Transcripts For CSPAN2 Chamber Of Commerce Forum On Infrastructure 20170519

Really get it out of your blood. Is an important topic at the right time thank you so much to be here into our partners have sponsors and to the talented team to put this together our transportation infrastructure expert. The chamber is a founding sponsor which i meant to ask the team we are the founding sponsor of iweek and i am proud to see how this has grown and reached with programmatic activity every year. You know, about infrastructure that will ever learn so ill have to tell you what a problem is for the country as a nationwide challenge with a nationwide conversation over the next five days we will gather to focus on the for structure at 100 defense nationwide chicago, boston chicago, boston, a salt lake , and right here in the Nations Capital. We will send a strong and unified message ladies and gentleman the time is now. We have a once in a Generation Opportunity to make major progress and we must seize that with urgency. We have all read the grim statistics and because of the maintain the Critical Infrastructure what we now was bipartisan by ian by ian and the president has pledged action and supports it in fact, we just conducted a new poll that revealed 70 percent of americans surveyed one day federal government to invest in infrastructure. And to understand that will strengthen the economy and create jobs for go as he talked to small and Medium Business leaders they no infrastructure is important and worth the investment so to align though longterm strategic investment to rebuild our country is now possible behalf to make the most of this moment starting right here right now with each of you. Over the course of the program we will hear from leaders and experts from across the political spectrum and to get things started we will hear a special message from our longtime partner. Please roll the video. [inaudible] good morning as president of the aflcio welcome to infrastructure week 2017 and went to thank my friend and partner for his commitment to rebuild america. We started this campaign five years ago to raise awareness about our infrastructure needs and we have done exactly that. It is time for our leaders to act. If we build a they will, they will come. But instead of building were discussing and delaying. Is time to build. Every day we wait is an opportunity lost in the address to avoid joint session of Congress President trump proposed 1 trillion of Infrastructure Investment in fact, it should be even bigger so my question is this, where is the bill . Brings legislation to the floor and the Labor Movement will help you pass it. All we ask it is done the right way with robust public funding and high labor standards supporting american jobs and American Resources and american steel. Business and labor are divided on a lot of issues but infrastructure is not one of them. The American People want us to build and they want us to build today. Roads, bridges, sewer, elect ricity, you name it our mandate is clear. It is time to build so lets get to work. [applause] i like to hear from Richard Trumka that wakes us up in the morning wondering who left the door open. [laughter] that we are honored to Work Together with the union and labor leaders of this country with the fundamental realities that we face how do you rebuild americas infrastructure . So one thing is certain if we can agree that this is surely the one we will work on vigorously and continually i am prod the aflcio and hold Labor Movement thinks you for being here as partners in this endeavor and a lot of others are lighting up it is about time for i have been fighting for infrastructure for many years. Remember i used to me it the American Trucking association and all my time in washington and it is hard to think of a movement when the potential for real and meaningful progress on infrastructure i am not saying it will be easy or . By a long shot but it is possible and likely so now we have to welcome the challenge to figure out how to make it work. The debate over the infrastructure package hours should be paid for or chief is heating up were looking forward to hearing the administration is perspective from the secretary of transportation in just a moment and as she said on television and yesterday this is the emerging perspective with more to come in the immediate future the chamber is ready to work closely with her and both ends of pennsylvania avenue to get this done this morning i quickly want to lay out three priorities for the infrastructure package we believe will be key to success one is a pass to be about Economic Growth i am not talking about the sugar rush the serious strategic investment to support our nations longterm growth and competitiveness that means taking on the big project that will connect our country from one end to the other the way the Transcontinental Railroad did in the 19th century to broaden the platform of our economy the way the interstate highway system did in the 20th century. Our investment today must support the 21st century economy and its evolving needs. We must focus on building or rebuilding highways and bridges and airports and waterways and pipelines and power grids with a Broadband Network to connect tarnation digitally as well as physically. By the way we have to build one that you cannot break into so easily. Projects should be funded based on the potential to support longterm Economic Growth not on the speed of which they could be completed and we must prioritize based, hopes the entire country not what serves parochial politics. No big plans require deep cuts so the second priority is to create a broad tool kit of financing there is 250 billion of Global Private capital for Infrastructure Investment and in my view it is more than that the domestically available for investors over the world we need to remove barriers to get that money tax preferred financing federal loan programs and private partnerships could just start that investment. Think about it this way. Most people dont go out and buy a house to pay cash. Or go out to buy a car and pay cash they by longterm investments and agreed to pay a certain amount of overtime. That is what we have to do to finance these projects. We need more public money but it has to be the amount to help us pay down the long term investment. We all cheered the passage last year of the six year highway bill but after 36 shortterm extensions that was a huge victory but the underlying problem with the Highway Trust Fund those problems have not gone away. May be a winning a popularity contest but i call for an increase in the federal fuel tax. Twentyfour years we have not increased it so which is half of what it was before if you think of miles per gallon. And to get down to the issue if we have a mortgage on the house you have to pay every month or every year which is welcome news when the president expressed his openness to consider such a solution. It just makes sense. There might be other solutions so lets explore those as well and put the options on the table when it comes to the full breadth of the Infrastructure Projects we envision mission also consider our existing programs could be used and improved but the bottom line is we can make that negative without the cash. The third priority is to adopt the needed reforms to make sure the right project gets done in a timely and transparent and costeffective way. You know we need greater accountability and congress to focus on the best practices and improve the issues of permits and followups and transparencies. That is key to attracting private investment ladies and gentlemen they want to know their money goes to what they agreed and it will be spent accordingly. Finally to invest in the future technology and innovation will increase along every facet of our economy we need to do that now for these new advances and by the way the rulemaking process must me . And unable to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation at the chamber were confident if the Infrastructure Project is built on these priorities will get the support needed for congress and most importantly achieve the goal of building a modern infrastructure system it is secretary of transportation with her influence would be able to find a way to have members of the congress for those things airbill to their communities so let me stress again will not be fast or easy the kicking down the canyon down the road is not acceptable it is time to get started and do it now so now let me introduce the woman who will be in charge of much of we hope those to be at the very center of this debate secretary of transportation transportation, a secretary chao this is the first time posting secretary chao in her new role but she is no stranger to the chamber with the Business Community our relationship goes back to when she was deputy secretary of transportation shortly after Christopher Columbus came for at least we she was very young at the time for pro we worked closely with her as secretary of labor and a dedicated champion for American Workers making strong and measurable progress for safety and retirement security. We know she will be just as dedicated and effective in her new role for courts cannot think of anyone better suited to lead the infrastructure conversation unfolding here and around the country then secretary chao she has the experience and the ideas and the grit and determination to see it through. She and her team have been hard at work to get the Team Together and working on this project and the partners are ready to lend a hand please join me to welcome secretary chao a good friend and a great leader for this project. [applause] what a gracious introduction even though you said Christopher Columbus era. But that is okay and a very special thank you to you and all the other friends of infrastructure for putting together the series all across the country to highlight our challenges. As you know, so well infrastructure is the backbone of our economy one of the most productive flexible and dynamic in the world and the factor of growth that provides millions of hardworking americans with the standard of living that is truly the envy of the world. And has also provided the country with mobility, ct, and security but yet today these genes are threatened by crumbling infrastructure increasingly congested and in repair and unable to keep pace with technological change. We are fortunate to have a president to understand the challenges of infrastructure perhaps better than any other leader in recent memory. He was to revitalize the countrys infrastructure as a top priority. In the administration will share the vision of what the plan will look like in the next several weeks which will kick off our collaboration with congress. To put the proposal to gather the white house launched a wide ranging complicated process including the Interagency Task force consisting of 15 different agencies to is for tuition, treasury, commerce tuition, treasury, commerce, agriculture, the epa, energy , department of Defense Veterans Affairs council of Environmental Quality Committee Education department and others. With meetings and consultations with governors and mayors and state and local leaders in a private sector stakeholders have occurred as well. It is important to hear from the myriad of stakeholders in not repeat the mistakes of the past. And as the ellen b. Director recently announced the new infrastructure plan will increase 200 billion of direct federal funds. These funds will be used to leverage 1 trillion of Infrastructure Investment over the next 10 years. he is identifying offsets to avoid saddling the future generation of future debt that is why they will unleash billions of dollars of private capital for investment and infrastructure. During this process investors had told us again and again that there is Ample Capital available waiting to invest in infrastructure but the problem is the delay caused by government permits and the approval process which could take years or decades. These delays increase the cost and risk adding uncertainty in billions of dollars to the project and that is why another key part of this infrastructure plan will improve common sense regulatory administrative organizational policy changes for project delivery to reduce uncertainty many of these mentioned in the task force will have a role to address these issues. The department of his irritation has already initiated internal regulatory review process the federal Highway Administration has taken for steps to reduce the Regulatory Burden and is looking for ways to speed things up. The task force on Regulatory Reform has been assembled that has identified many additional regulatory changes that could streamline projects proposed streamlining that process donnelly cuts costs