Department of transportation. The administration is proposing 94 billion in mandatory and Discretionary Spending for the department of transportation in his school year 2016. Included is proposed a six years 478 billion Service Transportation reauthorization paid for by a onetime 14 tax on the repatriation of the foreign parents foreign earns. While i support a repatriation proposal and am completely open to using some of the resulting funds for our infrastructure the president s budget is based on a reauthorization that is budgeted by a mandated approach. It really fails to propose any reforms necessary to bring about a longterm solvency of the highway and van transit trust funds. It is perplexing to hear the administrations half about how important our nations needed and yet the an ministration continues to remain silent on trust fund reforms that are put into place in order to address our crumbling roads, bridges, now and in the future. Simply saying we are happy to work with congress is not an acceptable answer. This transportation this administration has had six years to provide specific proposals to reform the trust fund. It is an essential part of the Service Transportation equation. This is a critical year for transportation, both for the administration and for congress. Also a multiparty faa authorization expiring at the end of the fiscal year. Our focus is on the fiscal year 2016 budgetary needs of the department of transportation based on current authorization. I am pleased to see the administration continues to highlight and fund the important Tiger Program. I am disappointed in the unrealistic proposal to mandatory spending that simply will not happen in our appropriations. I have advocated strongly for the Tiger Program since joining the Appropriations Committee in 2009. Nationally, regionally, and locally. It has been essential to many bridge, railroad and pork projects in my home state of maine that otherwise would not have been undertaken when they needed to be. Moving on to faa our Aviation System supports 11. 8 million jobs. 58,000 tons being transported daily by air. The nations Aviation System depends upon a safe efficient modern air Traffic Control system. The president s request includes 16 billion of support investment and keeping our Aviation Systems the safest and most efficient airspace in the world. Wall i am pleased the air Service Program is fully funded, i am disappointed with the mention of a Small Community air Service Program, as well as the reduced funding for the airport improvement program. States like maine and other states represented by members of this committee benefit greatly from services that connect Rural America with a larger transportation network. In many instances air service would otherwise never have been established were it not for the support of the Small Community air Service Development program. With regard to our rail system i am deeply concerned by the number that has occurred over the past three years. This issue has special resonance in my home because the horrific accident in quebec, which killed 47 people and consumed much of a Small Community downtown. Only 10 miles from the main border and many of our First Responders rushed to assist their canadian counterparts in the budget request highlights Pedestrian Safety and the safe transportation of Energy Products that may need Additional Resources. I will be looking closely at how we can best target federal funds to reduce accidents and save lives. This subcommittee has worked hard to provide the department of transportation with resources to improve rail safety rail safety but they have not reflected those investments. Despite the increased resources we have provided a safe transportation of crude oil it is baffling to me that the department and this administration have yet to finalize regulations to replace the dot 111 tank cars to make other improvements. The department begins consideration of rules that will require comprehensive oil response plans. I also remain concerned about the ability of the department to hire the rail and pipeline inspectors previously funded. The subcommittee will hold the department accountable for every dollar provided for these important state the issues. Another of my concerns is some of the figures in the administrations Budget Proposal are simply unrealistic. The budget includes nearly 1. 3 billion for fta Capital Investment brands. I recognize your interest in promoting Public Transit and other Service Programs. I knology a reauthorization would shift funding to mandatory. This subcommittee must stop in the real world, one which this program must be funded with discretionary appropriation and where we continue to face severes that severe fiscal challenges. Let me turn over the podium to my colleague, senator reid, and say once again what a great pleasure it is to have him as our Ranking Member. Senator reid thank you for your leadership. Welcome secretary foxx. This is a lesson on gridlock. Exhibit one, thank you very much. We really do appreciate your leadership and look forward to discussing this budget request with you. It includes robust longterm reauthorization programs. Before i get any further let me thank you for coming to rhode island and seeing some of our transportation issues. Thank you very much. Our airport as a catalyst for economic growth. We are still lagging in the country in terms of employment. We used to be vying for one which you do not want to be in that kind of competition. We can do more thank you again for coming up to rhode island is an chance to look at our infrastructure. We need a functioning airport. It has been very successful. Last year was another record year. 170,000 automobiles were imported. I must say with senator collins it is another graphic example of how they can be used greatly and flexibly by local authorities to create jobs. We also understand that the future is going to need more. Its becoming a commercial transit area. What we are doing today is going to help us in the future dramatically. We have significant needs. They cant handle todays traffic. It is just going to get worse. 