to bring a greater awareness of the Transportation Needs for the nation and thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. We will be happy to answer any questions the committee may have. Chairman graves thank you, mr. Patterson. Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas i appreciate the work that this committee does. Thank you, congresswoman johnson for your kind introduction, but more importantly, thank you for what you do in our region. You have been the stalwart congresswoman in our region for many years, and im grateful for the impact you have had. I am grateful to talk about the impact that the partnership with the federal government and most reportedly the f. A. S. T. Act has had on our community. D. A. R. T. Was created in 1983 when north texans voted to tax themselves a 1 sales tax to create a Transit Agency that quite frankly they didnt know what was going to do at that point time. Today, d. A. R. T. Is a multimodal Transit Agency operating north americas longest light rail system in the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. The 2. 3 million residents of our 13 cities, 700squaremile service area of bus, light rail, Commuter Rail and Transit Services to give them a choice to get them where they need to go every single day. Ive been part of the Public Transportation industry for several years and ceo since 2001. Public transportation is changing the way American Communities grow. Equally importantly, we are seeing a significant return on the Public Investment. Transitoriented development along d. A. R. T. Rail lines have generated more than 7 billion in Economic Impact from new or planned construction. Additionally, in 2014, there were 43,000 jobs that resulted from this development, resulting in nearly 3 billion in wages, salaries, and benefits. Now, our regions customers insist on being mobile and being connected. Our gopass mobile ticketing app was one of the first in the industry to respond to that demand from the multiagency and fair payment system. So just over two years ago, we began working with car and Ridesharing Companies like lyft, uber, and zip car to provide more complete trip. In other words, first mile, last mile opportunities. Now, were using a federal sandbox or mobility on demand grant to make it easier for car and ridesharing customers to connect with transit through that app. Our congressional delegation knows the federal funds will generate Significant Impact and Higher Quality of life in our region. Were pleased to enjoy consistent bipartisan support. We also believe that we need to bring money to the table. Voters to decide to dedicate a portion of sales tacks to help fund transit in their community. We use to level federal dollars difference makers in north texas. You can imagine the disappointment we had when we heard the details of the administrations 2018 budget. D. A. R. T. s success is prompting calls for more service, as you might imagine. We are advancing plans for second light rail line that we hope will be partially funded by core capacity grant. Unfortunately, it will foreclose the possibility, so despite significant local investment, the project can be delayed without federal funding support. Yet we need the capacity today. We are also bringing an old railroad corridor, the cotton belt, to the Commuter Rail line adding a new connection to Dfw International airport. In response to local demand, were able to accelerate that project by more than a decade with the help of a rrif loan, the Railroad Rehabilitation improvement financing loan, through the federal railroad administration. Federal support has helped us complete the conversion to compress natural gas, in addition were using federal funds from the low Emission Bus Program to purchase seven electric buses that will be in operation next year. Weve been aggressive and intentional in seeking creative ways to fund and deliver our projects. People in communities everywhere are working on solutions that meet their unique needs. They have the vision and the desire they need help with the funding. We believe theres a role for local communities to partner with the federal government to Work Together to support these visions with sustainable, substantial, and predictable funding that the f. A. S. T. Act provides. I cannot impress upon the committee strongly enough how important it is to keep the f. A. S. T. Act intact and that commitment intact as we move forward. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Members of the committee, i look forward to answering your questions. Chairman graves thank you, mr. Thomas. Mayor reed. Hit your mic. Mayor reed thank you. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, i want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today i want to thank my congressman from georgia. Chairman graves will you pull the mic a little closer . I want to hear everything you have to say. Mayor reed i want to thank you for the kind introduction, im hopeful my wife was watching. It made me feel good about my myself. Thank you, congresswoman johnson. I also want to thank the administration and this committee for your help with regard to the crisis that we have faced with the collapse of the i85 interstate in atlanta, georgia. The level of cooperation from our federal partners cannot have been stronger. I want today take this opportunity to express my personal gratitude. I come here today as the mayor of atlanta and the chairman of the Transportation Committee for the u. S. Conference of mayors. The challenge that were having in atlanta with interstate 85 and its collapse, really points out that an overall Transportation System is needed now more than ever. In fact, since weve been facing this challenge with i85, the use of m. A. R. T. A. , the ninth largest Public Transportation system in the United States, has increased by more than 29 as we work through the challenge were facing. So alternatives, including resilient models we think will be increasingly important in the 21st century. Were also investing in roads, which is an issue that i know is very important to members of this committee, as well. In 2015, the state of georgia passed hb 70 which raised the gas tax in order to fund nearly 1 billion annually for bridge and road repair. So were working hard to keep our own house in order in addition to having a strong relationship with our federal partners. The city of atlanta is also moving full speed ahead and leading in our own way. Last november, they moved forward which will generate 2. 6 billion for m. A. R. T. A. , and this item passed with 71 voter support. We also had a second ballot measure, which will raise an estimated 300 million for Infrastructure Projects and it received 68 support. I think its important to realize and in the metro area were focusing on roads and partnership with the state, but were also not leaving our transit responsibilities and capabilities behind. City residents are indeed voting with their pocketbooks, and businesses are voting with their tees. Their feet. In the last 42 months after we made these investments improving our road infrastructure and transit infrastructure, we have won 17 either regional or u. S. Headquarters in the city of atlanta. They include businesses like ncr, honeywell, ge digital, ups. We have had the largest net increase of jobs into the city in more than four years 40 years after making these Infrastructure Investments. This would not have been possible without the stability of the f. A. S. T. And your leadership in making that legislation possible. So i wanted to thank you. In the last two years, atlanta taxpayers have focused increasingly on making sure that we fund our share of infrastructure, and i think its important to note that we ask this committee, as you develop future legislation, to always keep in mind what the local community has invested as we try to attract grants and federal support. We are fixing roads and bridges, engineering more than 30 miles of complete street projects, including bicycle lanes and traffic light synchronization initiatives. As a result of all of these items, the city of atlantas Credit Rating has improved seven positions to aa plus as rated by Standard Poors moodys and fitch. The point were making is, is that when you invest in these Critical Infrastructure items, the market responds and the Business Community responds. Modest expansion means the position is very real for transit, connecting with heavy rail and the atlanta streetcar systems. None of this would have been possible without your committees support. