Transcripts For CSPAN Secretary 20240704

Sector. This is just over one hour. Id like to welcome our online audience and cspan. Meridian is a center for International Diplomacy and leadership and we been working since 1962 try to look for ways to strengthen cooperation on Important International issues and the issues in the secretarys portfolio are some of the most important domestic and International Issues and you will hear more about that later. Our board chair who is a mutual friend of many of you including the secretary on forcefully couldnt be here but sends his regards. Now my pleasure to introduce one of our trustees, the honorable mweghan byer who is a dynamo. She is the head of a fantastic program that brings arts and culture through our ambassadors residence is and beyond to people around the world. She served as president obamas chair of the commission of arts and humanities. She has been active also in switzerland where she and her husband, now congressman don buyer served representing the United States. She launched a lot of bilateral initiatives with switzerland. She has a long history of doing the right thing and giving her time and megan, i like to have you come up and welcome the secretary. [applause] good morning. I am megan buyer and i am so proud and honored to serve on the board of trustees at meridian. We are the american residence for diplomacy in washington. Our mission is to strengthen engagement and relationships between the United States and the rest of the world. We are nonpartisan, we are nonprofit and like at any residence and i know we have many ambassadors with us today, you will find global, academic, government, Corporate Leaders here at meridian, diplomatic engagement, cultural connections, events and people that expose us to different sectors, perspectives and cultures. But with whom we all share a certain moment in time, a time that is unique, presenting technological, environmental structural, geopolitical and economic challenges but also opportunities. Meridian helps leaders find ways to work generally together to meet their moments. Insights at meridian is a monthly series of our center for diplomatic engagement. What you will find today is we have our special guest who will give a presentation. Afterwards, he will join our charming and insightful ceo stewart holiday, for an engaging fireside chat. But where you come in his after that, we want to hear your insights, the connections you make in your mind as you listen to the presentation and the conversation. Please do join us and think about what you want to contribute after this fireside chat. Tackling complex issues is at the heart of the meridian mission. Today is no different. If you arrived a little late today, you are forgiven because im sure you were behind a construction project on the road. [applause] [laughter] president bidens bipartisan infrastructure act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act are the largest government investments in the history of american economies. Its a dramatic remaking of our transportation networks. Rodney might think its a little late. If you think about it, having waited, there are some opportunities. We can leverage the power of our new technology. What was a speculative Climate Change on the horizon has is made manifest and we can better navigate those challenges. This over 1 trillion Infrastructure Investment upgrades our roads and bridges, or trains in transit and airports and airports, everything, everywhere all at once. Its it transportation transformation nation. What better person to drive us into this uncharted territory than a young mayor who surprised us by transforming the city in the the heartlands of america in a single decade. Rhode scholar, Harvard Mckinsey trained, navy lieutenant, 2020 candidate for president , youngestever, history making, boy wonder, secretary of transportation. [laughter] please help me welcome our honorable secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg. [applause] sec. Buttigieg wow. Thank you for the kind introduction and for your friendship. It is great to be reunited with you. I am delighted to be referred to as a boy wonder, because strangely, i have noticed every day i seem to be older than i was the previous day and the pattern has not reversed itself yet. It is a real treat to be with you and to be with secretary slater, who has been such a great source of insight and somebody who is i often look to in pursuing our work. Ambassador, thank you for hosting us. Thank you to everyone at meridian, including fred who encouraged me to come and im sorry he cannot be here today. But i know he would if he could. I will be exceedingly brief in introductory remarks because i would like for us to make the most of the conversation that we are about to have. But i thought i would mention a few things to help illustrate the relevance of International Relations and relationships to the work that were doing at the department of transportation. And i would start by noting that while of course we are a largely the mess tickly oriented agency, it also seems that so many of the challenges that we address that define our work are not challenges that are confined to national borders. Whether we are dealing with supply chains, Climate Change, health, or safety. All of these are manifestly interconnected and so often require International Expertise and cooperation to confront them. I will, though, start by offering of the bit about the domestic context in terms of that bipartisan infrastructure law that we are now fast at work implementing. If you think of the administrations tenure here as a four year arc in this term, year one was really focused on getting that legislation passed. Then it took much of the next year to establish the programs that would make it possible to deploy the 1. 