St test test test. This is a test. This sophomore a captioning test. California are looking at Carbon Pricing. Many as you heard over 30 have their own gas taxes. Some are going to tolling. So there are a lot of different ways we can raise revenues without focusing only on eds, which states are thinking about right now. I like to say there are no silver bullet, we need to learn from the states and see which work. We now have our chair and Ranking Member from our transportation infrastructure subcommittee. I want to salute them and their stats and leadership they are providing as we go through this process. Thank you. Senator boseman. Thank you, senator braun. Mr. Braceras, arkansas, it was significant, record breaking floods both in height and just the force of the water. Tremendous damage, lots of damage to the infrastructure, the good news is, like utah, arkansas is working very hard, theyre going to recover, great leadership in our state and all of those kind of things. I guess what id like to do again, so many of our states have gone through this lately, you experienced it i believe in 2015 and then, tell us what you learned, how you built back and mitigated perhaps for future floods so that, you know, to help in that regard . Yes, thank you, senator, for the question. I think one thing that all state dots excel at is responding to emergencies and disasters. The men and women that work at these departments are amazing people. Tremendous. They do just a great job responding to that i think the partnership that we have with our Contracting Industry and our consulting industry was key to our ability to respond. We have limited staff, as every dot does and when a disaster happens, whether it be flooding, whether it be avalanches that we deal with or lately some massive forest fires, we rely on our partnerships with our consultants to help give us the answers and for our contractors to respond 24 7 to emergency contracting proposals. I would say that the challenge isnt over once the public thinks we have mitigated the danger. We bought the roads back opened. I think thats the time when we need to step back and we need to think about what are we going to do to help this facility be more resilient to this type of occurrence in the future . Thats something all the dots are working on right now. I just picked up yesterday. I was attending the National Conference and a document that were putting out through with the help of tr transportation board for all dot talking about resilience, a dot imperative. What we can do to help make our systems better prepared for this changing environment. In regard to the federal government response, what did you learn in that regard . Are there some things we can do better . You know, first of all, we are blessed in utah with the partnership we have with our division administrators. I think thats one really important lesson. When you look at u. S. Dot and some omt of the other agency, the federal Highway Administration, that modal organization has people on the ground in every state. What we do is develop a working relationship with them that allow us to get things done. So when an emergency happens, they are one of the people we contact. They are working shouldertoshoulder with our employees because if we are going to be turing around and asking the federal government to help through fema fund to pay back some of the. We had to layout there, we basically pull it from other projects, much needed projects, we need to document things in the right way. Thats one thing they do really well. That process can be stream lined a little bit. The ability to be able to incorporate more resilient features with the use of some of that emergency money i think would be a much better investment for the public right now, pretty much, we can replace whats there in kind and thats not sometimes the smartest thing to do with the publics investment. Mr. Kinney, the arkansas, a small state, with repoliced with a thriving Trucking Industry we are blessed with a liveing sTrucking Industry. We have with a thriving Trucking Industry. We have the bigs and the littles, the Transportation Industry is critical to our state, critical to the nation. Tell us about the impact, if we dont take care of the infrastructure, the economy, what it does also to those trucking, the Trucking Industry in regard to wear and tear and the cost in that regard. Sure. Well, you know, one one dramatic instance that i know of where the Trucking Industry in not taking care of our industry was in 2013 a truck hit a bridge over the north of seattle and collapsed and my company did a replacement of that on a dramatic build. That was a substandard build, too low, the cross members arched down, the truck was in the wrong lane hit it down it went. So. The only great example there was the fact that they rebuilt it if a year. If they had had, again, not skirting any issues in regards to safety, but everybody working together, as a posed to you know probably ten or 20 years. Well, so actually so there was one company put up the temporary bridges in a month. We did the permanent replacement in 88 days. We were way short of a year. So why cant we do that . You know owe zploe that was obviously an emergency, it was interstate 5. It was the main north south corridor for the state of washington. Are you right, every agency came together to make that happen from federal agencies to the dyke district. We had to get access to the levy to get to their site. Everyone was absolutely committed and focused. When you do that, i wouldnt say thats possible on every job, its an extreme example. It definitely worked there. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Andrew cardman. First i want to say in our comments its important this committee take the lead and has a reauthorization. I was whispering to the chairman it would be nice get beyond the five years as in the past, beyond five year to get predictability so those planning Major Projects know there is a dependable federal partner. I look forward to working with the chairman Ranking Member and the subcommittee on getting this moving forward. There are so many need out there. There are so many major needs. I think i will start with the north south highway that connects maryland and West Virginia and pennsylvania, which is important for the Economic Growth of our region in that country. Ive talked about the Howard Street tunnel, which is critical for freight rail that needs to be replaced. Its only about 120yearsold that tunnel. You cant do double stacking. That needs to be done. Ki talk about the bridge between virginia and maryland. The nice bridge that literally needs to be replaced before it falls down. We have another terrible episode we can talk about the need for commuter rail, rapid rail, transit, the list goes on and on. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to accommodate not just our state partners but our local partners and the Transportation Alternative Program dollars, i hear about that every time i visit a county in maryland, they tell me how important those funds are for the local community to stay connected so that they can transverse their communities in a much more efficient way for safety issues or to accommodate their local safety issues. So for all of those reasons, its important we move forward with reauthorization and i very much appreciate the chairmans candid comments about making sure that its adequately funded. Now, i think all of us have to step back a little bit, senator carper and i and senator whitehouse are all on the finance committee so we have to deal with it on both committees. But i think we all have to back up a little bit and say, look, we have to compromise here and figure out a way we can get a bill to the finish line that has had revenues in it. That will be one of our challenges. I want to follow up with a point, mr. Braceras that you pointed out about resiliency. We established a pretty pad week in maryland and washington. In frederick county, we had six inches of rain in two hours, which is unprecedented. And it has really challenged our infrastructure. So you mentioned resiliency. What can we do in the federal reauthorization to put attention to the realities that we have to deal with whats happening out there with our infrastructure being able to withstand the assault thats taking place every day . Yes. Thank you for that question, senator. You know, this is a the realization with most of us in the state dots right now that the infrastructure system weve built over the last 100 years is not going to be the infrastructure system that we need in our country for the next 100 years. It into evidence to change and we need to help it adapt. And one of the things that we have been working on within the state of utah and we have been working on within our association to help all the other state dots is to start as to better understand what those risks are associated with our different, we refer to them as lifeline corridors. So well try to narrow in on our Transportation System and identify what are those roads that get us to the hospitals and to those critical areas that people need to be and then design those basically to a higher level. So well design them at a higher seismic level in utah so theyll have a higher seismic level. We will also look at from a flooding perspective. From a wildfire perspective. Thats important. How does the federal program help you do that . Sorry, senator. I believe this is an evolving field right now. This still, this is a Research Program that just got done at this point. I think the federal government continued to support our associations and state partners in helping develop these rick asse assessments for our facilities. Help us better we feed a programmatic way in which to make these decisions. As you mentioned, there are so many need out there, if were not deliberate and strategic of picking which of those areas we need to focus on to give us a the highest return based op a good risk analysis, we will be just shocked on this approach. So i think helping us identify a good way to approach this from a riskbased, Statistical Analysis would be helpful. As we move forward, states would be able to put together a program let me take my last three seconds. If i can build on that a little bit, because our senator our adaptation work led by jessica goran is behind me here. They need more guidance and assistance from the government with expertise, downscale modeling to inform what changes are on the way. They need pre disaster assistance, to change their codes and standards so theyre allowed to build differently when the disaster money flows and postdisaster, there could be better coordination across agencies, i think fhwa has done good work but to coordinate with fema, that would streamline things a bit. Ill make a small comment. Were looking at Disaster Relief funds for planning fbefore disasters occur. Were having that in transportation. We need to beef up the planning capacity that we have. I think we can play a role in that in the reauthorization. Senator. Thank you very much. I want to thank the chairman, Ranking Member and my cohort on the subcommittee of transportation infrastructure. I know our staffs have been working very well on this. We are very close to a bipartisan bill. We have such mutual desire to get this done. I have refused to be pessimistic. So, some of the things we have looked at regulatory improvements to extradite project, supporting a utilization of our natural infrastructure. And also other ways to reduce costs and increase resiliency. Weve talked about this. In terms of the pre disaster mit fashion. We ma passed the homeland subcommittee on appropriations which funds fema. We do have in there this past year a pre Disaster Mitigation fund that i think is going to be very helpful for big and small communities, particularly those i would start i guess with those that have repetitive issues which my state of West Virginia, we have several of those. So i want to talk about economic recovery has divergent paths for rural and urban america. I live in a rural state, excuse me, our biggest city is 50,000. I wouldnt say thats too urban. A beautiful state. But we have declining tax revenues. We have issues in terms of difficulty getting from place to place. We have a lot of deficiency bridge, were in the top five for our deficiency bridges. I want to make that a question. I want to know, do you see, where do you see the big it obstacle for Rural America in terms of the next highway bill. You mentioned lack of capacity in terms, not lack of capacity, but the capacity it takes to meet all the challenges of the Regulatory Environment and that could be streamlined. If you could dig into that a little bit for me. Senator, i thank you for that question. We would certainly as we look to the future, you know, really say that maintaining the formulary and the formula of funding is important to us in rural states from the standpoint of quick and i efficient use of the money. In terms of regulations, we do think there are ways to streamline especially in the oversight type agreements to make them simpler and easier to understand and less onerous in terms