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony. Chairman graves thank you ray much, mayor. I will now turn to mr. Shuster. Rep. Shuster i will turn to the full committee. Im sorry im late. I did make it to hear all your testimony. I want to thank you all. Thank you for bringing your expertise and thank you, mayor reed, for being here, again. Outside of the ninth congressional district, i think youre probably my favorite mayor in america. Sorry what happened down there on the bridge and 85. From what theyre telling me, theyll rebuild that bridge in about 80 days. This is certainly a tragedy. Thank goodness and god that nobody was killed. We ought to pay close attention to how fast this moves we need to learn for this as we did from the interstate 35 seven years. They built that bridge just shy of 400 days. I was late because i spent an hour with the secretary chao. She came and briefed about ha members of congress. She talked about the infrastructure bill and how important it is to the president. Of course, 40, 45 members were there asking a lot of Great Questions and theres a federal component to it, obviously, weve got to figure the revenues out. Publicprivate partnerships are a tool in the tool box. Its not the tool box. We need to make it better. And then figuring out how to unleash the private dollars. Thats a 2 billion road project, 2 billion, 50 million federal money, the rest is california money and state, local, private sector dollars. They want to get about 500 million 600 million in a loan, theyre dragging their feet. These are the kind of things we have to get out of the way of the states and locals to move these projects forward. I appreciate the three of you being here today. I will be remiss if i didnt introduce and welcome to the committee the dean of the secretary of transportation in the the dean of the secretary of transportation from oklahoma, gary ridly, dean ridly, its good to see you. Just you being in the room were learning through osmosis by you being here. I really always appreciate you being here. Thank you, chairman, for having this hearing. Chairman graves and with that, well open it up for questions. We will start with mr. Barletta. Rep. Barletta thank you, mr. Chairman. As most of my colleagues know, i grew up working in the Road Construction business, and that is experience showed me how difficult it can be for state and local governments to move forward with projects when theyre uncertain about federal transportation spending. Not only that experience, i was a former mayor, as well. I saw it on both ends. And that uncertainty trickles down to private industry. My family would not hire more workers or purchase more equipment without knowing what the future might hold, without knowing what kind of work would be out there and for how long. Now, under the f. A. S. T. Act, federal transportation funding runs out in 2020. Can any of you speak how this deadline effects your ability to move transportation projects forward . Mr. Thomas congressman, thank you for the opportunity to address that question. From the Transit Agency close he perspective, we do a very long range plan, a 20year plan that identifies and assumes in some regards and identifying all of our revenue and identifies all of our expenses. Our projects are very specific. We make sure we know what we can build certainly, prohibits us from that certainty from that reliability of knowing what we can do in that 20year plan, and so it limits us as we look at the one of the Fastest Growing regions in the country, we cant always predict out and solve some of the transportation challenges that we need to be doing now to make sure that those projects are in place at that point in time. So the longrange funding is certainly critical for transit as we move forward, thank you. Mayor reed as a follow on to my colleagues comments, one of the things that we could absolutely do right now, which would be to smooth out the process around continuing resolutions even under the f. A. S. T. Act that we have right now. Whenever we have that tension period when were waiting for the continuing resolution process, it effects our ability to budget, and our state d. O. T. , for example, is in a position where it cant adequately prepare to get projects out waiting for that process. So thats something thats within the f. A. S. T. Act structure right now that could help us push a great deal more dollars out to businesses to get folks working. Rep. Barletta thank you. One of the biggest complaints i hear from people back home is that red tape in bureaucracy consistently hamper investment and innovation. The f. A. S. T. Act called for greater environmental streamlining to get the projects to completion faster. Can any of you speak to the success of this attempt . Is it actually happening . Or are permits still slow to be developed by stake holder agencies . Mr. Patterson congressman, as i mentioned in my comments, i really appreciate what has happened with streamlining in the effects that came out on the f. A. S. T. Act in that 21. We still have some challenges. There are rulemaking processes that are still underway that we still dont have the rules in place, even after five years. But its important that the rules come out right. We dont want them just to be expeditiously drawn up and be wrong. So we have not felt all of the effects of your efforts and the rest of congresss to provide that streamlining, but were hopeful that it does come does come to pass. Rep. Barletta thank you. And just finally, theres no question, we need to find a sustainable Funding Source for infrastructure. We cant keep pulling rabbits out of our hat or one trick ponies or whatever we call them. I support a user fee. Its one way we can to that. What solutions do you have for a sustainable revenue stream that we can put in the Highway Trust Fund . To help the Highway Trust Fund . Mr. Patterson congressman, oklahoma is a member of what we call the western road users consortium, there is a group on the we you move the microphone . Mr. Patterson yes, sir. Sorry. Oklahoma is a member of the western road users consortium, and there is a group on the east coast that is looking at what you call user fees. Some sort of way to Fund Transportation beyond the consumption tax that i mentioned in my oral testimony. We see that something has to be done, and i appreciate the federal government and congress providing some grant opportunities for our western right to look at different funding mechanisms. I know that oregon has a test underway, and california just entered into that similar kind of test model. So the states are looking at that, and we hope that the federal government and congress looks at our success and our failures, to develop something for the future. Mayor reed last month, we also have visited with representative shuster and Ranking Member defazio to talk about their penny for progress proposal as a guide. Additionally, we strongly believe that local governments and state governments that really put skin in the game ought to have a process where they have an advanced position in attracting federal capital. So how you all would structure that on a longterm basis, we would leave to the wisdom of this body, but when a local jurisdiction or states citizens raise their hands and say were going to be first in on dealing with our own problems, we believe that that municipality or state should be in an advanced position and that significant points should be awarded to whatever pool of money you all ultimately make available for us to deal with some of these tough challenges. Rep. Barletta thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman graves. Thank you. Ms. Norton. Rep. Norton thank you, mr. Chairman, i would be interested in knowing if any of your states have raised the state gas tax and what the effect what Public Opinion, what the effect on Public Opinion was and what do you think would with the effect of raising the federal gas tax now that some state gas taxes have been raised. If you have both gas taxes, im interested what you have to say about that . Mr. Thomas yes, maam. Texas has not raised their gas tax since 1992. So its much the same case. But when you watch gas prices every day swing, ten, 15 cents a gallon, im not sure how much a penny, penny and a half, two pennies would be noticed. Certainly there have been conversations in austin about gas tax and vehicle miles traveled. There are a lot of suggestions being made. We recognize as a state that something needs to be done, but much like whats happening across the country, the a lot of conversation we just havent made that decision yet. Rep. Norton mr. Patterson and mayor reed . Mr. Patterson oklahoma has not raised our gas tax since 1987. Governor fallin has proposed to increase our fuel tax. It is estimated that by june we will have the lowest fuel tax in the country at 14 cents for diesel rep. Norton how is that work out for you . Mr. Patterson its not working too well. So the governor has made that proposal to increase it to 24 cent for diesel and gasoline, and its going through the legislative process at this point. Rep. Norton mayor reed . Mayor reed yes, maam. Our governor in 2015, a republican governor with almost near constitutional majorities in our house and in our senate in georgia with republican majorities in both raised the gas tax and raised 1 billion as a result of that. In the city of atlanta, we passed the 2. 