2 trillion made possible by that law, about half of which is for transportation. Which means that years three and four which we are in right now is the dynamic season we were all waiting for. If year one was about the bill passing and ear two was about the program logic, years three and four are about the money moving in the dirt flying, and that is very much happening around us. Just to those street i will share that a bit about my week. Tuesday morning i was on the i5 bridge in vancouver, washington that links washington and oregon across the columbia river. It is what i would call one of the cathedrals of our infrastructure, a massive structure that is 107 years old and very much in need of replacement. But it has not been possible to assemble the funding to do that until now because the president s infrastructure plan made it possible for us to bring a 600 million grant to go towards the reconstruction that you need to undertake. But what i really want to convey is the range of activity that is going on because the same programs that are contributing to that grant are also helping us add Truck Parking in sites around the country, tennessee, wyoming, that are probably not regarded as among the iconic structures of u. S. Transportation, but critically important to our supply chains. Because Truck Drivers are not finding enough places to park which presents an issue that touches safety as well as the fluidity of our goods. Yesterday i was in charlotte where we announced 27 million in funding to contribute towards renovations and upgrades that they are doing at one of the major growing hubs on the east coast, one of the biggest hubs in the United States aviation system. But that same program, the airport terminal program, is also Funding Investment at an airport in north dakota, 48, where i cannot even say we are renovating their terminal because they dont have a terminal. We are funding them to get a terminal, to have an actual building. Which, even though there are not large airliners going in and out of the airport it is incredibly important because one of the missions served by their general aviation airstrip is air ambulance flights that go to the nearest hospital. And the pilots and patients will finally have access to a building that can be erected with a sixfigure grant. So whether we are talking about multibilliondollar projects let the hudson river tunnel that represents one of the largest public works Infrastructure Projects in the United States in our time, or whether we are talking about a sixfigure grant that is going to transform streetscape in a town that has been plagued with too many traffic deathss. All of it adds up to a season of infrastructure where we have 30 40,000 projects and counting making transportation better. And we are putting hundreds of thousands of people to work in the process, which of course is one of the reasons we were so energetic about this legislation in the first case. It is why it is called Infrastructure Investment and jobs act, with emphasis on the jobs. All of this is connected to the work we are doing around the world and what we can learn from our partners around the world. Supply chains is a term i think was not a household term three or four years ago. Now it very much is Kitchen Table talk, especially after the congestion, blockage, and disruptions we saw in 2021 as a consequent of covid. And International Cooperation is very important there. We have worked with asean to find ways to ship more smoothly and we are keeping mariners a safe and supply chains running in light of what is taking place right now with threats in the red sea. Meanwhile on the aviation side we have been working with International Civil Aviation Organization in the Aviation Industry directly to standardize Public Health measures during covid much to strengthen security measures in response to russias unprovoked invasion of ukraine, to reduce global emissions through the use of Sustainable Aviation fuels, and so many more efforts that could only be done in cooperation with our partners. Which brings me to the third point i want to mention, which is that many areas in which, in all humility, we recognize that the United States can learn a great deal and improve a great deal through International Engagement and partnership. I will mention two areas in particular. One, project delivery. If we can figure out a way to be 1 more efficient on a 1. 2 trillion infrastructure bill, that represents 10 billion of value that will have been unlocked. Or to put it in the negative, every 1 that is spent less efficiently than it could be because of things taking too long or costing too much, that is 10 billion worth of value we will not get unless we get this right. And we know that there are many countries around the world, including countries whose commitment to labor and environmental protections are certainly no less robust than our own, who have found ways to deliver infrastructure more quickly and efficiently. And we want to make sure that we are learning from that. The other thing i would note is the crisis of deaths on our roadways print we are just starting to see the numbers begin to go down just a little bit. But that is only after reaching a high of about 40,000. That is on par with the level of Death Associated with gun violence in the United States. Or to put it in a different perspective, at a time when we are rightly moving heaven and earth to address aviation safety because of a quality issue that led to a plug door being blown out on a 737 max9. I would note that in number of people that is equivalent to a full 737 is lost on a daily basis on our roadways. We have seen how other countries have been able to make remarkable progress in confronting roadway deaths. And it is a particularly important moment to do that because of the technologies that are emerging. We need to find ways to make the most of the safety potential of automation that is on the horizon, while addressing the safety concerns that are associated with this technology today. And this is not a problem or a set of solutions that will be confined to any one state. So, having offered just a few examples i will end with this. This is a moment when the u. S. Is very focused on taking care of the basics. Making sure that the basics of everyday life are not a concern so that people can spend their energy on more purposeful questions, on whether there is going to be a glass of clean, safe drinking coming out of the tap, or whether internet is available, or whether there is a hole in the road on your way to work. We do that because not just that is what government is for, but also in the recognition that that is inseparable with our commitment to democracy. Our approach to government as a society is bound up with our ability to deliver those concrete aspects. And that is part of why i am so excited about the investments that we are making, but also mindful about how much depends on our effectively delivering them here in the u. S. And in dialogue