First of all, want to thank all of you for being here today. Thank my Ranking Member carden and his staff and the flexibility they have. Its kind of interesting, ben cardin and i were maybe three of the last remaining of the class of what was yeah. 1987. Were we have lamar smith and a couple more. Anyway, its funny. Were on opposite sides and a lieutenant of issues that were always together in friendship as well as in infrastructure. As this weeks infrastructure week, its a great opportunity for us to highlight the critical needs we have in this country. Tomorrow the full committee will have the chance to question secretary chow. The Epw Committee led the charge to pass the fast act, the highway reauthorization bill that i personally worked on. This was the largest one since 1998. Nobody believed that wed get it done. Others thought that wed only get an 18month bill that senator boxer and i insisted on five years and it shows that people of different floss kiss can get along and make wonderful things happen. The act authorization over the tooif years. Yet according to the United States d. O. T. , it stands close to 836 beds. As administration in congress consider a potential trillion dollar infrastructure package we must keep in mind that the package will include more than just roads and bridges. It will also our court system, water ways, and energy needs as well. While the federal government will and should continue to be a leading partner in maintaining and building out our infrastructure ourn current investment will not meet all of our needs. What approach should we take has got to be a part of the solution and prioritize transportation. Some states and locals are doing this but unfortunately, this weekend, in my state of oklahoma i learned about the effect proposed budget cuts to the department of transportation in my state of oklahoma did not properly prioritize the need for transportation and oklahoma and other states have to meet their modest match. Were talking about matches of either ten in 90 or 120 and 80. It occurred to me that they were not prioritizing that. I took my plane and loaded up with media and went around to all these construction sites. If we dont make our part of the match were going to be stopping some of the construction. I think you know what happens when this does happen. So we also need to find responsible and meaningful ways to attract and leverage individual private investment to help close the gap. Todays hearing will examine all these possibilities and what the federal government can do to help make it easier for our partners to leverage the federal investment with other opportunities. Those not all ideas work everywhere. All options should be on the table. We should incentivize our partners. I look forward to the hearing from our witnesses. Senator cartin. Well, mr. Chairman, once again thank you very much for your leadership in regards to leadership 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. I look forward to working with you and figuring out a way we can debt many this done. Let me put on the record my conflict. I commute back and forth from bumt to washington every day. I note firsthand the problems of traffic and congestion. I started in 1987, mr. Chairman, when we were both elected the round trip took me about two hours. Today that exact same commute at the exact taime of the day take three hours and 15 minutes. The transportation people are telling me to expect one million more people in maryland in the next 25 years. 25 years from now when were celebrating whatever anniversary that is in congress, that commute is going to take four hours and 15 minutes. We have to do something about it. Mayor garcetti, im glad youre here, because the los angeles congestion is worsz than ours. So somebody i can point that has a more difficult commute than we do. Wee need to address this. Congestion is kogsly to our economy, to our public health. Its the circumstance that the public demands we moddenize our infrastructure. Weve neglected it. Yes, i agree with the charmt. We can always do things more efficiently. We can always find more ways of partnership. But the Public Investment must keep up with the need and we havent done that. Thats why were here today to figure out how we can do this. So the District Washington district has ranked anywhere from one to fourth or fifth most congested region in the country. Thats why we work on ways to get people out of cars. The transit programs are important. 700,000 riders a day, one third of whom are federal employees trying to get to work is an old system. It also needs help. And it takes resources to rebuild our stations to improve our lines, to deal with the needs of additional lines and some of this is extremely expensive. We got to figure out a proper way in order to finance our infrastructure. We also need to deal with the flexibility issues. I preach that and senator carpenters here and hes the Ranking Member of the full committee and a company on infrastructure. Im bold in saying hes going to pay for it. He is very much in the leadership saying weve got to pay for what we need and lets figure out a way to do it. I appreciate his efforts on this. Weve got to give some of this to local government. Baltimore was designed by olmsted. Olmsted connected all neighborhoods together gi green space. Over the years that green space got developed and communities got isolated. Literally people were trapped in their neighborhoods. Only way they could get around was a car. Some had no cars. We need to use transportation money to reconnect neighborhoods so people can walk and bike between neighborhoods without using cars. Itle improves the quality of life. The thats what we did together, giving the flex fwlilt our Transportation Program so local governments can make the their own decisions rather than us dictating from