6 billion for the largest Transit System in our history, and we had a funding measure that passed with 68 local support, funding more than 300 million in infrastructure. A year prior to that, we had a local referendum for a 250 million infrastructure bond. It passed with more than 80 support. So my state, im from the state of georgia. We have a very conservative state. And all of these measures have been passed with broad majorities. The legislative majority was in the General Assembly for 1 billion in road use and the other items involving m. A. R. T. A. , our Transit System, and infrastructure funds have been done within the city of atlanta. Its a nice mix of urban and rural showing that whether you are focused on rural folks or urban folks, people get that we need significant Infrastructure Investment. Rep. Norton very instructive. Conservative or republican, no one has found a way to build roads and bridges and Transit Systems without money. And im interested in the in what the states have done. Because almost half the states have taken the initiative, seeing that the federal government is stuck and has been stuck for a generation, one more question. Id like to i got into the f. A. S. T. Act actually, it was the idea of a number of us funds for alternatives. We dont just criticize the fact that Congress Wont or your states with those two states, for that matter, continue to continue to ignore the need for funds. We look for alternative funds and note that some states have found alternative ways are actually experimenting. There is 10 million in the f. A. S. T. Act for such experimentation. Looking at the notions to come forward recently about private investment as a way to fund roads and the investors getting back their investment through i suppose fares or tolls or the rest id be interested in knowing whether you think relying more heavily on private investment would would help us in fact hasten the work that needs to be done on our roads, bridges, and infrastructure . Mr. Patterson in oklahoma, and in many states, we have seen a reliance more on private investors. In oklahoma, we have our turnpike authority, which was created back in the late 1940s to develop a high speed Transit System between Oklahoma City and tulsa. It has since then expanded on and it is a tolling authority, but the private investors are the moms and pops around the country that buy bonds. So we cant forget that that is a private investing opportunity. Rep. Norton could you build most of the roads using tolls . Would the public tolerate that . Mr. Patterson no, maam, we cant and we realize that. We understand that at this point many states are relying on some sort of tolling to make up the difference between Adequate Funding at both the state and federal level. Rep. Norton could i get answers, too, from the other two witnesses, please . Mayor reed congresswoman, i think it depends as long as you keep your focus on project models versus tax credit models. I think the conversation has to be around real projects. Probably the most successful private Public Partnership we have is the atlanta belt line where we reclaimed 22 miles of old abandoned railroads and now the 400 million in public support has triggered 3. 8 billion in private capital attracted to renovating that entire corridor and creating 1200 acres of green space. That is a project model where Everybody Knows the focus is going to be and everybody is tracking the jobs that are being created. The concern that were experiencing is moving to a tax credit model for the Financial Services community or the financiers. The most striking and successful Public Private partnerships have been project specific with very borrowed Community Buy in. Rep. Norton mr. Thomas . Mr. Thomas from a transit industry perspective, its a little bit different. P3s are a great opportunity, perhaps as long as you understand going into it that money is going to cost you more than what you could typically borrow other places. There are levels of Public Private partnerships. Were leaving you know for the house gaveling in. All rise. The house will be in order. Rooms,speakers washington, d. C. , april 8, 2017, i hereby announce the honorable Michael K Simpson to speak as e today. For a tempor prayer will be offered by the chaplain, father conroy. Father conroy let us pray. Gracious and merciful god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. In this chamber, where the peoples house gathers, we rose to offer you gratitude for the gift on this of this good land for which we live in this good nation for which you have inspired in developing over so many years. Whereour spirit of peace so many live in war of violence. We ask a special blessing upon the people of syria. Give to us and all people a vivid sense of your presence that we may learn to understand each other, to respect each ,ther, to work with each other to live with each other, and to do good with each other. So, shall we make our nation great in goodness and good in its greatness. May all that is done this day for your greater honor and glory. The journal of the last days proceedings is approved. The chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Pursuant to clause 4 of rule 1, the joint resolutions were signed by the speaker on thursday, april 6, two. And 17. Senate 544, the Senate Joint Resolution 30, Senate Joint Resolution 35, Senate Joint Resolution 36. The chair announces on behalf of the speaker a minority leader and the house of representatives and the majority and minority leaders of the United States senate their joint accountability act of 1995, 2 u. S. Code as amended and section 1b of public law of the following individuals on april 7, 2017 to the board of directors of the office of compliance. The clerk ms. Wallace of ridgeland, mississippi, for a term of four years, mr. Alan freedman for a term of 3 years and for a term of four years the speaker pro tempore the chair lays before the house a communication. The clerk the honorable the speaker house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2h of the rules of the house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on april 7, 2017 at 10 41 a. M. , apontments National Commission of military and public service, with best wishes, i am signed sincerely, karen l. Haas. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to section 2b, the house stands adjourned subcommittee hearing on transportation and wrote projects from earlier this week. Would be theample atlanta streetcar, where we had 98 million in Public Investment 2. 5have had 2. 5 billion dollars in new Construction Activity within a five minute walk of that line. I am not as familiar with that first project. How are you paying back the private portion as a return on investment . What method . Or reed through the work use of tax credits for investment. For example, when you invest in the atlantic outline, the public went in and did all the spending that it took to clean and prepare it and the private sector came in after the Public Sector went in and identified the line. There was a one millionsquarefoot building that had been boarded up and was dilapidated and it is now trapped that a quarter of a billion dollars worth of investment that used to be owned by my government. I sold it to the private sector for 27 million in the private sector came in and invested a quarter of a billion dollars. It is built on the atlanta boy beltline and now thank you very much for being here. Mayor reed thank you for the question. Mr. Patterson, you have written testimony your tten testimony implies faster for transit than highway. Highway and transit funding increase in average of 3 per year over the fast act. This committee stood by the trust fund split for decades. Do you still support maintaining this historic split between highway and transit funding in future transportation bills as we did in the fast act . Mr. Patterson we do. The 8020eve that split is appropriate and should be maintained. Thank you. Also, your testimony makes a compelling armament that direct lending is essential for highway and bridge projects. You