The availability of drones and the use of drones, and we are scouring our authorities to see what, if anything, we can do as an agency on and well hear more to say about that in the future weeks and months. Are you hoping to meet the september target date . I think hopefully we will meet that deadline or come real close to it, in terms of getting the rule over to onb and hopefully soon thereafter having the rule out there as final. Heres the last one from me. A lot of talk this week about car hacking as result of wired magazine report on the Entertainment Systems in jeep cherokees and a chrysler products where you can get control of steering, brakes and transmission. I want to know your view of the proposed legislation and also where what the department is doing on the subject. Hacking. Look, this is a place where the government and the private sector have to be working very closely together. And we have urged the out toy all Auto Industry to start a roundtable of sorts to focus on issues of sign per security. A lot of the technologies are proprietary in some respect but there are common issues the industry has to deal with, and we found another industry these types of collaborations are useful and we offered to extent the resources of our department to help that work. So we feel like this is an area where the government and the private industry are going to have to step up in a big way but we cant do it by ourself. In the meantime, for the typical driver, how concerned should they be about hacking . This is its an issue. I think as we look forward into the future of transportation, well also see even more of a push towards technology with connected vehicles and Driverless Cars and things like that and so the time to get on this is right now and as i say we will push as hard as we can within government, but as industry develops this technology theres going be no substitute for publicprivate collaboration to ensure the security of our vehicles is airtight. From the ap. Yes. Actually kind of have two questions. One was i was hoping you could elaborate a little more on the price gouging investigation that you have opened. You said im sorry how many what is your evidence . Just the northeast corridor between washington and boston, and then the second part with the highway bill question, and i know youre still drilling down on that bill, but republicans have made a lot of tweaks to it in the senate, and i wonder if you actually got a bill like this do you think its something how would you feel about it . Would you think its an advancement, step forward or not . Okay. On the investigation its still very early. We Just Launched it today. But there are four airlines that were looking at. Ive identified them already. Those airlines have allegedly raised fees beyond what you would ordinarily expect in the northeast corridor at a time when the amtrak line was shut down. And our investigation our inquiry, is focused on getting to the bottom of whether there were unfair practices involved in setting prices at that time. On the highway side, i think its fair to say that as introduced on tuesday a very mixed bag. Again, i want to give credit to folks on both sides who have been trying to figure this out. This is not easy. If it were easy we wouldnt have had 33 shortterm measures in the last seven or eight years. It will be a decade since we had the last sixyear transportation bill. But i think some of the glaring problems with it had to do with the safety provisions, and i know theyre working to try to accommodate some of the concerns there, and well just have to see how far theyre able to get on that. I do think this country is hungry for robust transportation and the problems of congestion that have gotten worse over the last several years, the potholes in the roads, the bridges that need to be repaired. I could go on and on about the problems. And i think one of the questions is does this bill help us solve those problems in a substantial way . And we will continue reviewing as the Senate Continues the very fluid work theyre doing on this legislation, and once they have settled down issue think youll fine us settling down into a position. Mark jansen from usa today. Thank you for coming. Can you say anything about what clues, what hints about the airlines actions raised the suspicions to start the investigation . Do you monitor prices . What sparked the investigation . Well, there were a flurry of concerns raised in the wake of the accident in philadelphia. We had been asked to consider an investigation by senator murphy from connecticut and were doing our Due Diligence through this investigation to determine whether in fact there were unfair practices involved. And the other airline question, how soon might we see scheduleed flights to cuba . Thats actually we play a role in that, but that also involves the state department and commerce department. Youre aware that secretary kerry is planning to visit cuba in august. And my guess is that as we continue moving forward youll see those flights resuming. At some point in the very near future but i dont have a get to give you today. Im from the dallas morning news. A quick followup on the investigation. On the investigation it strikes me as probably legal if they just rose their prices raised their prices in response to a sudden demand, but is what youre concerned about them colluding to do that in an illegal way . And is it your investigation or the doj do they get involved . The department of justice focuses on criminal inquiries and what were doing bears no relationship to what the department of justice is doing. We are looking at this from a consumer standpoint, and yes in fact there is natural shift natural shifts in pricing depending on what demand is. The question really is, was this beyond the pale, and we will find that out in the course of this investigation. Well go next to heather from politico. End of the table. I want to follow up sorry go ahead. In my work in texas your preferred sees senior and folks from them Rail Administration came to talk about the excitement over highspeed rail in the Obama