Department of transportation. The administration is proposing 94 billion in mandatory and Discretionary Spending for the department of transportation in his school year 2016. Included is proposed a six years 478 billion Service Transportation reauthorization paid for by a onetime 14 tax on the repatriation of the foreign parents foreign earns. While i support a repatriation proposal and am completely open to using some of the resulting funds for our infrastructure the president s budget is based on a reauthorization that is budgeted by a mandated approach. It really fails to propose any reforms necessary to bring about a longterm solvency of the highway and van transit trust funds. It is perplexing to hear the administrations half about how important our nations needed and yet the an ministration continues to remain silent on trust fund reforms that are put into place in order to address our crumbling roads, bridges, now and in the future. Simply saying we are happy to work with congress is not an acceptable answer. This transportation this administration has had six years to provide specific proposals to reform the trust fund. It is an essential part of the Service Transportation equation. This is a critical year for transportation, both for the administration and for congress. Also a multiparty faa authorization expiring at the end of the fiscal year. Our focus is on the fiscal year 2016 budgetary needs of the department of transportation based on current authorization. I am pleased to see the administration continues to highlight and fund the important Tiger Program. I am disappointed in the unrealistic proposal to mandatory spending that simply will not happen in our appropriations. I have advocated strongly for the Tiger Program since joining the Appropriations Committee in 2009. Nationally, regionally, and locally. It has been essential to many bridge, railroad and pork projects in my home state of maine that otherwise would not have been undertaken when they needed to be. Moving on to faa our Aviation System supports 11. 8 million jobs. 58,000 tons being transported daily by air. The nations Aviation System depends upon a safe efficient modern air Traffic Control system. The president s request includes 16 billion of support investment and keeping our Aviation Systems the safest and most efficient airspace in the world. Wall i am pleased the air Service Program is fully funded, i am disappointed with the mention of a Small Community air Service Program, as well as the reduced funding for the airport improvement program. States like maine and other states represented by members of this committee benefit greatly from services that connect Rural America with a larger transportation network. In many instances air service would otherwise never have been established were it not for the support of the Small Community air Service Development program. With regard to our rail system i am deeply concerned by the number that has occurred over the past three years. This issue has special resonance in my home because the horrific accident in quebec, which killed 47 people and consumed much of a Small Community downtown. Only 10 miles from the main border and many of our First Responders rushed to assist their canadian counterparts in the budget request highlights Pedestrian Safety and the safe transportation of Energy Products that may need Additional Resources. I will be looking closely at how we can best target federal funds to reduce accidents and save lives. This subcommittee has worked hard to provide the department of transportation with resources to improve rail safety rail safety but they have not reflected those investments. Despite the increased resources we have provided a safe transportation of crude oil it is baffling to me that the department and this administration have yet to finalize regulations to replace the dot 111 tank cars to make other improvements. The department begins consideration of rules that will require comprehensive oil response plans. I also remain concerned about the ability of the department to hire the rail and pipeline inspectors previously funded. The subcommittee will hold the department accountable for every dollar provided for these important state the issues. Another of my concerns is some of the figures in the administrations Budget Proposal are simply unrealistic. The budget includes nearly 1. 3 billion for fta Capital Investment brands. I recognize your interest in promoting Public Transit and other Service Programs. I knology a reauthorization would shift funding to mandatory. This subcommittee must stop in the real world, one which this program must be funded with discretionary appropriation and where we continue to face severes that severe fiscal challenges. Let me turn over the podium to my colleague, senator reid, and say once again what a great pleasure it is to have him as our Ranking Member. Senator reid thank you for your leadership. Welcome secretary foxx. This is a lesson on gridlock. Exhibit one, thank you very much. We really do appreciate your leadership and look forward to discussing this budget request with you. It includes robust longterm reauthorization programs. Before i get any further let me thank you for coming to rhode island and seeing some of our transportation issues. Thank you very much. Our airport as a catalyst for economic growth. We are still lagging in the country in terms of employment. We used to be vying for one which you do not want to be in that kind of competition. We can do more thank you again for coming up to rhode island is an chance to look at our infrastructure. We need a functioning airport. It has been very successful. Last year was another record year. 170,000 automobiles were imported. I must say with senator collins it is another graphic example of how they can be used greatly and flexibly by local authorities to create jobs. We also understand that the future is going to need more. Its becoming a commercial transit area. What we are doing today is going to help us in the future dramatically. We have significant needs. They cant handle todays traffic. It is just going to get worse. 