of regulation. Mr. Braceras, you have a comment on that . The state of you ha that you utah is interesting as a state we are doing well from an economic perspective. That growth is taking place in six counties. We have 23 counties the governor are focused on that arent doing as well so were looking at as suspects of how our Transportation Planning, we can come in and provide Transportation Planning services for these communities. Were doing it with state dollars. What were doing is were asking them the question, you know what can we do to help you become the community of your dreams . And then how can transportation help facilitate that . The government is bringing all the state cabinet agencies together on this mission of trying to help these communities kind of develop that uniqueness that might give them that little bit of advantage. Were trying to move state jobs out into rural utah and provide the opportunity for state employees to telecommunicate more so they can have a state job and do it from rural utah. I think any type of flexible you can provide in the program to allow states to use the funding to be able to help these communities, because there is not one size fits all. Ki go to so many Rural Counties and it will have different issues. Mrs. Wicks, i would imagine in delaware you have quite a few bridges. We have quite a few deficiency bridges. What we found i think, i think were trying to remedy this in our legislation is, if a governor has a choice to build a 5 mile, fourlane highway or fix a deficiency bridge. We all know whats going to have a bigger kick back home. Not to say theyre ignoring deficiency bridges. You have to set priority what are you finding in delaware with your bridge reconstruction and how what can we do in this bill to help with that . I think you are right, rehabbing a bridge and new structure dont seem as sexy, obviously, one can seem to get a better headline so we have maintained a rehabilitation approach so we have been able to educate our legislators and our elected officials and the public that Preventative Care will then yield great rewards financially than having to wait too long and then you have a reconstructive way approach to the bridges. And this has served us well and were able to have that timely inspection to be able to act upon that to use technology to make the assessments and to be able to efficiently combine improvements into a package thats either done by our maintenance folks or we put it out to bid. So i think trying to be able to communicate the benefits of doing that early rather than waiting and how much more costly those improvements will be. And just the whole sense of safety to the traveling public. Not seeing the postings and School Children having to go around and school buses. So you know that message is something we just continued to drive home year after year and it has paid off. Thank you all very much. Thank you, senator capatow. Senior whitehouse. Thank you, chairman. Thanks for your work to push this forward. I know we dont have a budget, a cap Funding Agreement with respect to this, which is i think a real liability, but as we continue to push forward i think were making that more likely. So, thank you for doing that. In the fast act, we required the National Acad miss of science, engineering and medicine to do a report on innovative materials. They did so, it took a while, but it is out and they came up with three recommendations. And im quoting from page 73 of the report. A new federal program to provide incentives for innovation and bridge construction. Research needs to develop and evaluate innovative approaches to reducing the lifestyle costs of highway bridges. And other actions to encourage innovation to reduce life cycle costs of bridges. And on the program, they describe the federal program to provide incentives for bridge construction, they point out numerous technologies, im reading at various stages hold promise for improving bridge performance and reducing life cycle costs. However, most require further evaluation or promotion to increase aware inside of their potential among bridge owners. Congress could create a new Bridge Incentive Program administered by the federal Highway Administration to advance such technologies and to promote their use in u. S. Highways. End quote. Back in march, mr. Mckenna, an ashtow witness said and i quote in response to a qf of mine, it is important that any infrastructure bill improve conditions to encourage the use of innovative materials for not only bridges but other materials as well. The use of if you innovative materials can make a bridge last longer, signs appear from a longer distance or Traffic Signals work more efficiently. They can incruce crease safety, overall cost and the nations surface transportation infrastructure. Specific to bridges, ashtow agrees with the conclusion of the National Academy of science reports using advanced technologies does reduce costs and resulting time impacting the traveling public. Mr. Braceras, i assume you agree with that statement . Senator, we absolutely agree that stake i taking a strategic approach to research, innovation and advanced materials is critical to our future. If you look at where the advances has been in the developing of our Highway Program, you can go back to the strategic Research Program that congress funded and was carried through the Research Board then f sharp and the sharp 2. All of the big things that were doing today have helped been facilitated through that Research Program and one of the things that the sharp 2 program did that was really good, there was money provided to help states implement those types of things. Thats really sometimes the difficult leap for states to make is that implementation piece. Because were taking a risk. The reason is there might be a spec for a legacy material and not a spec for the new material. It takes a bit more effort and a little as you say intellectual risk, although they may be safe for materials to work through it at a bureaucratic level. Thats the program the National Academy of sciences recommends to come in to help balance the equation towards helping the innovative materials be at least on a level Playing Field with the legacy materials. And having federal highways work in partnership with the states so that the states get to choose what to implement and where, but the federal government is working in partnership to mitigate that risks, give states help with that mitigation decision. Let me thank the chairman and the Ranking Member for their continued work to help get the imagine piece, the innovation