26 20 of bridges in this situation. It will be 40 by 2025. Him and he will take 80 million per year to reverse this trend. Amtrak is another key component. Thats the big member. The faa has a 5 million backbone. It would put our controls at risk of outages with delays. We are not talking about the things we want to build. That is what is distressing about this hearing. You have proposed a plan that will begin to grapple with these issues. If we could reauthorize appropriately and organized attacks and organize Committee Responsibilities to come up with revenues we could begin this process. I thank you for laying it on the table for us. Im afraid we are going to be stuck here. We are not going to make tough choices about raising revenues and investing in our future. Theres no better investment than infrastructure. Everyone on this committee will tell you bat. Tell you that you we also have to recognize state and local governments have been struggling. If we cant give them the certainty of a four or five year plan of committed federal funding at a reasonable and robust level, they will be on their own. So i look forward to being a supporter of what you are doing. It works. 2 billion in amtrak. The rights of ways and facilities. 908 million for the Traffic Safety administration. We have seen a lot of situation where vehicles will be on the red. It is a level of accountability they must deal with. 243 million. It will support 84 additional rail and safety inspectors. Are we effectively supervising both passenger in the United States . Not only of funds our air Traffic Control. Maybe tomorrow. I hundred 60 million for next gen, which is important. These programs rely on resources. We have to ensure they are there. We have a collective responsibility. It will be detrimental not only in monetary impacts on the budget but the memos reduction of accounts without any opportunity for a secretary to say this make sense and this does not. It will further undermine the picked ability and certainty predictability and certainty of state governments. We were able to delay it. We need a repetition of that work in the days ahead so we can go forward. Senator collins thank you senator reid. I want to acknowledge the presence of cell of several of our members. Senator capito, senator blunt. I am sure other members will join us as well. We did change the time of this hearing and i appreciate the secretary accommodating the schedule in light of the votes we have. Please proceed with your statement. Secretary anthony foxx madam chairman, Ranking Member reed, i want to thank you for having me here today and i would like to save particular thanks to madam chairman especially for being flexible and scheduling and scheduling in scheduling. Last month, we sent congress a new grow america act. It would provide funding over six years. Having a six year bill is important because it will give communities of stable, and a double amount of funding so they can plan for the longterm, as mentioned. I know the committee is very focused on this upcoming fiscal year. Let me tell you what this means for fy 16. Approximately 95 billion accounts for our digit request for fiscal year 2016. We would invest 7. 5 billion to clear the backlog of deficient bridges and highways that need safety repairs. There is 1 billion for a new Freight Program and over a billion dollar increase for Capital Investment grants which help build projects that Better Connect folks to jobs, schools and doctors. We recognize that sequestration will takee effect next january absent action. It would have a devastating impact on our hesitation safety efforts. Transportation safety efforts. Grow america lays down a marker and shows us the funding level necessary to improve. It is fully paid for and part of a larger Administration Budget that avoids sequestration. Keeps our safety inspectors and air Traffic Controllers on the job. It makes investment in our nation we need to support for a growing population and economy. I believe we can a compost this on a partisan basis accomplish this on a bipartisan basis. I want to specifically think you chairman collins for the work you did last year, and even before that, on the issue of safely transporting energy. It is an important issue, one we all care about. I want this subcommittee to know that your history of working together to support Critical Infrastructure investments, like the tiger grant and Capital Investment grant programs, matter a great deal in communities across america and it is appreciated. Ranking member reed, i want to thank you for being such a great voice in we are speaking today about fiscal year 2015. As the chairman acknowledged, we have to recognize we have a more immediate issue with the Highway Trust Fund on may 31. Next month, the current authorization will expire and when states come to us looking for money we will not be able to guarantee they will be there. Plans will be shelves, new jobs will not be created, and current ones will be at risk. We have seen six states pull back to billion dollars of objects because of federal funding. Theres been talk of funding to get by this latest cliff. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. At the local level communities are stuck in the planning process. Because of this uncertainty. A bandaid on our Transportation System is not what we need. Last two, Congress Passed funding for 10 months. Three months after that, tennessee announced they are mothballing projects, canceling 2 billion worth of projects. Maybe if america was not growing and did not need to prepare for Larger Population and economy perhaps this would not be so bad. But that is far from the case. America will be home to 45 million more people by 70 Million People more by 2045. Madam chair, if we have to go through the struggle of passing a funding bill, let us do it the right way, let us do something big. I am ready to work with you and all members of congress to get something done. I look forward to your questions. Senator thank you very much for your testimony. I mentioned the tragic incident in canada, very close to the maine border which prompted the administration and department to look at the design of the tank cars that are carrying crude oil. Given the recent uptick in crude by rail accidents, most recently West Virginia and illinois, i simply am astonished that we are once again waiting for omt to sign off on these important regulations. Im also concerned that the department has failed to publish a regulation to acquire a comprehensive Oil Spill Response plan from the railroads. We have given substantial increases in resources for more inspectors, for example. Could you update us and explain why more po progress has not been made in this truly critical area . Secretary anthony foxx first of all, madam chairman, your concerns are our concerns. We certainly take this issue very seriously. I want to describe a few steps we have taken to answer your question. First of all, on the issue of the crude by