but improves environmental outcome and to use the spending resources on actual environment instead of stacks of paperwork so to illustrate what is possible let me refer you to the pictures on the big screen of the bridge there recently collapsed in Atlanta Georgia march 31st, 2017. This ditcher shows the collapsed bridge and the second pitcher shows the new bridge which was just replaced in 49 days. The team from the u. S. Department of his rotation was on the ground almost immediately and within 12 hours the department had delivered 10 million in emergency relief funds to help replace the bridge. The supply chain located within two hours of the site quickly identified in the regulatory requirements were expedited to insure timely execution for funding. Now replacing the structure is not the same starting the project from scratch. I 852 georgia was an emergency situation it is not possible to slash the time the federal requirements of every project from years two months but there is much room for improvement and i 85 the nimby in touch is an example of what can be accomplished with federal, state, and local government working together to know as we begin to implement this Administration Infrastructure reforms a new paradigm will hopefully be created in this will shift the focus beyond what was built so the states and localities to have a funding of financing of their own of Infrastructure Projects will be given higher priority to new federal funds. And use that as an incentive to get projects under way more quickly with greater participation with state and local and private partners. That approach is in line with the studies that show federal spending often substitutes rather than oddment state and local funding with a gao report with highway spending but the state and localities and rather then supplement. The administration would like to avoid that outcome. And the rest comes from state and local and private sources. Been to the state and local spending but with the increase of the total amount of funding available but at the same time so once its all revenue model like the toll roads they work well in an urban areas where they generate consistent revenue because of high traffic and high demand but lower demand may not generate enough revenue for private investment. This administration is committed to the infrastructure package to address the need of the entire country urban and rural. That is one of the most widely used alternatives of financing methods of the infrastructure in the world. And in this model of with the private sector to build and operate and maintain that piece of infrastructure and in return the contractor received payments from the government over a specified period of time provided that certain milestones in targets are met. Using this approach the government doesnt have to bear the full cost of infrastructure to the public and private sector is mitigated. So there are many innovative and creative models out there to be considered so the definition of a pressure and not only recognizes traditional infrastructure with rose bridges railroads airports the waterways it may also potentially include Energy Broadband in bad is why there are 16 different departments and agencies to put together this initiative in addition a few special projects that are not candidates to likely be identified and funded. Those candidates with a special category to have the potential to significantly increase gdp growth or lift the american spirit. As well as the premier process to have the biggest impact of Infrastructure Development in the infrastructure also looking at ways to revitalize the work force and as a former secretary of labor this is important to me. Far too many workers were left behind because they are not equipped with the skills and the demand of the changing economy and in transportation drivers of the future will be in charge of a fleet of cars dispatched by workers at a computer in drones will affect the infrastructure and to have human control oversight and analysis. In the higher skills the good news is that they dont need a four Year College Degree to access these good paying jobs at a local Community College is an important resource and increasingly employers offer Vocational Training to High School Students and the Excellent Training Program offered by many skilled trade unions and Government Programs to help train workers as well. The to be relevant they all have to involve the employer with the regulatory report approach to ensure safety to preserve creativity and innovation for girl as part of the great genius of america one of the hallmarks to safeguard the zero legacy as other innovators step up to share with the public understanding to address legitimate public concerns of privacy. Silos close by noting there has never been a more exciting time to be involved with infrastructure as a National Priority with growing public support there is rare bipartisan consensus that now was the time to act thank you for inviting me here today i look forward to working with hugh to incentivize to eliminate the unnecessary barriers to usher in a new era of safety and mobility and prosperity for our country and the residents. Thank you for helping us to highlight all these very important issues across the country. [applause]to neck our failure to maintain infrastructure puts america risk and a drag on our economy to threaten jobs and businesses and communities. Whether we invest now through unsafe conditions through lost productivity and Unreliable Energy so if we invest today to modernize the system we are ready for river the future brings. Is a negative morning. Is a pleasure to be here for infrastructure week by way of a publicservice announcement we reprinted one week ago so were happy to but that new brand out here today. On right someone who is well known to everyone, the head of my unit close to 20 years son of labor and father of labor getting close at 500,000 members and responsible for building the backbone of our infrastructure. With the association of manufacturers that represent with over 12 Million People this is a group that understands that critical nature of infrastructure. As we think about infrastructure that is our worldwide issue not denver vs. Detroit where u. S. Forces in Mexico Mexico so countries outside of the u. S. Put gdp to there in the structure but we invest around 2 percent but in the 50s it was closer to the six or 7 to number. To see if were using the infrastructure and it was opened with their still building the titanic. So that is pretty alarming so to represent manufacturers all over america so talk about when you are in the room what are they talking about . I thank you have to put into context the cost of doing business in to create jobs in this country and frankly with the cost too much to do business in the United States did say and an impediment. The cost of the infrastructure and crumbling infrastructure adds to that cost of business so when i talk to manufacturers about why the cost is added we have an intricate and complex supply chain that allows us to manufacture products if we have delays or reports that are called then thats adds time it reduces productivity and ultimately it adds dollars to consumers and impedes the ability to invest. So really it is part of the next talking about taxes and regulation and workforce issues it is that the top of the list quite frankly we are pleased administration is taking this headon to come up with results. You represent workers across United States so my question would be in addressing this backlog of projects what type of progress are you seeing . I would be remiss if i did not think the chamber for hosting this and for participating in the panel that the chamber we work over a decade with the america for Transportation Mobility on infrastructure and with jay and his organization not only infrastructure but energy infrastructure. Sova backlog, certainly the fiveyear highway bill has made a difference no way to run an airline with a relatively shortterm extensions that it could not plan long term. So we have seen the growth of the infrastructure space and also see the explosion in the pipeline sector. That does not include renewable but as we sit here today to do pipeline work on the books which is good family supporting good wages is a and benefits and working conditions for labor standards. We have seen the membership is growing primarily because of the fiveyear highway bill and the energy sector. If we could get our hands around how we address the problem and so as we talk back stage so Infrastructure Spending would be a boon for jobs with those workingclass jobs than the economy. In the exact words was serious Strategic Investments you could have a bill that comes 1 trillion into the economy but if there are not specific priorities outlined to not be as efficient as you should be. But there were parts that certainly will well thought out and plant but leary excited working with the administration to present a plan with a longterm look and that may involve different ways of funding how do we pay for this massive infusion to encourage the states to have some skin in the game is a fascinating time not just years but decades were we limp along we have to go to the hospital and move forward with the bold plan. Talk about the role of states when you think of infrastructure priority at the state level where have you seen success that the state level . With funding in choosing those Strategic Priorities . I can point to a whole host of projects if we spend 1 trillion of infrastructure if theyre not high road jobs they are low road jobs that will not benefit the economy as it should but there is worker shortages in this country with Infrastructure Spending as long with the skills training to make sure when we are done but does it subsides with a workforce of the future but lets get the tunnel project here in washington d. C. 90 million out the was made project of the year in 2016 with 1. 6 million working hours in the warda airport with the projects that the public cleveland did but in many instances there privately funded or statefunded. One of the biggest replacement projects in the u. S. s in Snyder County pennsylvania 300,000 jobs to contribute to the local economy to produce and generate 180 more power to more homes in pennsylvania and new york. There are new examples with those high road jobs win infrastructure has improved with the local economy. Think about that not only good for Economic Growth and has good paying sustainable jobs how many got stuck in traffic coming here today how many hours are lost to the average family and then get to work after that . There is so many hours that looms but to answer directly i can go over what i know personally as governor of virginia in chief of staff the transfer station funding was a top priority because he heard from beavis outside virginia about crumbling infrastructure and what that was doing to families. That was a combination of virginia and maryland and d. C. And then did take the lead on that you need that leadership that the state level to drive these priorities. But that is a Publicprivate Partnership that moved so quickly if it was pure federal and state funding we would still be waiting on that. Looked at the mixing bowl project in Northern Virginia will get route 58 with the southern virginia a combination of pure state funding, federal funding am Publicprivate Partnerships virginia led the way 20 years and with ample pod implementation of Publicprivate Partnerships that enabled investors to say we know what your priorities are so here is how we can help you achieve those priorities here is what the risk will be and what we expect of return to be little love those 15 projects that would not have happened if we were waiting for government to act. It almost seems like a of a different time to those projects for word it is a bit more impediment but for both live you come over the impact of its that need to be removed Going Forward . One of the major topics with the increase of the gas tax the believing that everything should be on the table it is great that the president talks about for Infrastructure Spending to encourage the of that major impediment moving forward how to be paid for that . To me that is a number one issue and that is Regulatory Reform we need to find ways to expedite the approval process for infrastructure a regulatory process flows the of process down at the alarming rate not to say we should do that on the project but to figure out how we pay for infrastructure to a justin change. Will ask you to do one thing so talk about your of leadership on keystone that is a perfect example how we have struggled as a country and you were tremendous leaders. So we dont get into politics but to bring that whether on the regulatory side