Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning. Senior evp clark, here at the u. S. Chamber and im delighted to welcome you here today. When you have my job, you get to be in this room and say a lot. Ntence but actually mean it today. More than usual. Not because youre so charming started my career at the American Trucking association and you just dont really get it out of your blood i dont think. So its an important topic at time, so thank you so much for being here. Hank you to our partners and sponsors. Thank you to ed mortimer and his alented team for putting this together. Ed leads our infrastructure efforts and were lucky to have him. Chamber is a founding sponsor of iweek. Is that a thing . All right. Sponsor of ding iweek and were really proud to bipartisan the Steering Committee and have been proud to see how this meeting grown in reach and and programmatic activity every year. Ou all know more about infrastructure than i will ever learn. Challenge and de has to be a nationwide conversation. Ver the next five days, businesses around the nation will gather and focus on government re with officials at some 100 events nationwide. Chicago. Boston. Vegas, salt lake, l. A. Austin. Right here in the nations capital. Through all of our activities, and ll send a strong nified message which is it is time to build. Ladies and gentlemen, that time is now. In a Generation Opportunity to make major our ess in modernizing nations infrastructure and we urgency. E it with weve had a need to build for years. Grades en the failing in at that statistics, sat the grid lock, experienced delays and experienced too many failures because of our to maintain. What we have now is political to do d leadership something about it. The president has pledged action public supports it. We just conducted a new poll ith Morning Consult and the poll revealed that 70 of want the surveyed federal government to invest in fray structure. Infrastructure investment will help then the economy, businesses, and create jobs. Weve heard the same message all on our growth y tour. Public knows that infrastructure is important and worth the investment. With the political stars aligning, long term strategic in rebuilding our country is now possible. Weve got to make the most of this moment. Starts right here. Right now. With each of you. Ver the course of todays program well hear from a very distinguished line up of leaders nd experts from a range of industries and from across the political spectrum. To get things started lets hear from a long sage time partner and a leading advocate for infrastructure. Video. Roll the in his address to a joint session of congress, president proposed 1 trillion in infrastructure investment. Skill. The right in fact, it should probably be even bigger. White uestion to the house and congress is this where is the bill . Its go time. Floor egislation to the movement will help pass it. All we ask is that its done the ight way supporting american jobs, american resources, and american steel. And labor are divided lot of issues. But infrastructure is not one of them. The American People want us to and they want us to build today. Schools, water, sewer, electricity, you name it. Our mandate is clear. Our unity is strong. Build. Me to work. Ts get to applause] i would sure like to hear from trumka from the chamber. Work together o with him and Labor Union Leaders country on one of the fundamental realities we face to rebuild americas infrom structure. Infrastructure. One thing is certain, if trumka and i can agree, this is surely work on hat we will vigorously and continually. Im proud that rich and the cio the whole Labor Movement are our partners in this endeavor as suzanne said a minute ago, a lot of others are lining up too. Its about time. Ive been fighting for years. Ructure for many i used to be at the American Trucking association. Time in washington its hard to think of another movement where the potential for meaningful progress on nfrastructure has been so great. Im not saying its going to be easy or quick. A long shot. Ut its possible and its likely. This challenge and figure out how to make it work. Debate over what an inf infrastructure package should be, how it should be paid for, and what it should achieve is heating up. Were looking forward to hearing the administrations perspective from secretary of transportation in just a moment. Nd as she said on television yesterday, this is an emerging perspective. More to come in the immediate future. Chambers ready to work closely with her and with the of ers at both ends pennsylvania avenue to get this done. His morning, i want to very quickly lay out three priorities infrastructure package we believe will be key to success. Be about s got to Economic Growth. Im not talking about a sugar spending that feels good in the moment but is gone before you know it. Talking serious Strategic Investments that support our ations long term growth and competitiveness. That means taking on the big projects. Our nes that will connect country from one end to the other. Transcontinental railroad did in the 19th century. The ones that will broaden the physical platform of our country interstate highway system did in the 20th century. Today must nts support our 21st century economy needs. S evolving we must focus on building or rebuilding highways and bridges, seaports, rail lines and waterways, pipelines grids and a Broadband Network to connect our nation physically. Well as by the way, we have to build one that they cant break into so easily. Projects should be selected and potential d on their to support long Term Economic growth. Ot based on the speed at which they can be completed. We must prioritize them based on helps the entire country, what servings politics serves politics. Second priority is creating broad tool kit of public and private financing. Theres 250 