We will call the committee to order. I ask unanimous consent that the chairman be authorized to declare recess any time during todays hearing. That is so ordered. As a reminder, members insert a document in the record please email them. At this point i will recognize myself for the purposes of an Opening Statement. We are here today to discuss the initial federal response to march 26, 2024, Early Morning incident involving the cargo vessel and Francis Scott key bridge in baltimore, maryland, which resulted in the subsequent collapse of the bridge. The first one at all and six workers who sadly perished. I want to express our condolences and offer prayers to the families and their loved ones. I also want to express our appreciation to the harbor pilot and the Maryland Police authority who saved countless lives close in the bridge prior to the incident and all the First Responders who were obviously involved in that process. Finally, i want to commend the federal, state, and local officials working that night to clear the wreckage and debris and obviously continuing that effort to reopen the shipping channel that supports the port of baltimore. The committee continues to receive updates from federal agencies responding and investigating the incident including those testifying here today. Hours after the collapse, President Biden announced his intention for the federal government to pay for the initial cost of reconstruction the key bridge. We received a letter officially, requesting that we authorize the money to repair the bridge. Ive personally spoken with governor moore on several occasions. The federal Highway AdministrationEmergency Relief Program, within hours of receiving the application the federal Highway Administration approved 60 million in Quick Release funding which it said represented 5 or so of the initial total project cost of 1. 2 billion. This funding is expected to assist with emergency repairs to restore essential travel, to minimize damage from the remaining facilities as well as repairs necessary to restore the highway to the predisaster condition. Under the program the federal government reimburses state qualifying workout 100 federal cost or first 270 days. After that initial 270 days, states are reimbursed at 80 to 90 rate depending on the classification of the program, which the program also provides flexibility to allow for reimbursement up to 90 in some cases. This past friday, may 10, the federal Highway Administration committee had designated a portion of 695 that includes the bridge as part of the interstate system effective april 25. That means they will be guaranteed up to 90 . All that is to say that while the president s request has been received and under consideration, Congress Still has roughly 6 months to act before any cost share changes might occur. Despite initial estimates of 1. 2 billion to rebuild the bridge, reports now indicate the state of maryland estimates the bridge may cost between somewhere between 1. 7 billion and 1. 9 billion. Its important we have a firm estimate before we take any further action on the cost share. In addition, the company that owned the ship must make sure the government actively works to recover any money that is owed. That could offset the bridge funding or be used to make companies that work and rely on the harbor to remain whole. So for those who wish to go see for themselves the committee will continue to facilitate visits on a regular basis. At this stage we need to make sure we are not forgetting to let other agencies complete your investigation. We will ensure that numbers of congress have all the information that is available to them. I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. I look forward to the testimony. I did talk to the governor just this morning about the hearing coming up. He is pretty optimistic about the litigation moving forward. I mentioned that in my Opening Statement but it sounded very interesting and promising. Thank you, chair graves for holding the hearing. I want to thank the officials for joining us. First, i want to express my sympathies of the six transportation workers that lost their lives on the job maintaining this important piece of infrastructure. This is a reminder why safety always has to be the top priority in transportation. Safety and workers, traveling public and the residence. This is an incredibly complex debris removal challenge. It supports significant Regional Economic and Global Shipping and loss of essential Freight Movements and roadway mobility in the midatlantic region. I want to commend you and the team and your leadership and the tireless efforts of the women and men under your command for their work to safely remove the debris and return the channel to the operations that currently exist under extremely challenging circumstances. It became clear when i visited the site last month. I want to thank the coast guard for the partners on the unified command especially maryland state police. For guiding many members of the congress in our various trips to witness the damage. I look forward to hearing the latest updates today regarding the cleanup and the estimated timeline for reopening the channel. We also need to learn what resources and authorities will be needed from congress as the full costs become more concrete. The coast guard has expended significant 2020 for operation support funds. We are grateful the coast guard always does what it needs to get the job done. It is reasonable to expect service to absorb these costs without impacting the coast