Administration. Texas at that time had an opinion that there was no role for government so didnt get any of the big money out of stimulus. So six seven years later its moving forward with the private sector rail, and most of the places where the federal government has had initial through supported highspeed rail has ethe rejects money or come into slowdowns. I wonder how big of a pro priorityes that for the Obama Administration is . There any regret the way it was handled Going Forward . Trying to get a sense where you see the nations highspeed rail. You pick any big project that has been done in this country and there was opposition to it at the beginning. I dont care what youre talking about. In the new york subway system, the brooklyn bridge. You name any big the going bridge. You name any big project that has happened in this country. There have been choruses against the projects initially. And i dont think highspeed rail is different in that respect. But we are seeing highspeed rail gaining traction in this country. The california project broke ground in january. Even florida the state that rejected the highspeed rail money back in the recovery act days is working on a highspeed rail project connecting orlando and miami and the work that is being done in texas to do highspeed between houston and dallas. I mean, how its done is less important than that its done, and i think youre seeing folks realizing the president was right, we need to connect our major cities in this country give people a different choice to get from a to b and youre starting to see it happen. Mr. Secretary, has the administration been counseling senators over the last week to vote against this mcconnell boxer plan, and what happens when we if it gets to be dem 18th and nicer no tax reform deal to bail out the trust fund . The short answer to your fit question is, no. Were not in a position to be either for or against the whole bill. Theres certainly portions of it woe find very troubling we find very troubling and we have been communicating those concerns but because the bill is in such fluid state there hasnt been a settling down of a position because it continues to be a moving target. Your second question . What happens if we get to decembersel and and theres no tax overhaul to bail out the trust fund. Well, this is a perpetual question we have been asking ourselves for the last 33 extensions. And at some point the music does have to stop, and we need to get on with building the country and i think the good news here is that youre seeing people struggling in earnest with how to get there. I just hope that we dont keep perpetuates the problems of you know, looking more or just at what we think we can do, and not looking squarely at what the country needs us to do, because those can be two different things. From reuters. The end of the month deadline on he highway bill, does the department do any recalculation of revenues on the chance that you could actually go a bit longer if Congress Fails to send the president a bill . And are there any steps contingency steps the department is taking in case that doesnt happen . Well, look, if so when we think about the impact of the highway clips its not a small impact. You have internal the d. O. T. , probably 4,000 of our employees that would be furloughed. They range from folks on the federal highway administration, who do permitting work, to ntsa to federal motor care yore. Those are primarily the agencies that would be impacted. External to d. O. T. We sent out letters to all the states and territories, explaining what we would do in terms of Cash Management in the event we started to go below the prudent balance, which is 4 billion in the highway account. And essentially we would apportion to those states percentages of the remaining revenue until we ran out of it. On top of that, lets just be frank. States have already been adjusting their ambitions to the federal environment and we have six states that have reduced projects, 2 billion worth of projects already and probably more states we dont know about. So all this basically comes down to jobs. It comes down to the fact that our countrys infrastructure continues to deteriorate and not only for me, and our president , but for future people who sit in the chair i sit in, and he sits in, im very concerned that folks in these positions in the future are going to be managing a declining system and thats not in the interests of the American People. So thats a little bit of what the impact would be. Any recalculations of revenues . The last report i saw basically stuck to the same time frame, which is that we will fall below the prudent balance sometime in the early part of august if they dont find a way to move forward and again that will be a bad day for many states and many communities across the country. From the los angeles times. Thank you mr. Secretary again, on the investigation that youre announcing this morning realizing these things take time. Do you have any sense of the timeline and how involved it might be . And then a question on the bill use we splittings in requests from each of the four airline is mentioned. And we sent its i think the letter went out yesterday today. Its going out today. And we expect within a reasonable time that well get that information book, and well go where the information takes us. But we expect the information to be sent back to us promptly, and hopefully we can close this out as quickly as possible. Dont have a timeline. Can you say what youre asking them for . I can get you a copy of the letters. And can you say hows ms. Stick you are there will be anything other than simple play stopgap measure to keep the highway fund going past july 31st . And also, frankly to the end of the year . Do you have any real optimism there would be anything other than just another stopgap measure at the end of december . I think the American People are going to increasingly demand that congress solve this problem and really solve it. Not paper over it. And thats because ive just been to so many places around the country where the traffic problems are getting