washington what should be done. I would hope we continue those types of efforts as we look at additional tools to give to our local officials so they can do what is best for their community in order to restore their communities. This is an area we should be able to get done, mr. Chairman. We have the president of United States making Transportation One of his top priorities. Weve got bipartisan proefls coming out of congress on revenues to deal with Trump Administration and this committee is dedicated to working together, listening to every member of this committee. We come from different areas. Oklahoma and maryland have different transportation neerksds but we agree that we need additional help. Working together, i think we can get this done. I look very much to our hearings and to working with the chairman. Thank you very much, senator carden. Let me suggest were going to go ahead and make some introductions here. I want to get into the record all five important people we have here to testify. And senator harris, why dont you start off by introducing the mayor . Appreciate that, chairman. As you know, im on the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Meeting at this same time but thank you at that time. Los angeles mayor garcetti is a longstanding friend. Heres here to talk about our nations Transportation Needs. In los angeles freeways are infamous. The intersection is known as the biggest parking lot in america. But its not just our roads that are overstretched. In 2015, 45. 5 million visitors travel to los angeles. 6. 7 million arrive from other countries. Los Angeles International airport is the second Busiest Airport in the country and l. A. County has the top two biggest container ports in the country. Having quality infrastructure in los angeles is not just important for those who call it home as do i. It is important for the entire country. When los angeles is moving efficiently, that means it is easier for the products, goods and people that we all need to move around the country and the world, that they are able to move in an easier way. Mayor garcetti has a front row seat to the transportation challenges and needs of Southern California while looking at challenges and hopefully a city that will also host the olympics. Los angeles is investing in new highway and surface street fracture while it is expanding rail transit and looking how to impact dedicated bus and bike lanes. Laug residents just aproved a measure to invest their own money in the infrastructure that helps keep los angeles and its region growing. Its time for the federal government to do its part. Residents need federal resources in order to provide businesses and tourists the experience that they deserve. The city and county of los angeles have angling r age r always had a history of working with the government in an effort to accelerate Infrastructure Projects. The effort riergs innovation combined with support from local, state, and federal government, and i look forward to hearing my mayors testimony today. Welcome, mayor garcetti. Thank you. We couldnt with the interjectionings, id like to ask senator harper if he has anything to add. Thank you so much. Welcome one and all. Im proud to be a member of this committee. Ive been on it for about 18 years. Ive thought about these issues as well. Want to thank the leadership with the sib committee for holding this hearing today. Want to thank all of you for coming and joining us and sharing your perspectives on an issue hopefully we can find bipart sedan agreement on. Id like to say one of the major roles of government is to provide a nurturing environment for job creation and preservation. I say that several times a day. Its hard to have one if you dont have Good Transportation system. And you folks know that from the work that you do. T thele measures to allow agencies to partner with private investors, want to make sure they have what they need to be successful. In delaware we have useful partnerships. Right now the state is working on an agreement with a private development to build mixed use in wilmington delaware where my family and i live. But if were successful in this one endeavor, it will be the first transportationrelated p3 for delaware, the first. Although our state has big projects on these other private partnerships in the past, they have never proceeded because lack of investor interest, i suspect. They 23igd out they couldnt make the kind of investment they wanted to make. The support eegts that are interesting in partnering with private firms to transfer project risk and potentially build projects more quickly. We restructured the department of transportations finance programs into a single onestop shop to streamline and improve the process for agencies and investors. We reduced the minimum cost for the transportation infrastructure, finance innovation act in order to expand access to ho loans. I believe that the private sector can play an Important Role. However, i also know that publicprivate partnerships and other financing tools are not the complete solution to our funding shortage. Although sometimes we imply that they would be. We need to be clear that its not a replacement for public funding. It will not solve our Public Transportation sol je. Well face an insolvency crisis. The crisis will be a crisis for investors who similarly rely on uncertainty of public funding from the Highway Trust Fund. Partners with public investors can help agencies complete large complex problems more quickly. That is of value particularly with the regional projects that need to be completed today. Where i live and frankly where we all live. Theres a small number of complex and transformative Construction Projects where finance ears are interested in investing. They were all 700 million projects. Theyve not been as useful for routine maintenance. This was