with our national partners. So with that, i will show myself to my seat and i am very much looking forward to our conversation. [applause] mr. Holliday first of all mr. Secretary, go navy. Sec. Buttigieg amen. [laughter] mr. Holliday before we get started, this is such a great country, where people can build an amazing future, an optimistic future. And since we have so Many International distinguished guests i thought it would be interesting to note that your father came to the United States from malta. Now, i am sure when he came he did not expect perhaps that his son would be a cabinet secretary. But im wondering if you could just share a little bit about that and what that means to you and your family. Sec. Buttigieg yeah, my father was born i cannot even say a multicitizen, he was born a british subject, because malta only gained its independence later on. And immigrated in the 1970s as so many people did for educational opportunities, and then he became a citizen and settled eventually in south bend, indiana, which is where i grew up and became mayor. And i do wonder sometimes what the level of Culture Shock might have been for somebody from malta, especially settling in indiana. This may be apocryphal, but it is said that the inuit people have about 50 different words for snow, because they have so much experience with it and very subtle differences call for different vocabulary. Maltese does not have a word for snow. They use ice. When i overhear my father talking on the phone to his family in malta, as he would often around christmas, he would say there is a lot of ice out there, meaning it is snowing. But like so many who come to america, he found a great life here and ive always had the good fortune of being my fathers son in mind. Mr. Holliday it is a great story and a great reminder with all the negativity in the news that we are bombarded with, that these kinds of stories happen in america and they are just amazing. Obviously in your career, through your work, your vision, took that to another level. So i wanted to ask you before we get into the macro issues, the president today is traveling to East Palestine, ohio to show support for the community there. One year after the train derailment. Your agency obviously has some meaningful work going on to deal with train safety and these kind of issues. I am wondering if you could share a little bit about what the president is hoping to do and what you are working on as a relates to that. Sec. Buttigieg the president is there because the mayor of East Palestine invited him to visit. It is especially important right now because it is a chance to demonstrate that our administrations commitment to the people of East Palestine did not end when all the cameras and the media and political firestorm around that place ended a few weeks after the derailment. That we are in it for as long as it takes. This will also be a chance just to show support for a great community. When i speak to people who i got to know when i visited about a year ago who i have kept in touch with, i hear two things. One, the community does not want to be defined by this. But two, they do not want to be forgotten, and they expect and deserve support for as long as it takes. And i think the president s visit goes to show that. In terms of what we have done since, our agency was on the ground within the first few hours. But the main part that the department of transportation has had is in responding to what happened by applying lessons with regards to railroad safety. And that led to focused inspections of thousands of miles of track. It led to new regulations, including one we recently issued that has to do with emergency escape breathing apparatus for personnel who are on trains. It led to a lot of pressure from us on the Class One Railroad companies which they have been partially responsive to, to improve their practices. And what it has not led to but should, is a Bipartisan Railway Safety act. It has been filed and proposed within weeks of that disaster. It is still waiting its turn in congress. And again, it was bipartisan, and yet that is just sitting there. Mr. Holliday what is holding it up . Sec. Buttigieg great question. [laughter] mr. Holliday we could ask that about anything today. Sec. Buttigieg the Railroad Industry is certainly resisting this distillation. What is more frustrating to me is that members of congress are resisting this legislation who had a lot to say in the immediate aftermath of the crash but are nowhere to be found when it comes time to get them on the record. I think now would be a good time. Yesterday would have been a good time, but now would be a very good time to get it together. Again, it is bipartisan, and it would include a number of measures that would strengthen the hand of my department when it comes to ensuring real safety. Not just to do right by the people of East Palestine, but all the communities wondering if they could be next. Mr. Holliday i was doing a little bit of History Research and sort of looking at the creation of this department of transportation. And it was interesting, i am not sure if this is entirely accurate, but the father of the queen of jordan, who was also a friend of president johnsons, told the president , look, who is in charge of transportation in the federal government . And johnson says, well, i dont know. We need to get something done about that. And so in 19 six to seven they created a department of transportation. But it also is a collection of agencies, too. You have everything from the faa, the merchant marines, i mea highwayn so much administration. Could you give the audience a snapshot of some of the principal functions of the department of transportation . Sec. Buttigieg yeah. First off, i will go administratively and then functionally, which might be more intelligible. But the department include many agencies that did exist in the days of president johnson but had not been brought under one roof. The federal highway administration. The federal aviation administration, which is larger than the rest of the department of transportation combined. The largest d. O. T. Flag i have ever seen is the one that flies outside of faa headquarters. Parts you would think and know about a lot, rail, transit. Parts that dont get as much attention with the pipeline, finsa. I was astonished by the range of things that this department does when i came in. Our