Really get it out of your blood. Is an important topic at the right time thank you so much to be here into our partners have sponsors and to the talented team to put this together our transportation infrastructure expert. The chamber is a founding sponsor which i meant to ask the team we are the founding sponsor of iweek and i am proud to see how this has grown and reached with programmatic activity every year. You know, about infrastructure that will ever learn so ill have to tell you what a problem is for the country as a nationwide challenge with a nationwide conversation over the next five days we will gather to focus on the for structure at 100 defense nationwide chicago, boston chicago, boston, a salt lake , and right here in the Nations Capital. We will send a strong and unified message ladies and gentleman the time is now. We have a once in a Generation Opportunity to make major progress and we must seize that with urgency. We have all read the grim statistics and because of the maintain the Critical Infrastructure what we now was bipartisan by ian by ian and the president has pledged action and supports it in fact, we just conducted a new poll that revealed 70 percent of americans surveyed one day federal government to invest in infrastructure. And to understand that will strengthen the economy and create jobs for go as he talked to small and Medium Business leaders they no infrastructure is important and worth the investment so to align though longterm strategic investment to rebuild our country is now possible behalf to make the most of this moment starting right here right now with each of you. Over the course of the program we will hear from leaders and experts from across the political spectrum and to get things started we will hear a special message from our longtime partner. Please roll the video. [inaudible] good morning as president of the aflcio welcome to infrastructure week 2017 and went to thank my friend and partner for his commitment to rebuild america. We started this campaign five years ago to raise awareness about our infrastructure needs and we have done exactly that. It is time for our leaders to act. If we build a they will, they will come. But instead of building were discussing and delaying. Is time to build. Every day we wait is an opportunity lost in the address to avoid joint session of Congress President trump proposed 1 trillion of Infrastructure Investment in fact, it should be even bigger so my question is this, where is the bill . Brings legislation to the floor and the Labor Movement will help you pass it. All we ask it is done the right way with robust public funding and high labor standards supporting american jobs and American Resources and american steel. Business and labor are divided on a lot of issues but infrastructure is not one of them. The American People want us to build and they want us to build today. Roads, bridges, sewer, elect ricity, you name it our mandate is clear. It is time to build so lets get to work. [applause] i like to hear from Richard Trumka that wakes us up in the morning wondering who left the door open. [laughter] that we are honored to Work Together with the union and labor leaders of this country with the fundamental realities that we face how do you rebuild americas infrastructure . So one thing is certain if we can agree that this is surely the one we will work on vigorously and continually i am prod the aflcio and hold Labor Movement thinks you for being here as partners in this endeavor and a lot of others are lighting up it is about time for i have been fighting for infrastructure for many years. Remember i used to me it the American Trucking association and all my time in washington and it is hard to think of a movement when the potential for real and meaningful progress on infrastructure i am not saying it will be easy or . By a long shot but it is possible and likely so now we have to welcome the challenge to figure out how to make it work. The debate over the infrastructure package hours should be paid for or chief is heating up were looking forward to hearing the administration is perspective from the secretary of transportation in just a moment and as she said on television and yesterday this is the emerging perspective with more to come in the immediate future the chamber is ready to work closely with her and both ends of pennsylvania avenue to get this done this morning i quickly want to lay out three priorities for the infrastructure package we believe will be key to success one is a pass to be about Economic Growth i am not talking about the sugar rush the serious strategic investment to support our nations longterm growth and competitiveness that means taking on the big project that will connect our country from one end to the other the way the Transcontinental Railroad did in the 19th century to broaden the platform of our economy the way the interstate highway system did in the 20th century. Our investment today must support the 21st century economy and its evolving needs. We must focus on building or rebuilding highways and bridges and airports and waterways and pipelines and power grids with a Broadband Network to connect tarnation digitally as well as physically. By the way we have to build one that you cannot break into so easily. Projects should be funded based on the potential to support longterm Economic Growth not on the speed of which they could be completed and we must prioritize based, hopes the entire country not what serves parochial politics. No big plans require deep cuts so the second priority is to create a broad tool kit of financing there is 250 billion of Global Private capital for Infrastructure Investment and in my