Mr. Buttigieg if youre from the midwest, i appreciate you suppressing the instoipght tell people in washington, d. C. That this isnt real snow. I really do feel at home more than anywhere else when im among americas mayors. Occasionally on the streets somebody will say hey, mayor pete, theyll stop, correct themselves like they said something wrong. I say i wear that as a compliment. I was actually thinking back to when i first got elected, not even elected, after i got the nomination of my party for mayor in my city. A cupful days later, i got an email from a 10yearold boy saying, congratulations. And now that youre mayor i need to let you know theres an intersection close to where i live, sometimes i wait there to get a ride. Its very dangerous. The cars speed by and it needs a stop sign. And i wrote him backen sure how he got my email address around said thanks for getting in touch. Not actually the mayor yet, im i still have to win the general election, but you know, i look forward to doing everything i can to make our streets safer. Sure enough i won the election. The very next day i get an email from this i think he was 11 now. Con gajlations. On getting elect. Now id like to get back to the mat ore they have stop sign. And once i took office, and understood how our department of public works worked, i asked our city engineer, do we have a process for this and there is they did some math. It turned out it was justified. Next thing i theu one of the first days in office we found the kid and the two of us together installed a stop sign at the corner of don moore avenue in south bend, indiana. Those are the kind of things that, you know as mayors what its like to have that incredibly immediate impact. The importance of your work readily intelligible to a 10yearold child. Even as you deal with some of the most confounding issues in Public Policy and american politics. And Public Administration today. I always try to remember the spirit of those early days, navigating what our City Government could do, as i work now in washington with my administration colleagues under President Bidens leadership to try to make your job a little bit easier. Especially at a time like this. The more i see division at the national and global level, the more convinced i am that salvation comes from the local. And i believe in many ways the most meaningful measure of our success as an administration will be how communities are doing at a local level. Or to put it another way, whether we are making your jobs easier as american mayors. And i hope that youll adwrea that we are. You know, you face so many challenges that have become more fierce and more ferocious than when i was sitting at this table with the mayors lan yard in this room six or lanyard in this room six or even years ago. Also would have been nice back then if the president of the United States had launched a 1. 26 million Infrastructure Investment coming to my city and every other in the United States. Were here in the most literally concrete terms to support you in your work, to make sure you succeed and to try to shape the culture of this place, washington, d. C. , to better reflect what is great about americas communities. Back when i was running for president , which is an effort i first made public from this very stage five years ago this week, i often said that we would be well served if washington worked a little more like americas best run cities rather than the other way around. And i believe that even more strongly now. So what i wanted to do with our time together is share a few examples of how we have followed the lead of americas mayors. And americas great communities. Especially when it comes to transportation. What that could mean for what youre trying to do. Ill start with bipartisanship. One of the things i love and miss about the city level which is especially important to highlight during the chaos of an Election Year like this is that partisan considerations and loyalties done dominate Everything Else thats going on. When i was mayor i was just as likely to forge meaningful, cooperative relationships with republicans as democrats without pretending to be any more politically conservative than i was. And i was just as likely to be challenged by democrats as republicans. Through this body, the u. S. Conference of mayor, i came to know and work with and trust fellow mayors without considering or in some cases without even knowing their party affiliations. In fact im conscious, im addressing one of the only rooms left in america where hundreds of senior elected officials from both parties from around the country gather with shared priorities and shared purpose and actually like each other. Thats a powerful thing. [applause] id be lying if i said weve gotten anywhere close to that culture on a routine basis here in washington but i have been struck at how much of the work were doing is not just bipartisan but often nonpartisan in its character. Take the very fact of the bipartisan infrastructure law which we passed with your help and support. With a number of republicans who were willing to Cross Party Lines and work with democrats and President Biden to get it done. Even though the idea of a bipartisan anything law was greeted with mockery when President Biden first took office. The obituary of that legislation that we now cant imagine not having, that obituary was written dozens of times. By people saying that the president was on a falls errand trying to get bipartisan cooperation. Only for it to happen in ways that is now delivering rules in every part of the country, red, blue, and purple. Sometimes it means eliminating dangerous Railroad Crossings in Rural Counties that probably havent voted with my party in decades. We were in the middle of georgia, recently, where trains that can be more than two miles long pass every day that cut off half the town from the other half. I was there to sell grate a celebrate a grant to fix that crossing to make it safer and easier to get around town. Were doing that and funding transit improvements in east and west coast cities like new york, where i signed the agreement to extend the Second Avenue subway up to 125th street that theyve