Would be the first to point out that irony that, like our infrastructure, all of us are getting older and in need of repair from time to time. Cr q was one very importantr mess t however, he wanted to be with you today to share. And that is to thank each of you for coming to washington and to visit with your members of congress. Hes been to the hill many times himself over the past year, and hes worked hard to share with lawmakers the stark facts and a sense of urgency. Hes explained how were investing much less than we should be in transportation. Hes warned that because of that disinvestment, weve fallen behind on repairs, something we have to addressq even as we plan for the new capacity we must have for growing demand. But these same arguments carry so much more weight when they come from you. You are able to speak in concrete terms about communities that are struggling to stay on the move. Large ones and small ones, urban and rural red and blue. That context matters. When states like arkansas and tennessee and delaware speak up and say theyre postponing billions of dollars worth o projects, it demonstrates in bold terms what the uncertainty of shortterm measures is costing us. Its up to each of us out there to convince our elected leaders that americas future growth and prosperity depend on the decisions that they will be making in the weeks ahead. Working shoulder to shoulder with local business leaders, you are in the best position to tell your own storyxd and to make it clear how important Public Transportation is in your community. Now, i want you to imagine that you had the opportunity to write a postcard to yourself and send it back 30 years in the past. What would it say . Maybe on the front side you would send a picture of your family as an encouragement to your past self. I really can be successful. Mayberyf you send a warning of the troubles we faced as a nat9qol3 people and an inability to connect them to jobs, education and healthcare. It shows bridges that have fallen with tragic results. On the back it simply says, invest in transportation. So why are we getting such a pessimistic postcard from our future selves, and will we follow the advice that it holds. You have to understand that the future america is a much more crowded place, one our nation could grow by as much as 25 over the next 30 years, adding more than 70 million people. Pick any highway bus rail car at rush hour in almost any city in america today, and you tell me if you can squeeze in 25 more people. Americans are already spending five days a week in traffic. In new york city a Record Number of riders on an aging subway system has already resulted in a greater number of overcrowding delays. In fact in december, there were more than twice as many delays as just the year before. This is not only a problem for our big cities. Some of the Fastest Growing areas in the u. S. Are places like frisco texas south jordan utah, gaithersburg, maryland and mt. Pleasant south carolina. In the town of san markos texas, they saw an 8 growth rate from 2012 to 2013 making it the Fastest Growing city in the nation with more than 50,000 people. And we are not talking about a tech hub or a wealthy oil town. In fact, the Median Household Income is 26,000 in san marcos. Thats far below the average for the state of texas. While the population in cities like these are growing nationwide the number of people 65 and older were more than double over the next 50 years. When the aarp asked Older Americans what amenity they most wanted close to home, the number one answer as a bus stop not a pharmacy. It was more important than a grocery store. Its how important their mobility and independence are to those seniors. What that postcard from the future is trying to tell us is that we will not be able to accommodate that kind of demand driven by change and growth unless we invest in transportation today, and specifically, public transport. Of course more people also means more people trying to get to work. And because this is america, it also means more people starting and growing businesses, and they will need to connect to workers. A very recent example. When the big blizzard in january shut down bostons Public TransportationMassachusetts General Hospital had a real problem. According to the hospital, nearly half of their employees take public transit. So in the midst of this very dangerous storm, they were literally working overtime to make sure they could get enough staff on every shift to serve their patients. And thats a situation that is not as unique as it sounds. In atlanta, a University Study looked at more than 50 Industry Sectors that make up the regions economy. It found that 14 of the 18 Fastest Growing sectors are among those whose workers rely heavily on local Transit Services to get to and from work. So although atlanta doesnt suffer from many noreasters any longterm disruption to its Public Transportation system would seriously throttle that regions ability to grow. Nationwide, according to the bureau of labor statistics, four of the five projected Fastest Growing jobs pay wages of less than 27,000 a year. Were talking about retail sales persons, home health aides, personal care aides, General Office clerks, many of whom rely on public transport. The reason our future selves are such debbie downers is that at the rate were going today we are not going to be able to keep up. In fact, decades of disinvestment are going to make our job even harder. If theres one thing that people in this town can agree on its that our National Infrastructure is in a woeful state of disrepair. The most recent report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nations bridges a cplus, our road and trance its a d, and our levies a dminus. These grades arent improving. In transit systems nationwide as you all well know we have an 87 billion backlog in repairs thats estimated to grow by over 2 billion a year. Your elected leaders are aware of this fact, and if they somehow missed it before secretary fox has recently traveled through many of their communities on a big blue bus to call attention to it. His message was very clear and its very simple. We need to do something now, and we need to do Something Big. To these urgent reasons to invest lets add another. The health and wellbeing of our communities and their people. Later this week, fta is hosting a conversation called rides to wellness that aims to improve cooperation and coordination among transit, healthcare, and social service providers. We will be joined by representatives from health and Human Services and the u. S. Department of agriculture as part of our ongoing efforts to Work Together more effectively on behalf of the people we serve. With more americans covered by Health Insurance, it is important that theyre able to access Preventative Care and regular checkups at the doctors instead of in an emergency room. For instance, there are 15 free screenings that are provided by law, and this is fantastic, but it can be really hard to convince someone to go to the doctor before something is broken or bleeding or hurting them. That is especially true when they lack Reliable Transportation to get there. 80 of medicaids healthcare costs are attributable to chronic diseases that could be better managed with more frequent care. But you have to get there. Improving access to healthcare and doing it in a more coordinated way is going to be a growing challenge particularly in rural areas that lack transportation options. So as you speak to elected leaders about the urgent need to invest in transit we mind them that you not only connect people to jobs and education, but you also connect them to Vital Services like healthcare. So with so many compelling reasons to invest our nations in our nations transportation infrastructure, the only question seems to remain is how can we possibly afford to fix this all. But i submit to you today that the real question we should be asking is how can we possibly afford not to. As secretary fox likes to ask, if figuring out how to provide for the future is going to be so difficult, shouldnt we make it worth it by going for Something Big instead of something halfmeasure. This administrations answer is the grow america act, and youve heard a lot about it in the year since it was introduced. We will be building and expanding on our proposal this year, and the president s proposed budget for fiscal year 16 is a good indication of where were headed. As the secretary has mentioned it includes six years of funding for transportation totaling 478 billion. Ftas share for fiscal year 16 is 18. 