billion in global for te capital available infrastructure investment. Y own view, theres a lot more than that. Domestically here in the United States and available from all over the world. Remove barriers to getting that money. Programs federal loan and private partnerships could jump start that investment. You should think about it this i just did a tv thing a little while ago. Most people dont go out and buy house and pay cash. Most people dont go out and buy a car and pay cash. Out and buy those long Term Investments and agree to cash certain amount of over time. And thats what we have to do to these projects. But it more public money has to be the amount of money hat helps us pay down those investments. Lets get down the issue. If were going to have a house, we have to have it every month or year. It was welcome news when the recently expressed his openness to consider such a solution. It just makes sense. Might be other solutions so lets explore them as well and put the options on the table and when it comes to the full redth of Infrastructure Projects we envision, we should also consider how existing and if can be used necessarily improved. We cant makee is the dash without the cash. Is to adopt ority needed reforms to ensure the and in ajects get done timely, transparent, and Cost Effective way. We need now that greater accountability in to practices and st improve the issues on permitting up and ollow transparency. Attracting private investment, ladies and gentlemen. They want to know that their they is going to what agreed for and that its going to be spent accordingly. Finally, we must invest in the future. Echnology and innovation will increasingly transform every facet of our economy. To equip our infrastructure now for these new advances. Way, the rule making process must be quick and nimble paces of with rapid innovation. At the chamber, were confident an infrastructure package is built around these the ities, it will garner support needed to move the congress and most importantly, will achieve the goal of building a modern efficient system. Ucture maybe the secretary of transportation with her home and abroad will be able to find a way that have some sort of credit for the members of the Congress Things that are built in their communities. Wont me stress again it be fast or easy but kicking the can down the road is not acceptable. To get started and its time to do it now. Morning introduce the woman who is going to be in harge of much of what we hope will be achieved here. Were privileged to hear from leaders who will be at the very center of this debate, secretary of chao. Ortation, elaine time were first hosting secretary chao in her new role but shes no strange or the amber tranger to the business or chamber community. We go back to when she was of ty secretary transportation shortly after Christopher Columbus came. For me. She was very young at the time. Ascontinued working with her secretary of labor. Shes a dedicated champion for American Workers making strong measurable progress to rotect their health, safety, and retirement security. And we know shes just as effective in her new role. I cant think of anyone better uited to lead the infrastructure conversation currently unfolding here and round the country than secretary chao. Shes got the experience. Shes got the ideas. The grit and the determination to see them through. Been hard team have at work trying to get their Team Together and working on this in the Business Community and our partners are ready to lend a hand. So please join me in welcoming chew, a good ne friend chao, a good friend a great leader for this project. Applause] thank you, tom, for that very gracious introduction even said that it was the columbus Christopher Columbus era. But thats okay. [laughter]. A special thank you to you all the other friends of infrastructure for putting ogether the series of events all across the country highlighting our infrastructure challenges. As you know so well, backbone ture is the of our world class economy. One of the most productive, dynamic in the world. T is a key factor in productivity and Economic Growth hich has provided millions of hardworking americans with the standard of living that the envy of the world and has provided our country with nprecedented mobility, safety, and security. And, yet, today these gains are crumbling by infrastructure that is ncreasingly congested in need of repair and unable to keep technological change. Were fortunate to have a president who understands the infrastructure. Perhaps better than any other memory. In recent he has made revitalizing instrayg and rebuilding truck which you are one of his infrastructure one of his priorities. Will share ration its vision of the infrastructure lan in the next few weeks kicking off our collaboration with congress. Wide ite house launched a consu ranging consultative process con of 16 different federal Government Departments and agencies including transportation, omb, treasury, ommerce, interior, epa, agriculture, labor, energy, the epartment of defense, veterans affairs, the council of nvironmental quality, and the white house, the Education Department and others. And consultations with many governors, mayors, local leaders and private sector stakeholders have occurred as well. Hear from thisto myriad of stakeholders and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Mulvaney b director announced the new take tructure plan will 2 billion in funds. Omb is identifying offsets in saddling future generations with more debt. Feature of hy a key the infrastructure plan will be billions of e dollars in private Capital Investment and inf infrastructure. During this consultative investors have told us is n and again that there mple capital available waiting to invest in infrastructure. A major problem is the delays government permitting and approval processes