materials piece agreed to and under this draft. I also want to thank the chair and the Ranking Member for getting the bridge investment act in. We still need obviously dollars for it. But its important that it got in. There are two programs, the coastal infrastructure program, which is obviously very important given miss arroyos testimony is really important for those of us who have coastal infrastructure that is facing basically being overwashed by rising seas and storms. But at the moment, it is not yet subject to Highway Trust Fund dollars so were going to continue to work to make sure this is not just an orphan authorization sitting out there, but it actually is an avenue for providing access to Highway Trust Fund dollars. I thank you for showing me the knobbing heads and support of that and similarly, port electrification, that can be very valuable to nearby communities when you are not requiring ships to run bunker fueled engines to keep the power on, that there is, in fact, enough local electricity to one run a clean port, again thats a part of our very important transportation infrastructure. Im hoping that can get into trust fund dollars, so i guess i conclude two second over with that. But many thanks, to many for great work so far. And we look forward to wrapping this up with those issues resolved to our satisfaction. Thank you. Thank you, senator white hou househouse for all owe whitehouse for all your help. Clean streets are provided for multimillion modes of travel as well as for people of all age, abilities, streets should accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and public transusers, not just cars and freight vehicles, they should be safe for older individuals with disabilities. Thats why im completing the complete streets act. My legislation will promote these kind of neighborhoods by requiring that streets, states set aside a portion of their federal highway money to create a Competitive Grant Program to fund complete streets projects at the regional and local level. Im proud that my legislation has been endorsed by uber, lyft and via. Professor arroyo, do you believe a complete Streets Program is a complete priority for surface transportation reauthorization . Absolutely. Its important to give people alternatives, its something we covered in the interstate highway study, especially in suburban areas, giving people safe, alternatives like complete streets and investment in transit and arterial roads is good for the roads itself, so thank you for your leadership. So the transportation sector is a larger source of Greenhouse Gas emissions, in fact, vehicles driving on our roads represent 83 of those emissions. And i have been working with senators and other members of the committee to focus on establishing goals and standards to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions in the federal Highway Program and i have been working only legislation to accomplish this. It is my hope these principles can be included in the final surface transportation bill that the committee reduces and we greatly appreciate the openness from the charl on these concepts given the reality our states are facing. So, again, professor arroyo, do you believe reducing emissions in transportation is imperative to affect the worst if Climate Crisis . Absolutely. Its the largest source you said of emissions. We have to tackle it. Do the states have the resources to accomplish those goals right now . No, they do not. Part of why the states have banded together in the transportation and Climate Initiative is to look at the twin challenges of the lower revenues that the Transportation System is getting at the same time we need to increase investment and low carbon transportation solutions. Theyre looking at that together. So that any bill that we are going to be passing creates incentives to try to accomplish those goals. If you can invest in some of those strategies, they would be very grateful. We must also respond to the impacts of Climate Change that are happening now, rising temperatures, Sea Level Rise and more powerful coastal storms, our infrastructure is not as resilient to Climate Change as it should be. There are only two bridges that connect cape cod to the rest of massachusetts. Should an extreme weather event strike the cape, these bridges would serve as vital escape routes for residents and vacationers alike. However, these bridges are currently in a dire state of disrepair and must be replaced. In response to those concerns, i have introduced the escape act, which would provide federal funding for state, local and tribal governments to strengthen and protect essential evacuation routes or to construct new routes. Professor arroyo, again, our current evacuation routes is sufficient to deal with extreme weather events. I can speak from personal experience, in addition to the fact that i work on these issues, from new orleans, senator arroyo lost his life in hurricane ivan, which was a special evacuationuation. So sorry. The fact that they were so severe meant a lot of people chose to stay home the next year when katrina hit and obviously have people die from that. They didnt leave, some because of the faulty evacuation the year before. Oh, im sorry. So thank you for your leadership on that as well. Thank you. Im so sorry for the tragedy. So you believe that a surface transportation reauthorization should include substantial direct funding and grants for states and municipalities to improve resilience . Yes, we appreciate that. Thank you. So i think thats something that we just have to make a priority as we work through the legislation just to ensure we protect against what is inevitable if we dont take action. Thank you, thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you so very much. Mr. Braceras, you know, the Trump Administration has developed and implemented a one federal decision policy. For large complex infrastructure projects, among other things, one federal decision requires federal agencies to develop formal processes as you know for developing a schedule, for elevating disputes and then also for working together to complete reviews and authorizations within two years. I mean, thats the whole goal of this one federal decision. Many of these elements are already the law, but some key aspects like the two year goal are still missing. Could you in your view talk a little about this and the state departments of transportation benefit from adding the missing elements of one federal statute. What else would you recommend . Thank you, mr. Chairman, utah and ashtow applauds the Trump