maritime that takes its place alongside the military academies and the coast guard academy. We have a piece of commercial space travel. So they operate with canada which was inaugurated by president eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth and to this day is a vital part of our supply chain. So that is some sense of the different provinces of our department. In terms of trying to make sense of the range of what we do, it really falls into three categories. Building, running, and protecting. Building is the part i talked about in my opening remarks and we are doing more of it than ever because we have more Grant Funding at our hands than ever. Taking funds, although we dont run any of the projects. We dont directly build a single mile of road. We fund state agencies, we fund transit authorities, we fund airports to do their good work. In many ways it is a fun and rewarding part because we are building the future of the country. Then there is running. Now, i say that advisedly because we actually dont run any railroads, we regulate them. We dont run the highways, we fund them. But we do own and operate the air traffic system, which is one of the most complex and important civilian operations in the federal government. 24 7, 365. This helps explain why the faa is bigger than the rest of our department combined, because it is not only the safety regulator but the Service Provider when it comes to air traffic control. And then the third part, protect. That is really our regulatory function and our rulemaking. Were responsible from effecting everyone from a Flight Attendant covered by the regulations we have on crew rest, to a homeowner in the path of a proposed highway expansion, which will be overseen in terms of our civil rights authority. To a Community Like East Palestine. To anybody else who interacts with any of our transportation systems. We manage the standards for vehicles, make sure vehicles are safer. And so that is how i think about it. Build, run, protect. Mr. Holliday thats great. I wanted to ask you since you talked about aviation, about, with the war in ukraine and the sanctions on russia, our ability to fly over Russian Airspace has been constrained, should we say, to say the least. But other countries continue to do so. I was wondering if you could share a little bit about how this impacted both our commercial and our cargo aviation industries, and what you all are doing to try and mitigate those effects. Sec. Buttigieg u. S. Carriers do not fly over Russian Airspace, of course. Some other countries have taken the same approach, some have not. This presents competitive challenges for u. S. Passenger, and especially for u. S. Cargo air carriers, who in respecting that, of course are taking on more cost. And its impacting their schedules. They have adjusted to this and they have been very responsive to the importance of doing this. But i do think that it would be a positive development if more International Partners to join in this. It was not regarded as a competitive issue but simply as the right thing to do. Mr. Holliday so, before you leave your job, are you going to recreate the u. S. Merchant marine fleet . [laughter] sec. Buttigieg we talked about my father. On the other side of my family, my grandfather was in the merchant marines. Its crucially important but a strangely quiet part of our National Security framework. We should as a country do more to shore up our maritime capabilities. Im speaking of course for the civilian perspective. There is a separate conversation going on amongst our fellow navy enthusiasts. But this is why we have a Merchant Marine Academy and a number of satellite academies around the country including my home of traverse city. Because that and the Ready Reserve fleet, the tanker security program, those are all very important things when you need them and i dont think we always realize how much we need them. We would welcome conversations with congress about how to run and develop all of that programming. Because i think it has been too much taken for granted that americas posture as a maritime power, which again, has commercial and civil sides as well as military dimensions, is so important to our economic security. Mr. Holliday so in 1967 when president johnson was thinking about creating this department, it was about highways, trains, planes, ships. Now climate is an important part of your agenda. Sec. Buttigieg absolutely. Mr. Holliday and probably more so in your tenure. I think you all were at cop in abu dhabi and talking a little about your efforts on climate. I was wondering if you could share specifically both domestically what you all are doing in terms of thinking about policies that decarbonize and are cleaner, but also what consultations you have had since it is fundamentally a shared environment we have with the rest of the world what conversations you are having with either counterparts or other countries about what to do about the challenge . Sec. Buttigieg in the u. S. Economy the single sector that contributes the most Greenhouse Gases is transportation. That is true in many if not most other economies as well. Certainly true globally that transportation plays a major role. We have aligned on a roadmap for decarbonizing transportation, a blueprint to get us towards the net goal by 2050. It is inevitably the case that every transportation policy decision is also a decision about Climate Policy, whether we recognize it or not. So we better recognize it. And that is what we are doing. Some things are probably better publicized than others pretty obviously our efforts around electric vehicles are an example of that. We are working hard to make sure elective vehicles are affordable and you can charge them when you need to so that we can decarbonize a transportation in the u. S. I would also say no matter how good we arent going electric, something that has been there all along is that a huge part of our climate solution is good oldfashioned transit, although i would put an asterisk on oldfashioned. No matter if you are in all electric ride, everyone finds it is a better choice for them to take transit rings with them a huge reduction in carbon emissions, in Greenhouse Gas emissions. Part of this goes down to the very design of our communities, which is the relationship between land use and transportation. We designed the footprint of our communities to not require people