view it is more than that the domestically available for investors over the world we need to remove barriers to get that money tax preferred financing federal loan programs and private partnerships could just start that investment. Think about it this way. Most people dont go out and buy a house to pay cash. Or go out to buy a car and pay cash they by longterm investments and agreed to pay a certain amount of overtime. That is what we have to do to finance these projects. We need more public money but it has to be the amount to help us pay down the long term investment. We all cheered the passage last year of the six year highway bill but after 36 shortterm extensions that was a huge victory but the underlying problem with the Highway Trust Fund those problems have not gone away. May be a winning a popularity contest but i call for an increase in the federal fuel tax. Twentyfour years we have not increased it so which is half of what it was before if you think of miles per gallon. And to get down to the issue if we have a mortgage on the house you have to pay every month or every year which is welcome news when the president expressed his openness to consider such a solution. It just makes sense. There might be other solutions so lets explore those as well and put the options on the table when it comes to the full breadth of the Infrastructure Projects we envision mission also consider our existing programs could be used and improved but the bottom line is we can make that negative without the cash. The third priority is to adopt the needed reforms to make sure the right project gets done in a timely and transparent and costeffective way. You know we need greater accountability and congress to focus on the best practices and improve the issues of permits and followups and transparencies. That is key to attracting private investment ladies and gentlemen they want to know their money goes to what they agreed and it will be spent accordingly. Finally to invest in the future technology and innovation will increase along every facet of our economy we need to do that now for these new advances and by the way the rulemaking process must me . And unable to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation at the chamber were confident if the Infrastructure Project is built on these priorities will get the support needed for congress and most importantly achieve the goal of building a modern infrastructure system it is secretary of transportation with her influence would be able to find a way to have members of the congress for those things airbill to their communities so let me stress again will not be fast or easy the kicking down the canyon down the road is not acceptable it is time to get started and do it now so now let me introduce the woman who will be in charge of much of we hope those to be at the very center of this debate secretary of transportation transportation, a secretary chao this is the first time posting secretary chao in her new role but she is no stranger to the chamber with the Business Community our relationship goes back to when she was deputy secretary of transportation shortly after Christopher Columbus came for at least we she was very young at the time for pro we worked closely with her as secretary of labor and a dedicated champion for American Workers making strong and measurable progress for safety and retirement security. We know she will be just as dedicated and effective in her new role for courts cannot think of anyone better suited to lead the infrastructure conversation unfolding here and around the country then secretary chao she has the experience and the ideas and the grit and determination to see it through. She and her team have been hard at work to get the Team Together and working on this project and the partners are ready to lend a hand please join me to welcome secretary chao a good friend and a great leader for this project. [applause] what a gracious introduction even though you said Christopher Columbus era. But that is okay and a very special thank you to you and all the other friends of infrastructure for putting together the series all across the country to highlight our challenges. As you know, so well infrastructure is the backbone of our economy one of the most productive flexible and dynamic in the world and the factor of growth that provides millions of hardworking americans with the standard of living that is truly the envy of the world. And has also provided the country with mobility, ct, and security but yet today these genes are threatened by crumbling infrastructure increasingly congested and in repair and unable to keep pace with technological change. We are fortunate to have a president to understand the challenges of infrastructure perhaps better than any other leader in recent memory. He was to revitalize the countrys infrastructure as a top priority. In the administration will share the vision of what the plan will look like in the next several weeks which will kick off our collaboration with congress. To put the proposal to gather the white house launched a wide ranging complicated process including the Interagency Task force consisting of 15 different agencies to is for tuition, treasury, commerce tuition, treasury, commerce, agriculture, the epa, energy , department of Defense Veterans Affairs council of Environmental QualityCommittee Education department and others. With meetings and consultations with governors and mayors and state and local leaders in a private sector stakeholders have occurred as well. It is important to hear from the myriad of stakeholders in not repeat the mistakes of the past. And as the ellen b. Director recently announced the new infrastructure