4 billion an increase of 67 over current funding. By the sixth year, it would grow to 76 higher than current funding for a sixyear total of 115 billion over the proposed authorization period. The fy16 budget for fta includes a record 3. 2 billion for our Capital InvestmentGrant Program better known as new starts and small starts. It would includes increase the Bus Facilities Program dramatically, providing more funding for state of good repair, reintroducing the new rapid growth area bus Rapid Transit initiative, which would provide 500 million for new brt service. These arent programs that we just made up out of thin air. Theyre in response to what weve heard from you in terms of what your customers want. And because the transit industry is changing along with the rest of the nation, we want to make Major Investments in Work Force Development to build the skills and train the personnel that we are going to need for the future. If much of this sounds familiar and it should, its because by the time the latest shortterm measure expires in may the grow america proposal will be one year old. And yet, here we are having the same conversations and staring down the same decisions. Its clear that not all of us have picked up that postcard from the future and turned it over to see what it says. Thats why its up to you to deliver the message. I know what secretary fox would have asked of you today to tell the truth the unadult rated, unvarnished, unambiguous truth. Tell congress about the many good projects that are stalled the ones that would create jobs and ease congestion and bring us into the 21st century in a bold way. A postcard today can take many forms. Though i still like getting the oldfashioned kind on a paper with a stamp, it can be a knock on a door, it can be an email it can be a tweet. For the Younger Generation maybe its a post to instagram with a picture of stalled traffic or an overcrowded rail platform, or a picture of someone they love boarding a transit van to go to dialysis. The bottom line is that the message has to be seen, it has to be heard, and it has to be acted on. Lets go out and do it. Thanks so much. Thank you administrator mcmillan. Now i want to turn the program over to our session moderator, diana mendez senior vicepresident and director of americas transit at aecom. Diana, please. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome, and thank you very much acting administrator mcmillan for communicating the message from secretary fox and the update from fta. Please do send secretary fox all of our well wishes and we wish him a speedy recovery. Im diana mendez as phil mentioned, and im delighted to be your moderator today where well be having a lively and interesting discussion with both the Transit Administration and the federal Railroad Administration. Now joining acting administrator mcmillan, we also will be hearing from Sarah Feinberg acting administrator of the fra, who joined the administration on january 9th 2015. In this capacity, she manages a 20 billion rail investment portfolio and helps develop and enforce rail safety regulations and oversees research and technology programs. Prior to coming to the fra, miss feinberg served as chief of staff to the secretary of transportation providing strategic advice and council regarding operational and legislative initiatives across all modes of transportation. Now updating us about the major goals and initiatives of the federal Railroad Administration, well turn to miss feinberg. Please join me in welcoming her. Good afternoon. It is such a pleasure to be here today with my colleague and friend ter ees mcmillan. In my old role as the chief of staff for secretary fox, i always appreciated the commitment that this organization shares with the administrations goal of making our National Transportation network safer more interconnected, more reliable and more efficient. To your president your board, your members and staff thank you for your partnership and support over the years. I am so honored to be with you here today as there are no greater friends to the department of transportation. Im a pretty frank person, so let me get right to my main points and then well get to the mod rated conversation. I want to talk first about safety and the importance of bringing a fresh perspective to old problems and then about rail and surface reauthorization and the important and incredible opportunities we see there. Much to the credit of the people sitting in this room, over the last decade, total train accidents are down. Derailments are down. Highway grade crossing incidents have declined. The Rail Industry in many ways is safer than it has ever been in history. Thats all good news and all of you deserve great credit for these improvements. But most recently, some of those numbers look to be ticking up on us again. Over the last year the number of incidents at grade crossings increased by 9 . The number of fatalities increased by 16 . While this next figure is less of an issue for the commuter rails to worry about just this morning the wall street journal reported on fra data showing the number of fiery and violent rupture accidents also on the rise. So my point is this. Those most recent statistics alone serve as a stark reminder that our work is not done. We still have a long way to go to get to zero accidents zero injuries, and zero fatalities. Just two weeks into my new job at the fra, a grade crossing accident occurred in new york killing six people and injuring 15. Three weeks later, another Passenger Rail grade crossing accident occurred in california and a metro link crew member died and 27 other passengers were injured. Stark and painful reminders that we have a ways to go to make grade crossings safer. I will add, we have news of another grade crossing incident just an hour ago in new yorkorth carolina. Thats just one reason why safety is the center piece of the administrations rail reauthorization proposal. In addition to our own legislative proposals, we have to take independent actions as well. Just because a problem is an old problem, maybe one we think will never be fully solved, doesnt mean we shouldnt give it a fresh look and ask ourselves what more can we be doing. Following the metronorth grade crossing incidents i immediately asked our fra staff, men and women who have literally dedicated their entire careers to keeping people safe at or near crossings to take a fresh look at how we approach safety. Last week i called upon Law Enforcement agencies to step up more patrols at grade crossings to increase their efforts to write citations to drivers who dont obey the rules of the road, and to immediately begin employing best practices to better safeguard our communities. In the coming weeks we will have more to announce about increasing Public Awareness about how to better employ technology, and how we might be able to increase funding to assist local communities that want to improve safety features. Other than the friends and families of grade crossing victims, of course no one understands the pain of these incidents quite like the train crews and operators. These incidents are devastating for everyone and we shouldnt lose sight of the price that so many of your own colleagues have paid. As we have said on other safety items over the years, we look forward to working with all of you, partnering with all of you to continue to bring down the numbers of injuries and deaths. On to reauthorization. Theres a lot of talk in washington right now about getting a rail and surface reauthorization done this session, and we are so encouraged by that progress. Few things could be more important or more valuable use of the congresss time. The fact that the house of representatives took an important first step just last week in adapting a rail reauthorization measure is a huge sign of momentum. I congratulate chairman schuster and everyone who worked so closely with him to get that done. But we need to do more. We need a comprehensive rail reauthorization