Keep American World leader in fighting to protect our planet. If you care about immigration reform. [applause] you can vote for somebody who apparently only sees immigrants as criminals and rapists, to be rounded up or kicked out, or even though by the way they have already paid more taxes probably than he has. [applause] or, you can vote for a granddaughter of an immigrant who believes everybody deserves a chance to contribute to this country that we love. [applause] if you care about transparency you can vote for a candidate who has released decades worth of her tax returns, or the only candidate in decades who refused to release any at all. One candidate has a foundation to save countless lives around the world, the other takes money that people gave to his charity to buy a sixfoot painting of an cell. Im im not kidding. One candidate traveled more countries than any secretary of state before and the other is, donald trump. So when he asked you what you have to lose, the answer is y
Fast act provides a certainty and reforms necessary to improve our nations infrastructure and spur economic growth. The fast act was a significant bipartisan achievement showing once again the senate is back to work for the american people. This committees work, which accounted for more than half of the text of the bill, helped to enhance safety, increase transparency, reform regulatory structures and improve planning for free with reforms covering everything from railroads to cars to trucks to ports as well as research and technology, this legislation was a True Team Effort to reduce congestion, protect passengers and improve our nations multimodal supply chain. Protect lives on our nation roadways by promoting Greater Consumer awareness and Corporate Responsibility for safety. Im please that had the whistle blower act is now the law of the land. This law which i introduced with Ranking Member nelson and others incentivize to blow the whistle when manufacturers sit on important safety
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