Changes provided for under the fast act including processing procedures and an application dashboard. And finally something that goes hand in hand with all of the departments efforts is research and innovation. In march we began the competition for utc grants which allows students and faculty to Work Together towards innovative transportation solutions. Weve received 212 applications for the 35 grants available. Im proud of the work the department has accomplished in such a short period of time. But this is just the beginning. And it would not be possible i would like to repeat without the work of this congress on a bipartisan basis. We will continue our aggressive schedule to execute the reforms you put into place because if our nations going to have the type of Transportation System tomorrow that is better than it had today, wasted time is something none of us can afford. So with that, mr. Chairman, i want to thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Secretary. A
We werent able to achieve it, but on the other hand i think youve been able to work with mayors and transportation directors for State Government and aarp and other stakeholders. If you could just give me a quick update on how were moving along with respect to this because whether the statute read exactly how i wanted it to or in the compromise version, i think the key is implementation at the sort of administrator level so i want to know how were doing and i know you have a special perspective having been a mayor. Yes, sir. I think were moving along fairly well. We did initiateing . E something that brought 200 mayors from across the country together to share best practices on how to implement essentially complete streets designs. Our federal Highway Administration is also creating greater flexibility in the design of federal aid to highways so that theres at least the possibility that states and local governments can use those roadways in more innovative ways for all users. I think t