The hearing will come to order. First of all we want to thank all of you for being here today. I want to thank my friend, Ranking Member card and his staff for the possibility with the scheduling of todays hearing. Its interesting because been card and i i maybe three of the last remaining of the class of 1987. We have smith in a couple of more. Its funny, were on opposite sides and a lot of issues but we are always together in friendship as well as in infrastructure. Et is this weeks infrastructure week its a great opportunity to highlight the critical needs in this country. Tomorrow the committee will have a chance to question secretary chad on the administrations priorities and i hope todaysin hearing will be a productive lead into her visits. Last congress the Pediatric Committee led the charge to pass the past act a six highway reauthorization bill that i personally worked on. This was the largest since 1998. Nobody believed we could get it done and others that would only get an 18 month bill. Senator boxer not in the Ranking Member insisted on five years and it shows that people of different philosophies can get along and make wonderful things happen. Er the current investment is not enough to address our maintenance and the new capacity needs. Ve yea the faster authorization isst about 305 but according to the United States dot reportfr from this year the backlog of highway and bridge work in thess United States is close to 836 billion. As administration considers a potential chilling dollar per structure package we need to keep in mind the package will include more than just roads and bridges, our waterways, airports and energy needs as well. While the federal government will and should continue to be a leading partner maintaining and building out the infrastructure the current proposed investment will not meet her needs. Whatever action we take onon infrastructure or state local partners has to be a part of the solution and prioritize transportation. Some states and local are doing this. Unfortunately this weekend my state of oklahoma i learned about the effect of budget cutsa to the department of transportation. In my state of oklahoma did not properly prioritize the need for transportation. Oklahoma and other states have to meet their modest match. Were talking about matches either ten and nine dear 20 and 80. It occurred to me that i was not aware they were not prioritizing that. I just took my plane and went around to all the construction sites that if we dont do a portion of the match morgan i have stoppings construction. F and i think you know what happens that happens. So additional to states and locals prioritizing the need top find responsible and meaningfule ways to attract and leverage additional private investment to help close the gap. Todays hearing will examine the possibilities and what the federal government can do to help make it easier for partners to leverage the federal investment with otherr opportunities. Though not ideas work everywhere, all options shouldld be on the table and we should incentivize her nonfederal partners to pursue them. I look forward to the hearing. In our witnesses. I think you very much for your leadership in regards to infrastructure in our country. Its a pleasure to be the ranking democrat on the subcommittee to work with you on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Weve never had a problem with bipartisan infrastructure. Th i expect that to be the same and i look for to working with you figuring out a way to get it done. So let me put on the record why conflict with todays hearing. I commute back and forth from baltimore to washington every day. I know firsthand the problems of traffic and congestion. When i started in 1987 when were both elected, thein roundtrip commute between baltimore and washington took me about two hours. Today, that same commute at thea same time takes three hours and 15 minutes. So, my transportation people ara telling me to expect 1 million more people in maryland the next 25 years. So 25 years from the when were celebrating whatever anniversary that is in congress, that commute will take four hours and 15 minutes. We have to do something. Mayor, ledger here because the congestion in that los angeles is worse than ours. Of the someone i can point to that has a more difficult commute that we do. We need to address this. Our ec congestion is costly to our economy. Its costly to Public Health its a circumstance that the public demands that we modernize our infrastructure. We have neglected it. I agree with the chairman that we can do things more efficiently by more creative ways for partnership. The bottom line is the Public Investment must keep up with the need and we have not kept upd with the knee. Thats over here to figure out how to do. The Washington District has ranked anywhere from one orin fourth or fifth as most congested region of the country. Thats why we work to get people out of cars and the transit programs are important. Which but that has 700,000 writers a day, one third who are federal employees going to work is ann old system. Also needs help. St takes resources to rebuild our station and improve our lines, to deal with the needs of additional lines. Some of this is extremely expensive. We have to figure out a proper way to finance our infrastructure. We also need to deal with flexibility issues. I appreciate the and senator cropper is here Ranking Member of the full committee. Mi im very bold by saying hes ready to pay for paredes very much in the leadership of saintt we have to pay for what we need to find out a way to do it. I appreciate his leadership one of the area we tried to do is give flexibility to local governments. Its very important. Whats more was designed by olmsted. The connected old neighborhoods together through green space. The green space got developed in communities got isolated. And