Secretary pete buttigieg. After a release the Infrastructure Committee and hearing with more on high speed rail investment, Port Infrastructure, Highway Safety and real estate investment. This part runs about three hours. Calling back to order. inaudible to allow the airport to meet its growing needs. However, as you know, a series of challenges hindered progress and as a result the airport is seeking to scale the project and focus solely on the 24th street overpass because the obligation date for the grant is rapidly approaching, the airport is at high risk of losing these critical federal funds. Mr. Secretary, this project is important to the city of phoenix and sky harbor future growth. Will your Department Support the eligibility for the grant and work with the airport on this modified project so it does not lose these critical fund . Our goal is for every grant recipient to succeed when funds are awarded. In this case, it was 2019 funding. I believe the issue here had to do with meeting the obligation deadline with the proposed scope and change, well be happy to follow up and engage your staff or do anything we can do to the context. And i appreciate working with you to retain the important funds. Arizona is one of the Fastest Growing states in the nation, and to meet the needs of the growing population with the highway. Interstate 10 between phoenix and tu san and yet theres a large section only two lanes, creating traffic bottle necks for more than 110,000 vehicles per day that utilize it and we need new highways to move commerce and people like interstate 11 to link the last two metropolitan areas in the country, phoenix and las vegas, that are not connected by an interstate. Arizona has committed resources to the next phase for the environmental work for interstate 11, and is investing 400 million in interstate 10 to expand capacity to address safety concerns, improving the movement of goods and people and to increase access to the gila river community. And they need a strong partner. Do you that the mega grant should focus on this size and scope like the construction of i10 and i11 that cannot be done by the state alone with the annual formula dollars to assure that the federal government is a full partner on projects to have impacts on regional and National Mobility and commercial . Thank you, certainly, the intent of the mega program and our goal in administering it is to make sure that projects that are too large or too complex in scape to be supported through traditional means very much are too large to be shouldered by a state alone. Get the federal support to see them through. While taking care of course, not to prematurely comment on any application, i would certainly say that we intend to be supportive of as many qualifying projects as we can, knowing that the scales that you see with some of these efforts are exactly why it was necessary to have additional source of funding as provided in iaja overand above what weve worked with in the past. Mr. Secretary, i want to talk about one other issue, Passenger Rail, phoenix is one of the largest cities without access to Passenger Rail. As other cities gained access to Passenger Rail, and theyve significant opportunity. My state unfortunately has missed out and im hoping that will change. Amtrak proposed connecting arizonas two large and fast growing metropolitan areas, phoenix and tucson, with frequent and reliable Passenger Rail service. Mr. Secretary nyour opinion, what can we do to best support the tu san, phoenix, west valley rail lines . Well, the frame work, that i think will allow us to support efforts like this is the fact that the overall funding for Passenger Rail includes a set of funds that is specifically for looking beyond the northeast corridor. Of course, a lot of the attention is on the northeast corridor, but a lot of the need is elsewhere. So theyve issued a framework for a corridor identification and Development Program that came out in may and the first project pipeline should be issued within a year so next may and thats one of the places, i think, would be natural to look in the context of the federal state partnership that got extraordinary enhanced funding through the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act, and i had the pleasure of arriving by train in flagstaff and certainly understands why theres a need and appetite for this. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. My time is completed so the next up will be congressman babin. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And Ranking Member grays. I want to thank you for your time, mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary, despite the administrations best efforts, oil and gas dont seem to be anywhere, but higher. So, if you really wanted to help americans move and move our transportation goods, i would think that you might want to consider right now, as working with the president , to combat high gas prices. Thats number one. And doing something doesnt mean blaming president putin of russia or begging the Saudi Crown Prince for relief or calling the oil and Gas Companies of america evil and stifling their production. However, instead of calling on the president , who is your boss, to do everything in his power to address skyrocketing gas prices ive heard you prioritize the use of taxpayer dollars to push a message of social justice, fighting racist highways and equity in transportation, im struggling to square your priorities with the economic reality in the United States. You say communities of color are oppressed by racist roads while at the same time youre ignoring the fact the says people are disproportionately oppressed by rising gas prices and its fair to say that this administration is directly burdening low income families taking the brunt of massive economic challenges that were facing today and mr. Secretary, youve recommended that americans who cannot afford 6 a gallon of gas should buy an electric