been waiting for literally 50 years to get done. Every state. Every region in this country. Red, blue, and purple, has seen pis historic federal investments announced in roads, bridges, trains, transit, often the Largest Community investments they have seen in a lifetime. I also need to mention, by the way, that we got a reprieve today in the form of a continuing resolution but we are really going to need some sense of bipartisan problem solving to prevail in order to get the budget that we need to keep this work up. And here too, i wish the spirit of americas mayors would prevail. You dont have the option, you have a disagreement with the council, you deliver water and you need water to live so you cant shut down. The federal government ought to have the same mentality as well. [applause] second thing i appreciate and sometimes miss about local government is the relentless and unmistakable focus on reality. On facts. On data that cannot be ignored. Local leadership is more rooted in reality largely because youre held accountable for it every where from local media to the grocery store. Dont get me wrong. I know rumor and misinformation can happen at every level but in my experience the truth is never that for a away. When youre mayor, if theres a hole in the road and you dont fill it in and somebody calls you on it, you cant say thats fake news because people know that that hole in the red is hole in the road is there. Weve got to similarly ground our work at the national level. Thats what we seek to do at usdot, looking for evidence to see if were leeing each form of transportation better than we found it. Were following the facts. Were following the facts to see where results are happening. On smie chains, Pacific Shipping rates have fallen by more than half from their extreme peak during the pandemic. Following the events in the red sea were in close touch with carriers and d. O. D. To monitor supply chain disruptions. Thanks to the ocean shipping reform act, American Companies have more leverage against International Shipping cartels, something that adds up to lower shipping costs which in turn we know have contributed to lower inflation for the american people. We also know that because of strong investment in transportation and infrastructure in the construction and manufacturing that goes with it, we have an extraordinary, in fact by many measures, unprecedented period of Economic Growth taking place right now. Were also holding ourselves accountable to make sure that that continues to reach every american. In air travel, just a few years after observers were asking if we were seeing the death of commercial aviation as we knew it during the pandemic, we have now seen some of the busiest travel seasons on record and we ended 2023 with the lowest cancellation rate in the past 10 years. Which translates to millions more people getting to where they need to be. We did that with a lot of work within f. A. A. And a lot of pressure on airlines which responded to that pressure by improving their operations. When it comes to roadway safety, were closely follow the inescapable and troubling numbers we see around the country. We are living thru a crisis of roadway safety. Something that i have been partnering with americas mayors to confront. In fact we just had a great conversation with spof our safe streets for all grantees who are around the country taking steps deploying federal dollars from the usdot but also your own political capital. In order to help guide the people who trust you with their lives, as your constituents. Toward safer roadways. I know thats not always an easy conversation to have. But we are here to support with everything from data and Technical Information to over 1. 7 billion thats reached over 1,000 communities. The reason this matters is because the lifesaving potential of addressing this crisis. Were finally seeing the you were ins just start to come down. Finally seeing early indications that we are reversing the rise in roadway deaths. But at 40,000 a year, a level commensurate with gun violence, the implication is if we have a 1 reduction, were saving 400 lives right there. The equivalent of two or three fully loaded 737 aircraft. This is the power of the decisions that are being made at the local level and the funding that is reaching you from the federal level. Things that i think every mayor understands is the importance of connection. Symbolically and literally. The importance of unifying and connecting whether in the physical, social, or even political sense. Mayors live and breathe that work. And often your specific visions for development maximizing the use of a river front or enhancing a parks trail or reimagining a street scape embody a key insight we at the federal level would do well to think about, which is that part of how you keep a Community Connected in the social sense is helping to connect it in the literal, physical sense. Or to put it another way, mayors understand that physical mobility is inescapably connected to social mobility. Were working to support you in this too. A couple of years ago i was in a southside chicago neighborhood, roseland, discussing the effort to extend the red line further south so people in the community could access opportunity downtown. I couldnt help but do some mental math because there was a Community Called roseland, indiana, close to south bend where i grew up. Its about 90 miles away but if you were in roseland, indiana, and you have a car, you can get to Downtown Chicago more quickly than if youre in the roseland neighborhood in chicago and dont have a car. Were changing that. Were changing that to make sure that that kind of mobility is not a barrier to people getting the kind of goodpaying jobs that are going to help them build up their families. And we were in buffalo last year where half a century ago, federal funding was part of the problem. As the kensington express way cut off what had been a Thriving Network pr the rest of the city, a story i know you have seen played out in just about every community in the u. S. Were working to change that. I met an extraordinary woman named Stephanie Barber geeter whose organization, the restore our