literally people were trapped in their neighborhoods. The only way to get around as if they had a car, some had cars but it put more traffic on the road. Given baltimore the flexibility of using transportation money to reconnect neighborhoods so people can utterly walk and bike between neighborhoods without using their cars which takes them off the roads. Th preserves roads and thats what we did together, given the flexibility in a Transportation Program to local governments can make decisions rather than us trying to dictate how things should be done. I would hope we continue those efforts as we look at tools we give our mayors and local officials so they do good for their community to restored their communities. This is an area should be able to get done. Have a president of the United States they can transportation a top priority. Bipartisan proposals come out of congress on revenues to deal transportation, and this committee is dedicated to Work Together listening to everybe member of this committee, we come from different areas. Av we have different Transportation Needs but we agree we need help. Working together we can get this done. I look for tour hearing. Thank you very much. Let me suggest, were going to make some introductions and i want to get into the record all five important people we have here to testify. Senator harris, you can start off by introducing the mayor. I appreciate that. Im on the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Meeting at this time. Thank you for that. Like introduce and welcome los angeles me, longstanding friend and great leader in california. He is here to talk about our dishes Transportation Needs. What santos freeways orifice trend infamous. Intersection between the ten in the four oh five is known as the biggest park in modern america. Its not just our roads that are overstretched. In 2015, 45. 5 million visitors traveled to los angeles. 6. 7 million from other countries. The Los Angeles International airport is the second Busiest Airport in the country. L. A. County has the top two biggest container ports in the country. Having quality infrastructure is not just important for those who call home as do i, itse important for the entire country. Los angeles is moving efficiently, its easier for the products, goods and people that we only to move around the country in the world they are able to move in any stairway. The mayor has a front row seat to the transportation challenges and needs. While also running the city thats looking at new ways to address urban mobility and and l challenges and hopefully a city that will also host the olympics. Los angeles is investing a new highway and surface street infrastructure wallets expanding rail transit looking how to impact dedicated bus lanes los angeles residents just approved the measure to the ceremony and infrastructure that keeps the region growing and moving. Its time for the federal government to do its part. Residents are seeing new options to get around their city but they need federal resources to provide businesses and tourists the experience they deserve. City and county has had a history of working with the federal government to build bipartisan support in an efforto to accelerate improvementre projects the work underway to address the upper and mobility challenges requires innovation combined with support fromrn local, state, federal government. I look forward to hearing my mayors testimony today. Welcome mayor garcetti. We will continue within her introductions i would like to ask senator carper if he has any statement to make. Think its much. Ive bee im proud to be a member of the committee. E. Im also recovering governor. So for eight years as governor from 93 until 2000. I cared a lot about these issues as well. I want to thank the leadership of the subcommittee for holding this today. I think all of you for coming and joining us and sharing with us your perspectives on an issue we hope to find bipartisan agreement on make progress. One of the major roles of to sen government is to provide a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation. I say that several times a day. One of the ways to have a nurturing environment start to have one if you dont have a Good Transportation system. Em you know that from the work youo do. By sport measures to enable public agencies to partner with private investors we want to make sure they can have the support they need to be successful. In delaware we have an interesting use of Publicprivate Partnerships. The state is working on an agreement with a private developer to build mixeduse parking garage in delaware or my family and i live. D to do that to have access to a vibrant Retail District on top if we are successful in this one endeavor it will be the first transportation related p3 for delaware. Although the states bid projects on the partnerships in the past and they were perceived because of lack of investor interest. Because i figured out they couldnt make the kind of intern on investment they wanted to make. Interested but we done apart work to support agencies interested in partnering with firms to transfer projects more quickly. We look at the credit and innovation programs into ant single onestop shop to streamline and improve thepr process for agencies and investors. We reduce the minimum project cost for infrastructure, finance innovation act in order to expand access to loads. Tructure privatesector template Important Role in simile the investment. Sol however, other financing tools are not the complete solution to our funding shortage, even though sometimes we emplace they would be. Need be clear that leveraging public funding with private finances not replacement forprfo public funding. Will not solve either the highway Transportation Fund or the maintenance backlog for our roads, bridges and transit. Se in over three years will face a crisis if the Highway Trust Fund yet again will be facing 115 billion shortfall for the next five transportation bill. Theyll be a crisis for private investors who rely on certainty of public funding from the Highway Trust Fund. In partnering with private investors can helpn public agencies complete large complexe problems more quickly. Nt thats an important value with number of regional projects that need to be completed. Transfo on the other hand, theres only small number of large complex and transformative transportation projects financiers are interested in financing. 