to take as many trips as they do. Mr. Holliday how many people were on 66 or 95 . Sec. Buttigieg it really matters. Just the logic of our built environment. And these are all very rich discussions for International Engagement. So is corsi a, where the u. S. Has played a leading role and our department has been very active in helping aligned around statements mr. Holliday and that is . Sec. Buttigieg you are going to challenge me now. Mr. Holliday yes, we all know what it is. [laughter] sec. Buttigieg i need to relearn the acronym, but its the framework for aviation emissions reduction. We are also funding a challenge to stimulate that. This is an National Challenge because we need to come to alignment on what counts as sustainable, and its much more fungible if we have a book and claims system if evaline has their own captive system if everyone has their own captive system forgetting that Aviation Fuel into their aircraft. All of these things require engagement. Whether it is the International Civil Aviation Organization, whether it is the cop talks in abu dhabi, and i was at the glasgow talks, or in the g7, where this along with supply chains has been very high on the list of topics we took up in japan last year. Were all in this together. It is the same air, it is the same climate, and the consequences. Not only is transportation contributing a great deal, but it is the first to feel the impact if there is a problem. About 1. 5 years ago the Pacific Northwest experienced heat waves that should not even statistically be possible. And they had such an impact that the Transit Agency had to shut down because their tables were in danger of melting. We see runways buckle because they were not built to the specifications that would expect them to withstand the kind of climate attacks they have seen. And i approach this as a former mayor because we experienced what i told was a 1000 year flood when i was mayor. I heard the rain coming overnight, two hours later was activating our Emergency Operation center to do with that thousand year flood. Our next thousand year flood came about 1. 5 years later. So we need to get out of the business of telling communities and cities to put back a road exactly the way it was when it was washed out by a thousand year flood that its about to become an annual event. That is put we are trying to update in terms of the resilient strategy. And we are putting our money where our mouth is, funding more resilient infrastructure that can withstand these climate impacts. Even if we pass the test in front of us with flying colors, which of the reality of course is much more complex than that on mitigating and preventing, we already have to be adapting. Mr. Holliday so, the grants through the infrastructure act, are they moving out and you are seeing progress in terms of dealing with some of these issues . Sec. Buttigieg yeah. Whether it is one of the less glamorous aspects of the terminal, like central utility plants at some airports. Solar features, we are funding that which will help them operate the airport more efficiently but also with fewer emissions. So theres an economic and environment a benefit. We are funding the deployment of electric vehicle chargers around the country to help deal with range anxiety. We are investing important infrastructure that is greener than what we have inherited. And again, every investor we make in transit is of itself potentially an investment in climate too. So it is a big theme what we are doing with our funding a narro and our investments, whether the funding has climate in the name or not. Mr. Holliday i wanted to ask, meridian has seen sort of a transformation in diplomacy over the last couple of decades. Where our wonderful embassies and ambassadors continue to do great work, but governors and mayors are increasingly engaged internationally. In some cases you were a mayor, but you also worked with governors. And that seems to be a good thing, because one is, there are economic benefits to this for both parties. But also theres continuity in our relations, where we can have multiple relationships, multiple layers of diplomacy. And im wondering if you might comment i know this is a transportation question about the importance of these connections between subnational leaders around the world. Sec. Buttigieg i am enthusiastic about subnational engagement, and i hope that there is even more investment in this going forward. Ive benefited from as a mayor. I was dont ask me what that stands for gave us a chance to visit myanmar with somebody from each level of government to discuss different patterns for budgeting. Participated in a visit to argentina through a multipartisan, in argentine terms, programming that was developed and overseen by the jesuits there who had a relationship with notre dame. So as a mayor i saw the power of these relationships, but they are also powerful for tackling some of the challenges we are talking about. Roads and streets are a very local concern, but the International Best practices need to be shared across international boundaries. Climate. When i was 10 or 15 years ago first becoming involved in what is now the climate mayors, this started as a group is a few dozen mayors who got to know each other around the world realizing collectively, just those few dozen cities they lead represented the bulk of the worlds gdp. And they were inpatient waiting for their capitals to catch up on Climate Policy and started doing work on their own, because they realized so much of that depended on local decisions anyway. So, i believe the problem solving power of engagement in the layers among state leaders and their equivalents is especially timely right now, given what we have in front of us. And if there is anything we can do as it apartment networks so often with, through city and state and tribal leaders, we would welcome opportunities to help foster that. Mr. Holliday secretary blinken hosted mayors from the hemisphere in denver. We were part of this conference of mayors, and when the mayors got together, they immediately started talking about specific challenges and less politics. Major foreignpolicy differences between their countries were kind of left on the table and they got down to brass tacks. It was really good to see. Sec. Buttigieg when you are at a u. S. Conference of mayors, probably the last room in america for the highprofile elected officials from