have made the case that publicproject private partnerships and local bonding initiatives are helpful, that will not but will not replace real direct dollars. Can you explain why they cannot return on investment for private sector investments . Mr. Patterson when you typically look at the transportation project across this country, when you are rural ort rule urban situations, there is no opportunity in most cases to toll the facility. Additionally, there is no to capture the dollars that are generated along the route. An example, in oklahoma we have seen where in a small town in outhern oklahoma, they grew and annexed out to what we call interstate 45. They did that because of the Economic Development to the the dotprovided cannot capture that, but there is benefit to the city through additional sales of that. Thank you. I have one more question for you and then i will move to the other witnesses. Earlier this year, Speaker Paul Ryan suggested that an infrastructure package shoulds exist of 98 private funding, specifically the speaker said there should be a 401 ratio between the funny between the funding. Mr. Paterson, your testimony discusses the importance of direct federal funding for transportation with accounts for senators for expenditures nationwide. Mr. Patterson i do not understand how you get to that perspective. It is something i would have to learn more about. The perspective is basically you have tax credits with federal funding that amount to 2 and the other 98 comes from private p3s or something. You dont think that works . Mr. Patterson i dont think it works in oklahoma. You think it works elsewhere but not in oklahoma . Mr. Pattison i cannot see for other states, but i would imagine not. Rep. Nadler thank you. Mr. Thomas, do you agree that Public Private partnerships, state infrastructure banks, and local bonding initiatives are helpful but cannot replace real direct dollars . Mr. Thomas they give us tools in the tool box, but it needs to be a complete tool box otherwise you cant get the project done. Rep. Nadler and its incomplete without the right to federal funding . Mr. Thomas yes, sir. Rep. Nadler mayor reed, do you believe that private investors will be able to fund the vast majority of highway and transit projects or that most projects will require federal and state funds to complete . Mayor reed i dont think the private market will do that because they will cherry pick projects, which will leave essential projects that we need better just not as attractive. The answer is, i dont believe i believe that the Public Private partnership is important, but it will not replace the need for the federal partners to bear the lions share of the load because the incentive to do a private deal is to make a profit for the private sector. Rep. Nadler so in summary for all three witnesses, the proposal that we have heard, the administration has not made a formal proposal, but the proposal we have heard may be coming from the administration that they will do, i think, an 82 tax credit, again, for private partnerships, and that will fund the trillion dollars in infrastructure. Do any of the three of you believe that would work to fund a trillion dollars in infrastructure if the only federal money basically is an 82 tax credit . Mayor reed i do not i believe you have to have a project model, not a tax credit model. Rep. Nadler what do you mean by a project model . Mayor reed i mean specific projects that youre identifying that the federal government is investing into in order to create jobs as opposed to a tax credit model. Rep. Nadler it has to be a federal investment . Mayor reed yes, in addition to a state and local investment. Mr. Thomas and mr. Patterson . Mr. Thomas i agree with the mayor of atlanta, and the tax theres got to be direct investment and the tax credits wouldnt do it all by themselves. Rep. Nadler thank you. Mr. Patterson . Mr. Patterson i agree with the other two. Rep. Nadler thank you. So in summary all our witnesses think the proposal that i outlined which is what you heard would be the administrations proposal would not generate a trillion dollars for Infrastructure Investment or anything near it . Is that correct . Mr. Patterson yes. Rep. Nadler thank you very much. My time is well expired, and thank you, mr. Chairman, for indulgence chairman graves mr. In the time. Chairman graves mr. Ferguson, five minutes. Ferguson thanks good to have a fellow georgian. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mayor reed, right over here. Glad to have a fellow georgian in and thank you for taking your time. I know the new mantra is if i can get there. Its been tough. But want to thank you on behalf of the rest of the state for your diligence and working of course with the governor to help mitigate what is a very, very difficult situation for not only atlanta but the southeast, and i think it goes to show just how important transportation is, the one break down in the system can have ripple effects throughout an entire region. Can you speak briefly to the cooperation needed between local, state, and federal officials, and most importantly, on the planning process as it relates to transportation projects . And also, a little feed back on how the response was from the federal department of transportation with the emergency on i85. Mayor reed thank you, congressman. And your accent was music to my ears. I felt right at home when you said hello. Heres what i think. I think that the most important fact has been that governor deal and i have always had a strong working relationship, and so whether it when the state of georgia was competing for tifia funding or we were competing for a number of tiger grants weve working deep in the port of savannah, we have always partnered. When you have an emergency like we had regarding the bridge collapse on i85, if you Work Together all the time in a cooperative fashion, you just get through this challenge the way you would get through others. The bulk of the credit, congressman, belongs to our first responders. In a tragic event, we had no loss of life. And i think the credit to that goes to our firefighters and our Police Officers and our state patrol officers. They coordinated and shut down the highway expeditiously, and then we coordinated in deploying resources, which included foam fire trucks from Hartsfield Jackson airport, which were essential in putting the fire out so that less damage would have been done. Our federal partners have been exemplary. They have worked in the best tradition of the federal, state, and local relationship. I have been in multiple meetings because we had it was at the state capital when this crisis occurred and we instantly began working together. And i think thats why were going to get the highway up and operational as soon as we possibly can. And i also think that thats why you havent seen us playing typical political games of blames personship. Chairman graves ms. Johnson . Rep. Johnson thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman for this hearing. It has been one that has brought a great deal of frustration to me as i sit here and look at that quotation up there on the wall, the section of the constitution article 1, section 8 speaks to the federal governments responsibility to post offices and roads. We have privatized the post offices and i dont know what were getting from it. I just dont see how we can privatize transportation. Nevertheless, im one of these people that will try to find a way to work with any philosophy that i can to try to get a job done. This is a tough approach to attempting to address the essential transportation problems in our country, so im going the ask mr. Thomas, how detrimental will these cuts be, or if theyll be detrimental to the city of dallas, to d. A. R. T. And cities across the country if the cig programs are cut . We have a lot of plans to accommodate the needs in the area, as im sure every major city does. But when you read the president s budget, what is your reaction . How where do we go from here . Mr. Thomas congresswoman, right now we have three projects that are well into the process in the dallas area alone. Two are core capacity projects and one is a small starts project. The one is a second alignment through downtown. Again, when people think of transit in the United States, they dont always think about alice, texas. As i said earlier, we have the longest light rail system in the United States, in north america for that matter. All of those quarters, those lines all those corridors coming to downtown right now. We had a fire a few years ago. When the firemen lay the hoses across the tracks, they dont want the trains to run across those hoses and we