package that includes funding and implement ptc. As this process moves ahead we look forward to working with both chambers of congress as they craft a measure that builds sustains and enhances a safe and rely able rail network for both passenger and freight rail service. We are their ready partner, and we will do anything in our power to assist them in moving a package forward. After all, we have a lot at stake here. Our grow america proposal a sixyear transportation funding bill, would give states the funding certainty they need to bridge the nations infrastructure gap. As all of you know, rail is unique when compared to other modes of transportation in that it lacks a committed source of federal revenue. Grow america will provide predictable, dedicated funding for rail with the establishment of a rail account in a new Transportation Trust fund. oqf for the Rail Industry grow america means a 29 billion investment over six years to improve rail safety and invest in the National High performance rail system. The act also builds on currents investments in areas ranging from ptc implementation, to enhancing flexibility and financing programs that will better enable the rehabilitation of aging infrastructure. Grow america would take changes to improve existing programs. Among other topics, the act would enhance the riff program, making it more accessible and flexible for borrowers. Revamp amtraks planning process to address immediate and longterm goals, such as addressing the backlog of state of good repair needs. Advance Safety Research by focusing on Risk Reduction and new equipment testing, assist the Railroad Industry in implementing ptc as the back bone of the next generation of rail safety. Grow america would also create new programs that will focus on both current Passenger Rail service and the development of future Passenger Rail service. These programs include the establishment of new amtrak grants that would provide a longer term view of maintaining Passenger Rail assets and services in good working condition. The Rail Service Improvement program which would provide competitive grants to drive development of highperforming Passenger Rail networks. This Program Includes funding for ptc implementation for railroads and support for states to mitigate the adverse affects through grade crossing improvements and rail line relocation efforts. Simply put grow america is our blueprint for beginning to close rails infrastructure gap and to setting the table for the next generation of safety. These are forwardthinking, largescale improvements that come with extremely important biproducts. The creation of good paying jobs and the strengthening of our national economy. Bridging our nations infrastructure gap gets more important every passing day. Its no secret that our aging infrastructure and the gaps that exist in our Transportation System must be dealt with and soon. Congress is aware of these needs but only congress can act on them by passing grow america. I believe congress will ultimately take action but its up to all of you to make sure that Congress Gets it right. We must build on the proposal put forward by the house in order to see a comprehensive rail reauthorization bill enact that would address rail safety benefit our freight partners and other modes of transportation continue to support the successes of our inner city Passenger Rail networks, and provide the resources and funding to both address our backlog and make the improvements required to meet the needs of our growing population. We will all benefit from a comprehensive bill. Rehabilitating our aging infrastructure simply cannot wait any longer. Thank you. And i look forward to working with all of you and taking your questions. Thank you, miss feinberg for your remarks. Certainly both of you gave us very inspirational and insightful speeches, but certainly clearly communicated that its up to all of us to make the future successful. Were going to take some questions from the floor but before we do that, id like to start out just talking about funding and financing. Obviously demands increasing and funding and financing is becoming more and more challenging. One strategy to address potential longterm financing involves Public Private partnerships. Im just curious what you see as some of the Great Success stories and what advice you might have for those seeking Public Private partnerships. Am i 0on . Youre on. Public private partnerships, were seeing increasing numbers of them all the time. I think what secretary fox and the president have both said which i think is really important is that it is part of the answer but it is the answer. So i do not want to take public and private partnerships as the reason why congress does not have to pass a big comprehensive bill. It needs to thats fine for them to supplement a bill. Its certainly one path forward but i hesitate to put too many eggs in that basket. We still need a big bill. I think the other thing to think about too is certainly we want to broaden our sense about what effective private sector participation is in the transit industry. For example a lot has been turned to transitoriented development, but capturing the value of that development for transit i think is a very important and very rich area to build a Good Relationship with the private sector. Because not only in the more common way where you may get contributions toward the construction of a project, what about capturing that ongoing value for Ongoing Operations and maintenance. So weve been working closely with a number of our agencies. Theres a lot of Creative Work thats going on out in the industry right now. We want to bundle that up and see if theres a more aggressive way we can encourage that type of partnership in bringing the private sector forward. The federal Railroad Administration has been working on a number of improvements to the Railroad Rehabilitation improvement financing program. We needed a lot of improvements and were happy to see them advancing. Can you share with us some of the improvements that you see . Yes. We are very focused on this. First, i give secretary fox a lot of credit. He has said that one of his priorities is that by the time he walks out the door on january whatever 20th or 17th that he would like that account to be at zero which means we have about 35 billion to loan out. If anybody knows how loan programs work its going to be difficult but its a very good challenge to have. So were doing a couple things. One, we are trying to think more creatively about potential applicants. I think we may have been a little narrow in our view of the right applicants for this program previously. Whether its the mayor of new haven who wants to come in and talk about what Union Station in new haven needs or whether its rahm emanuel wanting to talk about chicago Union Station, or even the potential for some ability to stabilize crude before it gets placed into transport, i think we would be open to all of that. So were much more creative in thinking about who the right applicants would be. And were also just trying to move faster. This administration has to walk a fine line between trying very hard to assist those who are going to make Infrastructure Improvements and build new Infrastructure Projects but also obviously being incredibly careful with taxpayer dollars and making sure that all of that money is going to get paid back at some point. So while the loan terms are excellent, its important that that money be able to come back. So i think its taken a long time for us to work through that so were trying to be more efficient in getting those loans out the door. As youre looking and evaluating projects for the railroad investment program, how has the current climate affected how you look at and evaluate projects, and what advice do you have to people to make their projects competitive and attractive for federal investment . I think certainly for new starts and small starts, weve put we actually have statutory criteria we have to examine, so we design there are a number of different factors that we evaluate. I think given the incredible competitiveness of the program, clearly those agencies that are able to leverage the federal dollar well will be able to play in that pool. Theres another aspect thats very important as