guard ability to perform other missions. The service must be made whole. Currently fiscal 2020 for operations and maintenance funds are being used for the channels. If not replenished it will impact planned repayments once this is complete and in future years. These amounts are not submitted upon response. Last week there was an ounce reprogramming in 20 million of unused funds to continue work. This level of reprogramming is unprecedented and demonstrates the absence of funds provided by congress to get out of water and not the vessels of the port can reopen and continue. I urge the koran the coast guard to communicate early and often what you need to ensure support is uninterrupted and to do so in partnership with the legislative branch. Beyond the Immediate Response i look forward to hearing from the federal highway administrator about the timeline to replace the bridge and the role the federal government is playing in the process. Congress has established the Emergency Relief Program in 1968 as part of the federal Highway Program to provide for the reconstruction of highways and bridges in the event of a disaster. Congress understood that estate cannot be expected to cover the costs of an unforeseen emergency loss of a structure out of the budget. That is true today. Officials estimate it will cost up to 1. 9 billion to replace the bridge. Theres a lot of estimates out there and its a broad range. I would not really call them estimates at this point frankly. D. O. T. Has provided 60 million in emergency relief funds. Prior to collapse the Bridge Service 34,000 vehicles a day. This has increased crossings and other tunnels by 18 . Truck drivers carrying Hazardous Materials must at 25 miles to get through baltimore on alternate routes. The committee has a role to help rebuild this economic artery quickly and efficiently. I want to welcome the committee chair. Congratulations on your reconfirmation last night. The ntsb a thorough investigation of the catastrophe will help to answer questions that will sure ridges, save lives and protect americans. I look forward to what you are able to share based on the preliminary funding which was released yesterday afternoon. Thank you to each of our witnesses. I look forward to what you all have to say. I yield back. I ask unanimous consent that these statements be included in the record without objection. That is so ordered. I ask unanimous consent for the record. The hearing will remain open until such time that the witnesses have provided answers. Any questions may be submitted in writing that is also sorted. I also ask unanimous consent that the record remain open for 15 days for additional comments by members or witnesses to be included in the record of todays hearing. Without objection that is so ordered. The written testimony has obviously been included in the records of the Committee Asks that you try to limit your oral remarks to five minutes. With that, vice admiral, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you for being here. Thank you, chairman, Ranking Member, numbers of the committee. Good morning. Thank you for your remarks about the coast guard and opening remarks. I look forward to the opportunity to testify. In the early hours of march 26 the container shipped only and collapse the Francis Scott key bridge. Six individuals lost their lives. Baltimore loss to landmark part of its skyline and the region suffered a blockage of crucial waterways. We continue to honor the memory of those victims. Today at the 51 day point over 6000 tons of steel and concrete have been removed from the wreckage field. Access has been restored to the port of baltimore with more than 35 large commercial vessels sailing through a limited Access Channel and 375 additional commercial recreation vessels have used temporary Access Channels. The first of which was established six days after the collapse. Hazardous materials aboard the motor vessel were stabilized as was the ship itself. Our report today that unified command believes it will be re floated and removed from the site early next week is what they are looking at. Particularly notable, countless steps in the operation have been completed without single worker injury. These had been made possible through rapid mobilization with strong coordination and partnerships. The unified command formed in the first few hours per the National Response framework. Our National Doctrine for response disasters and emergencies. The coast guard, army corps of engineers, maryland state police, maryland transportation authority, Maryland Department of the environment and the owners and operators have effectively leveraged each others jurisdictions, authorities, and capabilities to get us where we are today. The coast guard is proud to be part of this response. Our women and men serve on the front lines of a nation whose Economic Prosperity and National Security are inextricably linked to Maritime Transportation systems. We exercise six of the 11 statutory missions in this response from the early hours of the search and rescue response to restoring vessel traffic with navigation. This commission disservice to activities to ensure that safety, security and stewardship of waterways but we are also continuously exercising operating a mating with federal, state, and local industry partners. One prime example you mentioned is the fantastic work on the quick notification by the pilots to the mta dispatch which saved countless numbers of lives. The work is not done. The unified command remains sharply focused on the