and that there is no better example of politics as usual with five state Department Review san was held up the project it was clearly politics and did we cannot move forward we cannot have politicians looking their fingers to see which way the wind is blowing. I am not taking a shot but president obama held that project up not against with the state Department Review said that because of politics. A group of extremist circled the white house where they dance and sing and because of that to see which way the wind was blowing and keystone was not a reality. And two days after he was elected president from said Keystone Pipeline and signed the executive order. I could go on and on with of politics but that will slow down the economy or the progression in to read pare the transportation and infrastructure segments. In those environmental regulatory impediments are front and center that when he talks about the politics one way to do that is every day americans to speak out to give those elected leaders the backbone that they need. There is so many competing forces it is easy to say we have 1 trillion we cannot tackle that right now so deal with the small stuff we cannot afford to do that not if we stay competitive as a country. So one way to do that is for all of us to be involved in your here today because you care about this issue you probably know 50 other people if you write down this number were plowed the smart phone to tax day word to a number to support Infrastructure Spending and investment 52886. This is important as we continue to broaden the grassroots effort we can encourage folks from the left in the right to come together for the good of the country with the leadership of the white house to get this done. In to pay for the spending of the massive project there is no one solution to support that all of the above approach there are copies of that we release this last year that the Trump Campaign picked up there looking to as a guide so with a menu of potential fine blending options but there are many things we can do so certainly the gas tax increase so should technology i know that is the third rail but the real virginia led the way to allow lead digital paid for for the Publicprivate Partnership and public projects as well technology is the key to the future. Should we be changing that Infrastructure Investment . At the end of the day we should look at the Technology Issue so what are the transportation infrastructure needs . We need to focus on where the infrastructure is broken and that is easy to do backstage so to approve the infrastructure we are proud americans we are falling apart and falling behind and i know there is a presentation they have more than i know but i did that plenty of times with rother said we have a problem at the end of the day he would not like the solution but there will be a solution and where we find ourselves today in this country with the overall infrastructure of water and energy and roads and bridges what will we do about it . But it is undeniable because we highlight the problem all the time in our union. Its in the faces of each and every one of us as americans and is in the face of our economy and its in the face of creating worldclass middleclass jobs and wages protections and its high time we do something about it. This week is encouraging for no other reason than a group of individuals that i think we have may not see completely the same but we know what the problem is and we are here to try to find solutions. I think working with this administration who is committed to it and hopefully by Getting Congress to finally address the longterm funding needs for infrastructure we might be able to get something done. Sorry to hear about that d . Hopefully you will be able to pull that grade up. I would have given anything to get a d . Terry you talked about the labor force prince come a long way since the Global Financial crisis. The market is picked up in your membership is not quite a high but you were bumping up against half a million members. This is a big infusion of what we used to pay for infrastructure. Can the labor force handle that and is a second part to that question hoar retraining our workforce to prepare to deliver infrastructure with Major Technology . I will do the trading part first and i know Sean Mcgarvey went to building trade school and will follow up in his panel. We do a lot of things good meaning there are a lot of things we need improvement not that i come from the training site for International Union in the Building Trades. Our training is second to none. My recruitment is second to none recruit out of the military to recruit from faithbased groups, community groups, minority groups for the workforce of the future. Heres why there are worker shortages in some classifications in some parts of the country. Can those worker shortages be filled . They can if we take the regulatory process and make it easier for us to train people that will not go to work for years on end because of that process whether it be at the state or the federal level but the training, we have the training down. We have trained we train 140,000 people in our gain in every year and thats not completely unique in the Building Trades. We have spent 110 million doing it so we can recruit the workforce of tomorrow. Heres what im encouraged by. Because of that fiveyear highway bill, because of the room on the energy side we have seen an increased interest with young men and women in military, returning military veterans to track the Construction Industry once again. Wasnt that long ago there was a Great Recession and the employment rate and the Construction Industry with was so they lost a whole group of workers that helped build all the projects that we could call out to define before so if we can get another boom. Right now we are not busting through the seams that are Unemployment Rate in the Construction Industry is probably 6 . Thats relatively low compared to what it was before but it is this little miss to come theres an infrastructure training infrastructure, a recruiting infrastructure with the additional interest of the Construction Industry being a sector with good paying jobs, high road jobs not low road jobs and we will stop losing people with all due respect workers young and middleaged and in the Service Sector in the construction sector so i believe we can fill any worker shortage that there is her all the vehicles that i just talked about and i know we can train journeyman upgrade training as well as apprenticeship ready programs and infrastructure is there. Everything get the infrastructure, the funding infrastructure we can provide the work infrastructure. Thats encouraging. In this country always find a way to deliver and step up. Im going to give it a little different aspect on that. Sean and terry and their unions are best in class at training the workforce we need in the future. Im concerned about the manufacturing side. Ill be very blunt about that. We have to produce the goods that they use to build our Infrastructure Projects. We have 350,000 jobs in manufacturing that are open today. We dont have the folks with the right skills but im going to say manufactures share a part of that word in and blame because we have not been good at training the workforce of the future and training folks for those upscale jobs that require upscale workers. And we are tackling that problem the federal government come the State Government have a role as well. Certainly education institutions of Higher Education have a role in this. We are starting to work with those but if we dont tackle this now we are going to have over 2 million jobs are unfilled that will add to the burden that we have of finding the workers necessary to get this done because its from soup to nuts. We have to have the workforce ready and available to get the job done. That just reinforces how winks we are between manufactures labor and professional contractors and if you find that you have a surplus bringing some of them around. Jay lets bring this back to you as it relates to the Freight Movement. It was the fast act that encouraged improvements in projects and enhanced Freight Movement in this country. What do you hear about frequencies these days . That we still have issues. There aquamax. There is a lack of sufficient routes. You also tie that in with trucking and tracking regulations and some manufacturers are able to switch between truck and rail but you have problems with the highway systems. You have aquamax with both of those areas and freight continues to be a problem but its improving. Any particular areas and the highest priority that you are hearing from members . It is all of the above. Theres no question about that because our members utilize our nations infrastructure system in very different ways. Some of our members are purely information based. Some are Intense Energy user so a great priority. Some have the need to ship their products through our ports system so our slowdowns in the ports. There really is not one area where you could say we have got to focus on this first. You have priorities in each of those areas that you have to tackle. I think though from a general public standpoint being able to emphasize the improvements to and we keep talking about improvements in to keep talking about patching the deficiencies. We also have to talk about building new things and moving towards the future. I think the way that you get the publics publics attention on this is to really focus on roads and bridges as terry said that we have an incredible number of structurally deficient, and think about that term and think about those horrible accidents that occurred in minnesota and other places when we hadnt paid enough attention to those deficiencies. 55,000 bridges in this country are structurally deficient. Many of those have been designated for complete destruction and rebuilding. Thats pretty frightening and thats the way the general public i think will take notice and get involved and tax bill that 52886 and we will continue to build that. To view labor labor in manufactures have built a tremendous collaboration in the infrastructure issue. Beyond what we are talking about here, getting the word out what advice do you have for trying to drive what is undoubtedly a bipartisan issue from your prospective . I guess you expect this coming from a labor guy, we need to be relentless and use that talent is in this room and the talents in d. C. Around infrastructure week and i think we respectfully, we have got to challenge our elected leaders do not stick their heads in the sand on this issue. Its too important to our economy and our competitiveness and the whole jobs equation. I think jay has given us the number to call. I know that we are mobilizing that with our members to call their congressional representatives about to the importance of this issue and about the importance of this week, about the importance of rebuilding our department of transportation infrastructure and is jay said i encourage each and every one of you to do the same. We need to keep peoples feet to the fire in a respectful way. This is too important to the future of our country. We cannot keep falling behind other countries and expect to have a 21st century at the structure and the greatest country that there is on this planet. How many times have we gathered to talk about infrastructure needs . How many infrastructure weeks have we celebrated together . Now is the time. This is absolutely our moment to make progress on this issue and why is that. We have a president who is very focused and we have a president who like to build things. He understands the importance of Infrastructure Investment whether you or your organization supported him or not is totally irrelevant. The fact of the matter is we have a friend in the white house when it comes to Infrastructure Investment and moving the bill forward. Congress understands this pressure as well. They may not want to deal with it and you know im not just throwing that number out and asking tic tacs to it. Actually think that this is the time for public pressure, pressure from business, pressure from labor, pressure from the general public will actually matter and it will actually get something done. We are not going to continue to just talk about the five your seven year transportation funding bill. This is above and beyond. We know that this is what we need to make sure that our economy grows a mixture we maintain our leadership around the world. Again this is our moment so please dont look at this as we have in the past. We will talk about it this week and then move onto other issues. We cant afford to do that. We have to keep the pressure up and it will pay off i guarantee you. I want to thank both of our panelists and just close by saying our