understand and appreciate that. So we desperately need that second alignment through Downtown Dallas. We are proposing a 50 50 split, in other words, bring a 50 of the project from local funds with a 50 match from the federal government on core capacity. The other project we are working on is an extension of our older platforms which would allow us on 28 platforms, to extend those 100 feet, which gives us 30 capacity increase on those two lines, the red line and blue line, again looking for a 50 50 split. Texdot has come to the table with half of that. So were looking at the Core Capacity Program for the other half. The third project is an extension of our streetcar project. The Streetcar Program that we just opened not too long ago is unique because it uses americanmade streetcars. Streetcars that actually are dual mode. They operate with or without an overhead wire. We intend to extend that through Downtown Dallas with the small starts program. We are well into the process, the environmental process, the working with the community, making sure we know where these projects should go, what the alignments are, building the support locally. All of those go away. They go away. Rep. Johnson now, we still are having tremendous growth to the area. So if they go away where do we go from there . Mr. Thomas [laughs] thats a good question, congressman. You know, i think as we look at, certainly, in our region but across the United States, the impact of the Capital Investment grants has been important. Its been critical as transit agencies have continued to provide choices for people in their communities to be able to get where they need to go, whether its to the doctor, to the grocery store, and most importantly, to jobs. Well over 80 of the people that are riding Public Transportation are going to their jobs. So its imperative that we continue to look for and support the f. A. S. T. Act. It has been incredibly successful to this point. I think its imperative that we continue to support that through 2020 at least. Rep. Johnson thank you very much. My time has expired. Chairman graves mr. Lamalfa. Rep. Lamalfa thank you, mr. Chairman and panelists for joining us today. Mayor reed, ill start with you, first of all, thank you for being here. And i wish the best to the braves so long as they dont have any cross interest with the giants. Former National League west mates. Now its all changed. Commonalityave some with our emergency situations here, you with the bridge and i85 here and i still hearken back to when things went really well after the northridge earthquake in california. This was way back in 1994 where it was projected it might be a year or a year and a half having one of the biggest freeways in the country in the world knocked cando attitude from contractors in the state pulling together and pull putting aside some necessary red tape, they were able to get that back up within just a few months and saved much, much loss and Economic Activity and inconvenience to the people in Southern California there. So i hope that that is going well and you are getting all the cooperation in the world from the federal government and others to see your bridge through. My understanding is an original timetable from what i saw yesterday moved up from the fall or winter to maybe june. I hope its moving fast for you. We have an immediate need in our own backyard in Northern California where you may have seen the story of the oroville dam and the spillway problem we had here in february that resulted partly as a precaution, an evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream of that. Nothing really bad ended up happening with the emergency spillway, but the potential of the erosion that was there due to the design that was indeed, questionable, made that necessary for Public Safety requirements. Infrastructure and Public Safety are very intertwined, as we see. Do you feel that the federal transportation Infrastructure Programs support the locals in increasing Public Safety and being said being prepared as much as they need to for emergency situations like im talking about my backyard or socal years ago or what you face with the loss of that bridge in your area . Is the federal government doing a good enough job supporting the local levels in that safety aspect . Again, specifying emergency situations where you need quick action. Mayor reed my sense is yes. I chair a group that is our local disaster planning entity in metropolitan atlanta, and i think that when it comes to emergency response, everything that i have seen shows a high level of professionalism and a high level of coordination. And so that is an aspect of the government that i feel very good about. I do believe that were all going to have to change at the local level, really, to a posture of being resilient because without moving in to a debate about climate, weather patterns and emergency situations are coming with increasing frequency. And so i think that this is a conversation were going to have to start having more aggressively with our federal partners. The things you experience in Northern California really have a great deal to do with being on a permanent resilient footing, and as i sit here testifying right now, we are experiencing unusually bad weather in the city of atlanta and have been. So whats happening is local , governments are having to be on a on an almost permanent footing of responding to crises of one kind or another frequently, weatherrelated crises. Rep. Lamalfa do you think greater weight should be given not only improved movement, but the flexibility in emergency situations that could come through the fast lane program . Mayor reed no question about it. Flexibility is either going to be the order of the day or its going to be thrust upon us by circumstances, so i think its a more thoughtful approach to have flexibility built into the relationship as opposed to good people have to make it up at the last minute. Rep. Lamalfa thank you. I appreciate it. In my experience, your airport has always been very good as i take the red eye from the coast and end up there at 6 00 a. M. Sometimes. Just the line at popeyes is always too long at 6 00 a. M. There. Mayor reed that is the busiest popeyes chicken in the world. [laughter] rep. Lamalfa thank you, sir. I yield back. Chairman graves ms. Napolitano. Rep. Napolitano thank you, mr. Chair. Mr. Thomas, i have a question in regard to Capital Investment grants. The Trump Administration state skinny budget calls for the elimination of the Capital Investment starts. Dart has two different projects in the pipeline. Do you think it makes fiscal sense to eliminate an Infrastructure Program that has 55 projects from across the country in the planning potentially setting back billions of dollars of Infrastructure Investment . Mr. Thomas theres certainly across the United States, congressman, theres been a lot of work done in preparation of these projects. A lot of the projects, as they are in dallas, have gone through Extensive Community meetings, planning efforts, lots of coordination. Certainly in our case we are , bringing a significant amount of money to the table, as we always have and as well continue to the in our financial plan. People have looked at the f. A. S. T. Act as although it only goes to 2020, and we understand there are channels beyond that, we are appreciative of the longterm bill. We would like for it to stay intact and for it to continue to move forward through 20 20s of these agencies, including hours that have anticipated that funding can go ahead and get these projects completed and provide those choices to people. Rep. Napolitano but does it make fiscal sense to eliminate them . Mr. Thomas certainly in d. A. R. T. s case, no, maam, it does not. Were bringing money to the table. Theyre getting 50 cents to the dollar on a project. It seems like it makes a whole lot of sense to continue do that. Rep. Napolitano another question i have has to do with positive train control. The f. A. S. T. Act provided 199 million guaranteed for mass transit accounts for the trust fund for fiscal year 2017 to help Commuter Railroads implement ptc. Appropriations committee, our very own, did not make the funding available under the continuing resolution. This critical safety funding will lapse if the cr is extended for the remainder of this fiscal year. Mr. Patterson, mr. Thomas, can you elaborate why this is important to your agencies . Mr. Thomas certainly, the transit industry is hopeful that congress will completely come quickly complete the fy 2017 budget so that 199 million of Grant Funding can be allocated to the properties throughout the country. We have a 2018 deadline for our Commuter Rail