Thank you, Chairman Collins.  I want to commend you for your leadership of the THUD Subcommittee.  I know we both look forward to this committee and the work of this committee, and I thank you again for your leadership.  We at the committee are charged with trying to provide the resources for critical aspects of American life- safe and efficient transportation of Americans, both commercially and recreationally, and also safe and high-quality housing.  That’s a responsibility we take very seriously, and we’re fortunate to have the chairman in the lead.

While we work together to complete the funding package for 2017 and anticipating the budget request for 2018, it is a very opportune time to look at the issues we will face going forward.  

What is very clear is that current levels of federal, state, and local funding are insufficient to bring our transportation network into a state of good repair.  

Like many Americans, I am eager to hear the details of President Trump’s plan to invest $1 trillion in our nation’s infrastructure. 

It is one area where I think that we can find broad bipartisan agreement.  Leader Schumer has already laid out a blueprint for how we can work together to deploy resources among a wide assortment of infrastructure needs. 

Certainly, we have the mechanisms in place through the Highway Trust Fund, the Airport Improvement program, the TIGER Grant program, New Starts, and other programs to make smart, bold investments in transportation projects across the country, not to mention addressing needs in other areas, including affordable housing, water infrastructure, and school facilities. 

What I hope we don’t see from the Administration is a plan built around massive tax incentives for private investors.  This approach won’t fix our crumbling roads, replace lead water pipes, or build new schools without placing a huge financial burden on average Americans.

Those types of deals also just don’t pencil out in small states and rural communities, and, as a result, I am afraid they will be left behind.  

I also hope that the Trump Administration doesn’t attempt to solve our infrastructure problems on the cheap. 

When we crafted the last surface transportation authorization bill, our counterparts in the House restricted investments in our transportation infrastructure, barely providing more than an inflation adjustment.  If we’re going to make real progress, we must do more.

That’s why I am also deeply concerned about the budget plan that was recently outlined by OMB Director Mulvaney.

If we adhere to the steep budget cuts that the Administration is contemplating for non-defense discretionary funding, it will be impossible to sustain even today’s funding levels for critical infrastructure programs, such as TIGER, rail safety, Amtrak, and transit Capital Investment Grants. 

The fact is that we can’t take $54 billion in cuts to non-defense programs without doing significant harm to the sustainability and safety of our transportation network.  

Even if the Administration completely eliminated its favorite target–the EPA–another $46 billion in cuts to the budget would still need to be made. 

As we consider where funding is needed, here is what’s at stake, according to the Department of Transportation’s most recent Conditions and Performance Report. We are facing:

  • an $800 billion maintenance backlog on the Federal-aid highway system;
  • a $123 billion maintenance backlog for structurally-deficient bridges;
  • worsening traffic – congestion is now wasting 6.7 billion hours and 3 billion gallons of fuel nationwide, costing $154.2 billion per year - a new record;
  • a $90 billion state-of-good-repair backlog on transit systems;
  • a $28 billion state-of-good-repair backlog for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor; and 
  • a $3.35 billion shortfall in airport improvement funding.

DOT’s report confirms what we already knew: our nation’s transportation needs are great.  This moment calls for new ideas and additional funding in order to meet our current and future needs. 

This moment, again, beckons us to build our economy for the future and to create good-paying jobs today.  As the President said, it is a chance to buy American and hire American. 

Finally, on that note, we should make sure that the infrastructure investments that we make also benefit the American workers who build our roads, bridges, railways, and airports.  We know that the wages of average Americans have stagnated.  And knowing that, we should reject the scaling back of the Davis-Bacon Act as well as barriers to enter into Project Labor Agreements. 

Such efforts only denigrate and cheapen the hard work that everyone, from laborers to welders to painters to operating engineers, do every day.      

I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses today. 

Your ideas and experience will help inform our funding decisions to make our transportation system smarter, safer, and more efficient going forward.


Thank you, Chairman Collins.