Administrations goal here of trying to get and make this process more efficient and effective. Any time we can make this process easier and faster, were going to improve the investment of public dollars. I believe you know we have to look at the twoyear goal kind of in the same light that i look at my goal in utah of zero fatalities. Its a bold goal. But there is a lot of underlying details that i believe will make attaining that goal more difficult than it may sound initially. There is also i think just from a challenge perspective, it makes sense to have one federal agency take the lead on this and to be a champion for this decision instead of basically passing you off between different federal agencies. So we really like what the goal is stating and where its going. We believe there is a lot of work that needs to be put into to make that a reality. Anyone else want to add to that . Thoughts on it . Mr. Chairman, from our perspective, were certainly confident that schedules can be shortened really without reducing Environmental Protection concerns. Also for you, mr. Reiner and mr. Braceras, you know one of the safety issues that disproportionately affects several states with membership on this community is wild life vehicle safety. Not necessarily just in the Rocky Mountain west but all across the country. According to a recent study, wyoming, West Virginia, iowa, south dakota, mississippi, represent five of the top ten states for incidents of deer vehicle collisions. In wyoming, it was roughly 15 of all reported vehicle collisions involve big game animals. This adds up to more than 6,000 annual collisions, costing nearly 50 million in damages to vehicles, human injury as a result. As a surgeon ive taken care of people involved in these situations. Wild life loss, it happens every year. Fortunately, Research Shows effective measures such as wild life crossing structures are reduce vehicle collisions they say up to 80 . Could you if you have knowledge about the issue, do you believe this is an area where federal government could help states do more to reduce collision and what might those be . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Certainly the short answer is, yes, we do think there is some issues that the federal government could help with. Wyoming has been a National Leader in improving safety for humans and animals alike by building the crossings that you discussed and upgrading fencing and making some other improvements. We have a game migration and collision da that we have identified and prioritized the top ten list of crossings and improvements. In locations where we have installed crossings in the past in our state we have seen dramatic reductions if collisions. What we lack and where the federal government could assist is adequate Flexible Funding to address these costing issues and we certainly hope to find help in the committees build. From ashtows standpoint, what do you see . This is important. Its both from the safety perspective that you mentioned, mr. Chairman. Its from the economic perspective. In the state of utah, our big game is an important part of our economy, its a defining element of our state. A lot of our families, you know, that is there thing they look back and talk about whats important to them. We recently completed using federal money. We recently completed a major bridge over interstate i80. An eightlane section between salt lake and park city. You know, we usually like to tell people we need three years of data before we want to talk about this being a success. Well, the media started getting some of the pictures of the cameras we have set up there. Even the wild life professionals have been shocked at how quick will i the game have become accustomed to this. Because its wide enough. Its built in a natural way so were not letting people or bikers go on that. As a biker, i was disappointed. But its being very successful and we have in combination of the crossing in the right place. Because you cant force it. You have to look at the migration patterns. That with the wild life fencing, we have had a dramatic decrease in crashes. And this is moose crashes is cars and deer and a moose with a car is quite a bit different situation than a deer. Yeah. Yeah. The moose usually walks away, the driver often does not. This is a major collision. As we said, i dont know from a delaware standpoint, certainly neighboring states, pennsylvania, new jersey, new york, this is not just Rocky Mountain west issue. No, you are right. We dont have the moose, deer is certainly a part of the issue we wrestle with as a state. We havent to my knowledge looked directly for an overpass like that, but a lot of the rural roads, its happening there. I dont know what, you wouldnt have ability to have the kind of crossings referring to, but challenges for all of us. And to mr. Braceras and mr. Reiner, minor projects in the operational rightways often address preventative maintenance, preservation, safety issues, the things that you just need to do as part of the routine maintenance, but before proceeding to construction often state departments of transportation need to get federal permits or approvals for these projects in the right of way. You know, some of the federal agencies, it can be slow in termsf evaluating or respond to you for requests. I dont know if you have run into problems either in utah or wyoming and what can we do to incentivize federal agencies to be more responsive to state departments of transportation, working with maintenance and preservation and safety projects. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Maybe a few elements on this, this was an important element to the former chairman of the committee, chairman imhoff at the time on the operational right of way. You know when we go and we build a road, a if you road or wide an road, we do an environmental document we do a deliberate process on this and we clear that operational right away. If we have to come back and do Maintenance Work we typically have to go through that processing again. Which seems redundant. We have taken advantage of the tools you have provided for us and taken on a nipa assignment, so through nipa assignment, we have been able to become Decision Makers to make those decisions much quicker. It has saved us time and money, mr. Chairman. I know that senator braun will be coming back. Ill get to you in a second. He will be coming back. He has some additional questions. You just heard the buzzer, which means the second vote has started. He was going to speak, vote at the end of the first, the beginning of the second, they