well. Once you get the project built, you have to run it. And thats not a small issue. I think one of the things that weve seen and in my conversation just today with a number of different agencies are stressing point as i did in my remarks and what secretary fox has said over and over, we have to expand for the growth that we see in the country. We have to be nimble about the types of investments we can pursue. Its not just about heavy rail or light rail, but it is brt and these other modes. At the same time, you have to be in a stable enough environment that once that project is done and that Grant Agreement is concluded, youre able to operate and maintain that system and reinvest in the system over time. So really, i think to be competitive you need to, i think, demonstrate that you have a handle on that holistic view, and that you can convince us as the federal government, as a partner, that youre able to be in there for the long haul. Great advice and insight. Would you like to add anything . I would just say that we are invested in trying to make these programs work, and so being in touch with our on the front end, talking through a project talking through a loan application project, through the financial audit, we want to be able to loan this money out, so we are not going to suggest that you figure it out on your own and then turn in a big package to us and well mark it up and say no thank you and send it back. You get in touch with us on the front end and well make sure that that application is in really great shape so we can move things along faster. So safety is obviously at the forefront of all of our minds every day. Im sure you have some advice and insights to share with the audience as different safety programs are starting to come online and in advance of the new safety regulations. What would you advise people to think about and get prepared for . Well with federal transit its interesting because the fra have had a federal safety portfolio for a long time. As all of you know the great challenge for the federal Transit Administration that map 21 gave us for the first time significant federal regulatory authority. And so weve been working very closely with the industry as a great partner trying to get the message out that as were starting anew really with this new authority, a couple of things are critical. First of all, throughout the dot, safety is our number one priority. There cant be enough attention to this. But then for transit, our challenge is also recognizing that approaching safety one size wont fit all in terms of a regulatory framework. That simply wont happen. Were building the center piece of our plan which is an approach used extensively in the aviation industry, being explored by a number of our sister agencies. The thought is that you approach this not as a checklist of all the things you have to get right but a Risk Management approach where you look at the unique circumstances of your operating environment, your capital environment, your worker safety environment, and you build a program around your Risk Management portfolio. Thats not a concept thats very easy to put on paper in a day and a half by any stretch, and were working very hard to get all of the various elements through the rule making process to respond to the map 21 requirements and it continues to be top priority for us today. My advice is i touched on this in my remarks a little bit, we are, when faced with old problems, trying to bring new thinking and a fresh perspective to old problems so grade crossings is a good example of a very old problem where weve made a ton of progress and i think theres some inclination to just say oh, its mostly driver error, what are you going to do about someone trying to beat a train or if someone is a little disoriented at a grade crossing. Were trying to bring new thinking to that old problem. I think with new problems were trying to bring comprehensive thinking so the crude by rail issue is a brand new problem. It is a problem that we have because we are becoming an Energy Independent country which is wonderful but not necessarily i dont think everyones been thinking about the challenges that come along with energy independence. So those are issues that we have not been tackling for a long time particularly in terms of the quantity of a volatile product thats moving throughout the country. So were trying to think very comprehensionively. How do you incentivize industry to make the product safer before it gets placed into transport. How do you incentivize the railroads. How do you put expectations in place such as zero tolerance as far as anything that happens on a crude route. Comprehensive thinking and new thinking for old problems. And that takes all of us at the table to do that in partnership. Actually sarah brings up a point id like to reiterate, too. Weve tried very hard under this administration and secretary fox has made it a key point in the beyond traffic framework that was put out there. We have to stop thinking about ourselves in just our little boxes and as a Transportation System. Safety is one area where that really does come to bear. Secretary fox has done an enormous amount of work emphasizing bicycle and transit safety. In the transit mode, thats critical because a lot of people will get to or leave our system walking or biking. We can talk about a grade crossing. This is the interface between our mode of transit and cars or pedestrians in the case of trespassing and the challenges associated there. This whole notion again of an a and a construct is very helpful in getting around not only the safety of your mode but the safety of the system and how it interfaces with other modes as well. Its an exciting time to be thinking about safety in these different dimensions. Particularly with the new technologies and the ability to do better analytics to really address the most pressing needs. So im surs] we have some questions in our audience. Id like to offer the opportunity for numbers of the audience to ask their questions. Please let us know who you are and where youre from. Peter varga from grand rapids, michigan. Thank you for the thought about the postcards. I really liked that idea and try to imagine how that works. You mentioned something really good i thought the whole thing about taking photographs and sending them and tweeting them and instagraming them and using that whole social media and so, what hashtag should we use . Should we use hashtag stuck in traffic that we used in that conversations . Which one so that everybody starts being in the same conversation on that . Oh, wow, thats a creative question. Maybe we should have a contest and get all your good ideas. Thats a great idea. How about hashtag grow america. Hashtag stuck in traffic is good too. Hashtag invest now. Hashtag do something. Right. But id like to bring up something that peter stressed so much in your tenure as chair of afta. How about hashtag its about people. I think a large part of this, its not an abstract concept. This is about moving the American Public in the things they need to do. In all of our conversations it is so easy to lose that piece of it. So an importantopportunity to reflect something thats a critical part of our conversations. I love that idea of having a contest. We should take that back to dot and have a contest. It reminds me we had an internal contest when we were naming grow america, which at that point people had been up all night for months and weeks and were exhausted and at some point on our way out the door well have to bring out the list of suggested names for that because it was a race to the bottom. But it was really funny. Send it to me and ill make sure everybody gets it. Terrific, thank you. Hi, im jeff warten with impulse out of north carolina. My question pertains more towards the work force and the jobs part to acting administrator mcmillan. We know just last week an initiative, a Pilot Project came out on geographic hiring preferences. The question i have is if we can get some definition on the local hire as it pertains to Rolling Stock procurement. As manufacturers, we employ a variety of subsuppliers all throughout the u. S. And were just having a little difficulty understanding what the intent is when the geographic hiring pertains to Rolling Stock