different parties who like each other at that scale. I mean, you would become friends with mayors without even knowing what party they were from. It did not come up. A lot of us were definitely democrats or definitely republicans, but we formed relationships across that because the problems are so common. And if that can be done in a polarized america, then certainly the opportunity to get around International Obstacles mayors love talking to other mayors about mayor stuff. Because by definition you are mr. Holliday you all call it geeking out . Is that what they call it . Sec. Buttigieg absolutely. Mr. Holliday lets go to the audience. The department of transit asian has an assistant secretary for International Affairs office, and if we dont get your question it or if you need to want to work with the department or ask a question, meridian will be happy to facilitate that connection. Yeah. Secretary, thank you so much for your time today. I work for booking holdings. We met with my ceo a few months ago. We are in the travel and hospitality space, so, priceline, kayak, booking. Com. I would love to hear how ai has been around for a while, but how generative ai is coming into the everyday work in the three pillars you spoke about, and where you see the biggest potential or impact it will have on all the things that the department oversees. Sec. Buttigieg thank you. Timely question and a profound area of attention. And one that i think has many dimensions of potential for us. To take some of the nonobvious ones, you look at the number of unaccrued aircraft, drones, that are going through our airspace. There are not enough human beings in the world to train to be aircraft controllers to handle all of that in the way that we handle regular crewed aircraft. That is a technical challenge where we think ai can have a lot of potential to help. May a less intuitive example is even before we get i am always thinking about how technology can work outside of vehicles. Because the most Important Technology development in transportation of the last decade turned out to be the smart phone. Which i dont think any of us were expecting with all the things happening with aircraft and spacecraft. The one that really changed transportation, how you navigate, how you board an aircraft, all of it, was a smart phone. So there are nonintuitive connections here. I actually think artificial intelligence, ai, in its not too distant state, could play an Important Role in product delivery by helping with paperwork. A huge part of what gets in the way of Timely Delivery is the complexity of the administrative processes involved with approving and permitting it. And while those protections are there for very good reasons, often they are arcane and very effortintensive, especially for low income and small communities which are among the ones we should be racing to serve better with transportation grants, but who have trouble navigating the process because they are so complicated. So i would love to ask some of these bots and turn them loose on permitting processes. Its unglamorous but i think very important. Then there is i think more familiar and obvious important use cases which is around driving. Again, were at a crisis level in terms of deaths on our roadways right now. Literally proportionate to gun violence in the United States. But getting radically less attention. I think precisely because we are so used to it. We just grew up dazed in this. Almost no people who have been killed. As if we grew up during a war, we are just accustomed to it. But it does not have to be that way. So i am in the long run very optimistic about the potential of Automated Technologies to save lives. Even if they are not perfect, they have a major advantage over the track record of human drivers, which has been bordering on the murderous in the United States. But that is the long run. The problem is how do we get from here to there. And right now, maybe you have seen some of these viral images going around i dont know if this is stage were not this is staged or not. Theres this one with vr goggles behind the wheels. I dont know what he is doing, but he is not driving. I will use this as the forum for my daily reminder that there is no technology you can buy today in a car, no matter what it is called, where you dont have to have your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. Mr. Holliday that is the key take away. Sec. Buttigieg Pay Attention when you are driving. When i was at the Detroit Auto Show with the president and looking at Remarkable Technology coming along, they are coming up with level 2 automation which is somewhere between Cruise Control and true automation. It is a thing that nudges you back to your lane. These are safety features. But some of the newest features are to protect you from yourself. Being too reliant on the safety features. If you get the picture of the coffee cup that shows you to Pay Attention again. We now have the technology to protect you from depending on the technology. We need to navigate wisely, because the pot of gold at the end of this is the chance to save tens of thousands of lives. And thats the ai application i am most excited about. Mr. Holliday any ambassadors have anything on their minds, or no . Friday, just kind of taking it all in. [laughter] nothing. They are working very, very hard, ladies and gentlemen. Obviously you have made an extraordinary commitment to the transition to evs, including through the ira. I think we are starting to see a pretty substantial response to it as well. Particularly at the moment in the nickel industry, where i think its incontrovertible to say china is crashing the market with the intention of denying the ability to access the ira subsidies. You cannot get to the required percentages if theres only chinese nickel and lithium on the market. Were starting to think about that very, very urgently. Whats the sort of discussion happening on the administration side about how you actually deliver on the promise of the ira . Sec. Buttigieg yeah, thank you. It is very much on our minds and we work only with the department of energy on this because you really cannot separate the two. Frankly, in my view, the last administration allowed china to build an advantage with regard to the ev market. We now need to recover and get ahead of that advantage. And i think we are. That is the design of the ira. But now that you