system to put that Transit System in place. That comes on top of operating and maintaining our system every day. So its imperative that rep. Napolitano its already been extended once. Mr. Thomas yes, maam. So its imperative to meet the 2018 deadline so we can get that safety project complete. Rep. Napolitano thank you. Question primarily mr. Patterson and mr. Reed. I have been working on an amendment to faa reauthorization to prohibit faa from impacting state and local general sales tax. The issue for 30 years, faa has required excise tax to be spent on airport for airport infrastructure, but for 30 years, the faa has not interpreted it to affect general sales tax, which tax Aviation Fuel as well as other products sold in the country or the as well as other products sold in the country or state. Now they are changing their interpretation to account for how much money is collected by the general sales tax on Aviation Fuel and we second the money back to the airports. This is a problem in state and local governments are being told how to spend their own tax dollars by the faa. It will impact local transportation projects since most sales tax provide for local transportation funding. The Hartfield Jackson airport in airport and the state of georgia is one of the most impacted regions in the country with the new rule. It will take millions of dollars out of a local control, a major problem in my state of california. Are you aware of the issue and do you have concerns with the new faa rule should congress fix and return 30 years of precedence that allows the governments to spend their tax revenue as they see fit . Mr. Patterson i dont have any knowledge of i have knowledge, but i cant comment on that. I think the mayor would be better suited for this answer. Mayor reed congresswoman, im on your side. And i dont think i could have said it better than you just said it. It rep. Napolitano well, it is an infringement upon the local control, as far as i am concerned. Thank you, mr. Chair. I yield back. Chairman graves mr. Smucker . Rep. Smucker thank you, mr. Chairman. As a business owner, i owned a Construction Company for 25 years prior to serving in the state legislature, i understand the importance of a good highway and bridge infrastructure to move goods and employees to job site and the importance of , infrastructure to our economy, essentially. And then when serving in the state legislature, we were one of the states that were able to pass a bill that provided for additional, sustainable funding for our highway and bridge system. And in our case, it was a wholesale gas tax that had a cap on it, tied to the price of gas. We essentially lifted the cap, but generated billions of of dollars additional funding for mostly for maintenance and repair of the current system. In some cases, adding additional capacity, but we had the highest number of structurallydeficient bridges of any state at the. Ime, i believe but the reason i bring that up and mayor reed, maybe this question will be directed to you. It was really important for us let me back up. It was republican legislature. Both houses. And a republican governor at the time. And i mention that because you mentioned that in georgia. But also mention it because at the same time that we were able to gather support for that, we were looking at all aspects of wereudget, and in fact, we cutting back and other areas because we really believe that we needed to focus on the Core Functions of the government. We were able to make the argument to the people of pennsylvania that we have to do it at that level. But also was critically important to people plotting traffic and congestion, and critically important to the economy. And it took a concerted effort, it took a lot of hearings, a lot of discussion with the public to gain that support that was required to pass that. I think that is something that we will need to do here. And i support finding a way for sustainable funding. I think the point was brought up earlier, it is so important to not only the states and local municipalities to have that dependable and sustainable source of funding, but to all the business that rely on this, it is critical for efficient delivery to know we can plan ahead. , the questionuess to you, can you give us some insight . If i understood your testimony directly why you were there, you essentially passed a 1 sales tax that went to infrastructure. You said also georgia was doing that at the same time. What can we learn from that in terms of building the public support for investment in our infrastructure . Is the we can learn public is ahead of us. And i think that when we talk plainly, and explain what the challenges are, the public will come on board as long as they believe we are going to make good use of their funds. Imagine you experienced that in pennsylvania . In georgia, our state is one of eight states in america with a triplea Credit Rating from all three rating agencies. Is tight, reasons fiscal management, and the decision we made around transportation. We have grown to be the 10th gest state in the union the atlanta metropolitan region is now the ninth largest metro in the region with a gdp of 335 billion. And we have gone from a really low Credit Rating to aa plus. I think the argument that you make and we have an absolute jobs boom. When we are concerned about is who is going to win the war for talent. If folks like you and i folks like you and i have to go out and make the case. It was important that republican house, governor, and Senate Passed wondering dollars they passed because our folks were stuck in traffic like yall. And we are doing the history of our system. It will be one of the seven largest transit expansion in america, and we did it with 71 voter support at the ballot. That was a nice bipartisan collaboration. Thank you. I was hoping to get input from the others as well. I am out of time. I am sorry. No caps on that is ok. Served in the you Georgia Legislature for 10 years, both in the house and senate, so you know how conservative and fiscally our ourrained how restrained environment is among our legislative friends in georgia. Georgia back in 2015, increased its gas tax from 7. 5 cents to . 26 and increase the . 29. Tax to year, itevery suggested with accordance to the Consumer Price index, can you comment about the conditions that existed in georgia that led to the passage of that gas tax , whatse, and also political fallout if any occurred as a result of passage and in the benefits from passing that increase . Mayor reed thank you for the question, congressman. I think the bottom line is, if you want to lose an election in georgia, you would be the person credit the states aaa rating. Everybody was experiencing the same thing. We were all sitting in traffic. We had tried to pass a regional bell. You remember that . The governor and i worked to pass a regional transportation bill that was rejected by the voters at the ballot. So, the problem of traffic in atlanta we have among the worst traffic in the United States. It was really starting to impact our ability to track jobs and businesses we were trying to fight our way out of the recession. In every meeting that the governor and i went to when you are creating newark recruiting in every meeting , we the governor and i had were told we had to do summit about the traffic. Was a matter of having the right leader at the right time. He paid the decision to move the bill through the georgia assembly. I am comfortable saying that 95 of the people who voted in favor of the 1 billion tax increase were all reelected. I probably would be comfortable saying 90 were reelected at the ballot. So the risks were minimal, but we did do a very good job of explaining the need. And then the city took the leadership on expanding transit within the city of atlanta. I want to ask you about that because atlanta has seen a number of fortune 500 and 14 100 Companies Moving into atlanta as a result of our investment transit. Can you elaborate on what we have done, how has it affected our economy . Reed we have a concentration of more fortune 500 companies in america. With the Business Community is doing is the politicizing transit. As opposed to it being a democrat republican issue with state citing a thousand jobs outside of atlanta, they wanted to stop. Movedoultry group homes to atlanta, they wanted by that. We are seeing the Business Community and Millennials Want to be near transit, so it is lifting the transit conversation politicsban rural because Everyone Wants terrific job spear and we have a generation of folks unlike my generation and your generation or not interested in driving automobiles. And so, if you want to be first to the future, you have to be in the transit business. So for publicans and democrats, they have gotten in line. I was suspect that mr. Thomas sees the same thing. When you put down transit and for structure, business comes to it because it is a permanent investment. Voters, you put it to these items passed overwhelmingly. About firsts really to the future, congressman, and you have to decide whether you want to have wellpaying jobs for your people are not. And now because of the Business Communitys insistence on transit and how well investments perform in terms of the economy that is built around it, it is helping us get out of this old argument of rural urban democratic argument democratic development. Heavy expense the same thing in dallas . Absolutely. They did the same thing. They look for a real station to be close to, and the same the development around the station is phenomenal. 