didnt close the first vote until senator whitehouse got there. This is known as a transportation problem. So this is why were having this hearing today. The mr. Reiner. Yes, thank you, mr. Chairman. To add to mr. Braceras, really in our mind i think allowing other agencies the opportunity to use categorical excollusions which are available to the federal Highway Administration would help speed up the environment interview process and would still allow us to protect the environment. You know, whats been your experience from the contracting side when Congress Fails to enact a highway bill . States dont know how much funding is going to be available. I think we heard from mr. Reiner, slower, smaller projects and its the way you put it. Im especially interested in how that uncertainty can affect things like you do in terms of project deliveries, schedules, costs hiring, how that all plays out when have you uncertainty. That uncertainty flows downhill to the contracting community. Certainly we look at the stip, the sixmonth projection, different dots do different things. But we absolutely are using those plan what the opportunities are in the future what projects we will chase, where we think the market will be, and if we know that, you know, our folks at the dot arent sure if they will have projects, we will be looking at hiring, looking at investing in our employees, commitment and we will be cutting back on all of that. Because unless we know that there is going to be a market in the future, you cant make those investments, which is, you know, as soon as it, you know, the other problem, too, and i think he said this, when funding comes, you cant just all dump it in one big chunk, too, because, first of all, now everybody is unprepared. You know, they have been holding off on investments, you dump a whole bunch of work on everybody all at once. You will get higher price, people have to pick and choose. They wont have you geared up for that level of work. So this up and down thing is really hard on our work force, frankly, you nope, both the craft workers and the engineers. Because you cant keep gearing up and down constantly. Its a smooth level probably hopefully trending upward line is the best for the contracting community. Director braceras, innovations can help save project cost, help us do things smarter, accelerate project delivery. What more can the federal government do to encourage deployment of the technology thats out there to deliver highway projects you know faster, better, cheaper. What kind of things do you see that would work . Mr. Chairman, its all about partnership. When i talked to senator whitehouse comments, i talked about the risks that states take when we do something different, something new. I mean, we are inherently risk we have been trained to be risk adverse. There is little accolades that come from taking a risk and being successful. We are pretty good in the media, members of Congress Know how this goes as being punished for perceived mistakes. We tend not to be the riskiest types of people. What the federal government has done really well. We were the first state to build a bridge off to the side of the highway and move it into place on an interstate over the weekend and when we did that, there was, yes, there was additional costs. When the media came and said how much extra money is this costing . I was able to say it was about 600,000. But the federal government gave me a grant to cover that additional cost, that additional risk. I was able to pass that kind of red faced test that you have to do with the media and with my legislators so that type of partnership to help us make that step forward to implement something new, something exciting, something thats going to benefit the entire country in the future would be really good for congress to do. Did you call that the red face test . Yes, thats what i tell folks, like when are you standing in front of the media or my legislature, if you can pass the red face test so you are not getting embarrassed what you are saying, you are probably doing okay. We will share that with other members of the committee. They may find that helpful some day. Thank you very much. Senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. This is when the senate really moves when are you at an aging committee about 45 minutes ago, you go make two votes and now you hustle back here. I didnt want to miss it. And put on a tie. And put on a tie president im setting a new sartorial trend here in the senate. No ties until you go on the chamber floor. I dont think anybodys followed suit yet, but maybe in time. Infrastructure is a big deal to me. I was a state legislator in indiana and ran for the state legislature for one reason. Roads and bridges. I live in the southern part of our state and we have always been the stepchild of infrastructure in indiana, woo ter crossroads of america. When i have the stark realization, when i went there to be a proponent for a road in my neck of the woods, i got dressed down quickly. Do not come here about asking about a road, help us figure out how to pay for it. So, i took that seriously and in 2017, i served three years. We actually passed longterm road funding. Im going to give you a few things that stand out vividly. 70 of hoosiers wanted better roads and bridges. 70 did not want their taxes raised to pay for it and as a state, yeah, that was depressing. Tolling, you know, we pulled back significantly. Everyone was for a toll road if they didnt live near one. So it got to be very complicated as to how you do it. We had not raised the gas and diesel tax in many years. I think it was 2002 maybe, so that was a stretch of 15 years. Hear i think its been 93. So with that being said, i did along with being as a, you know, a rookie there, a coauthor of the road funding bill, which i was very proud of. We put a stream of cash flow out of nearly a billion dollars a year that would get to a billion after three, four, five years and then continue on that mr. Plane through ten years. Then we have to on that plane through ten years. Then we have to talk about a bridge through ohio completeing interstate 69. I also authored a bill that i think is going to be the essence of what we do here and in other places. And that is to somehow figure out how you get skin in the game from all the Government Entities that are below the federal government. And the reason i say that is im a finance guy, a main street entrepreneur. The Balance Sheet could not be worse here to take on a project that is anywhere from a couple trillion to 4 trillion, if you want to really