youngest airport in this country is in denver and its 22 years old right now. Thats approaching midlife. As we talked about earlier we are moving people and goods across infrastructure that was open when the titanic set sail. We do have a moment right now to take advantage of this and to help that level of understanding across the country. I would ask for a round of applause for terry and jay. [applause] [inaudible conversations] good morning. My name is Jackie Hinman and my welcome and thanks to secretary chao as well as several other nations most prominent state and local government leaders that are going to join us later today. Speaker hughes of the Utah State Legislature mayor of Los Angeles Eric garcetti and my mayor of the mile high city of denver mayor Michael Hancock. Its my honor to join youtube commence the service of infrastructure week 2017 not only is the chairman and ceo of h2 and one of the nations leading Infrastructure Companies but also as the chairman of the Business Roundtable Infrastructure Committee and its this latter position that i will make a few remarks this week. For those not as chilly with his roundtable at the nations only organization that represents ceos of americas leading companies. Our 200 ceo member organizations generate more than 6 trillion in annual revenues and our major employers in every state providing quality jobs for some 15 million americans. In addition the Companies Invest 100 million annually in research and development and we generate more than 400 billion dollars in revenue for their small and medium sized business supply chains. Finally the organization serves as a fifth corporate citizens to advance the development of communities where they operate and as such they are keenly interested in it and putting american infrastructure. For someone who has spent her entire career in the business of delivering all kinds of infrastructure i cant recall a time in recent history, probably none of us can win it factor so prominently in the Public Policy dialogue and for the first time in my life im kind of happy because infrastructure is cool. The time has come for collaboration. Biyombo that that goes beyond political and jurisdictional boundaries to renew infrastructure and in that spirit the Business Roundtable today is introducing a policy group. A set of overarching principles and specific recommendations for many of important Infrastructure Projects being undertaken or Nations Capital as well as many state capitols and governments across the country. For the practical purpose of collaboration in this document we offer six Guiding Principles each of which provides a Common Ground rallying point bring americas infrastructure vision to fruition. The first policy comes to this roundtable for user payer model spread based on the idea that those folks that are from a particular asset generally, this principle promotes selfsustaining, direct dedicated revenue generated by user fees for the second policy principle for the Business Roundtable is to unlock the full potential of private investment. I think all of us noted in the u. S. Only 34 states have in place laws that make it easier for the private sector to invest in infrastructure. We would like to see more of that. The third principle calls for prioritizing investments for maximum Public Benefits taking a return Oriented Approach that is not i spent taken in the past and how we allocate Public Resources and leverage them across funding streams whether they are Public Private local, state or federal for broader impact projects. The fourth policy principle is to play smarter and more efficient regulatory approaches to work and we will hear a lot about that today as well. To protect Public Interest is absolutely critical. While also promoting private investment and improving predictability throughout the developmental and delivery process. Can be done and you will hear stories today of how to make that happen more efficiently. The fifth is government can play a powerful role incentivizing and accelerating innovation for nextgeneration of restructure projects were they be public or the Partnership Development grants or other projects and finally last but not least the six policy concepts is that we plan upfront to maintain infrastructure assets in the future. With ongoing management dedicated maintenance and contingency provisions. Much of the infrastructure challenge we have in this country isnt that we lack infrastructure, is that we lack wellmaintained sufficiently functioning infrastructure. The six principles embedded into the Business Roundtable puts a blueprint along with 40 specific recommendations advance common types of infrastructure such as Service Transportation and aviation and ports and waterways Water Management system our Nations Energy infrastructure and specific recommendations also provide ideas around improved funding. I encourage you to take a look at this blueprint. Entitled back in business and its available both in hardcopy and of course on line at brt. Org i can assure you that the Business Roundtable and its 200 member ceos and their organizations will work tirelessly with government and both labor and other organizational leaders for the common purpose of returning our infrastructure to the high standards of quality and excellence because this infrastructure is quite simply we all know its good business. And good infrastructure is all around us and youll hear a couple of examples today. Right here in d. C. For example the intracoastal waterfront initiative. A great project that leverages private investments to transfer one highway and urban boulevard into revitalized river front recreation areas. Several in the los angeles were government leaders including Eric Garcetti with overwhelming approval for measure m. Which secures the same funding for comprehensive transit. Its evident in denver where mayor hancock supports an Inclusive Committee partnership to redevelop the western center as a hub for agribusiness innovation and is shown by these leaders there has never been a better time to renew our country so lets get back to work. Its my pleasure to introduce dr. Norma gene mattei present at the American Society of Civil Engineers for her presentation for the annual report card the 2017 report card on americas infrastructure. Thank you. [applause] this morning is wrought to you by infrastructure, not just this morning but the first day of infrastructure week but every morning. When you got up you turn your lights on. You drank a glass of water. You might have had a bite of reckless. You grew through something in the garbage. You flush the toilet. You brushed your teeth. You got dressed for the day and you got here and you traveled maybe by car, maybe by light rail, maybe biplane. Each of these activities would not be possible without infrastructure. Infrastructure is all around us, underneath us in securing our quality of life. The Civil Engineer and the president of the society of Civil Engineers and its 150,000 members globally i and my other members are stewards of our infrastructure. I am also a professor of engineering. My grades are due wednesday. Im here to tell you that our country has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to infrastructure. Every four years since 1998 it has prepared the infrastructure report card using a simple familiar format at af format that everyone here understands. We examined the current infrastructure and needs. We find grades and we make recommendations to raise those grades. Our committee on american infrastructure from across the country and across 16 categories of infrastructure reviews data and reports and meets with Government Agency and industry officials assessing each category according to be eight key criteria. Capacity, condition, funding, future needs, operations and maintenance and of course Public Safety, resilience and innovation so roads, bridges, water, wastewater down to parks and schools are reviewed. In 2017 afps report card we created the nations infrastructure and is mentioned prior the overall grade is a d . Not good. There are copies outside on a table next to the door that you came in from. Pick up and take a look. The d is the same grade we had in 2013 the last time we created our nations infrastructure. We have seen him prove meds though. Seven of the 16 categories saw a great increase. Thats good. Engineers and elected officials and communities across the country are developing Innovative Solutions and in those areas infrastructure grades improved. 12 categories need work. They still have grades in the ds and three more cds. That reflects that we have a significant that log of needs across our country. In all of these categories the infrastructure is interconnected , is interdependent in its system. The best grade a b was rail. It was the only b on the 2017 report card and its the result of investment, investment by private industry and private freight rail. They did a lot to improve and maintain rail infrastructure. Unfortunately Passenger Rail pulled the rate down or it might be better. Amtrak probably would not grade itself better than a b. There is some good news. I think its good news or at least perhaps a flight at the end of the time of. Because of those grades we are almost at the point where our infrastructure cant go much lower. Hour of the structure cant successfully service about bone of our economy. As we heard from secretary earlier theres interest and momentum growing at the white house and congress to Work Together on these issues which the overwhelming majority of americans support. We at afcee dont just tell you about the problems facing our infrastructure, those problems become self to most americans today. Where im really here to tell you about are the steps that we Civil Engineers, the experts in design who build and who maintain all kinds of infrastructure, we know that these steps need to be taken so that we can fix this. If United States is truly committed to any of the structure system that is built for the 21st century we need increased and sustained investments. We need old leadership. We need planning. We need careful preparation not just for now but for our future. So that infrastructure is sustainable and resilient. Im pleased to have secretary shell and others touch on many of these solutions. In fact the present himself as valid investment in our aging and deteriorating infrastructure. His planned 1 trilliondollar investment would sure be a good step towards addressing this gap but after decades of minimal investment and maintenance our needs are great. Iasc estimate our investments in infrastructure needs for 2016 in 2025 totaled nearly 4. 6 trillion. If usm that current funding levels are sustained over those same 10 years we are left with 2 trillion of needs that wont be covered by Current Trends and investment. And about 1. 1 trillion or a little over half are in Service Transportation, our roads, our bridges. Leaders from all levels of government and from the private sector must come together to increase a percentage of the u. S. Gross domestic product. Right now its at 2. 5 . If we could just kick it up to 3. 5 . This investment cannot rely solely on private financing over public funding. Even those in the private equity market know that financing will not close the infrastructure gap. The return on investment is just not there in certain set jars of our infrastructure that we rely on but those set jars needs are critical. All the funding and the financing and the world will not guarantee widespread inclusion in our ever structure we dont also ensure if spent wisely. We must prioritize projects and critical benefits to the economy, to Public Safety into qualityoflife. While streamlining projects and approval processes will certainly promote some savings and some efficiencies in time and money we also need to change how we structured the plan. Projects must be budgeted based on the cost, not just for building those projects but also as george from d. C. Water knows the cost of maintaining and operating infrastructure over their lifetime is pretty substantial when you look at the cost of the lifespan of that infrastructure. Finally, we need to build their infrastructure to be more sustainable and more resilient with clear economic environmental and social benefits and that infrastructure must be quickly recoverable from significant weather and hazard events. Much of our existing infrastructure system was built 50, 60 years ago and we as Civil Engineers pay no attention of that infrastructure happened to move into 100 year usage. We must look at the new Technology Materials and approach it as we design as the bill and as we improve our infrastructure so that it is prepared for the demands of not just us for our kids and our grandkids for those future generations of americans. Opportunities exist right now to solve our infrastructure crisis. Is the administration u. S. Congress weigh infrastructure legislation and state and local governments also around the country take action in their communities but there is more to be done. I dont have a magic wand to wave to resolve our infrastructure issues. There just isnt an amp structure money tree from the private sector that will singlehandedly revitalize construction. Solving this crisis will take collective action and is going to take tough choices. In failing to act, thats going to result in another d grade in four years when afcee puts out the next infrastructure report card. If we did not close the investment gap our economy will pay the consequences. That includes how about a 3 trilliondollar u. S. Gdp loss by 2025, 7 trillion by 2025 loss by businesses, 2. 