rail, the department, very early on in this process, took 24 steps, along with industry, to basically provide a bridge between block the last week we announced several additional steps we have taken. The work continues. One of the challenges of doing this rule is that we are talking not only about investors back retrospective risk, it also that the industry is growing and there is prospective risk. We are talking very closely with omb to get a copper hence the rule that out addresses tank cars, but also things like speed in other areas that will help impact mitigation and emergency response. Secondly, on the issue of the Oil Spill Response plan, i want to point out we did issue in advance notice of proposed rulemaking in august 2014 that was designed to put questions out to stakeholders that we thought was very important in ultimately addressing a final rule. Questions such as the volume of oil in the number of tank cars that will trigger an Oil Spill Response plan. We have received comments on that. I expect we will have the notice of proposed rulemaking this summer, as soon as maybe june. On the issue of inspectors, we appreciate the work of the Appropriations Committee providing us resources to hire inspectors. I will only point out, as we try to hire more inspectors d to meet the demand of this area, we are also competing with hiring of those inspectors by industry. Senator collins thank you. That is absolutely critical because the condition of the rail tracks is also an issue. Mr. Secretary, i am concerned about a recent attempt to change d. O. T. s regulation of 915 Passenger Vans used for summer camp transportation. I believe you have experience in having a child go to summer camp in the great state of maine, as do many americans. Without a change in law, without going through any regulatory process one Regional Office is treating these small Passenger Vans as if they were greyhound buses or trailways buses providing yearround commercial services. For example, when camps and Main Transport children in maine transport children across state lines from the airport, they are not Offering Services to the general public. Yet the agencys interpretation requires camps to offer continuous and adequate service, post prices and schedules and other commercial services to the public, or lose their operating service. This makes no sense for a van used in the summer months to pick up kids at the airport. In a camper driven in a Passenger Van within the state itself can be subject to interstate regulations because the combined summer camp package includes airfare from another state. Now i want to be clear, im not advocating summer camps should be relieved from obtaining the necessary Liability Insurance that covers safety matters, but it makes no sense to treat them as if they are commercial entities that are solely in the business of providing Transportation Services yearround. The reason on thethe omnibus required d. O. T. Can you assure me d. O. T. Will comply with Public Notice and requirements and take a hard look at whether this really make sense . It strikes me as government overkill at its worst. Secretary anthony foxx we will take seriously the notice and comment. Period. Because of the circumstances of maine and the camping industry, i will send a team to solicit comments from the stakeholders in the state. Senator collins thank you, that would be terrific. Senator reed. Senator reed thank you. Let me start with Cyber Security. Had the privilege of watching the senator work on crafting the security bill. No one knows more has been more or has been more forceful. There is a huge need to protect the system from Cyber Incidents and intrusions. The air Traffic Organization has to borrow funding help promote Cyber Security from other agencies, and borrow personnel. There are different experts within the faa who disagree on the best approach and how to deal with it. It is a critical issue and it seems like not only is it a resource issue. Let me ask you, mr. Secretary. Was are you and the director doing to try to get this done . It is not one of those things were going to see problems on the road. We are already years late doing with it. Secretary anthony foxx thank you for the question. It is an important issue and we recognize the d. O. T. And faa, specifically the faa, is working to address issues and recommendations raised as it relates to Cyber Security and the faa. We have established a number of technical findings focused on remediating some of those concerns. In addition, the faa has a new committee that will focus on these issues across the department, across the agency. One of the major responsibilities will be to coordinate implementation of recommendations. It was take a riskbased approach in addressing the larger set of issues associated with Cyber Security. In addition to that, this is an area where we are also joined at the hip with our other agency partners. We are working closely with the department of homeland security, the nsa, and u. S. Army Cyber Command to coordinate our efforts to protect the integrity of our airspace. Senator reed if there is one individual in charge, committees are useful, to get things done and implemented, etc. , there is usually someone responsible. Is there someone you have designated . Secretary anthony foxx ultimately i hold michael responsible for that. We have several units that focus on this in faa, air Traffic Control, but i think that is the area we will focus on making sure there is appropriate accountability on these issues going forward. Senator reed s sequestration went into effect, how would you deal with this issue . Secretary anthony foxx it would be tough. It would be very tough. We have already experienced over the last couple of years what sequestration can do to our agency, in particularly to ongoing operations. Our faa takes as a point of pride that we were able to continue integrating more technology in airspace, but he gets more but it gets harder. Senator reed we were pleased to see in the proposal, Additional Resources for transit for small urban and rural areas. The concern we have is that the way the proposal is drafted it has to have premium features, dedicated rightsofway continuous services, for many communities, they cannot do that. Either for financial reasons or practical reasons. I concern is my concern is, there are cities that can use transportation to improve transit, to put new signaling devices, etc. , and they will be shut out if they cannot respond to the premium features. What can you do to make sure that we can get this technology out to really deserving small urban and rural areas . Secretary anthony foxx overall we are putting more than 1. 