procurement and is it the intent that were going to be looking at moving factories in order to accommodate the local preference . The local Hire Initiative has a couple of elements to it. One is as you mentioned, the Pilot Program. Its very important. At a Pilot Program for communities and entities that want to explore particularly for fhwa and fta because we have statutory requirements now for competitive procurement to lift what has been interpreted to be a prohibition on geographic hiring. This is for folks who want to explore what this is about. This is not a mandate that you have to do it. We want to more systematically explore whether geographic preference does, in fact, imposeqkn n constraints on the Competitive Bidding environment. This is a way of getting experience on the ground with entities that want to pursue these and see how it applies. Given that it is a broad pilot test we wanted to look not only at construction but also as procurement. So we dont go . Specific the whole point about a Pilot Program is you to bring your ideas to us for communities to bring ideas to the department of transportation as to how they would want to implement a geographic hiring preference and under what circumstances. Importantly in the pilot you are supposed to be able demonstrate what your what your objectives are, how those were met, how the preferences actually did impact the bidding environment that you saw. So were going to be gathering data based on these pilots. It will be very important. So were not coming in with a preconceived notion about it. We are actually setting up the pilot to get ideas from local communities. Thank you. Youre both absolutely correct. The mantra is safety reliability. I want to add two more. Serviceability and maintainability. Question. For those of Us Small Companies who are in the business of r and d for example in the Railroad Crossing issue, is there a way for us to get our thoughts over to fra so we can try to develop some of these ideas and make something that will make those accidents completely avoidable . So yes thats wonderful so first of all, email me at sarah. Feinberg at dot. Gov. We have a whole arm of fra that constantly helps think about these things. They do Human Factor Research they do massive amounts of research in pueblo. They run trains into each other and see what happens. But they also work on these Human Factors and new technologies that are many coulding that might help us down the road. So, thats all easy to find on our website. But you can also just email me. Thank you. This is also just very quickly i think sara and i will grab as many opportunities as we can to also plug the work thats being put forward in the beyond traffic document. A huge part of that 30year view is in the whole arena of new technologies and innovation. Sector fox has been very blunt in his assessment to Transportation Industry is particularly in the public sector, were always chasing innovation. And he wants to have us start thinking about how we can get in front of it and Harness Technology to the use of what we want to do rather than constantly sort of being behind the curve. And so a large part of a rethinking, if you will that that document puts forward certainly for the Transportation Industry is this how do we get ahead and make sure that we are not just doing research for the next technology that might be available in the next couple of years, then the next 25, next 30 years, and how do we weave that in to our planning and development. So not only the immediate things we might be able to put in place which are critically important but we also want to have your thoughts about how do we take that more forward view. Hi. My name is ben johnson. Im from Northern California from tridelta transit in antioch. My question is twofold. Basically, number one is if we do not get funding thats the first thing we dont get this process going and get the funding through the legislature where are we going to go with the projects anyway . If we have 15 we dont have funding for and 16s coming and election is many coulding. Youre going to have all new cabinet members coming in and et cetera, that will create a monster of a problem for a lot of people. And so i think thats my concern. You just made a good point about the curve, getting ahead of the curve. Well, if you go into china ive been to china seen their process. Ive been to korea and seen their process. I can say that looking at those processes, theyre ahead of the curve. They planned it. Especially in japan. I noticed in japan they were really ahead of the curve because they had all the highspeed rail and so did china. Bup china had but china had a few problems with theirs. My concern answering the question is if we have shovelready programs already ready, how do we get them up to the top of the list . Because sometimes i see that they dont get to the top of the list. And so what can we do as an agency, or our own local agencies to move those projects up to the to be up there on top to get them done and get the funding to be able to do that . We have a project now that the governor in california just approved the highspeed rail project. Well, it still needs the funding to get it finished and if it doesnt have the funding, you know its going to sit out there in the middle of nowhere and just set there and we cant get it done. And it is an important project because it will show what in the united states, whats highspeed rail will do. We just need to move forward and get those up. Maybe you can give us give me some ideas of how i can bring it back to the people in california to figure out how we can do that. Well couple points. One, i mean i think the good news is we have a couple things going for us first of all, at the moment. One is that even though it felsels like bad news that the Highway Trust Fund is going to run out in may, it also means that something has to be done. Right . Its not were not at least we have not yet gotten to a world where the congress is so dysfunctional theyre not going to at least extend it. We need a big bill but something will be done before may. I have been in the very uncomfortable spot of looking at my watch thinking, youve got five days, youve got seven days, how much money, are we going to make it. But something will have to be done. So thats a vehicle first of all for Something Big to be done. Meanwhile, it is important to exactly, as you said, be really efficient with your projects get them started. I dont think any member of congress, republican, democrat, tea party, liberal whatever no member of Congress Wants to be in a position where youve started a project, youve obligated funds and then we cant continue with the project. Doesnt matter who is in the white house, doesnt matter who is in charge of the congress. You dont want to take obligated funds and try to deal with them afterwards and you dont want to have a stranded asset. Roo it . So i think thats going for us but you need to make as much progress as you possibly can so when this administration leaves there is annest estffort to continue those projects in the next administration. The other good news i think we have going for us is that infrastructure and transportation has always historically been topics issues that bring parties together. And so it is one of the few things, even in this very partisan political moment that were in thats likely to get worse as we head into a president ial election cycle, its one of the few things that usually brings people together. So it is less likely to be effective in everything else. I just have one other question in regards to rail. That has to be with the process of getting the for instance, our major process right now is moving the rail through the cities. I happen to be one of the cities that were moving it in. Were looking to actually have a facility in our city. But the problem is our communities are because of all the problems that theyve had and the crashes, as you mentioned before that are up is how do we appease the people of the community or what would be an idea for you to give to us to appease those people and get them on another level to where we could actually do this . I know that theres issues with rails not being level and theres a lot of issues out there for maintenance. And thats an issue with financing