full restoration. Active investigations continue in parallel with the response including the coast guard marine board of investigation, our highest level of marine casualty investigation, to determine the causal factors and support the development of preventative recommendations. Our investigation is in cooperation with the ntsb which has taken the lead on the Safety Investigation and the coast guard investigation is also moving concurrently and separately from the department of justices criminal investigation. While we look forward to the results of the investigations, its evident looking more broadly that the size and complexity of ships has grown over the years, placing greater demands on the marine transportation infrastructure that may not have kept place with the increased risks these vessels posed. It is time to more broadly understand these risks. So as deputy commandant for operations, i will be convening a nationwide board of inquiry under title 46 u. S. Code led by my assistant commandant rear admiral wayne are in. We will assess the efficacy of Risk Management tools, evaluate how recently they have been used in major ports and establish a holistic National Level approach to develop risk profiles, identify ways to address vulnerabilities and propose actions to reduce the risk of major incidents. The sport of inquiry is a necessary step to bolster the resiliency and ensure the safe and secure and efficient flow of commerce on waterways. Thank you for this opportunity and for your enduring support of the coast guard. I look forward to your questions. We have Major General graham. Thank you for being here. You are recognized for five minutes. Chairman, Ranking Member, distinguish members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today and discuss the Emergency Response by the u. S. Army corps of engineers of the collapse of the Francis Scott key bridge. Please allow me to begin today by offering heart l condolences to families of six individuals lost in this tragedy. From the outset we were committed to supporting efforts to recover their loved ones. Thoughts and prayers continue to be with them. Soon after this tragic event Maryland Governor wes moore declared a state of emergency and we activated the district Emergency Operations center. The stateoftheart survey vessels which usually serve to verify the depth and with the federal channels were deployed to support the initial search and rescue dive operations. We joined a multi Agency Effort across all levels of ever meant to form a unified command. Ive been in a good many disaster responses over the years and this unified command team led by captain David Oconnell is one of the best ive ever seen. The guidance from the president was clear from the beginning. Clearing the wreckage from the channel was the top priority. We needed three things to execute this mission. Authority, funding, and the right contracting capacity. Authority, we used the authority for the baltimore channels project and authorized the army corps to maintain and construct a 50 foot deep channel which was fully blocked by the wreckage. Funding, we used available fy 23 and 24 funding for that project. Additional funds as we discussed earlier by Ranking Member larsen have been provided through internal emergency programming actions using unused funding just from Harbor Maintenance and trust fund projects. The army corps has not used this emergency reProgramming Authority at this scale for over 15 years. The third thing we needed was contracting. The army corps has a standard Interagency Agreement with the supervisor of salvage and diving. They are true worldclass professionals. Have contracting tools to give us access to superb salvage companies. In this case the contractor they are using is don john marine from newark, new jersey. The army turns to them option often to leverage their expertise. I last worked with them during hurricane in response in central florida. They have helped us pump the upper Kissimmee River backwards for a few days saving around 12,000 home south of orlando. They are True Professionals who know how to deliver outstanding results. With these elements in place we embarked on the complex task of determining how to clear approximately 50,000 tons of concrete, asphalt, and steal from the river. That is over 200 statues of liberty where the material. After extensive analysis the army corps in collaboration with partners developed an ambitious but feasible timeline to clear a 35 foot deep Access Channel by the end of april and restore the full 50 foot federal navigation channel by the end of may. Certified by the coast guard, the limited Access Channel was opened to traffic on april 25, one week ahead of schedule. It can support approximately 70 of the port traffic, tarp particularly the carriers that are so critical to baltimore. We executed the most difficult task removing the section of bridge that had collapsed on the bow of the dolly. We used Precision Demolition to cut the bridge away from the ship. Operations continue to remove the dolly from the southern edge of the channel. This will facilitate the removal of the remaining bridge wreckage from the river. We remain on track to open the full 700 wide by 50 foot deep federal channel by the end of may. In closing, we are tremendously proud to be part of the stellar unified team which was mentioned earlier safely removing wreckage from the channel allowing the port to resume its role as a key supply chain and vital economic engine. Thank you, chairman, Ranking Member and membe