say, the design is out there, there will be various attempts to undermine it. It is not just a sourcing but the refining and processing of some of these couldve inputs that is at issue, which very much can befriend short and on short, but with intention. So we need to make sure by the way, an added complication is the longterm battery chemistry is not totally stabilized. There are still a lot of Technological Developments which can affect it, which can be a challenge of uncertainty for the markets and from a policy perspective too. So we are making sure that we tune as many of the knobs and dials available to us through the ira and other policies. Hearing you raise this is a great example of why we need to be in Strong International dialogue as we do it. Because you will see some of these dynamics you will have lived through some of these dynamics in ways the u. S. Is not susceptible to in the past and we need to make sure that our antenna are engaged to pick that up. Mr. Holliday good point you made. The secretary of defense and secretary of state have to Work Together every day very closely and you probably have to work with the secretary of energy in close sec. Buttigieg we have never done Something Like this. We set up a joint office, about 300 million going into a joint effort. It is so difficult to keep them separate. They have so much ask for teach on battery technology, on alternative fuel, we have the expertise on highways. So if you are building an alternative fuel corridor it has got to be done jointly. And their leadership has been fantastic. It probably has to do with her shared heritage in the american midwest. Shes attuned to what this means for our Auto Industry as well. Mr. Holliday i should get a shout give a shout out to to one of our chairs, who was part of the whole auto i cannot remember what years they were, but the original, i dont want to call it a bailout, but whatever you want to call it. Questions . Ambassador. Good morning. I was ambassador to colombia. When i was in colombia, the colombians had a multibillion dollar effort to rebuild their roads and we are very interested in having american firms involved and i can simply could not get any american firms to share interest in this multibillion dollar effort. And of course what happened was the chinese moved in and they are doing it now with a metro project in bogota. In both cases we had an opportunity there, yet could not execute on it. I wonder what incentives might exist to get u. S. Firms involved in these things. And perhaps by getting state and local governments involved as well because they are the ones who were executing these kind of projects at this scale which is different from the halliburtons and whatnot scale. Sec. Buttigieg yeah, i think the answer may well be embedded in your question, which is many of these firms are used to serving state and local governments are ultimately the customer. There are a lot of market distortions and failures in that that concerned me, because the state and local governments are under such pressure to deliver that sometimes Efficient Solutions get overlooked. For example, i think there were many mayors who are under such pressure to address the backlog of roads that need to be improved in their cities, that if somebody offered them a physical mixture and immaterial solution, that would be 50 more durable at a 20 price premium, they might be compelled to say no because it would mean they would be paving fewer lane miles of road that year. And so we should work to straighten out some of these dynamics, partly through the incentives that arise in those markets. And we have maybe a less wellknown part of our department i am very proud of goldie build America Bureau which is all about better financing approaches. And smoothing out the financing to help with everything from big p3s for infrastructure delivery. But our market is messy in the u. S. , whether it is roadbuilding or anything else with infrastructure. And yet there is so much global opportunity. So the best answer i can give to your question is yes, we should be engaging more of the local and state departments that are in the first instance typically the customer for these firms. Which, for that reason, sometimes develop a very specialized and bespoke way of looking at it which has as much to do with navigating the people as it does the simple question of how to build a road. Im trying to get us more in the mentality of how do you build a road. Because we have learned so many of the inefficiencies we have seen in the cost and time to deliver after do with how customized everything is around here. Offline i would love to learn more about your experience in colombia because the expansion it showed the world bus Rapid Transit what it could do, the sophistication of what has gone on there really should be an example. The mayor of bogota, who is a dynamo, is here, and does an amazing job looking at all of these issues. I wanted to just give a quick add, i guess. Meridian is looking at this issue, as you know ambassador, of why u. S. Companies are not moving in as aggressively to international markets, investing in the global south. And what we have seen, wev convenede the agencies it is about derisking, one of them. Its about rule of law and ensuring that the investments and shareholders of these companies, that these investment will be safe. And also, what tools does the United States have, whether it is xm, usdfc, commerce, what does our toolkit look like . Because our competitors havent integrated toolkit have an integrated toolkit where they go effectively into these markets with a combined government and private sector, theres no line between the two. We need to have a strategy to address this. Sorry for that, but had to share that point. Lets eat. We have got lets see. Weve got to have another question. By the way, our staff is fantastic here at meridian. I think more staff have turned out to see you as speaker than any other speaker, for some reason. Sec. Buttigieg i am honored. Mr. Holliday so i would love for one of the staff to get the opportunity to ask a question. I think i saw one way back there. Lets get a nonshy staff person. I am here all the time. [laughter] thank you so much for being here and for your comments. Im from a 3m company. Thank you for your comments about road safety, an important topic that we have to keep our attention on that. When it comes