plan will increase 200 billion of direct federal funds. These funds will be used to leverage 1 trillion of Infrastructure Investment over the next 10 years. he is identifying offsets to avoid saddling the future generation of future debt that is why they will unleash billions of dollars of private capital for investment and infrastructure. During this process investors had told us again and again that there is Ample Capital available waiting to invest in infrastructure but the problem is the delay caused by government permits and the approval process which could take years or decades. These delays increase the cost and risk adding uncertainty in billions of dollars to the project and that is why another key part of this infrastructure plan will improve common sense regulatory administrative organizational policy changes for project delivery to reduce uncertainty many of these mentioned in the task force will have a role to address these issues. The department of his irritation has already initiated internal regulatory review process the federal Highway Administration has taken for steps to reduce the Regulatory Burden and is looking for ways to speed things up. The task force on Regulatory Reform has been assembled that has identified many additional regulatory changes that could streamline projects proposed streamlining that process donnelly cuts costs but improves environmental outcome and to use the spending resources on actual environment instead of stacks of paperwork so to illustrate what is possible let me refer you to the pictures on the big screen of the bridge there recently collapsed in Atlanta Georgia march 31st, 2017. This ditcher shows the collapsed bridge and the second pitcher shows the new bridge which was just replaced in 49 days. The team from the u. S. Department of his rotation was on the ground almost immediately and within 12 hours the department had delivered 10 million in emergency relief funds to help replace the bridge. The supply chain located within two hours of the site quickly identified in the regulatory requirements were expedited to insure timely execution for funding. Now replacing the structure is not the same starting the project from scratch. I 852 georgia was an emergency situation it is not possible to slash the time the federal requirements of every project from years two months but there is much room for improvement and i 85 the nimby in touch is an example of what can be accomplished with federal, state, and local government working together to know as we begin to implement this Administration Infrastructure reforms a new paradigm will hopefully be created in this will shift the focus beyond what was built so the states and localities to have a funding of financing of their own of Infrastructure Projects will be given higher priority to new federal funds. And use that as an incentive to get projects under way more quickly with greater participation with state and local and private partners. That approach is in line with the studies that show federal spending often substitutes rather than oddment state and local funding with a gao report with highway spending but the state and localities and rather then supplement. The administration would like to avoid that outcome. And the rest comes from state and local and private sources. Been to the state and local spending but with the increase of the total amount of funding available but at the same time so once its all revenue model like the toll roads they work well in an urban areas where they generate consistent revenue because of high traffic and high demand but lower demand may not generate enough revenue for private investment. This administration is committed to the infrastructure package to address the need of the entire country urban and rural. That is one of the most widely used alternatives of financing methods of the infrastructure in the world. And in this model of with the private sector to build and operate and maintain that piece of infrastructure and in return the contractor received payments from the government over a specified period of time provided that certain milestones in targets are met. Using this approach the government doesnt have to bear the full cost of infrastructure to the public and private sector is mitigated. So there are many innovative and creative models out there to be considered so the definition of a pressure and not only recognizes traditional infrastructure with rose bridges railroads airports the waterways it may also potentially include Energy Broadband in bad is why there are 16 different departments and agencies to put together this initiative in addition a few special projects that are not candidates to likely be identified and funded. Those candidates with a special category to have the potential to significantly increase gdp growth or lift the american spirit. As well as the premier process to have the biggest impact of Infrastructure Development in the infrastructure also looking at ways to revitalize the work force and as a former secretary of labor this is important to me. Far too many workers were left behind because they are not equipped with the skills and the demand of the changing economy and in transportation drivers of the future will be in charge of a fleet of cars dispatched by workers at a computer in drones will affect the infrastructure and to have human control oversight and analysis. In the higher skills the good news is that they dont need a four Year College Degree to access these good paying jobs at a local Community College is an important resource and increasingly employers offer Vocational Training to High School Students and the Excellent Training Program offered by man