and so how do we get the financing to or how do we get the rail people to listen to what we have to say . I think thats probably the worst thing ive seen dealing with the rail. You get them to come try to get them to come to your city to talk about what theyre planning and how theyre doing it. I notice Union Pacific just recently has been giving a big boom of how good they are on the tv. Im hoping that we can figure out a way to get that together, because you know when people march and it. Doesnt do any good to march and stand in front of the trains. We talk about incidents. Thats how they get created. So i just its important to me as a public official besides being on a board to figure out how to help my city and the Transportation Industry at the same time. Right. How can communities and railroads get along better. Right . Well, yeah. Thats an ableold question, right . Everybody should be Good Neighbors to each other. But, look. I mean i think it is i think it is important to remind communities that those kinds of resources will tend to make their lives better, easier, more efficient, help them take care of their families. It is really important to remind the folks coming in that the community is supposed to be their partner not just someplace they blow by at 70 miles an hour and wake up everybody in the middle of the night with a horn. And so i dont know. I feel like im giving political advice but i guess to the extent that im giving political advice to both sides, id say be good to each other, be Good Neighbors and if it gets really bad, call us and well try to bring everybody together. Its easier said than done. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Always challenging. Yes. Hi im with sound transit in seattle. Weve had a few projects that had fta, fhwa and fra oversight on the same project. And some of the compliance issues got a little complex and i, for one got a little confused. Are there any efforts going on to kind of simplify or coordinate compliance issues across the modes . Yes. And we use the term we use the term harmonization. Theres actually been a number of areas where coordination of programs and or oversight between the modes have im very familiar with the circumstance that youre working on. And frankly, each any particular project will have its own circumstances and in this case, we had fhwa and fta up through washington leadership working to figure out a way to deal with that circumstance. Theres been a lot of discussion, for example between fta and fra in terms of better coordinate coordinating reviews and requirements for projects where there, will be a freight element and a Passenger Rail element and the project serves both and we need to0w s make sure were not making people do things twice. Certainly on a case by case basis weve tried to anticipate that and, as sara had said, Early Intervention is much more helpful than getting down toward the end. So that also involves working in partnership with the project sponsor to make sure that we coordinate up front as well as we can. But beyond that theres been i think a lot of folks generally on streamlining. That was a major focus and it continues to be a focus under the grow america proposal. So without going into a lot of specifics, i dont have in front of me here, it does continue to be an important element and a theme that both secretary fox and deputy sector mendez deliver to us in the modes on a frequent basis to do as much as we can with the authorities that exist and also pursue things Going Forward should they need statutory change. What es very interesting about the streamlining initiatives is the common theme that it is up to all of us to make that happen. The streamlining initiatives is the common theme that it is up to all of us to make that happen. About the streamlining initiatives is the common theme that it is up to all of us to make that happen. Its not for a federal agency to sort out. Yes, there needs to be a statutory framework and a consciousness and awareness of partnership. But at the end of the day, the sponsors of the community all need to come together. So very consistent with your messages and your remarks. Yes. Thank you. Im Jackie Dupont walker, board member, l. A. County. In case anyone doesnt know, thats california. Really want to thank you both for the updates today and in l. A. County, we have and High Percentage of unemployment and underemployment that impacts the areas, particularly when some of our projects are actually under construction, the light rail. Were very excited then about the innovative Public TransportationWorkforce Development program that has come out. And so miss mcmillan could you share under the lad dersders of opportunity grant the timeline for awarding those . It is extremely important for the communities in which were doing work to see more immediate benefit if we can actually create those apprenticeship opportunities and we have the strong support of our unions now and a lot of partnerships. Its been frustrating to try to provide those opportunities quickly and so if we knew this was coming we could be prepared. Lots of Staff Members are here today. They could go back ready. Assuming were going to be one of those grant awardees. Well, you know, as much as i hads like to, i cant give you a definitive timeline. In large part because what we have been seeing and this is the dilemma that we have with any Discretionary Program we have so many more first of all, we have an increasingly and unabating interest in our Discretionary Programs no matter what it is for, we are always oversubscribed. Just throw some examples out. I think the Tiger Program has been oversubscribed six to seven times every single year. When we had our ladders of opportunity bus program, we had 14 times more requests than we had money available. And similarly with our workforce, were a product of to some degree our own success. By pressing Workforce Needs every year, we put out a new workforce grant, we get more and more applications. But your point is very welltaken that these efforts are only useful to the degree you can get them out as soon as we can. So we will be putting great attention to evaluating the projects and, like you, want to see them get on the ground as soon as possible. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is wendell, im with the british consulate based in new york. My question has to do with Public Private partnerships. I agree with the comment that ppps are not the silver bullet. But given the scale of investment that this country needs in its infrastructure certainly it has to be a key piece of the puzzle. Now last year the president announced the build America Initiative led by secretary lew and to work with state and location ol governments to educate them with regard to p3s. Oftentimes they negotiate with the private sector and dont have the expertise given some of these projects are once in a life time. It is very important that at the federal level were able to provide a center of excellence where we can work with state and local governments to get them educated, to get them to understand where p3s might be helpful, where it might be useful. So i just wondered if there is sort of an update on how that work is connelling and any am coming and any ambitions you may have to working with local governments . Youre right. It was announced last year. It is in the process of being implemented and stood up. I think ultimately it is going to live at the department of transportation. There are the goal would be to sort of act as a Concierge Service to potential projects, both with streamlining and assisting and getting them moving quickly and helping people understand the process and the deal making and providing some expertise for towns, entities. And it is actually moving along quite well andl up. I dont think weve got a ton to say about it. No particular announcements today. But it was not one of those announcements that sort of happened and went off into the ether and went off and we forgot about it. Under way and getting worked on all the time. Pedestrians. Org. You talk about issues of Pedestrian Safety getting passengers to the bus stop. The Transit Agency owns the bus might own the sign posted at the bus stop. Then you are dealing with might be a county road, might be a