do it right across the country. And im worried about that. Im worried about that for defending our country. Im worried about that for infrastructure and im worried about that for the three programs that most would think are important here and will quickly not fund themselves anymore. Medicare, Social Security and medicaid. So, how do we do it . There i crafted a bill, it was called, it was through a Regional Development authority and areas like mine have always been interested in infrastructure, never had any involvement in its own destiny are a way to pay for it. We got a bill across in one year that both the head of transportation and ways and means, both of which i sat on said it was going to be too complicated to do. But we did it. Because the need was there. We were losing infrastructure to the tune of 5 a year in maintenance and deter youriation. Long story short, that was 17, 18, we teed up that bill with a Regional Development authority, raised 7 million bucks between local governments, lead first by a local industry to shame the local governments into matching it, paid for the eis, Environmental Impact study. Were now doing something that we talked about for 40 years. We also did something called Community Crossings grants. And that was cities and counties always asking for the state to do more. Well, someone had a novel idea and as soon as i heard it, i got with it. And said, hey, lets throw 100 million out there on a 5050 match. That complaining was, its your responsibility. We dont want to pay for any of it over subscribed the first year. Its now into its third, second or third year, its the most Popular Program there. We are fixing roads and bridges. I think you can get where i am coming from. This place, if you are looking to the general fund to pay for anything, you dont have an 8th grade arithmetic education. You certainly dont know anything about finance. And transferring from the general fund when the general fund is running trillion dollar deficits, that wouldnt fly anywhere else. So, i think the solution is like ive introduced an idea of infragrants, which we will discuss where we start letting states that are responsible to bid for more of the infrastructure bill. Start encouraging skin in the game, especially when you are looking at a place like this, you know, thats set a very bad example to defend our country and pay for it, to take care of infrastructure or entitlement programs. By virtue of i think im the last one here, senator carper. Im going to run a little over my time and take advantage of it. I do want to ask the question, do you think in your own mind and whoever wants to jump in and answer the question, how can we pay for infrastructure with a Financial Condition that the federal government is in and the only other options are states who got great Balance Sheets, mostly, the private sector, since 2008 has got great Balance Sheets through private, public partnerships, which i know some people dont like, arent we just whistling into the wind if we think that we can continue like we have been relying on general Fund Transfers without at least doing what the chairman suggested, raising user fees, which we did in indiana, 48 out of 50 testifiers other than the Petroleum Institute and the americans for prosperity, who i generally would agree with. I believe a user fee needs to be paid, the two of it you will use to pay for infrastructure. Give me your honest opinions because you can see what mine is. Ill be the first to step out. And i will say im speaking as the executive director of utah right now. Ashtow is working on trying to bring forward can i interrupt for a second . I want you all to say, we have one more vote left to place, i would ask you if you could to be brief. Its an important question. Ashtow is trying to bring forward specific revenue suggestion, wont have those votes dl done until our later meeting this fall. I believe we need to be user base. I believe we need to have it, i believe a gas tax is the right way to go initially, looking at road usage charges in the 10 to 15year time frame. As a state that is only about 19 of my program is federal funded. The rest is state funded. I like the idea of recognizing those states that have been able to self help. But there is a need for a federal national Transportation System and the state of utah relies on good roads in arkansas. They relies on good roads in mississippi. Our businesses need to have that national Transportation System. So, because we have been able to help ourselves might not be the same case in other states. I believe if you want to look at tolling, their places for tolling, but for us the challenges, we can on the interstate only go apply for a Pilot Program so its one road versus another road. I think if were successful at tolling, we have to toll a system from and so that has a little more fairness across the board. Our legislation has given us as a department and a commitment to make those tolling decisions. So thats my comments. Thank you. The agc certainly supports the Highway Trust Fund needs to be funded by the users and the user fee, the gas tax thats in place. Those that benefit need to be the ones to pay for it. I concur with my colleagues. You know, being able to support user fees is the way to go. Its not easy on the existing road systems that you have to do that transitioning to mileage base user fees is something we should not you know take our eye off the ball. Because that may be a more equitable way to generate those funds. Thanks forquestion. This is something we looked at in the future of the interstate highway system and talked about alternatives, some of which are being piloted by states with mileagebased user fees, tolling on highways, but the feds would have to allow that like were doing now in virginia on i66 inside the beltway. States are raising their gas taxes. As you said, it was 1993 since thats been done because i work on climate with the states, i see Carbon Pricing as a potential solution because then youre creating a disincentive to have carbonbased fuels. There are significant subsidies to fossil fuels in the u. S. The range is from 5 billion to 15 billion that could probably be saved and that doesnt factor in the cost to the military budget or externalities. Class a trucks are probably underpaying their share based on the roadway impact relative to their weight and use so that might be Something Else to look at. Thank you. Senator, i would certainly say its one of the options that needs to be explored. Very good. And that was one of the hardest things as a fiscal in indiana. I got up on