26 20 of bridges in this situation. It will be 40 by 2025. Him and he will take 80 million per year to reverse this trend. Amtrak is another key component. Thats the big member. The faa has a 5 million backbone. It would put our controls at risk of outages with delays. We are not talking about the things we want to build. That is what is distressing about this hearing. You have proposed a plan that will begin to grapple with these issues. If we could reauthorize appropriately and organized attacks and organize Committee Responsibilities to come up with revenues we could begin this process. I thank you for laying it on the table for us. Im afraid we are going to be stuck here. We are not going to make tough choices about raising revenues and investing in our future. Theres no better investment than infrastructure. Everyone on this committee will tell you bat. Tell you that you we also have to recognize state and local governments have been struggling. If we cant give them the certainty of a four or five year plan of committed federal funding at a reasonable and robust level, they will be on their own. So i look forward to being a supporter of what you are doing. It works. 2 billion in amtrak. The rights of ways and facilities. 908 million for the Traffic Safety administration. We have seen a lot of situation where vehicles will be on the red. It is a level of accountability they must deal with. 243 million. It will support 84 additional rail and safety inspectors. Are we effectively supervising both passenger in the United States . Not only of funds our air Traffic Control. Maybe tomorrow. I hundred 60 million for next gen, which is important. These programs rely on resources. We have to ensure they are there. We have a collective responsibility. It will be detrimental not only in monetary impacts on the budget but the memos reduction of accounts without any opportunity for a secretary to say this make sense and this does not. It will further undermine the picked ability and certainty predictability and certainty of state governments. We were able to delay it. We need a repetition of that work in the days ahead so we can go forward. Senator collins thank you senator reid. I want to acknowledge the presence of cell of several of our members. Senator capito, senator blunt. I am sure other members will join us as well. We did change the time of this hearing and i appreciate the secretary accommodating the schedule in light of the votes we have. Please proceed with your statement. Secretary anthony foxx madam chairman, Ranking Member reed, i want to thank you for having me here today and i would like to save particular thanks to madam chairman especially for being flexible and scheduling and scheduling in scheduling. Last month, we sent congress a new grow america act. It would provide funding over six years. Having a six year bill is important because it will give communities of stable, and a double amount of funding so they can plan for the longterm, as mentioned. I know the committee is very focused on this upcoming fiscal year. Let me tell you what this means for fy 16. Approximately 95 billion accounts for our digit request for fiscal year 2016. We would invest 7. 5 billion to clear the backlog of deficient bridges and highways that need safety repairs. There is 1 billion for a new Freight Program and over a billion dollar increase for Capital Investment grants which help build projects that Better Connect folks to jobs, schools and doctors. We recognize that sequestration will takee effect next january absent action. It would have a devastating impact on our hesitation safety efforts. Transportation safety efforts. Grow america lays down a marker and shows us the funding level necessary to improve. It is fully paid for and part of a larger Administration Budget that avoids sequestration. Keeps our safety inspectors and air Traffic Controllers on the job. It makes investment in our nation we need to support for a growing population and economy. I believe we can a compost this on a partisan basis accomplish this on a bipartisan basis. I want to specifically think you chairman collins for the work you did last year, and even before that, on the issue of safely transporting energy. It is an important issue, one we all care about. I want this subcommittee to know that your history of working together to support Critical Infrastructure investments, like the tiger grant and Capital Investment grant programs, matter a great deal in communities across america and it is appreciated. Ranking member reed, i want to thank you for being such a great voice in we are speaking today about fiscal year 2015. As the chairman acknowledged, we have to recognize we have a more immediate issue with the Highway Trust Fund on may 31. Next month, the current authorization will expire and when states come to us looking for money we will not be able to guarantee they will be there. Plans will be shelves, new jobs will not be created, and current ones will be at risk. We have seen six states pull back to billion dollars of objects because of federal funding. Theres been talk of funding to get by this latest cliff. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. At the local level communities are stuck in the planning process. Because of this uncertainty. A bandaid on our Transportation System is not what we need. Last two, Congress Passed funding for 10 months. Three months after that, tennessee announced they are mothballing projects, canceling 2 billion worth of projects. Maybe if america was not growing and did not need to prepare for Larger Population and economy perhaps this would not be so bad. But that is far from the case. America will be home to 45 million more people by 70 Million People more by 2045. Madam chair, if we have to go through the struggle of passing a funding bill, let us do it the right way, let us do something big. I am ready to work with you and all members of congress to get something done. I look forward to your questions. Senator thank you very much for your testimony. I mentioned the tragic incident in canada, very close to the maine border which prompted the administration and department to look at the design of the tank cars that are carrying crude oil. Given the recent uptick in crude by rail accidents, most recently West Virginia and illinois, i simply am astonished that we are once again waiting for omt to sign off on these important regulations. Im also concerned that the department has failed to publish a regulation to acquire a comprehensive Oil Spill Response plan from the railroads. We have given substantial increases in resources for more inspectors, for example. Could you update us and explain why more po progress has not been made in this truly critical area . Secretary anthony foxx first of all, madam chairman, your concerns are our concerns. We certainly take this issue very seriously. I want to describe a few steps we have taken to answer your question. First of all, on the issue of the crude by rail, the department, very early on in this process, took 24 steps, along with industry, to basically provide a bridge between block the last week we announced several additional steps we have taken. The work continues. One of the challenges of doing this rule is that we are talking not only about investors back retrospective risk, it also that the industry is growing and there is prospective risk. We are talking very closely with omb to get a copper hence the rule that out addresses tank cars, but also things like speed in other areas that will help impact mitigation and emergency response. Secondly, on the issue of the Oil Spill Response plan, i want to point out we did issue in advance notice of proposed rulemaking in august 2014 that was designed to put questions out to stakeholders that we thought was very important in ultimately addressing a final rule. Questions such as the volume of oil in the number of tank cars that will trigger an Oil Spill Response plan. We have received comments on that. I expect we will have the notice of proposed rulemaking this summer, as soon as maybe june. On the issue of inspectors, we appreciate the work of the Appropriations Committee providing us resources to hire inspectors. I will only point out, as we try to hire more inspectors d to meet the demand of this area, we are also competing with hiring of those inspectors by industry. Senator collins thank you. That is absolutely critical because the condition of the rail tracks is also an issue. Mr. Secretary, i am concerned about a recent attempt to change d. O. T. s regulation of 915 Passenger Vans used for summer camp transportation. I believe you have experience in having a child go to summer camp in the great state of maine, as do many americans. Without a change in law, without going through any regulatory process one Regional Office is treating these small Passenger Vans as if they were greyhound buses or trailways buses providing yearround commercial services. For example, when camps and Main Transport children in maine transport children across state lines from the airport, they are not Offering Services to the general public. Yet the agencys interpretation requires camps to offer continuous and adequate service, post prices and schedules and other commercial services to the public, or lose their operating service. This makes no sense for a van used in the summer months to pick up kids at the airport. In a camper driven in a Passenger Van within the state itself can be subject to interstate regulations because the combined summer camp package includes airfare from another state. Now i want to be clear, im not advocating summer camps should be relieved from obtaining the necessary Liability Insurance that covers safety matters, but it makes no sense to treat them as if they are commercial entities that are solely in the business of providing Transportation Services yearround. The reason on thethe omnibus required d. O. T. Can you assure me d. O. T. Will comply with Public Notice and requirements and take a hard look at whether this really make sense . It strikes me as government overkill at its worst. Secretary anthony foxx we will take seriously the notice and comment. Period. Because of the circumstances of maine and the camping industry, i will send a team to solicit comments from the stakeholders in the state.