say the road. How do these Pedestrian Safety initiatives work across all these Different Levels of agencies and government. It works probably as differently in every community as exists. One of the things is a as i mentioned, as a Major Initiative being overseen by the secretarys office in policy is the Bike Safety Initiative and also the secretary launched the Mayors Challenge for bike and Pedestrian Safety. There is a number of im going to speak to this in broad terms since i dont have all the details. You can find them on the website. Theres a number of bike safety bike and Pedestrian Safety challenges that are going on across the country. And the idea is to select a community, and in fact to your point, do a deeper dive in to a particular safety challenge, whether it be a very busy intersection where you are trying to access a major transportation in our case, a major transit station, or it could be a corridor where theres been a high incidence of bike accidents in the past or whatnot. And begin to work with the community. So fhwa or fta would be sort of a lead agency, but coordinating with a local community to identify the nature of the problem and the array of solutions that could be brought to bare. I know a key point of that is the coordination between the various entities that need to be involved to bring it together. One of the reasons why again this Safety Management system approach i think is going to be so valuable for our transit agencies in terms of safety is that youll need to ask the question for my system, how important is the connection with pedestrian interface. Do i have a number is this a centerpiece, say, for my new bike network that im building in my community because im actually encouraging lots of people to come to my station in bikes. Therefore, who would i work with at the Public Works Department in the jurisdiction where i am to ensure that the right lighting or fixtures or something are in place. So i think all of that is to save or recognize it is a very dynamic and very sort of casespecific area. Like so much of what we need to do, theres not a blanket oh, here is the format that i need to fill out to make these things work. So i think you just highlighted in your question the actual challenge that were facing, is that as much of this as might be a technological or engineering fix, coordination among the agencies that oversee all these parts is as much of that solution as any of it. In the end, it is about the people, right . And in the end, it is about the people. Bring down injuries and fatalities in any way we possibly can. David wilcock, boston, massachusetts. Weve talked a lot about funding moving forward. Last week from the house, i believe it was the Passenger Rail reform and investment act of 2014 emerged after once again a fight over what happens with amtrak. We had am major investment needs in the northeast corridor, but we also have many areas such as the midwest. We heard a gentleman earlier about the california highspeed rail. Southeast highspeed rail. Tremendous amount of highspeed rail investment, Passenger Rail investment thats wanted. How we going to move forward if we continue to have these debates over whether amtrak continues to exist or not . Right. Well so i think first of all, i think it was a good sign that the bill passed last week with such an overwhelming margin. By such an overwhelming margin. I cant tell you when were going to stop having the fight over whether amtrak should exist or not. It might not be in our life times. Hopefully it will be. But, look. I think increasingly its look. It is i think increasingly an argument that is losing steam. Right . So even in a employment where weve got republican control of both houses, an increasing tea Party Presence this is not an argument that i think most people think suddenly were going to be without amtrak in two years. So i think it is more and more people understand and recognize the importance of connectioning all these places and that rail is so integral to that. Being a track is so integral to that. Look, i think amtrak is sometimes guilty of bringing a little bit of attention on itself. Right . Ive been very frank with them and i think others have been too. It is a Wonderful Company a wonderful entity. They provide a service that is irreplaceable. That said, its important to be, in my opinion, really transparent with the hill. Talk about where the money is going. Talk about how youre going to reinvest. Talk about how youre going to perform this service up and down the east coast and across the country. I think theyre Getting Better at that all the time. They work closely with us. We urge transparency. Weve gone to the hill with them and talked about how we think it is really important to be transparent. I think well have some moments when people who might not be huge fans of amtrak in the first place see numbers they dont like or see parts of amtrak divisions of amtrak, different business entities losing money. But i think it is important to have a really transparent and realistic conversation about it because ultimately amtrak provides a service that i think is incredibly important to the country. Kind of a long answer. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Im valley mccall. Im im on the Board Members committee. I am the chief of government and International Affairs for the city of cleveland ohio. I didnt want to sit up here and not say thank you for the Pilot Program on local hiring rule making. As you all know, i spent a lot of time up in d. O. T. In conversations over the last ten years about that. Sometimes when we have projects and we have local laws that have local hiring requirements we cannot implement this. So i just want to stand up and say actually thank you for that. Of course we will be submitting some comments. Thank you. Thank you. Well coming back to the theme about it being about the people obviously afta has a continuing interest in working to improve coordinated Services Transportation and it involves a whole myriad of interests and overlapping programs. We all talk about project development streamlining but heres maybe another area where we could have some realignment and simplification. What in your view could be done to bring more federal agencies to the table to work in a more coordinated partnership . Well, the reason were having and i have to give kudos to my staff, and fta for pushing forward this rides to wellness summit that we are having on wednesday. Youre exactly right. We have been charging up the hill of better coo erter kid nature ing erter coordinating, as i like to say, across our cylinders of excellence, of the available resources we have. And we see a new opportunity for a conversation because the Affordable Care act created access to Health Insurance for hundreds of thousands of families and individuals that continues to grow. But if they cant get to the services that the insurance is providing, then obviously there is a huge gap in achieving the goal that we want to achieve. So its our hope that the Health Care Industry sees a invested interest in becoming an active part of this dialogue along with transit providers along with the federal agencies that are bringing forward much of the regulatory and implementation framework for these things to say we have to get beyond our past, which actually, there was a presentation i heard just recently that made the observation that when youre dealing with taxpayer dollars, there is an incredible attention to trying to avoid in any way waste, fraud and abuse. Thats just a basic tenet in protecting taxpayer dollars. However, sometimes in carrying that out you can make the strictures so rigid that then you cant recognize an environment thats changed to serve the very people that these programs are being set up to help. And so the beginning of it is maybe sitting down and having a very lucid and comprehensive discussion about that changed environment and the needs that it creates and say what tools do we have. Maybe we have all the tools or just not using them right. Were not putting them together in the right way. So thats where were going to start. I think it is incredibly important that the folks we are bringing together come to it with the idea that they can be invested in the solution. And that this isnt some