5 million jobs lost by 2025. On top of that each American Family will lose 3400 out of their pockets, out of their disposable income each year. That averages about 9 a day due to what they have suffered from poor infrastructure, sitting in traffic, the cost of goods just costing more to get to where they purchase them. For many this is something they cannot afford and we can all think of better ways to spread spread spend the precious dollar. So about 4 a day, thats the price of a cheap decaf latte, we can solve that problem, this problem. Today in direct infrastructure week lets commit to a future in which we improve infrastructure and gal you it as a key to the qualityoflife a tour economic prosperity, a future in which we are all willing to chip in and pay our fair share to invest in infrastructure. Its just not time to build, its time to maintain our nations infrastructure. Its time to ensure that its its build for the future generations of america that will rely on it for longer life in this nation. Thank you. [applause] im message in 2017 is its time to build. Its time to build stronger systems that are resilient to new demands in the 21st century risks. Designed to build smarter systems that use new technology to keep us safer and moving faster. Time to build better systems that i improve our quality of life, create jobs and accelerate our economy, to build a better america for the next generation. The time to build is now. Good morning. Good morning and im pleased to moderate this panel this morning labeled smarter, faster safer construction for the 21st century. My name is mike burke and im the chairman and ceo of aecom. We are in the structure Business Building assets and over 150 countries around the world. One of the things that we are hearing a lot about today has been quite evident certainly over the past six months that infrastructure is increasingly in the spotlight and that spotlight is growing more intense by the day. So we are moving from an era where there is strong and knowledge meant up in the structure gaps in this country. We have all heard the numbers 3. 6 trillion infrastructure gap. They are our enormous amounts of data that technologies that gap so we are moving from a phase where we acknowledge that gap, to a phase where we are going to take action to address that gap is growing across the country. For the first time in this debate we are seeing a very strong alignment along three factors, and alignment of political support, public support and private capital being brought to bear to solve this problem. We have heard from secretary chao this morning and we are delighted to hear that there is a plan underway being developed to bring 200 billion of capital to solve this problem and more importantly the 200 odeon dollars in capital which is being brought to bear is going to be brought to bear in a way that leverages a trillion dollars of private capital. We are seeing an increasing amount of private capital looking to invest into infrastructure assets both here in the u. S. And abroad. One of the things that has dividend in the best front and private sector infrastructure is the Regulatory Burden so i was encouraged by secretary chaos, that we are going to look to reduce the Regulatory Burdens that cause us to undertake a 10 year process to an full meant infrastructure. So that was very encouraging. We are seeing this broad bipartisan support. We are seeing it at the congressional and federal level that everybody supporting infrastructure. Maybe not necessarily in agreement on how we are going to pay for it just yet but we are seeing broad bipartisan support. We are seeing voter support across the country. In the november ballots we saw 200 billion of measures passed entirely to Fund Transportation infrastructure. We are seeing more than half the states raise the gas tax. I was glad to hear this morning someone else calling for an increase to the federal tax level. It hasnt increased since 1993 so we are seeing through federal support state local and taxpayers support across this country to bring some sense of urgency to this long overdue problem. But whats going to be important is as we start taking action and start tackling this problem that we are focused on the right priority for projects. So the focus of this panel is going to be answering that question what should we build tax we have both wide array of needs but selecting the right projects to build, the right projects that ad dress both the infrastructure needs, addressed the economic impact, the Environmental Impact and creates jobs for this country. We have seen the studies that if we select the right jobs we will have a threetime multiplier benefit to the economy if we select the right infrastructure job. Today we have a distinguished panel of experts from the Public Sector and the private sector who will help us address this challenge. I will briefly introduce the panel is before we jump into the discussion. Immediately to my left is Michael Hancock from denver colorado. Michael will focus on making sure that the city is globally competitive in all of us are focused on that around the country but establishing a competitive Infrastructure Environment and also focused on developing the first smart city in denver so we will hear more about that in a minute. To my far left George Hawkins the ceo and general manager of d. C. Water and dont be fooled by george is outfitted with all the pins in regalia. George is one of the most recognized water experts in the world and an educated lawyer and being a recovering lawyer myself again appreciate that. We will hear about some of the most incredible innovative ideas that have been brought an 80yearold infrastructure asset is in deep, deep water. Mainly to my right judy marks the present ceo of siemens. Judy brings to important perspectives. She has 50,000 employees here in the u. S. That are focused on developing some of the most Innovative Technology for infrastructure but she also has 60 different any faction plants here in the u. S. So we want to make sure those plants stay here in the jobs stay here in the u. S. We have to have a competitive Infrastructure Environment to make sure that siemens maintains those jobs and in fact we will hear more about that. To my far right Sean Mcgarvey the Building Trade Union that represents many across this country. Are about to him or this infrastructure boom and we have heard from a Previous Panel there are concerns whether we have the right talent to build everything that needs to be built so we will hear more about that in a minute. Let me address the first question to mayor hancock. As the developer of the smart city station and also the largest metropolis metropolis around Denver Airport its truly defining 21st century infrastructure where theyre at smart l. E. D. Lighting Smart Parking and smart bus shelters, vetting the future of Autonomous Vehicles. Every single one of these latest technologies is being applied to the projects if you have underway in your city. Maybe you could help us understand why is it a smart investment . This phrase smart cities is used probably a little too much of a little too broadly but why is it a smart investment for the city of denver to consider the latest technology . Let me first tell you its our laboratory for testing out the Smart Technology in partnership with panasonic so to publicprivate effort. They have built the headquarters for the enterprise and we are looking at things like the things you talk about, i autonomous the goals and environmental sensing. The reason its important for us to do this, we have to think about longterm investments in our ever structure. We need to act like its 2017th and not like its 1970. We need to build our roads that are built not just from moving cars but people and vehicles of transportation. Those are critical but we need to make sure we improve the quality of life and flow. People today are much more than ever before. If we could use that technology to improve the flow through outer city that we will improve their quality of life. We are looking at how we can do those things protect knowledge he solutions. The reality is panasonic is using that laboratory to come up with solutions for the needs we have such a great hardship to help us do that. Finally let me say that denver in our region is the fastestgrowing, second fastestgrowing in the country today. The city of denver has grown by 1000 people per month. We are seeing our city increased by 23 in People Per Day in the city of denver. Thats 10050000 people coming to our state putting demands on our roads and other infrastructure so the more we can have a smarter projection of the better we can accommodate the residents and accommodate them and be more productive. Debut could expand on the Technology Aspect to it one of the issues we have seen time and time again is they length and duration of implementation for infrastructure assets into law. Mainly due to the Regulatory Burden today but what we are trying to do is plan and implement infrastructure assets that might not be ready for many years but we are trying to embed it with technology that is changing so rapidly. In my home city of los angeles we are looking at the new consolidated rental lax and the question of course is will we have rental cars in 10 years or were we just have Autonomous Cars or tennis rentals and trying to think through new ways of doing business and Tech Knowledge he. How are you thinking about it in denver . I have to be honest with you thats why its so critical for us in denver and across the countries and all the other major figure in the south we have to have Publicprivate Partnership. We can indicate through our analytics what is coming and try to get ahead of it. We can partner with you in helping to figure out how to move forward. Mayors and governors have to think further as well. We have a challenge in the city and their people think further ahead. Sometimes its harder because we are in our silos into your point we are not used to doing that but the reality is we cant take years to implement these infrastructure changes. We have got to think about how we affect the technology we have to think further ahead. For example as we look to improve our roads we start taking about Autonomous Vehicles. That may not be in the role for the next five to 10 years. We are preparing for their ultimate domination on our roads. I want to come back to how you prioritize projects but before we do that maybe we could transition to judy on the technology for the city and certainly siemens not only has 60 manufacturing plants that you mentioned and i want to go back to that also, but what type of technology are you seeing today is siemens that is applicable to infrastructure and fireman here in United States . Thank you and may are you said it right, its all about connecting. We believe technology is here to stay and while Autonomous Vehicles may be slowly emerging and we are figuring out how to deal with them from a policy and technology, connecting vehicles right now the traffic robin is real. We had a grant last week in columbus, ohio is part of their federal project and we think today technology is real. We have to plan today that everything we touch in the internet of things is the Center Center and is rebuilding the structure which goes beyond roads and bridges like the secretary said its all about preplanting and having it digital approach with every physical we put out there submerging the virtual ecological with the physical. We do have 60 plants here and im proud to say we are local with their 50,000 employees in every state. The other thing though is we need tools to do this. We need analytics to do this and we have what we call a city Performance Tool that we have used in mideast many cities including San Francisco and minneapolis, d. C. Which is first lease the results of that and besides the Economic Impacts it lets you evaluate the environment impacts. Mayors and governors, people are concerned about what the congestion means. We think theres a digital place thats real and here to stay and we also believe if we instrument and use these sensors and probably the best example i can give you we deliver to amtrak for the northeast corridor. I have the privilege to work in the district taking training quite a bit. Not only do we have as you can imagine. Significant Information Technology that we do locomotive as Operational Technology and they are so sophisticated we sell that energy back to the grid. Our definition of a structure similar to a lot of mayors and governors. Its wireless to medication, teasing digital technology. Its all about moving people more rapidly in our cities on our highways and in our buildings. Most people are not where the buildings are generating more carbons than any other single unit. When we talk about it a structure may talk about building and i look forward to hearing from you we think theres tremendous opportunity to take us in the future. Wizardly see the benefits of your technology and your projects in the assets we are involved in. Im interested in the competitiveness environment for manufacturers here in the u. S. As it relates to infrastructure. When we look at back in 2000 by the World Economic forum rank the competitiveness of countries around the world with regard to infrastructure in the United States was number one in 2005. 