vehicle and im going by the kelly blue book of 55,000 that even at your statement a while ago at 39,000, im not sure how you can justify making that ask to folks who can barely provide for their families, especially black and hispanic households, bringing in an average of 45 and 55,000 respectively per year. How on earth would they buy a car that costs almost as. As they make in one year. I really think if you want to do something, i think we need somebody who is serving as secretary that would be laser focused on supporting transportation capabilities and not pushing social agendas in this country. From your position. We have serious issues going on in the United States. Flight cancellations, worker shortages, sky high fuel prices, unprecedented supply chain challenges, but unfortunately, i see more headlines by your positions and stances on abortion and on your thoughts on gun rights than i do on plans to improve our transportation and our infrastructure. I think americans want lower gas prices and policies that will end this inflation and this Economic Hardship that we have today. Not a woke social agenda such as a billion dollar Pilot Program that you launched last month to combat, quote, combat racially disconnected roads. Thats a billion dollars and thats a billion dollars right out of the taxpayers money. And i think americans know that your administration, that the Biden Administration have mismanaged much of this of our natural resources, our Economic Activities and sound policies, which has caused this inflation and pushed us to the verge of recession which were teetering on right now. And certainly appears to be a dereliction of duty on the part of many in this administration who favor foreign nations over our own. Frankly, i dont think the price of gas is an accident. I believe that its part of an agenda designed to fundamentally change the way our transportation and Energy SectorsWork Together and unfortunately, thats an agenda that leaves american superiority in the dust and an agenda that empowers, china and russia and the middle east. And i have a few questions that ill submit for the record because were just about out of time. Thank you for being here, i appreciate that and i think that the American People deserve a lot better than what were getting right now with our economy. With that ill yield back. Thank you, i was giving the secretary a minute to respond if youd like to. Id like to address this factual inaccuracy in your question that i think is important. You began by saying that gas prices have only gone up, youll be relieved to hear that they have gone down every single day for the last several weeks and i believe thats connected to the aggressive actions that the president has taken to reduce gas prices for americans. Of course, we want that price to go lower, it needs to, were all feeling the effect at the pump. Thats why we dont agree with the idea that its okay to let putin off the hook for his activities, or to let oil and gas executives off the hook for their stated inattention of not increasing production at this time of profits. And i never suggested would be easy for all americans to afford electric. Point out the first ev i had was 14,000, but we think that policy measures can make it more affordable and we hope that members in this body will reconsider their opposition to making evs cheaper through tax credits. Thank you very much. Next up, congressman carson. Thank you, chairman. And thank you, mr. Secretary for participating today, also representing the great Hoosier State quite well. Im curious, mr. Secretary, im very proud to represent beech grove, indiana, which is one of the most important rail maintenance facilities in the country and unfortunately, there have been more reports of efforts to effectively down size or outsource maintenance to improve the quality of passenger service. We need to improve amtraks national fleet, no doubt about it. Im certain, and id love for the committee to hear your efforts, sir, to continue to support and strengthen the great work thats being done at beech grove and oppose any efforts to outsource those works. Are there updates or insights you can share, sir . For anything considering the operational outlook for amtrak, id have to refer you to amtrak leadership, but certainly recognize the important of the work that workers at this facility to do to keep our trains operating and operating safely and would welcome any opportunity to work with your office on providing further information about how some of the funding coming toward amtrak from the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act can be applied in ways that will create a lot of work opportunity, as well as a lot of improvements for passengers, both in terms of the Rolling Stock and as maintenance and then of course, in terms of the daytoday service. Yes, sir. Also, were looking forward to working with you on our targeted outreach for the bipartisan infrastructure bill especially through the black caucus brain trust in the fall. We want to make sure the historic investments you mentioned reached disadvantaged communities and minorities businesses and i know our staffs are working together on those details. Secondly and lastly, im very concerned about the worsening problems much black rail crossings, especially in places like downtown indianapolis where major intersections have been blocked for hours. This is a very serious safety concern that really impacts urban and rural areas. I believe there is more that has to be done statutorily, do you agree that those could help alleviate the frequency of blocked crossings and what we could do. Thank you, we would work further on the issue of rs crossings and the effects of what happens when theyre blocked and safety. And i want to thank you for the infrastructure that provides for the Railroad Crossing elimiNation Program. Were hard at work getting those ready and we know that thats going to have a benefit as you mentioned both for rural and your been communities alike, where people have had that experience of being blocked or delayed by a crossing, but also, in addition, of course, to the economic inconvenience, and the simple safety dividend of having fewer such crossings, Highway Railway crossings and have contributed to fiscal year 2021 alone. And so we want to do everything we can to prevent trainvehicle collisions and use the resources that we have to create fewer places where the conflicts can happen in the first place and would certainly appreciate continued attention from congress on this. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. I yield back. Thanks, congressman graves from louisiana. Thank you, mr. Secretary, for being here. Good to see you again. Mr. Chairman excuse me, mr. Secretary, you and i have spoken in the past about strong concerns we have related to how the administration is prioritizing the allegation of grants and you have large programs that raised a Million Dollars each. And i had written much of the amendment and negotiated with others the amendment that puts in law the right criteria for prioritization and came out with Environmental Justice and enhancing Union Students were going to be the driving factors, i had strong concerns because those are things that you all are just deciding are priorities, theyre not things that are actually in the law. And so, then i said okay, well wait and see how the grants are actually allocated and decided if theyre a problem or not. Mr. Secretary, remind you i represent south louisiana, we have one of the most atrisk states for sea rise. We have one of the highest africanamerican populations in the nation, the bottom of the largest watershed taking in run roof from montana, condition da, and everything in the water and if you go and look at the criteria, we should be number one, two and three really at the top yet when you allocated funds under the infra program, i think its 15 of the money, 15 went to the state of california. You had about 555 million with the blue states and only 350 million went to red states. Under the rays program, 162 million went to bike and pedestrian paths. So i want to ask you a question. If you look at tomtom, the navigation companys assessment of most congested areas in america, they said new york was number one, said that los angeles number two and miami was number three. Do you have any idea what number four was or is . I dont. So it would be the metropolitan of baton rouge, louisiana and puts it ahead of chicago, San Francisco and a number of other significantly larger places. 62 hours, 62 hours a year, time lost just sitening traffic. No one would have expected that that would be the case so if you look at the two grant programs, a billion dollar each. I would think that with us being the state that should be performing top under the criteria, top under the criteria that i wrote because im incredibly biased yet we got one grant and this is what it was, 18. 5 million to improve fare collection for new orleans transit. Thats kind of hard to understand, really hard to reconcile. I tried to get to find a better snapshot on google maps traffic, but its normally dark red. This is the bridge. Only place in america where it funnels down to a single line and its not because its innovative and came up with a good idea nobody could think of. Its idiotic, but 62 hours to waste in traffic and here is the last slide, its just a picture here showing the bridge that looks like a parking lot because people are sitting there, i10 connecting california to florida. And i want to ask, how are you prioritizing and how can projects like this not get funded when youre putting money toward bike trails, putting money toward, lets see the Transit Systems got 263 million under one of the programs, over a quarter of the funds, whenever we transit tens of billions during the covid relief package. The highways didnt get anything. Im trying to understand what are we doing and why arent we putting money to true relief, improving time saved in traffic and other things we would share. Our shared priorities i think are wellserved by things we funded in the intra program and rays, and for every project that we gave up 10 applied. There are worthy projects im sure from your district and your state and all around the country which qualified, but we had to were only able to, would with the funding we had. Thanks fot infrastructure and jobs act we have more funding than before which means well be able to say yes more often and we love nothing more than saying yes to a good project or a good program. I think if we start ranking how much is going to highways, we need to include the highway formula fund in that, which is the bulk of the dollars that go to the purposes and cmax by the specifically the very core of program directed to. Congregation and why that couldnt be a benefit coming off a rays grant or piece of legislation. One of the things we tried to do is really make sure that these dollars and infra, for example, got around the country regardless of, certainly regardless of politics and one thing were proud of, i think there was a 25 floor for rural projects. We did almost double that. We were in the 40s on supporting rural communities. I know that for every project were able to say yes to, there are several more that would be, folks would be disappointed, but im out of time and appreciate you being here, and look forward to following you up with that and ask, mr. Chairman, if you could provide the committee with the metrics how youve measured the four criteria. Next up, congresswoman titus. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you, mr. Secretary. I want you to know that in nevada we share your enthusiasm for the funding that is going into infrastructure. I just point out a couple of things that were doing, weve got 2. 5 billion for our roads and highways. 225 million to fix our falling down bridges, 100 million for our nevada connecting wit