28 new restaurants, thousands of new residences. Millions of square feet of office space that occur around that particular station. So, the developers certainly understand the advantage of that transportation infrastructure. Our communities understand it. The debate in north texas is where are the federal resources, and were to the end of filling . To buildo in infrastructure, there will be developments, job opportunities, and there is going to be benefits to the people, not only from a transportation perspective, but also all the and ciliary benefits. I am out of time. I yield back. Mr. Schuster. You, mr. Ter thank chairman. I appreciate your testimony. Tom going to yield my time doug. He has more questions he would he is more weird questions, so i would like to yield. Oug mr. Mayor, you talk about the collaborative process with the governor in your city. Talk about the aaa Credit Rating and talking to people to see what they wish. In california, where we do not have a good Credit Rating, the well, in total control terms. I will leave it at that. Withorcing through it this a combined car and gas tax, which people are against, especially in terms we have a highspeed rail issue in california that has shown to be 55 billion short of funding, and we do not know where it is going to come from, but we have crumbling roads and bridges that people will be forced to pay a higher tax on the automobile registration and our gasoline, that will probably mean 500 per year for a two to automobile, two income family. They are seen billions and billions of dollars spent on. Ighspeed rail and then, the audacity industry funding that will come from this new tax, there is not even upgrades for new, additional capacity for roads and bridges. What is going on out there death is not a collaborative process and it is really tone deaf for middle income families. I would like to see a much more streamlined process to relieve traffic and to do repairs. For mr. Patterson, again, my own county, we have state highway 70 ort could have been done have been partially done faster and less costly if the final review process did not take nearly as long as issues apartment our mentally that authority will number it is a brandnew concept that we at elaine on the next segment add a lane on the next segment. What can we be doing to assist local agencies without having to be held hostage to some of these habitat tradeoffs to have more efficient construction of transportation projects, whether it is rebuilding of older, infrastructure, or the additional capacity we all want and need us taxpayers . And need as taxpayers . Thank you, congressman. One of the things of this congress did was provide for a process when we are talking about adding in your example, adding lanes, or adding additional capacity, to already identified competition core doors corridors. And the intent of congress at the time was to go from fence to fence that has already been cleared as a transportation corridor. Some of the guidelines and we have received from the federal Highway Administration dont allow fence defense since to fence, and so, we are having to work through some of those issues with the u. S. Dot and their rulemaking process and i know the director in california is working very hard on that issue, as well as many other of my colleagues from around the country. Thank you for that. I would like to look more into that fence to fence provision you are talking about. I will yield back the rest of my time. And please follow up in my office if you get the opportunity. Yes, sir. Figure, mr. Chairman. We heard earlier, chairman schuster mentioned something about 45 members had a meeting with secretary chao. I would say that we invite her to meet with all members of this committee so we can have a collaborative effort, and continue to be bipartisan and our effort to put forward transportation policy. Maybe then they wouldnt have the problems they had with Health Care Bill if we were all engaged in the beginning. I would just make that suggestion. I would like to a knowledge i would like to acknowledge, and he is gone already, mr. Davis from illinois. He brought out our bill that we Work Together on and became an amendment to the fast act where we send more money to local government as opposed to the state for it to be distributed. I think we need to continue down that path because too often the politics in the state capital around the dot entities play a bigger part than good policy decisions, so the more we can send money to the local government i think the better. I would like to turn my attention a little bit to another provision that i work ed on, and that was to have complete streets planning to be put into the bill. This is the first time this is ever been done in a federal Transportation Program and i was very glad to see that in our that in my district and we , just had an increase in pedestrian deaths. And so having a policy that begins with planning for the construction through the operation of transportation that includes all users, i think is very beneficial. I know a number of state and local governments are incorporating that kind of safe streets planning, and i would cometo ask you, mayor reed under your leadership, i know atlanta is one of the stars in this area. Could you comment on the benefits of it, and how it is working in some suggestions for other places to follow . Mayor reed i think that it has worked well, and i think that it is connecting communities and committing to a sense of community that people that created and developed the concept had in mind. It is what we thought it is, and wellexecuted. So, it is an approach that we are taking. It is a part of the reason that we have had so much success at the ballot when we went to voters for the point four cents during the recent referendum. Folks are asking for and it also gives a significant boost to street co on complete rridors. I think the complete street approach is bearing good fruit and it is what we thought it was and it needs to be pushed at every opportunity if you need every opportunity if you want your community to be a lady one. It is some a people have when they are looking for a permanent home. I believe it is not just for safety, but quality of life. You see more people on bicycles, more people walking, all kinds of uses besides just cars and buses. Mr. Patterson, would you talk about with some of the states are doing as they include this in their planning . Mr. Patterson i know several streets are working on complete streets. And in oklahoma, we are part in Oklahoma City for a new downtown boulevard that includes bike lane, pedestrian paths, as well as a new driving lane. It is where i40 used to go through downtown Oklahoma City , and we have relocated i40 to the south of downtown, and we are putting in a boulevard that has the complete streets concept to it. If we want to talk about businesses, we are seeing in downtown las vegas where they at have rent a bike, that is kind of quality of living. How it relates to businesses and would you like to comment on how it relates to businesses and improves that aspect of things . Anybody . Well, i can tell you in Oklahoma City, we have the rent a bike Program Going on there, and it is growing exponentially. We believe that once the new boulevard is in place, it will explode, much like you see here in washington d. C. Mayor . Mayor read our Bike Share Program has been highly popular and were getting ready to expand it by 400 . Congressman, i think the benefit is how all the different modes of transportation Work Together in a single corridor whether it be buses, bikes, pedestrians, automobiles, and that planning effort is what makes all that happened. So often, the planning effort is skipped in a bypass. So thank you very much for making sure it is included in the fast act. Thank you, i yield back. Mr. Leventhal. Mr. Leventhal thank you, mr. Chairman. In joining ushers and educating us today. I would like to raise an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and extremely important to my district, which is the 47th congressional district, which starts off with the port of long beach which is the , second largest port in the United States. That is, freight funding, the funding for the movement of freight. As you know and i have mentioned the fast act, included dedicated freight funding programs for the first time. This included Competitive Grant Program dubbed fast lane by dot. Mayor reed, you talked about the importance to your state and the city of Economic Development at the port of savannah, which received a 44 million grant for multimodal connectors. That is what you have talked about. Mr. Patterson, your department was granted 62 million last year for a u. S. 6975 four rail grade5 for rail separations. Also putrganization out a report with the American Association of port authorities that showed the growing demand for multimodal projects. The report stated that an at the minimum needed of at least 20 billion for multimodal projects, yet the fast act only has a total funding for multimodal projects of slightly more than 1 billion 1. 