10 years later we were number 15 we saw precipitous drop off. We were spending 2. 5 of our gdp on infrastructure. Europe was spending 5 in china with spending 9 . They had a bigger gap to close but the competitiveness of manufacturing in this country has dropped primarily due to infrastructure. How are you dealing with that given you have the choice to locate facilities wherever you choose. We do have the choice and we want to manufacture here in the u. S. We exported five . 5 billion of manufactured goods from the u. S. In the last year across the world but some of it we deal with ourselves. We put in a rail in our four minutes in iowa facility where we build large wind place. Think about of football links football field length laid. We increased the offramps of the cape deliver them throughout the United States. Some of this was taken on ourselves and some of it we worked in Public Private partnerships but we absolutely did bill care me want to manufacture here. We are a Global Company but we are absolutely local entity that we are willing to invest that we need a Regulatory Framework and we welcome infrastructure activity across the country. We do believe in local and i sincerely believe that its not one unique ubiquitous answer for the whole country which is why we work with the mayors and governors and we will continue to do that in every state. George maybe we can move to you. Its clear that d. C. Water has been recognized around the world as one of the most innovative water facilities anywhere and i think its a real testament to what you and your team have done there to address the problem that we heard a Previous Panelist talked about this morning saying that we are looking at infrastructure assets built around the time the titanic was built and the last time i saw you i got a tour of the blue plains facility which is an 80yearold water facility here in d. C. , Water Treatment plant that now treats over a billion gallons a day i believe, george but its an 80yearold facility and somehow you have figured out how to bring the latest Innovative Technology to that eightyyearold asset and ensures not only producing efficiently but also producing products in form of energy from that. Maybe you could help us understand not only how you were doing that but how are you getting the support from your rate payers to be able to implement these Innovative Solutions . [laughter] thats darned good water. Im drinking might clients product right now i believe. First of all and glad to be here. How many of you are from the district are surrounding metro . We have nothing without the support of our customers and the carafe of water on your table and im glad its d. C. s finest rate there is probably costing this enterprise a fifth of a cent. The investment that it takes for public water aside from the other benefits when you have public water the cost is so low. This is probably 80 cents to 1 dollar almost a six pack you are paying for all of the water. Thats one of the best investments you can make. Im delighted to hear there are a lot of these programs for roads and bridges. I love roads and bridges and i drive on them every single day but water is not the end of the equation. Every single job. Fire suppression, we call it enriched water or Drinking Water you cant open every single job depends on the service. Its a food chain every single element. The only element is essential to every life form is water. You are investing in water by the best Public Health outcome and thats incredible. The u. S. Water alliance came out with a survey at the end of last week focusing today very similar numbers to the supportive of structure. Its very high supported Infrastructure Investment. The public rated at 15 Percentage Points higher than that so investment in the water is something that people support. They get it. Its about my life so im really glad to be here. I will give you great example and this is why investment in water in particular is so good. We at the largest advanced wasteWater Treatment plant in the world should serve 750 square miles, our customers to give you a sense every single day we generate the you do not want in the potomac to keep those rivers of our city clean. 1200 tons a day. The tanker truck is the length of the stage and there are 60 of them a day. In the old fashion world that was called a waste. What we learned from ecology is the waste of everyones organism is food for another so now we take that and you can generate power from matt. Couldnt fit a standard digester at blue plains because we have so much we didnt have the space so we looked worldwide for technology and innovation in northern europe. They drop the volume put it into a flash tank and all the cells break. When you put something hot under cold stream of water the buts going to the digesters and the buds are like yes. They are faster and they generate more energy and we are now the largest clean energy producer. 13 megawatts of clean power 24 hours a day so wind is great and solar is great but that comes from the bread. Ours is a permanent baseball policy. At the end of that we have four to 500 tons of Crystal Clean biosolids which is filled with organic look up loose soils. Com. We are going to sell it as a nutrientbased organic soil which we can return into the system as a revenue source. Heres the key for infrastructure. You heard the stories about how much water that means if you invest in repairing and all the rest you can do that reduces the cost to the enterprise of treating water so you have an immediate cost savings not just a cost that out the door. Thats the same as hard digesters. Its saving us money every single day and permanently so a lot of the projects we do in the water sector take upfront investment but they are very prone to the kind investments the private sector likes and we like to make them because we generate revenue. Every gallon that is not wasted that is money saved. Every kilowatt hour we produce thats money saved. Every bio cell we sell on the market, the projects we can do that improve service Public Health jobs and save money that we can share with investors is astronomical and happening today thank you. We have, you and i have troops we talked about the challenges we have put having enough workers to satisfy this infrastructure boom and i think he used the phrase the last time we talked that this isnt a justintime delivery model. We have to have certainty around the type of Infrastructure Projects we can train and we heard a panel this morning say we cant train the company and put them on the bench for a year waiting for that to come along but there is so much talk in the press about the lack of a Skilled Workforce to implement infrastructure. Do you think thats accurate and maybe you can give us a sense if we are short how short are we and what are organizations doing to add more to the 3 million members we are to have . Thanks mike and thanks to the chamber for participating. Much like my colleague there is no question some areas of the country and some specific skill sectors there is a shortage but there is also a gap in seats and classrooms that we have in those particular areas of the country where we hear either a political or ideological void that we and the buyers of Construction Services cant seem to get over when it comes to who can produce recruit trained the most highlyskilled safest most productive in the world. We do. We are unchallenged in that but certain areas of the country where we have a history that might be 40 or 50 years older we have problems where the engagement was in grade, where we havent been able to break through with the second via the apple. Their rep is a shortage than they can produce a product and im in sales and sometimes aggravate some of my members when i say this. If youre going to buy crafts labor from the Building Trades unions you have another option. If youre going to buy from us from siemens we have to deliver the product. Getting to that point we are still having that bottleneck. We have 1600 Training Centers in the United States. We fund them at 1. 2 billion dollars a year by the private sector. Is day head scratcher to be a little bit and i try to read these every try to respond at the wall street journal or others who have a altered row of white people want to protect this shortage when there is an option for the option to be part of the solution is contractors and we dont have a relationship with or invest in training the other convention work force but the way the structure works going across the Geographic Area youre not making the 20,000 investment for upgrading the skills training now you have a better offer to spread the risk on the halls where read dispatch these people so i encouraged for the demand that she spoke to the justin time manufacturing will not work. You need to earn as you learn. Just like manufacturing friends in the room you dont produce product unless there is a product demand. But when did you go blows we are ready to go. Clearly those jobs cited as so important to gain public support but the other issue that comes up is the type of job relative to technology. We heard judy talk about the increasing allocation of technology, and that type of infrastructure that has so many more components toes of the organization to adapt to the Smart Technology we were closely with the manufacturers for those in the Construction Industry to see people on the job site dispatched with the ipad or the Electronic Devices are the evolution of the industry. In some industries it is a high profit incentive because that creates more and come into the enterprise. Construction is a little slower to become more productive and efficient the were building two Nuclear Plants in the south one is for Georgia Power with about 6,000 people on the site today the last one rebuilt refinished in the 80s is three times the size of the workforce so that will show you the technology in adapting the Construction Industry were getting more efficient but generally we work with manufacturers and suppliers anybody to come into the Training Center to work on their training to integrate into the Training Program for upgrading or the new trainees in the program to get the latest technology as they are on the job applying the technology. We talked about the way you adapt it innovation with the other assets. What could other areas of infrastructure learn from what you have done . There is so whole host of infrastructure like the bridges and rail like the asset that needs updated. That is a great question and water is one of the more vulcanized services in every community with 53,000. Plus the waste water. So what we are finding as a challenge to our project with the very good return on investment once you get to that point the challenges for those smaller utilities in this is where working with the chamber is how you create a model to reduce that of from cost so the up front transaction cost is reduced and what is happening in the water sector is up front as opposed to investing that money is everything we do now we think how do we turn this into a model . Every plant should generate power but if everyone has to do the evaluation and they probably wont and all that activity will happen even if they can return money to the investor. So by a creating models in disseminating through the chamber to make that up front transaction and to get to the return that will drive innovation. Just