6 billion for small rural and urban places. It is one place where Rural Communities and small communities can the 75 million is the accelerated development, where we are encouraging local communities and transit agencies to adopt best practices in getting projects rapidly on the ground and providing service. Our hope is there is a lot of low hanging fruit that agencies can adopt quickly and get access to the 75 million funds. We want to make sure we are encouraging the Rapid Deployment of transit overall. Senator reed and i certainly think that is appropriate. It is just that there are some communities, they cannot get it dedicated right away, but they can do significant things in terms of improving their transit Delivery Systems if they get access to at least a portion of this money. I would ask you to sort of think about that. My time is concluded, thank you. Senator collins thank you. Senator blunt. Senator blunt thank you chairman. On the proposal on the multiyear bill, you clearly cant build infrastructure in six months, or two years at a time. Your proposal, the administration proposal, to close the gap between where the gas tax money is and midlevel aspirations for what we could do with infrastructure relates to tax season profits. Would that be a mandatory tax secretary . Would it be attacks on the profits, whether came back or not . Secretary anthony foxx yes. There are several components, that i will just talk about too. There is 12 trillion in untaxed overseas corporate earnings. 21 percentage point in the current rates. It allows companies that want to bring it over, bring it over. For future profits, there it be a maximum 19 u. S. Rate and some discounts for whatever applied rate the companies are paying in the country where the profits were realized. That does not pay for our bill. It goes for other things. It is part of a larger Corporate Tax reform proposal the administration is pursuing. Senator blunt and the reason for the mandatory rate is that you would have a guarantee of how much money would be coming in based on those profits that you could truly guarantee to a great extent what the highway bill would look like for five or six years, is that the reason for the mandatory as opposed to an optional rate if they bring it back . Secretary anthony foxx also the classic repatriation has not scored well. The technical reason why we do it in the mandatory fashion is that the other way just is not score well. This is a way you can actually work to reduce the overall Corporate Tax rate and also bring those proceeds back and put them to work. Senator blunt i have a question. Secretary, last year the bill was suspended for one year. The 2011 rule on powers of service as part of the suspension the department was asked to complete a study on the operational safety, health and fatigue. How is the study going go secretary anthony foxx we have hired consultants to perform the study. We are working diligently to make sure the study is not only credible, we are also hearing from the stakeholders to make sure it is a lipid for study as possible and has the transparency and validity everyone would expect. Hope we can meet the deadline. Senator blunt thank you. Senator collins senator durbin. Senator durbin thank you. Good to see you again. I would add to my list of top favorites, that create program which means so much in our part of the world with so many railroads. It has the potential to expedite the movement of goods and alleviate some of the problems associated with rail traffic. Core capacity means so much to us. There is a time where it was difficult to wrest any funds out of the appropriation bill unless it was for quote new starts. Mr. Secretary, last friday we had an anniversary celebration in chicago of the passage of the americans with disabilities act. 25 years ago, senator bob dole tom harkin, president George H W Bush ended up making history and really liberating a huge number of americans who are disabled from the binds they faced as being unseen and unheard and not part of america. I wonder if the ada could pass this Congress Today and i seriously doubt it could. It is an indication of our dysfunction and inability to address some of the basics. The transportation bill used to be one of the basics. Some of us who have served for a while can remember when this was the easiest bill on capitol hill, totally bipartisan. Members of the house were begging to serve on the Public Works Committee so they can have a chance to grab a shovel and get a picture taken. We did it easily. Without any heavy lift. Now there is a serious question about whether this congress can pass a transportation bill. There are even members in the senate and house are arguing about whether they should be a federal transportation bill. Obviously they have never heard of dwight d. Eisenhower and the federal highway system. I would support whatever Funding Source we can come up with. I would certainly like to see it with more user fees, tax related to the purchase of fuel. I know that has mentioned returns with the fuel economy diminished returns with the fuel economy. But i am wide open. The thing that troubles me, mr. Secretary, were talking about the repatriation of corporate profits to pay for a federal highway bill and we are basically grabbing at a source that i do not think we can count on on a regular basis. Maybe it gets us through the Current Crisis and that is all we can hope for. But what is your longterm view . What is a reasonable source for a federal transportation bill that oldbuilds highways and gives america a chance to be competitive . Secretary anthony foxx there are lots of academic ideas but at some level it becomes a question of looking at the Political Support to actually pass. I would think the points that have been raised about the fact that our proposal is a sixyear proposal they are fair points. But i would also be remiss if i did not remind us all that we had 32 shortterm extensions in the last six years. Having six years of stability has is a far cry from where we had been for the last six years. There are eight ideas about a re ideas about the wholesale level, raising revenue on the barrel as opposed to the pump. There are lots of ideas and you see states experiment with some of these ideas. Senator durbin states are raising their gas taxes. Secretary anthony foxx they are and many of the states, where leaders have worked hard to get revenue on a table to get