1 3 billion dollars, and that is over five years. The question i have for you is, do you agree that there is a greater need for funding of multimodal projects . Congressman, absolutely. One of the things that we know that as we have looked at the federal program over the years, since the completion of the interstate highway system, we really dont have a goal. Something to hang our hat on, if you will. We were hoping, and we believe that this Freight Program is the next goal. It is imperative that we be able to move freight across this. Ountry by rail, water i think you are doing great. I just want as because i have one more followup question, and that is exactly what i wanted. Do you have anything to add, mayor reed . Mayor reed the answer is absolutely. Mr. Leventhal ok, now i have a proposal that i first introduced in the 114th congress that we will be doing again, that puts a user fee that is paid for by the owners of the goods on the cost of shipping goods by road or rail in the United States to directly fund freight infrastructure. So a user fee paid by the owners of the goods to directly fund freight infrastructure. Maybe not this one, but would you support a similar proposal such as a user fee by the owners of goods to pay for the freight infrastructure . Several years ago, a group of us got together and were looking and you are looking at ways to Fund Transportation for the future. Congressman, thats exactly one of the things that we had come up with was an additional surcharge, a user fee, however it forould want to label freight movements, and dedicated to a freight system. Mr. Leventhal so, it has to be dedicated . Sustainable and paid by the users in a dedicated funding stream to be used just for freight infrastructure. Would you support that, mayor reed . Mayor reed i dont know. I would have to have the full proposal to consider it. Mr. Leventhal ok. We are just talking about not so much a specific proposal, but the one to use the system would pay for the improvements in the system, dedicated in some way to get both back to an appropriate way of distributing those funds . Mr. Read yes. Mr. Leventhal thank you, and i yield back. Mr. Lipinski. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. As we talk about the fast act, which i want to thank all the members of this committee on both sides the chairman subcommittee chairman, the full committee the mr. Schuster, a Ranking Member norton and defazio, we all work to well we all worked well together, getting the fast act together and moved. I am hopeful that we can do the same thing on a new, big trillion dollar, or more than trillion dollar infrastructure plan. Things that have been talked about by the last few people who are members with spoken about complete streets, about transit, it is important that those are included in a new structure package with the importance of freight movement. I also think that is very critical to do. I want to ask a question about something that i dont think anyone has asked about at this hearing about Vehicle Infrastructure technology and getting that into our infrastructure. Vehicletovehicle but v to i technology is vital for maximizing the benefits of economists and connected vehicles. Benefits such as great safety improvements, less congestion on our roads, and increasing the efficiency of our vehicles. We really need to find creative ways to incentivize investment in infrastructure technology. We need to make investments that best leverage capital. The fast act ensured that this infrastructure would remain eligible for funding, but we also need to consider policies that promote installation of advance systems during routine construction and maintenance projects so we are not going back and doing it all over again. I have asked witnesses in previous hearings about the state and local investments in this technology. In some have said that they have been hesitant to make investments because of the lack of industry standards and federal guidance. In january, fhwa released new vti guidance document that can help transportation agencies understand the regional impacts of v to i deployment and prepare for emerging technologies, and leverage federal aid funds to deploy them. Long lead up, i would like to ask mr. Patterson and mr. Read if you could discuss your experience with v to i technology and whether or not theres sufficient federal guidance to promote investment and what more can be done, so we make sure that we do prepare the infrastructure for this . Mr. Patterson, do you want to start . Mr. Patterson thank you, congressman. From an overall perspective, and given the advances in technology, it has been good that the states have taken a slow, methodical approach to integrating v to i into the system. Technologyok at doubles every year, and you look back five years ago when we really got into the discussion about v to i, it has changed. Out isdance that came very helpful. We have several of our members who were very involved in leading the technology. I can tell you in oklahoma, we are still learning. We are not as far advanced as some other states are in the discussion, but it is something we are beginning to understand, and embrace, and it was that guidance, and it is the support of members that gets us to that point. Mayor reed, anything to add . Mayor reed we are develop a we are developing a smart corridor along north avenue near georgia tech and by the Cocacola Company that will be really testing all of these technologies at once. So much like my colleague, were in the very early stages of it. Candidly, we have been putting a great deal more energy into self selfdriven Vehicle Technology and we have , been slower on v to 1. Is there anything the federal government can do to help things along and speeded up and make it easier for states and localities to do this . Mayor reed i think that rules of the road from federal experts could shorten the learning curve for municipalities because thats really the challenge for us when these new kinds of technologies and relationships occur, we have to come up to speed on that. And we have to put in a good amount of personpower for that. Knowing where the federal government is going in the future in that regard would send an important signal to where we should be going. I think that collaboration and cooperation is going to be very important as the mayor said as we begin to develop our system in oklahoma, and as other states expand their v to i capabilities. When you think about it, this is really a turning point for all of transportation. It is almost as extensive as going from the horse and buggy to the model t. So, it is something that we are very interested in, and our customers, the public, is going to demand that kind of reaction from us. Thank you, yield back. Any other further questions . Seeing none, id like to obviously thank our witnesses for your testimony today and your contribution to did as discussion has been very informative and helpful. I would ask unanimous consent that the record of todays hearing remain open until such time as our witnesses have provided any answers to any questions that may be submitted to them in writing and unanimous , consent that it remain open for 15 days for additional for anddditional comments anything to be submitted. Subcommittee stands adjourned. Thank you, all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] sunday night on q a