worse. The conditions on the road are getting worse. And people are just seeing no way out. And increasingly people are starting to draw the line or follow the bread crumbs back to washington and we just cant keep doing it. So im optimistic because i see people on both sides continuing to work at this, and theyre working at it earnestly. Threat not to say that what is being discussed in the senate doesnt have problem because it does. Well just have to keep watching and it keep sharing our concerns on a memberbymember basis and hopefully the end result, either now or at the end of the year, will be something good. Jeff, from bloomberg. Yes. So in all of youre talks through the country you made clear in your tenure that fixing this longterm highway funding problem has been one of your top priorities. If the Senate Receives on its planned will have a sixyear bill with three years of funding. This will take this issue beyond the Obama Administration. So im just interested in your thoughts on that, and whether there are some real priorities you hope to address that you wont have the opportunity to do so . Well, look, again hard to know whether were in the second inning or the eight inning. But ill sleep peacefully at night knowing that ive done the very best job i can do of pointing the country in the direction we needs to go and i think the president has said repeatedly that its time nor country to move forward. Its time to get rid of the stopgaps and begin focusing on the long term and the goals as a country. But under our Constitutional System Congress has to take this up and do something about it. And as i said before, the fact theyre wrestling in earnest with this issue at all is a very different place than where we were two months ago or ten months before that, or you follow the logic. So i think as long as people are wrestling with this, theres a chance it could work out well for the American People and thats just what we have to believe. Mr. Secretary one of the parts of the bill threshing senate bill under discussion, is the percentage of infrastructure money that goes to mass transit and there was a proposal in the initial bill to reduce the percentage. How important is to its maintain it and what would the implications be for mass transit if it is reduced. Let me answer this way. We did this survey of the nations Transportation System beyond traffic a few months ago. We put the draft out and one of the startling things about beyond traffic is it points out that were going to grow by 70 million people. So well have population increases, but not just population increases. More concentration around metro areas. So pick los angeles, for instance. Can you build more highways in los angeles . No. You might be able to expand the lanes in some places, but thats not going to get you to nirvana either and so the need for transit is actually increasing in the country. Our grow america act had a 70plus percent increase for transit, recognizing the need for it as the country continues to grow. So no, i definitely dont think the percentage ought to be going down. If anything it should be going up but i know that there are folks in the senate who are very concerned about this and are pushing to at least keep its level. Let me tell you where we are timewise. 28 minutes to go well go flexion to from tax notes and david sheper sound, and stephanie from bna and end with Bernie Becker from the hill. Youre up. So you mentioned that the highway bill is a moving target. Are there any provisions or amendmentses that the white house would want to include in the Current Senate bill to get this forward . Well, i think xm bank for sure. Thats something that the white house is very interested in. On at the transportation front there are number of Safety Measures that were still concerned about and for instance if we recall a car because of some defect that could endanger someone who is using the car and you go to a used car lot to buy a car even if its been subject to recall right now you could buy that car and it wouldnt have to be fixed. And we think thats a loophole that needs to be closed. There are also pieces of legislation we wish the senate would consider, like giving ntsa imminent hazard authority. We were criticized last year for having too cozy a relationship with industry. But the reality is that when a recall occurs, if the company that has been recalled disagrees with our assessment, our recourse is to go to courts spend years trying to ritz gait the issue while dangerous stuff is on the streets. The alternative is to develop some kind of settlement with the automaker or the oem and usually we have been able to get favorable results that way but if Congress Wants us to have more teeth give us the tools so that we can fight those battles directly and these are the kinds of things we have proposed previously and it would be nice for those issues to be addressed through this legislation. David shepardson. Do you [inaudible] question. We have serious concerns about the safety provisions in the bill and its not just the ones i brought up. And i think were just waiting to see where they land, as this goes through a very fluid process over the next several days. So im not prepared to say it is or isnt a dealbreaker or that portions of it or or not dealbreakers. Right now were trying to see where the senate lands and to try to play a constructive role in helping congress get to yes on something that is vitally important to the american public. A question about the hacking earlier. Are you satisfied that Fiat Chrysler has not recalled these vehicles instead of just offering this volunteer tear Software Patch . I am going to decline to comment for now on a specific automaker, but theres probably something coming on that. Also at Fiat Chrysler, how close are you to a consents order or result to this public hearing and the 20out recalls nftsa has been looking at. I urge you to just give us some time. Were working very hard to get these issues closed out. But i dont have any news for you this morning. I. John mccann from the journal back in the cheap seats. Could yo