things done they are Still Standing on the shoulders of the federal funding. If the federal funding goes away, they are going to go one step forward. Senator durbin 75 of the highway construction in illinois 80 and what you have just said, 32 shortterm extensions, is the definition of dysfunction. I do not believe we can patch our way to prosperity. Filling potholes does not build a highway, and we are gearing up to fund a federal commitment to patch these potholes, instead of building an america that can succeed in the future. I know you talked about tank cars before i came in. We had a long conversation and i hope we moved to a generation of safer tank cars and to the ones we have on the rails and make them even safer. I discussed with you and senator campbell and others. Senator collins thank you. Senator capito i want to talk also about the tank cars. As you know, one of the reasons accidents occur in West Virginia is that it is a 109 car train carrying more than 3 million gallons of oil from north dakota went 27 of the cars the rails. I am sure that you saw the pictures. Thankfully, no one was hurt. It is my understanding that the rule that was supposed to be finalized in january, if i am correct many people need the finality of that role, provided by either requiring that they are replaced or retrofitted. They had the 1232 cars. They were not blanketed. I am very, very interested in that. If you could just reiterate your commitment to getting this out as quickly as possible. Secretary anthony foxx well, it is a top priority for me. The incident that really threw the world attention to transfer order crude transporting crude was four days into my tenure. I have been doing with this issue almost since day one. We have been working feverishly on lots of approaches. I agree with you that the production of the final rule on not only the tank cars better range of issues that affect safety of the transport of this material is critical. We are continuing to work with omb. Because of the way the process works, iron not at liberty to at this point offer you a date or time that i can tell you that we are working very closely with them and i think we are getting close. Senator capito and heavy that youre getting close. I would encourage you sooner, rather than later. Im curious to know, the incidence occurring, there is one in illinois after the West Virginia accident, i think it brings to light the National Discussion of pipelines. I know you do Pipeline Safety within your department. I guess, would you i would be very interested to see juxtaposing carrying this crude through a pipeline onto a train i know we need both but one of the pipelines we voted for here is the subject of much controversy. You have any comments on that in terms of relative safety issues or lack of infrastructure . Anything along those lines of the pipeline . Secretary anthony foxx from a department standpoint, we are agnostics when it comes to how this stuff moves. Our main point is however it moves, by truck or rail or pipeline, that it is moving safely. I will point out that pipelines are not immune from accidents. In fact, we recently had a spill in montana. The yellowstone river. A significant amount of crude oil from the north dakota area. We will continue to work to make sure every modality used to move this material is a safe modality. Senator capito let me ask you too, and the rule that you are putting forward on the tank car issue, is that exclusively or principally on Oil Transport . Or does it include a lot of other transport . I would like to see that prioritize, because obviously that has been the issue. Secretary anthony foxx in the notice of proposal, we focused on the same level of risk categories. Not only the crude oil, but also Something Like ethanol in the same class of material, would also be covered in our rule. Senator capito i would also ask if there is any way to put a higher priority on the Oil Transport. There are a lot of unknowns and issues. I would encourage or ask if theres any way we could hire prioritize that. We have been carrying ethanol for a long time on our rail systems and roads. I think this is a bipartisan issue in terms of the urgency we feel. I would like to say with the four seconds i have left, a robust sixyear Highway Program is something i am very passionate about. We have had a rough winter. If anybody wants to have an illustration, i know we dont want to spend all of our money repairing roads, but we need a lot of repair money because there is a lot of potholes. Secretary anthony foxx thank you. Senator collins thank you. Senator feinstein. Senator feinstein thank you very much, madam chairman. Mr. Secretary, welcome and thank you for your service. I would like to view it about two issues. The first is drones and the second is positive train control. On the first we have been working on some of your people on legislation and i want to thank you for that. I have been very concerned about where the faa is going to go and whether it is sufficient. It is going to permit sufficient Regulatory Authority. They have the authority over large drones and small commercial drones, but not over small recreational drones. It is clear to me that these drones can also provide a substantial safety risk in untrained hands. I think this is a gap in the legislative authority of the regulatory agency. It also prevents faa from regulating drone manufacturing currently exempt from faa regulation if the drones might be used for recreational activity. The faa should have the ability to require that manufactures put a safety brochure like that quote, know before you fly, and every box sold. They should require that every new drone has the same sort of virtual Geofencing Technology that some manufacturers are already doing voluntarily. It is my understanding that after the drone crashed in the white house lawn in january, the drone manufacturer put out an Software Update that established a virtual fence around washington dc only that would prevent these drones from coming to close to the city. I think that is very helpful. It is too bad that only one manufacturer, and it took an accident, to have that happen. Washington is not the only community that deserves this section but the faa does not currently have the authority protection, but the faa does not currently have the authority to follow suit. I would like to know what your views are and what additional Regulatory Authority from congress be helpful for faa to achieve these goals. Secretary anthony foxx first of all, senator feinstein, i would like to