2014 in 2014, just for transportation projects were closed with a Publicprivate Partnershipthe wl contract. You are all several hundred Million Dollar projects. For roi they have not been as useful for routine maintenance and critical safety projects. A third of all states do not allow the use of Public Partnerships in texas. A state that has allowed the Legislature Said constituents did not want to pay higher tolls. So a number of questions should be asked about when and where Publicprivate Partnerships are useful tool. To ensure the recognition use of scarce federal dollars. When we i use the analogy usually for when we come to funding transportation across the country. Y. There is no Silver Bullet. Theres a lot of silver bbs, the biggest silver bb is one that calls for people who use roads, highways and bridges and businesses and people should pay for them. Uch. But theres other ways we can use that money. Thank you. Let me introduce the next witness, tim is the executive director of the oklahoma authority. For his current road you were sold from transportation for over 25 years starting as a drafting technician and working his way up to serve as the director of the department. The department of transportatiot his actively welded building project management methodology in their construction workplan which guides the departments projects to Development Delivery strategies. With his new role as executive director of the Turnpike Authority he will oversee and continue development of nearly 900 million driving forward plan which she will be sharing with us. Its good to have you here. Let me just say that we have so many people right now really into this issue. Ive often sometimes say the document no one ever reads anymore skull the constitution. It talks about what were supposed be doing here. H defending america and highways and construction. We have a new president who has made this a commitment a long time ago. People set a trillion dollars is not going to work. Er person but think what happen eight years ago. We had another person elected as the president of the United States and he came out with an 800 plus billiondollar program to stimulate and it didnt stimulate anything. Mulate i remember Barbara Boxer and i tried to put amendments on there for that reason. And also, i was visited this morning by the Business Roundtable and i asked consentdt that their statement of report be made part of the record tod today. Without objection, so ordered. Mayor jihad to leave early . Does this alter your testimony . I do have to leave early. But im ready to go. Let me introduce in the will start off with you. I appreciate your presence you very much. Jeffrey i talked to before and i never did get your name right. Your partner and now llp with los angeles california. Kevin is here. And and opry the secretary of transportation for the commonwealth of virginia. I should explain that i asked my maryland folks would be the best person to testify in regards to our problems in this region. They recommended secretary lane. Its a pleasure to have you here. Virginia maryland, delaware get along very well to get together. Your honor, youre on. Went to try to encourage you folks to limit your statement to five minutes or a little bit more maybe. But your entire statement will be made a part of the record as is always the case. Thank you chairman. What i have to tell you when we meet i had a hard job once. He did. I think we bonded over that i appreciate the perspectives you brought. Thank you for your leadershipd and senators ernst and fisher. Im eric garcetti, the mayor of los angeles. On a give a special thanks my senator for the introduction. Im honored to appear before yoe not only is hono mayor of the gt American City but chairman of task force for mayors on infrastructure. When i hear folks talk about infrastructure, has mayor of the city with the biggest port in america the largest municipalbi utility america, the number one airport in destination, most miles of road, and the worst traffic, i got very excited. Ce h contrary to what you see we dont dance and traffic would just sit there and stoop. Exci in here today to get you excited. D. Dont let this get out. 99 of the coverage tonight is on about how we can along as can be about how we disagree. Needs. But for all of us who are in the minutes appellees and heard the word trillion dollars, and the election in november whenever bidders focused on the national election, threat cities in america 230 billion of Infrastructure Initiatives arera approved by voters. One quarter that down payment happening over a decade. A message for america city is that we can do this. We should be excited to do. I will share lessons about how we did this. Republicans and democrats agree like an independence on the need for this. E we looked at this in los angeles not just as an infrastructure need is a jobson qualityoflife initiative. We got a tram excited about the word infrastructure. People know the billions of dollars the local economy taken from us millions of hours taken away for the traffic that chokes our city. So we started crisscrossing the county with 10 million people. My wing man on this was somebody you may know, a supervisor must conservative member in the county. We cro we crossover to say this is something because in califo