the microphone and depicted how much it would cost my own Trucking Company. Every Trucking Company in the state of indiana was for the higher diesel tax, which was 20 cents and the gasoline tax was 10 cents. Thank you. The proposals for more revenues, including user fees, one of the strongest advocates for that are the trucking folks. They deal with the conditions of roads, highways, bridges every day. Theyre willing to do their part. That should be helpful to us and giving us the courage to do the right thing. Exactly. Thank you. One question and then ive got to run. Thank you all so much for coming. This has been great. A special thanks to secretary caroline wicks. A question, how can the highway transportation bill encourage stae states to try to reduce the climate impacts of driving on the highway system including reducing vehicle miles traveled in single occupancy vehicles with internal combustioning ins, reducing that. Price signals like tolling or Carbon Pricing would make a difference, especially if you reinvest those into alternatives. So that might include support for electric vehicles, building out the charging infrastructure as we discussed based on what the state and regional folks are already trying to do with interstate corridor planning but dont have the funds to actually implement. Looking at investing in maybe cash on the hood for evs as opposed to credits later so that other people, including people who cant afford evs right now might be able to afford them up front. Investing in alternatives like transitoriented development, complete streets, things that allow people to have active transportation as an alternative to conventional highway use. A quick question for caroline wicks and carlos. What changes do we need to make in this reauthorization bill to help the public understand what they are getting from highway spending and transportation spending, just very briefly, please. I think we mentioned earlier that theres a great recognition by the public when we have communitybased improvements. So the t. A. P. Program really focuses on things that meet main street usa and people recognize then that their tax dollars are going to something right in their community, things that are very important to their own safety, to their biking and walking, their businesses, all of those things contribute to a healthy local economy. I think once youve been able to help the public see those realiti realities, those on the ground projects, being able to then promote and talk about larger projects will be an easier way to prove to the public that their investments are going to go to the right places and that its a longterm investment. Not everything can be done as quickly. Once youve proven some of the good projects and things people wanting in their own backyard will go a long way to be able to convey the entire programs needs. Good, thank you. Last word. Yes. I think we have to do a better job describing the why we do what we do. I mean as an engineer we like to talk about bridge sufficiency ratings, we like to talk about pavement smoothings, but i think we need to be talking more directly with the public about why were doing this project here. Whats the benefit they are going to see from this project. Will they see less maintenance on their vehicles, will they see a safer facility where there will be less crashes happening. We just have not tied that to the type of funding that were providing right now. Its a little bit more difficult to do. Engineers arent the best communicators in the world, but i believe we can do a better job communicating why transportation is important to our economy and the quality of life and tying the federal program to that more directly i think will help the public get behind the difficult decisions that have to be made. You said engineers arent the best communicators. Somebody who are engineers, i think youve done a pretty good job communicating today. Message sent and received. Thanks so much. God bless you all, thank you. With no further questions, members who are mostly vacated can submit questions to the record for up to two weeks. We did have a lively discussion here because its such an important issue. I want to especially thank all of you for great conversation. You can see that we know the need is there. Weve got to figure out how to pay for it. Thank you so much for coming in to discuss our nations surface transportation needs. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you. Here is a look at our live Coverage Today on the cspan networks. At 10 00 a. M. Former Homeland Security secretaries testify in new york city. The hearing takes place at the national 9 11 memorial and museum just ahead of the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. And the u. S. House returns from the august recess gaveling in at 2 00 p. M. Eastern for legislative business. On cspan2, a discussion on the release of a survey looking at americans views on Foreign Policy and international relations. At 2 00 p. M. State attorneys general announce an investigation into the Business Practices of Large Technology firms. And the Senate Returns from the august recess at 3 00 p. M. To continue work on the president s executive nominations, including allowing u. S. Ambassador to United Nations kelly kraft to represent the u. S. At the upcoming general assembly. On cspan3 at 5 30 p. M. , policy experts analyze the u. S. Population and shifting demographic numbers and what they mean for americas future. Thats hosted by the American Enterprise institute. President trump holds a Campaign Rally in fayetteville, north carolina, on the eve of a special election for the ninth Congressional District in the state. Watch live Coverage Today at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2, online or listen live on the free c hspan radio app. What is your vision in 2020 . Student cam 2020 is asking students what issue do you most want to see the president ial candidates address during the campaign . Student cam is cspans nationwide video documentary competition for middle and high school students. With 100,000 in total cash prizes at stake, including a 5,000 grand prize. Students are asked to produce a short video documentary, include cspan video and reflect differing points of view. Information to help you get started is on our website, studentcam. Org. The Senate Commerce Committee Held a hearing to examine how Technology Companies such as google, youtube and facebook use algorithms and machines to influence the public. This is just over two hours. Good mo
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