thank you for your leadership on this issue read have had several leadership on this issue. Your leadership is appreciated. The faa have many challenges when it comes to managing this emerging issue. The gaps you have identified are in fact gaps and we welcome your engagement in this issue and the efforts you are undertaking to look at legislative solutions. Senator feinstein thank you very much. My other big priority, positive train control. The 2008 metrolink crash really brought home the problem of single tracks and commuter trains going one way and freight trains going the other. It is hard for anyone to see bodies chopped into parts when these accidents happen. I think positive train control is one of the most important things our government can do to prevent this from happening. I have been concerned by the time it takes and i am particularly concerned whether metrolink can get approval this year to be able to move ahead. They are ready to do so. But you tell me what to know about that and whether it is possible for metrolink, which is our big commuter, our big Southern California line, to get approval . Secretary anthony foxx this is an issue across the country and to get really with metrolink. Our team stands ready to help and we believeth metrolink can provide us with their package as quickly as possible, we have the ability to get the certification done by the end of the year. We would work very closely with you to make sure it happens. Senator feinstein we will relay that directly to metrolink and let you know when they will have their package and and if you could let me know if that would be adequate for you to be able to certify it or prevent by the end of the year. Secretary anthony foxx absolutely. Senator feinstein thank you. Thank you, madam chairman. Senator collins senator d aines. Senator daines people outside the beltway want us desperately to fix the serious transportation issues we have. In northern states like montana where our construction months are short, we need certainty. We cannot begin in montana without another shortterm funding extinction. Ension. The last time we met was at that Senate Commerce committee about six weeks ago. We discussed the challenge youre facing with the multiple vacancies in the key roles. At the time, there were five major agencies and the dot that had acting at ministers administrators. What is the disconnect and why has the administration not nominated anybody . Secretary anthony foxx having been through the process, it takes time. Someone agrees to take the do the job, there is an extensive vetting process. We have one of those five pending vacancies in front of Congress Today, the federal transit administration. We would be delighted to have Congress Take up that confirmation as soon as possible. The other four are in some stage of progress. Senator daines we are looking at the website. Is mr. Neenaydo still in the acting role . Secretary anthony foxx he is actually senator daines he moved to deputy after the time . Sounds like the loophole. I cant imagine running an administration having open, key positions. Let me shift to the pipeline spill in montana. We had 30,000 gallons of crude dumped into the yellowstone. It is a tremendous fishery. It is the water source for many communities in montana. Ive spent a lot of hours in a mckenzie boat fishing on that river. The acting administrative term ends soon. Wethere is a 1955 pipe that looked like can you expand the plan for the next acting administrator . Were going to hit the same 210 day threshold. What is the plan . Secretary anthony foxx the plan is currently that he will serve as the leader of the organization until a nomination is put forward and a confirmation vote by the senate. My hope is that nomination will be imminent and you will have an opportunity to help us put a leader in place in the agency. Senator daines you said you have one of the five positions filled. What is the plan for the other four . Secretary anthony foxx as i said in the commerce hearing, we have been working very closely with the white house on these issues. Of course the prerogative is ultimately the president costs to put up president s to put up a nomination. All four of the other positions are in some stage of the process. At the president costs time and choosing, they will be put in place. Senator daines do know why it is taking so long . To have got to be qualified people. I cant think of anything more important than making sure that we have the right leadership to fill these positions. If i was looking at my to do list, in terms of the threat to safety for people as well as the environment, why is more not being done there . Secretary anthony foxx i dont think it is a matter of effort. Frankly, having observed the process for quite a while, i think there are a fair number of very qualified people who look at what one has to go through months on end of impending nomination that at some point they say, a, its ok, i can do whatever else i am doing, serving the public will have to do whatever. Later. I cannot overstate how challenging it becomes when people give up their time and out of private sector lives whatever else theyre doing to invest in moving forward into a government position, and in some cases spend months and in some cases more than a year, waiting for a nomination. Senator daines it is one more part of the insurg uncertainty. My time is up, secretary foxx. Secretary anthony foxx we look forward to getting the nominations to you. Senator collins senator coo ns. Senator coons thank you. I want to specifically thank you and your staff for your very responsive attitude when we had a challenge with the i4 95 bridge in delaware. We found herself unexpectedly challenged with the closure of a bridge due to ground shifting that you toward 90,000 cars a day. The speed and thoroughness with which you responded i think surprised and impressed everyone in the greater philadelphia and wilmington area. Thank you. And thank you for your advocacy in seeking a longterm blueprint. We share your concern in the absence of a longterm authorization, we are steadily falling behind. You referenced that in the state of delaware, there is 6 million worth of transportation infrastructure work on hold. By not moving these projects, we continue to put it risk jobs and competitiveness. Let me turn to amtrak. I took the train down this morning and god willing i will take the train home. I commute every day and i was very pleased to see your request for 4. 