community coalition, fought to restore that neighborhood for the better part of her life and before she sadly passed away a few days ago she saw the commitment of federal and state funding that shed been seeking her entire life to deck over that highway, create connections where there had been divisions, along with it that thing that very few mayors are able to access, new land to use for community benefit. With help from this administration. Transportation infrastructure is one of those rems of Public Policy that every person in this clint interacts with every single day and as mayors you understand how much depends on delivering the basics. Those unsecty things that mayors spend a lot of time thinking about and working on. Not just transportation but water and wastewater and trarve absnow removal. Police and fire departments. The very foundation of the human hierarchy of needs starting with safety. Safety, by the way, is why our department exists. Its why were making sure that we elevate roadway safety as i described a little bit earlier. On that, i want to lift up the partnership that we have with mayors who now represent over 70 of our nations population participating in our safe streets for all program. Weve got a new round opening up in february for planning funds. Talk to your planning departments about that. When i was here last year i highlighted some of the cities that have already seen a year or more with zero traffic deaths. Hoboken, new jersey, evanston,ville, and others, theyre pursuing their zero vision plans. Minneapolis, spokane, mount ranier, salinas, california. Hundreds and hundreds of communities benefiting from this. If you are not already part of that i i hope youll consider it. While were at it, i want you to know were working to make sure our Safety Vision helps those in every mode of transportation. Were congresswomanning up on the up withyear mark of the of the rail accident in palestine. We are holding railroads accountable, supporting first roe spoppedders, protecting rail workers. There was a Bipartisan Railway Safety act sitting in congress, waiting its turn, right now. Lets not allow america to get to that oneyear mark and not have that Railway Safety act become law. I think your voices need to be heard in this because mayors and your Emergency Services department shouldnt be in the dark about whats coming through your communities. Were doing our part with the authorities we have. Congress ought to be helping. Were calling on congress not to get sucked into any of the other things that seem to be commanding attention over there that dont add value while this continues to sit. Waiting its turn. I know traffic lights and bike lanes and potholes an other things that mayors work on arent always considered sexy. They are profoundly important. And not just because potholes are the bane of every mayors existence, at least thats my recollection, but because those basics are the foundation for Everything Else. Thats where i think we need to keep a level of fidelity to a philosophy of public works. That recognizes the intimate relationship between the most important and difficult things people have going on in their lives. I would even say the meaning of life. And the most basic workaday things that municipal government takes care of. You make sure these things get done so people dont have to worry about them. Meaning of life for you is to be a parent for your kids. You condition be present for that if youre home in time because the road isnt in good shape. If the weaning of life for you has to do with your faith, youre not in a position to concentrate on that if youre distracted about uncertainty about whether Drinking Water is poisoning your children. The meaning of life for you has something to do entrepreneurship, you wont be able to fully live a life of your choosing if the public works that you count on arent available and you have to worry about working around them. Something even bigger is at stake right now which is the fate of our democracy. President biden often says that the ability of democratic nations to deliver is being put to the test right now. When the basic economic, political, and social conditions of our civilization deteriorate, including our infrastructure, public trust deteriorates with it and a vicious psych that will costs the legitimacy of democracy itself. On the other hand, when we deliver on those bakes basics, including infrastructure, people feel the benefits of democracy through better quality of life. Its why filling holes in the road or filling holes in the national e. V. Charging network or filling holes in our supply chain not just investments in American Investment but in the durable of our democracy. As andy burke once put it, good City Government tear downs the obstacles that stand between people and the life of their choosing. By making sure people have the basics taking care taken care of, you are helping to preserve their very freedom. Theres always a lot at stake in americas mayors an america is cities just as there is here in washington. Thats exceptionally true in our time as our nation struggles to deliver on its promise. As american sometimes question whether democracy can deliver for them. So much depends on your work and ours. But we are now here to support that work with resources that have not existed in my lifetime to help cities get their jobs done. Yes, we are with the federal government and here to help. But this time were barking it up. With the funding as well as the technical support, as well as anything else you need. So i just want you to know how energized i am by the excellent and extraordinary work of americas mayors and how confident i am for this challenging, trouble, even dark as the last five, 10 years have been in many ways, we are going to remember the 2020s, americas infrastructure decade, thanks to President Bidens leadership. And americas democracy decade if we get right the assignment before us at every level if the federal to local. Well look back with get pride on this moment and what we were able to do together. Im here with you every stoach the way. Thank you for your great work, thank you for the chance to join you. [applause]