which projects for years, even decades. Delays increase the cost and increase the risk adding, again, uncertainty and billions and billions of dollars to the projects. And thats why another key part f this administrations infrastructure plan will include regulatory, administrative, organizational, speed icy changes to project delivery and reduce uncertainty. Of the departments and gencies mentioned in the Interagency Task force will have a role in addressing these issues. The department of transportation has already initiated and regulatory review process. The federal highway hasnistration, for example, taken the first steps to reduce the Regulatory Burden and is for more ways to speed things up. On Regulatory Reform at the department of ransportation has been assembled that has identified any additional legislative and regulatory changes that could project approval. Stream lining the regulatory only cuts costs, it can improve environmental delivering Infrastructure Improvements resources spending on actual environmental ofigation rather than stacks paperwork. To illustrate what is possible, picturesfer you to the on the big screen of the i85 recently collapsed in atlanta, georgia on march 31st of 2017. Going to get pictures there . This picture shows the collapsed bridge and the second picture shows the new bridge. Which was just replaced in just 49 days. A team from the u. S. Department of transportation was on the after almost immediately the incident and within 12 the department had delivered 10 million in help ncy relief funds to replace the bridge. Located within two hours of the site was identified and federal egulatory requirements were expedit to en mate dated expedited. Now, of course, replacing a not the same as starting a project from scratch. I85 in georgia was an emergency situation. Its not possible to slash the time for federal requirements on every project from years to months. Much room for improvement. Atlanta is an example of what can be accomplished with federal, local governments working together. We begin to implement this administrations reforms, a new hopefully be created which will shift the builtbeyond what is being to how projects are being funded and financed. O, for example, states and localities that have secured of funding of financing their own for Infrastructure Projects will be begin higher access to new federal funds. Federal oal is to use funding as an incentive to get and built moreay quickly with greater state, local, by and private partners. His approach is in line with studies that show the federal substitutes n rather than augments state and funding on infrastructure. A 2004s in conclusion of gao report on highway spending. The state and localities studied used federal replace rather than supplement what they would have spent. Se the administration would like to avoid that outcome. Currently, less than one fifth of all Infrastructure Spending federal. The rest comes from state, sources. D private this administration wants to privacy of state and ocal spending and use federal funding as leverage to increase total amount of funding available for infrastructure. T the same time, everyone recognizes that there is no one for fits all revenue model Infrastructure Projects. Toll roads, for example, may in urban areas where consistent revenue because of high traffic and high demand. Lower demand on rural roads revenuesenerate enough investment. Vate this administration is committed an infrastructure package the addresses the needs of and rural. Try, urban payments, for example, are one used most widely alternative financing methods infrastructure in the world. In this model, a government the y contracts with private sector to build, a piece ofd maintain infrastructure. N return, the contractor receives payments from the government over a specified that of time provided certain milestones and targets are met. Using this approach the government doesnt have to bear infrastructure up front and the risk to both the private and the public is mitigated. So there are many innovative and models out there to be considered. Administrations definition of infrastructure is also broad and inclusive. It not only recognizes infrastructure such s roads, bridges, railroads, airports, inland waterways and ports. It may also potentially include energy, water, in addition, a few special projects that are not candidates investment will likely be identified and funded directly. Candidates for the special category may include projects that have the potential to g. D. P. Cantly increase growth or to lift the american spirit. Incentivizing local, state and private sector investments as as streamlining permitting processes will have the biggest impact on future infrastructure development. Process of revitalizing our countrys were alsoure, looking at ways to revitalize our countrys work force. And as a former secretary of is especially important to me. Far too many workers are being left behind because theyre not skills andth the demand in our rapidly changing economy. In transportation, very long, drivers of the future will be in of cars thatets talk to one another, dispatched by workers at a computer. Oures will inspect infrastructure with precision reliability but will require some type of human control, and analysis. Literacy and higher skills will be key. Good news is that workers dont need an expensive Fouryear College degree to paying jobs. Good a twoyear program at a local anmunity college is important resource, as well, and affordable. And increasingly, employers are training toational High School Students and their Training Programs many skill trade unions, and Government Programs workers, as well. But, to be relevant, all skills Training Programs have got to involve the know bestbecause they which skills are in demand, they require. So let me add that emerging requires a regulatory ens