like i said the technology Public Private partnerships like the real from West Palm Beach to orlando is totally private and financed. In reheard that in canada and those other privately funded on the transaction basis it goes beyond the tollbooth where a lot of people go to other activities in denver and water and the grid every icon has a potential for Publicprivate Partnership and now time to use models that have been successful. That is a great point. We look at other countries around the world those that are implemented through Publicprivate Partnership here in United States it is 1 so we still have a lot of barriers to break through but the thing that is part of the solution and what secretary chao said this morning the federal government that will facilitate private investment to unleash the private capital. By interested in your thoughts was stops other cities from implementing the Infrastructure Initiative that your city has done a great job as a smart city what is limiting others to do more or limiting denver from achieving all your hopes and dreams . And of think i have never been more excited about water after listening to you. [laughter] but to your point we have a very aging infrastructure in this country that before leaving get to the point employment exciting smarter Faster Technology we have to fix what we have that has been neglected the last couple of decades didnt now those and coming together calling to work with the federal government and once we do that we can see ourselves become much bolder and more each more aggressive to engage around more Innovative Technologies and infrastructure. And those across the country today we will see more bolder action with a Publicprivate Partnership federal and State Governments or the upgrades. We can think smarter and faster if we have partners and then to complete though wine we have a partner who helps us to complete that process and then you mentioned Union Station we could on make those advances we are making without a private partner. So catching up with the aging infrastructure and then to fully engage with the Publicprivate Partnership is the next up for the cities and i believe quite frankly the next revolution with infrastructure. As our time is winding down thanks to the panel up here today i was very excited to moderate today because it really shows how the public and private sector needs to come together to solve a problem we need great leadership from innovative thinkers and from our labor unions training the next generation of workers. This panel is a great example of how many to come together to solve this problem. [applause] [inaudible conversations] we must do this. We can do this. State and local leaders developing plans for their communities at the ballot box voters are saying yes to Infrastructure Investment but that is not enough. To close the gap we need investment for all levels of government federal, state, and local with the private sector. The challenges are national in scale but the Transcontinental Railroad to the panama canal to the interstate highway system federal leadership has transformed america. We need a National Plan now is the time now was the time to build. [inaudible conversations] so the message of the video is right for a boy this time to build the nest to this and rekindle this and we will demonstrate that we are doing this at the local and state level but we still need a National Plan for the need for the scope and scale i appreciate the comments earlier today because it shows theyre looking for a collaborative approach for federal plan that is good for everyone. Im the chairman and ceo of a 103 yearold brand working with clients to help enhance transportation infrastructure. There are promising signs that the federal, state, and local level that is higher on the federal agenda in it has been in many years. And cities have made major commitments to fund the transportation with widespread support. With the election voters approved ballot measures to provide 203 billion of funding extensions for transportation vestment across the country in rehearsing more legislative proposals every day. No doubt we must prepare any assets that are seriously deficient in to make investments very strategically to have new levels of performance for what they should have been decades ago. Sitting with the last panel today to offer a consensus to build of blueprint for investment because that is exactly what it will take were fortunate to have a panel who could take remarkable actions in their cities and states to build support consensus for needed infrastructure there will copesetic privatesector perspective so were honored to have the speaker of the utah house and the mayor of los angeles in the ceo of the Carlyle Group. Mayor, many Ground Breaking things going on around los angeles every county implemented the largest local Transportation Investment Program in the history of the United States you are leveraging multiple sales tax measures expected to generate 120 billion so what were some of those strategies to reach that consensus with over 70 percent of the voters . Thanks to all of you and to all those setter here. Infrastructure is the least sexy thing to talk about the then you realize how amazing and our important it is so it is difficult for those of our elected officials to say infrastructure to have the average americans say awesome. But how long is it taking you to get home . Or could you take that job or find the affordable place to live before that bridge collapsed three still sure that it is still strong . So to talk about human health and quality of life but in los angeles to begin realized los angeles has more rose than any city in america the worst traffic and the busiest origination and destination airports in the nation we have a lot of needs and enough roads to go from los angeles to mumbai and back again just to visualize how many streets we have to pave. It was falling apart so we started to bring together a coalition things to the support and the unions but a lot of stakeholders when people who were never involved before because there is no Public Transportation we talk to young people or bicycle activist not buying their own cars but their one smooth roads to ride their bicycles and started to look at the regional approach it is really 80 million and we looked at that connection to say if we go to the ballot we better have a very strong plan and show them how they get their bang for the buck sirree tried to use the idea of leverage of local and federal dollars public and private and something for everybody not the traditional Christmas Tree like a gift but accountable things that would work at the end of the day get you home of little earlier. We were a couple of points behind a couple weeks out but then we switched the advertisement to driving in a car on the weekend here we are in rushhour traffic the only problem is this saturday at 12 00. At a visceral level they realize here is the jobs and the realigns that is how well talk about things. So real americans talk about it in the break room. I am not the only person under your leadership talk about delivering big complex jobs. Also an outspoken champion to build the extensions of light rail so you can share the legislator to build a consensus around Creative Infrastructure proposals. With Public Policy makers and public servants, it is not restricted to only republicans or democrats. I was in the Legislature Since 2002 as the majority whip and second term as speaker of the house i had an opportunity to serve when i was in the legislature i was asked by the mayors in my area to serve on the board and said i may not be your best guide i dont know if i buy into it. I thought it was a costly way to move people. They said the board should have that perspective for the legislature to know that is a climate here in utah that what i learned was those 40 million trips that were on mass transit or light rail was displacing the cars or delaying the conduct digestion the was charged as a lawmaker to find the resources for to build and accommodate the growth around the country the fastestgrowing area spending time in the legislature as the mayor from denver pointed out as well. I got a crash course. It was a 40 million interchange it took awhile has the new weber and they have the way to make sure youre not going the wrong way for your car does not stop but the cabinet members that you mentioned to me with a Ribbon Cutting we will have some congestion failure in about five years on this freeway. Did you hear that . That is really what happened. That sums it up. [laughter] i thought it was hard to get that done to see that failure coming so quickly was the Commuter Rail that we were building. And we have to see about transit because we cannot have congestion failure on these interchanges in just five years. What we learned that the multi modal infrastructure in the governments ability so the quality of life this is our role this is what we do you cannot be varied just to one motta as a policymaker to pick the winners how people should get around. I hate bicycles i am a grown man but they are all the rage. Put the bike lanes out. Even the rental bikes because that is one less car. That is one less party that has defined parking or structured parking. It is all the hands on deck every motive that the public wants to use we want to provide. That was a bernie experience for me as a policy maker. Is a necessity because we cannot afford to go stagnant how do we get that transit component at a National Level . What can we do . The republicans are your problems some time because they have the same mindset that i just described. There is a paradigm shift you just have to say the roads, rail, bus, not republican or democrat they really are essentials but the problem is you cannot put on a flier. The constituents are not looking at that to think that is a big victory so we have to have those conversations and particularly with a metropolitan areas are growing. The economy grows. The opportunity for Publicprivate Partnership is the best. The you can put a toll road in montana but that does not seem as intuitive we do not have the density of hong kong but with their masstransit they do get one dime of public dollars it is all paid for from the investment from the fare box recovery in the development that occurs around the fixed stations. So when you show that opportunity you can break down those political walls. So for jobs and Economic Development to try to create middleclass american jobs and then a disappearing middleclass. And not needing a College Degree with a job we will pay 465,000 jobs it is the largest jobs program in the country not only to have a fiveyear job of 40 year career to fix those everywhere in the city now than they need facture race mueller of the companies that we work with the there is a single American Company that builds transit any more. There is no american manufacturer but if we have that guarantee you want economic nationalism that is the middleclass blue caller job bluecollar job that everybody gets more people. That might not be today that read cities or blue cities will have more and more people we just to have the capacity. You could put it inside our footprint. It may not look like it because you dont have skyscrapers but Salt Lake City or denver like tallahassee so we dont prepare then shame on us. With the largest private investors in the world advocating for private financing and in that capacity for investment in u. S. Infrastructure. Thank you endings to the chamber for hosting this will become the country i dont think there is a doubt in any bettys mind just how critical this question is but the tougher question is how in the world to read it passed telling everybody how important it is . So we have a framework told by secretary chao that is coming which is exciting that will be turned into legislation governors and mayors but how do you find that . They said funding is the biggest challenge but the private sector is funding infrastructure all over the world with billions and billions of dollars everywhere around the world. Why is that . The primary reason there is not a systematic project or market in north america or the United States. Why . Is it because every project is a snowflake . That has its own design and financing and approval process . So the struggle. So the number one comment that i hear around the world from investors around the world would love to invest in infrastructure is that i know of this will happen. Now talking route o trillion dollars of Infrastructure Spending is that a number that intimidates over tenure period . Thats all you have to do for 10 years. That Municipal Bond market is a 3. 