8 million this year for the Passenger Rail system as part of a fully integrated National Presentation strategy. Passenger rail is critical to our overall presentation. A strategy in investing is essential for reducing congestion and improving efficiency for connecting towns across america. Amtrak has set ridership and revenue records year after year that but at that same time, we continue to under invest. Last year i wrote a letter with senator casey and 20 other senators for amtrak to be continued to be funded. I would be interested to hear what you think we need to do to improve service and make progress in achieving a good state of repair in the northeast corridor. Secretary anthony foxx an excellent question and one that speaks to grow america. It is not just the yeartoyear funding we need to put amtrak on a more stable footing to not only improve its operations, but also be able to make sure it is managing the state of good repair of the system. It is having multiyour certainty. That is also very critical of that. Our bill puts fully 28. 6 billion dollars over six years into a Passenger Rail system so that there is multiyear certainty that amtrak can actually plan. One of the things amtrak suffers from his not being able to actually plan beyond the current year. I think it is very important for us to start inking about our Passenger Rail system as a critical part of the Overall Service system and our budget effects that. Senator coons one of the things i commend you for is posing a dedicated funding stream. I hope he can include that in the reauthorization for service. And check has amtrak has submitted a request for funding. A loan. Securing this loan to replace the fleet would ride major benefits to the northeast corridor. Im a strong supporter. I hope it can overcome attentional issues and concerns. Can give me an update on where the loan approval process stand and what time when you you think there will be a decision . Secretary anthony foxx the loan application is under review. I know amtrak is anxious to get a decision. I expect no later than the middle or end of summer we will have the final call on that, maybe before that. The point you make about the program is also a very important point, because we find as many agencies, many Transportation Systems do not make use of rift, partly because of the credit risk premium required, upfront money to tap into. The girl america act, one of the things it does, is allow that grow america act, one of the things it does is allow the better use of the rift program. Senator coons this is another example of an area where you have real command of the underlying facts and issues and are working to solve longstanding challenges that had been real barriers to our ability to invest. Thank you for your testimony and a look for to working with you on this important issue. Senator collins senator bozeman. Senator boozman thank you madam chair and secretary foxx. We appreciate your work and you face challenges. One thing that i have to mention, and you mentioned in your testimony and is constantly brought up, is trying to get the modernizing of the permitting process. Getting it up to snuff. We talk about things that cost money, this would save a tremendous amount of money. I know you are working hard to do that in your particular agency. Tell me about the cooperation with the other agencies . Are you making any headway to try to get them to understand how important this is . Secretary anthony foxx what i would say is that on a project by project basis, we have been able to work very well with other agencies. One example i use commonly is the Tappan Zee Bridge project. Ordinarily, it would take 35 years of permit work at the federal level. We were able to get that done in 18 months and we did is by bringing all the agencies to the same table, at the same time and working through the permitting issues each agency had together. The place where i would like to take this, and we would love to have congresses help and your committees help, is by routinized routinizing it. Our budget effects of permitting center we would like to use to accelerate projects. Senator boozman very good. Anything we can do to assist you in that, i think i speak for the entire committee and congress, we would be glad to help in that regard. We are very proud of our aviation and aerospace entities in arkansas. In regard to efficient processes, can you talk a little bit about what is going on in making sure that the faa certification process is efficient . To promote safety . And enhance competitiveness . Secretary anthony foxx we are working through the faa to improve the efficiency of parts. We are committed to using all of our tools and the faa modernization. We worked carefully with each manufacturer to assure the manufacturer has the protocols in place to be as safe as possible and are certified to our standards. Where we see that, we will do everything we can to work with them to accelerate the certification process. Senator boozman the small airplane certification act requires modernization of part 23 airworthiness regulations. Faa, dot, and omb must focus on a coordinated and concurrent review process to make sure that will proposalt can you talk in the beloved of detail about implementing the requirements of the act and a little bit more detail about implementing the requirements of the act . Secretary anthony foxx the faa is working with each individual manufacturer. What we do not want to do is essentially certify a manufacturer to manage certain parts of our protocols on their own if they are incapable of actually doing it. We have a process by which our teams going to a manufacturer and stress test their safety protocols and if we are confident they can meet or exceed the standards we have set, then we have precedent for setting allowing some of the many fractures to do that. On the largescale, and some of the facilities, boeing has that. I cannot cite you chapter and verse of who is able to do that but i can get a list to you. Senator boozman thank you very thank you madam chairman. Senator collins senator murphy. Senator murphy thank you. Good to see you, my friend. Thank you for making your First Official visit when you are confirmed as secretary to new haven, connecticut. We appreciate that. I really want to build off senator coons question. Youre talking about the budget of amtrak at large. I want to go to the northeastern rail corridor. It is a section of the country that is 2 of the nations landmass. When i heard about senator deans talk about senator deans talk about a pipe welded in 1955, i think about how envious we would be about