to the ira there is funding for bike lanes. And as a heavy biker, as you can hear from my accent i am from a country that loves biking, and d. C. Has done great work, but as soon as you leave the city you end up on a freeway. How do you see the progress in the ira for bike lanes . Sec. Buttigieg i am passionate about this. Matteroffact, the first time i spent in the company of a transportation secretary was when my predecessor, secretary fox, lead a delegation of mayors to visit amsterdam, copenhagen, and oslo, to see with the achievements were there in terms of bike ability. But as impressive as all that was, the image i most have in mind from that visit is when they showed us pictures of what the streets looked like in the 1970s, when those cities were as carcentric as any city in the u. S. What that told me was this was not the result of some innate nordic, cyclefriendly dna, but rather certain policy choices that were made to make sure that it was safer and more efficient. Even before it was understood how important Climate Change would be as yet another layer of why it is worth having good, active infrastructure and transportation. This has been a very important pa of many of our projects in the infrastructure plan. For example, the large bridge i was telling you about in the Pacific Northwest. If you go on it now, you dont want to be riding a bike or walking on that bridge. It is physically possible but not something most people want to do. We are changing that and this will have the right kind of dimensions for good bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. As you have mentioned, d. C. Has done a great job with this. 100 mile of protected bike lane was completed on new jersey avenue outside of the u. S. D. O. T. Headquarters. I dont know if that was for my benefit or just a coincidence. But they have been doing a great job. Mr. Holliday do you have a road bike or a Mountain Bike . Sec. Buttigieg a road bike. I started on a commuter bike and then got a proper road bike. I love zipping along the trails along this region. The mount vernon trail, the one that takes you past the old dominion rail line. Recreation is a good purpose but this is not just about recreation. These things are not ornamental, they are part of the solution to the crisis of roadway deaths i was talking about earlier. So whenever i go to someplace that raises concerns about bike lanes as if it was some expensive thrill we were putting on our roadway designs, i remind them that this is a question of lifeanddeath. That if we have good, safe bike lanes, that mean more people will return home when they should, and it also is a relief on congestion. Think about how much space a bike takes up versus how much space a bike take separate even if you are not riding a bike you are benefiting when others are. This will continue to be a big part, whether we are talking complete streets in downtown streetscape developments, or longer Trail Networks that many communities are trying to hook up. We believe that, yes, this is partly cultural, but good investments, good policies, and good tactics are an important part of how the culture matches the work we are doing. Last but not least i want to recognize 3m as one of the First Partners in our national roadway safety strategy, which takes private as well as local nonprofit partners. And we are always eager to sign up more. So, thanks for being part of the solution. Mr. Holliday i am going to go to our terrific executive Vice President , natalie jones, to represent the staff with her question. Hi, thank you so much for being here today. I want to go in the opposite direction, from bicycles to space. You mentioned that one of the areas is looking at is space commercialization and travel. Can you talk a little about the state of the industry now and where you see it going in the next five or 10 years, and the role of International Collaboration in making sure that these are opportunities that are extended to everyone around the world . Sec. Buttigieg the potential is enormous and so is the growth of this sector. The statistics is incredible. The pace at which we are licensing commercial space launches out of the faa went from once every few weeks or every month, to i am looking to you, he used to be the person responsible for reminding me of the statistic. So i am wondering if you have it. [inaudible] sec. Buttigieg Something Like from once a week to once a month and growing. And that is only going to continue. To put it diplomatically, we have inherited a complex jurisdictional reality and it comes to how this is overseen. The responsibilities divided between nasa, commerce, and department of transportation is something we still need to refine and make sure the they are ready for the future. And we are. But the bottom line is the more of it there is, the more we have to address it. By the way, this is not just about space tourism. When people hear commercial space, they think billionaires going up in their rockets. Mr. Holliday what is it about billionaires going up into space . They love it. Sec. Buttigieg if i could, i would. Mr. Holliday i am going to wait until they work out the kinks. Sec. Buttigieg the state of regulation on some of these things right now has more in common with the early internet than it does the present standard of, well, of passenger aviation. Where if there is so much as a loose bolt, that would require moving heaven and earth to do with that so we are 1000 percent safe. The attitude on commercial space has been more, if your experimental rocket blows up on the ground we need to make sure nothing on the ground is damaged outside of your project. And on the way up, you need to make sure you dont hit anything as you go through international airspace. But we need to develop a much more folks some framework that is looking after the safety concerns. Certainly the concerns of orbital space debris, which are a classic tragedy of the comments which can only be addressed not just through good domestic, but good International Cooperation. Mr. Holliday and we have to keep the russian death star from going up. We dont need it. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us at meridian. Thank you for your leadership. And we know that you have many things on your plate, and if there is anything we can do to support you in your efforts, we will do so. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]