a shock to me but more over, a third of our states do not allow the use of privatepublic partnerships. In texas, the legisla. There are a number of questions that should be asked when and where publicprivate partnerships are a useful tool, how we can make sure theyre making good use of funds. Usually for when we come to plooning transportation across the country, theres no sill verl bullet. There are a lot of silver beanies, some bigger than others. The but there are other ways that we can use that money top help leverage other money and we should do that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let me introduce the next witness, tim guest is the executive director of the oklahoma Turnpike Authority. He worked for the department of transportation for 25 years. At Oklahoma Department of transportation, he is was actively involved in developing the project management methodologies as well as their eightyear Construction Work Plan which guides the departments project development and delivery strategies. With his new role as executive director of the Turnpike Authority, he will oversee the continued implementation of nearly 900 million driving forward plan which he will bebe sharing. Its great to have you here. Let me just say that weve got so many people right now really into this issue. I mean, i often sometimes these guys have heard me say it theres an old worn out document that nobody reads anymore. Its called the constitution. It talks about what were really supposed to be doing here. We have a new president. Hes made this a commitment a long time ago. People say wait a minute. A trillion dollars, thats not going to work. Its time to think of what happened eight years ago. Eight years ago we had another president elected as president of the United States. He came out with an 800plus billion program that was supposed to stimulate. It didnt stimulate anything. We tried to put amendments on there. Also i was visited this morning by the business round table and their statement of support for what were doing today be made part of the record. Without objection, so ordered. Mayor garcetti has to leave earlier. Does this altar your testimony . I do have to leave early but well start off with you and when you have to leave, appreciate your presence here very much. Jeffrey urema, ok. Ive talked to you before but i never did get that right. Hes a partner in llp, los angeles, california. Kevin degood, welcome. And aubry lane director of transportation for the commonwealth of virginia. I smoo explain that i asked my maryland folks who would be the best person to testify in regards to our problems in this region and they recommended secretary lane so its a pleasure to have you here. Virginia, maryland and delaware get along very well together. All right. Your honor im going to try to encourage you folks to limit your statement to five minutes, little bit more, maybe. All right. But your entire statement will be made part of the record as is always the case. Thank you for your friendship and thank you for i always tell you, i said i had job once. You did, you did. I think we bonded over that and i appreciate the perspective you brought. I want to thaeng senator harris for the introduction. Im honored to appear before you as the maybe of a Great American city but the krchlsz on infrastructure. When i heard folks talking about infrastructure a few months ago as mayor of the city with the biggest port in america, the largest municipal utility in america, most miles of road and has been stated, the worst traffic, i got very excited. Contrary what youve seen in la la land we dont dance in traffic. We just sit there and stew. Dont let this get out. 99 of the coverage is not going to be about how we get along. Its going to be how we disagree. The space that mayors occupy every single day. For all of us in the municipalities, the election in november when everybody was focused on 2 national election, throughout cities in america, 230 billion of Infrastructure Initiatives were approved by voters. A quarter of that down payment people talking about happening over a decade. My message is we can do this. We should be excited to do this. I want to share our lessons in california how we did this. We look to this in los angeles not just as an infrastructure need but really as a job and kwaultd of life initiative. We get excited about the word infrastructure but normal americans want more times with their kids. They know the billions of dollars in time taken away from us by the traffic that chokes our city. We started crisscrossing a 4700square mile county bringing republicans and democrats. My wing man on this was our most conservative member of the board of supervisors in california. In california you need twothirds vote to raise tax. Long story short, november, we had 71 vote for the largest package in American History times two at the local levels to fix our roads, Rapid Transit lines and give back money for repairs. I think we each gave up a Little Something of who we were. As a democrat i came in skeptical as a mayor about publicprivate partnerships. Today im a convert. The fiscal conservative in me didnt feel great about the grants that came in with little accountability. Coming to this esteemed senate or house of representatives saying i have an empty hat in hand, please fill it up. We come to you with a habitat bill saying can we have our federal and local tax dollars to make this happen. I spent three days last week with did International Olympic committee. I want to bring the olympics back home to america. 14 billion in our airport. 1 20 billion, as i said, in Public Transportation and roads. Another 2. 6 Million Dollars for the port. Theres no equipment manufacturer in the United States. The theres no rail car manufacturer in the United States. Not just to talk about the needs for infrastructure but