8 trillion market. There are 70 billion with Infrastructure Fund ready to go just waiting. That this will go to australia or Southeast Asia at or europe or canada so my encouragement is to go ahead and acknowledge it is a huge problem but what will be due . But were trying to boil the ocean at the Carlyle Group a pretty famous executive said dont try to boil the ocean just take things that our global. So i challenge does not to find the most complicated project or the perfect project but that can get done that to be funded to help develop the market to unleash the capital it is the best place in the world to invest. This is perfectly articulated speaking backstage posting the International Olympic committee it has been too long since we have posted. Posted. And then to move along a subway and then to do from the west side to downtown reno that there is money right now from secretary chao that has been approved by one administration that we bring over half unless they taught us off. Now it gets better because you dont really want to bet against you on musk this is highly Technical Work then he did say whole in says how about i come visit . But he thinks you could do this faster with different technology. Or if it was ted percent that would be an added value. So then that privatesector so now they call the office of extraordinary innovation. And then they come to us to tell us out to finish a project. But if we say we just try to get from here to there whether it is tunneling to do it faster or better or quicker millions of dollars to figure that out and we are better off. The money is waiting to be sure for federal and local money so those policy makers as the chair of the task force we need to make sure so those privatesector dollars will flow as a more capitalist country with the most socialist countries of europe. But in addition to that if you think of the projects those hot lanes around for 95 on the beltway that is greenfield. What we have seen around the world to invest in new projects that is trapped in existing infrastructure. To think about the enterprise value and Public Ownership thinks of the way to liberate that exist and then you can take that capital but deals trillion government most recently talks about in New South Wales not quite as big as los angeles they generated through the use of a recycling program existing assets of 25 billion australian dollars in five years in reemployed that in Infrastructure Projects. Sebelius forget one of the greatest sources is the existing asset base and secretary chao mentioned that this morning is a tool kit. But we have a lot of assets that do and private sector investing to liberate to be deployed by you and others. You have done this all hands on deck so what do you think is the balance. Necessity is the mother of invention the way we create political will to make sure the project you are doing has the greatest effect so be got together the state dot in Transit Authority and within an organization said we had the big celebre give a first every years ago, people do we think will livein this area than we did a reverse engineer hard to fit 3 Million People in 130mile range . So you show that you cannot just do that and pick a motive to saudia collaborative effort to replace its stars to whittle down into those projects you can get the greatest leverage. So when we have the ability for the Transit Authority to participate. We know where we would get the gap of funding from wary we need to be in 2014 is a pretty big gap. How do we close that . In 2015 the First Time Since 1996 we could touch our assets. Raising taxes is not what rebook republicans do but 0. 24 a gallon youre not even staying steady as cars travel further on a gallon so because of the urgency with policymakers that see where we need to be in understand that funding gap we have converted from the attacks to a percentage that will help us grow and as recently as to pay for that expansion to the nonbinding and all related sales tax that would be a gas tax to be revitalized but developing that political will to do that to understand those challenges refacing but we cannot just say we have to get to where we are now to find those that will get us closer to those funding formulas would Bay Transportation task force going on between the two sessions how can we say tell the five ways you can use the dollar or use them for those projects for infrastructure. Talk about streamlining those projects to be very successful every delivery if you put 70 miles of the airlines and then theyre under schedule what recommendations would you have . As the state through the corridor which is critical going through the Fastest Growing county in america, we did not use federal funds because of the time and the cost associated but we did use them on the five lines. We would like to get into environment that those are not so prohibitive. Of course we could all use those but we had those projects happening at the same time we had the corridor so this ceo of the Transit Authority they would close down areas to coordinate efforts to enrich those at the same time to make sure that was benefiting both projects. There are too many silos. Everybody has their silo hin politics. I am absolutely convinced one of the reasons why over 300 million projects are under budget in the 2015 project came in because the silos did nazi each other as competitors are working against one another. They Work Together to see their project as the central and we brought that savings to the taxpayer. We saw hundreds of millions of dollars of savings and essentially was a collaborative effort and right now on our freeway there are electronic signs as a for cleaner air use transit know how many dot people are advertising masstransit on their interstates . How often does that happen . But that is where we are trying to find that in our state. To put a lot of thought into have been communicating some for that looking at those main components . Infrastructure incentive initiative i think essentially first and foremost, leverage each other. The days of the state or the city showing up are over but it is half filled trust me over the last four years with a Republican Congress you can leave with the hat filled all the way. Second talk about the life of the project here in washington there is a fatality on masstransit because the money goes in as politicians there is not a lot of glory to maintain the weather here in washington the 70 has to kick out the window to save themselves for the mayor in california where they try to get a maintenance measure passed think about it this way if the building cost is not bear the maintenance is there is a you need a steady stream when you do focus groups you have a better shot and it is 20 your 30year tax we were blown away so the support went up more and more they did that at a gut level you dont do that than your tax wed want the children or the childrens children to figure out some of the measure is a permanent tax increase. So the second piece is the life of the project and it gets back to leverage the also leverage of the private sector in since we opened up that office one of the most expensive tunnels out in los angeles that is when we tried to wyden the freeway and then it opened up people have lined up to bring their capital and engineering to get that done quicker now for the best in the business because he put it in the ground everything that he needed to do that was the first set was not a toll road the been the last pieces is innovation to have that revolutionary moment the interconnected vehicle subterranean to wrote ride share some of this is where there is more American Innovation and dubai will have there first aerial drones this year. So look at innovation happening because of all sorts of reasons recent American Technology to other parts of the world so the federal government should put funding aside to do their innovative transportation work and with the infrastructure. Last question. Your very successful to build consensus in the red state between the two of you on both sides of the political spectrum if you have to make one short recommendation what do they need to do . We said backstage republicans stop thinking you can do this through the average juror through grants we need both to be the absolutist the way they go into their camps. With this is an area where america is united and to recapitalize those offshore assets of love was secretary manchin is saying about that. And then to give to corporations for profit but we do that in the blue city on the a decide there are certain things they need to build by the way it is not washingtons money if you want to chance that if they want to do all the roads then do that so keep those columns of grants because hear those out to get 1 trillion moving. I guess washington will have a partisan side is seems that is all you ever hear with the talking heads but theres so much overlap with transportation and infrastructure and wouldnt it be great to show your constituents that you can build trust and Work Together to move the needle and if there is any space of politics were that can occur with the overlap of the overhanging fruit and the impact is the greatest we just have to have the conversation to drop that mindset that we tend to perpetuatethis is the place to make that happen everybody can join in. I dont know any other Public Policy so we have to take advantage of that. Would like this panel to go on another three hours but this is perfect collaboration and compromise and a model for this country and we can do this across the country at the National Level as well. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] told isis did a few birds in closing was the perfect way to start off 2017 i p. M. The chairman of the board this year and is an honor to be here and just to close out i would like to say a few words as relates to the salient points that i heard. Obviously we heard from the panelists than speakers and we also have the Steering Committee and sponsors for hard work can support as well as the dedicated staff and finally a big thankyou for all of you that attended today we have heard comments and ideas hopefully will take that out to the city into the nation to keep this Going Forward. This is a just about infrastructure date we have all whole week with 100 defense around the country to keep the conversation going so this isnt just about infrastructure day or week but 2017 and beyond. If you take away from the panels from the National Association of manufacturers it is time to walk the talk so how many years have we been talking about infrastructure and the need for the infrastructure that now is the time to do it . So just to recap it is about Economic Growth with every major function with more each fission businesses for faster training of goods. It also means jobs in the shortterm and longterm also talking about Nuclear Power plant in South Carolina there is 6,000 jobs but there is another in georgia. Infrastructure is the ultimate investment that means we all have to take a stake and second spread the word about innovation and new technology as secretary chao open talking about Innovative Technologies to be safe and to be safer and that permeated this morning as well. About building a smarter say for more efficient tomorrow this is something i am passionate about having a company in the engineering business we are engaged in building of bridges of the Tappan Zee Bridge in new york or highspeed in the netherlands and also was involved for the train system in denver. When i left the company i was with i was in my mid50s i was involved in the new technology with this small module Nuclear Reactor and the passion was looking requirements Going Forward with destalinization the industry of minister common to look at our product with less than 32 acres i can provide enough electricity in singapore to generate electricity them bottled water for or were forfeited thousand bottles with 600 million invested with the Regulatory Commission but it is about safety and world Energy Requirements Going Forward however without doing that we need to modernize the infrastructure and capacity to is like candling economists vehicles and the growing need for broad band access to sustain the 21st century economy we deserve about collaboration and consensus to have that in place we also heard today that republicans and democrats and independents is how it should be done we need to get together to get legislation passed we cannot allow modernization to diet not when every american stance to gain some much when there is room for consensus. So to organize and educate and advocate to make our voices heard to all of washington we expect action. Inclosing the sixth shin n closing banks for joining us go to infrastructure week the. Org and we encourage you to share your thoughts and ideas time to build a good kick off for this week thanks for coming. [applause]