infrastructure that was only 50 years old. There is a bridge that opens occasionally because it was built in the Grover Cleveland era. I want to thank you for your recognition that the northeastern rail corridor just cannot continue to sort of tread along at the current funding pace area and you have a proposal here that is really important. It sets aside a certain amount of money, not nearly enough, but an important signal of commitment in the future to do significant work on the northeastern corridor. I want to allow you the chance to explain why he proposed in this budget you proposed in this budget a matching grant. Secretary anthony foxx thank you very much for the question. By the way, i had a great time in connecticut and look forward to coming back. The northeast corridor is a critical lifeline for many people. If you compare to Airline Travel between say washington dc and new york, three out of every four trips is taken by rail, not the other way. It is a very important corridor for us. Itin some cases it is moving past its useful life in terms of infrastructure. One thing we cant afford them a place where so many people count on rail as a lifeline is for something to happen to the infrastructure that would result in a loss of life for longterm stoppage in our ability to move people. It would create a traffic disaster in the northeast if we did not have that court or behind us. Of our fiscal year 2016 budget request contains 550 million specifically for the northeast corridor, most of it specifically for the state of good repair. We are trying to update what we have. We need to have a much bigger vision for the northeast. I think service should be faster. I want to make sure we have a steppedup level of safety features on all aspects of our rail systems in the northeast. This could be the subject of not only public funding but Publicprivate Partnership as well. We worked to develop a strategy along the northeast corridor. I think over time we will see some big things happen in the northeast corridor. Some of the infrastructure up there may have a lifespan span of 20 more years. If we wait too long to start fixing it we arent going to find ourselves having that great asset. They have done really great work proposing new allocations between states at the control part of the line and amtrak. There is also a proposal to allow some funding to allow a transition to this new way in which you allocate Capital Resources with state governments, the Commuter Rail lines, and amtrak. They have done really great work and i hope you are going to continue to support them. Up until the commission it really wasnt happening. As we move from concept to execution on what has been envisioned, it is important to buy into what it is trying to get done. Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, it looks like we have a couple of more moments before the vote. You dont get to leave as quite as quickly as you have hoped. Senator reid and i will each have one question. Nice work. Let us ask you one question before we are going to have to adjourn. One important way to reduce highway fatalities is to require the installation of the limiting devices on heavy trucks. This is something that the industry itself has petitioned the department for and the department has received literally thousands of comments in support of the petitioners request. They believe this regulation would decrease the number of fatal crashes annually and would have animal costs since these governors are already installed on many trucks. In this regulation lingered within the Department Since 2011 and has been delayed 21 times. Can you tell us why the department has issued has failed to issue these regulations for so many years after the initial petition, despite widespread support and evidence. Secretary foxx we do believe there is a benefit to having a little in place here. Some of it predates me. I can tell you from the Agency Perspective there has been a lot of work done to quantify the safety benefits in terms of crashes, injuries, fatalities that would have been prevented. A the department had to complete fatality analysis reporting systems and general estimate systems as well as research to provide sound estimates of safety benefits. I can tell you there is a notice to proposed rulemaking that is working its way through the department currently and i am looking forward to getting that out as soon as possible. Hopefully no later than the fall. Second thank you. Secretary read you said ecigarettes cigarette cannot be used by an aircraft by a passenger aboard an aircraft. You cannot bar them from baggage or cargo. You recommend they not be included in baggage because you have to work with the international organization. When will you finalize the rules prohibiting the use of the cigarettes on aircraft . Can you work quickly to get International Rule that will ban them from baggage . Will you come to us or should we jump ahead and do legislation that authorizes you . We have brought our concerns to the attention. We think it is a framework to deal with these cigarettes. I would like to report back to you after having consulted with the faa as to actual action on that. If they did issue a safety alert in january 2015 informing air carriers of the emerging risk, discouraging them from storing these ecigarettes. It can be an incident handled more readily. We need to work through to get the world standard in place. I would like to come back to you with a timeline in which we think that could happen and then we can have further discussion about how you would like to proceed. Thank you and i want to associate myself with your position on the ecigarettes complaint. I think we have time if either of you would like to great. This hearing will adjourn. Thank you very much for adjusting your schedule. I do admire your ability to call the vote for they will be submitted for the record. The record will remain open until next friday for any additional questions or testimony that may be submitted. Thank you for being here today. This hearing is now adjourned. The American People express deep and silences deep condolences for the lives lost in the earthquake today. The United States is deploying a team of Disaster Response experts to nepal. An initial one Million Dollars in Disaster Relief assistance and stands ready to assist the government and people of nepal and the region further. A statement from the white house today. Local charities are offering emergency aid to nepal. 1100 people in that country have been reportedly killed. Some charities are