topdown thing that the federal agencies are trying to impose. This is really about all of us recognizing that were not serving the client base that needs our help and that we actually are here tod we can do better. Lets talk about the ways to make that happen. Terrific. Thank you. Do we have any more questions from our audience . Weve exhausted everyone. I see somebody approaching the microphone. Good afternoon. My name is wendy. Im actually a doc. So im a subject matter expert. Not for transportation but im a physician out of texas. Since you gave me such a great leadin. Im part of an Accountable Care organization. We have a regional geographic scope. Im here as a guest of d. A. R. T. My question for you is if health care can come together and we can get very creative in how we serve the populations both in getting them to the clinics proactively and Building Health care decreasing expense where do we start. My question to you is having those conversations is a wonderful idea. Very interested in doing that but how do you go et it started . So for the state of texas as an example, where would we start . Well we are asking that same question. We recognize you hear this theme over and over but you hear it because its so true over and over again. Its not going to be the same starting place and ending place for the communities in texas as it may be for california, as it may be for boston. One of the things that we have also launched is we have provided funding for some Pilot Programs. And im just looking to henry to make sure Pilot Programs oriented around communities that they themselves are pulling together the cadre of interests that they need to assemble in order to tackle this problem. And so were providing some funding actually to let the communities themselves get into this definition space of whats our clients whats the problem, what are we trying to achieve, what resources do we already have versus what we might need. And we want to essentially fund those conversations. And so we how much money . Snichblt audible snichblt aud [ [ inaudible ] just keep tabs on the fta website after the summit, which again, im really excited thats going to be on wednesday. Well be posting summaries of whats happened, next steps that will be coming up, because this is an initiative under the secretarys larger ladders portfolio that well be pursuing for the next several months, certainly. Sir, your question. Todd lang from baltimore. Im cochair of the afta metropolitan planning subxlit. Wanted to see if you had any update on the timing for the transit Asset Management and safety regulations. Then comment on the delicate dance that needs to occur after that with the states mpos and transit providers. I really cant give you a timeline. I can say that both transit Asset Management and the safety rule making are Top Priorities for fta. Theyre just so fundamental to on their face the new responsibilities given to us but the industry really just needs it and we work really closely with them. So working hard. Well get it out as soon as we can. The point that you made about the interaction though i think is very important because weve made the case for some time that our transit agencies need to be very much engaged with the metropolitan planning process. Some of them are, some of them not quite as much. Secretary fox has made it another important part of his objectives is to strengthen the well, to strengthen the Regional Planning process general ly generally, but also to ensure that transit and all other parties are clearly on the table. So it really points to getting the in thts of proposed rule making out actually on our joint planning rule. That i know that thats undergoing comment now. Comments closed for the joint policy rule making on the notice if i remember correctly. And so thats moving ahead like a gazelle in the savannah through the rule making process. In the larger scheme of federal rule making, thats been trucking along. So thats going to be a very important part once that rule making is out in terms of the Planning Foundation for the types of discussions were going to having. Yes, sir. From pedestrians. Org again. If a major Rail Passenger project receiving federal funds about to go to construction and political changes delay it for four years and the next administration picks it up again i have no idea what youre talking about. What happens to those federal funds . Are they Still Available . Is it stuck back at square zero . What are the rules . So dont be so pessimistic. Unless youre probably trying to get the money though so youre interested. So were doing our best to make sure that everything that can possibly be obligated is obligated which is our job to do. There is a deadline on that. Were not sort of scooting things under the across the border. We have a deadline for obligation and so we will be obligating those funds. I cant speak to what could possibly happen later but i think the closer you get to building these projects and having them completed, i think the more people are invested in them and the more people are excited that theyll come to fruition. So im hopeful that regardless of what happens well be in good shape. All right. Last call for questions . Youve been a wonderful audience and please join me in thanking acting administrator mcmillan and feinberg on behalf of afta and all our memberships. We appreciate your candor and the time youve dedicated to come here and show us how the federal government can partner with us for a better tomorrow so that our postcards will be ones of positive messages. So thank you so much. Appreciate it. And to our audience and our viewers, we please encourage you to join us for a view from the hill session at 3 45 to hear directly from congressional staffers on the industry and inside perspective of upcoming legislation. So that is at 3 45. View from the hill. Tonight on American History tv, the history of washington, d. C. At 8 00 p. M. A discussion of how the District Of Columbia was form to be the nations capital. After that a profile of french born american architect and Civil Engineer pierre lenfant, the designer of the city. Then the history of the due port circle. Largely undeveloped until after the civil war. All of this tonight on American History tv on cspan3. Tonight on cspan, bill clinton moderates a discussion with a panel of young entrepreneurs in the Health Care Industry, including a venture capitalist who started his own Health Insurance company. And a Stanford University dropout who started a blood testing company. Heres a preview. What do you need to happen thats beyond your control for your Business Model to have a good chance to succeed . Great question. So i think its mostly about align incentives. I think theres a lot of things that were doing that are very differentiated. And just to go back to the question you asked before, how does Technology Impact our businesses or the industry. Im of the belief that if youre not a Technology Company in the next decade, then you wont be a company. I think this is just an unprecedented change in the world where everyone either needs to adapt or just move on. But there is so much that we can do. For example, amazon and google know when a womans pregnant almost immediately based on what shes searching for. But a Health Insurance company doesnt know until the claim is paid three months after birth. Right . So you know, [ applause ] so you know, our ability to understand whats happening in a system in real time enables us to actually take something that is real that we can pret prevent by giving away free medicine. If someones going to get sick theyre going to get sick. See the entire Clinton FoundationHealth Summit tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan. Here are some of our featured programs for this Holiday Weekend on the cspan networks. On cspan saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, former texas state senator and gubernatorial candidate wendy davis. On the challenges facing women in politics. Easter sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern, golfing legend Jack Nik Nicholas receives the congressional gold medal for his contributions to the game and community service. On cspan2s book tv saturday night at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on after words