Hearings to examine the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the federal

Again, good morning. Uh, Administrator McMaster, thank you for being here with us today. Uh, and I wanna thank everybody else for being here. I apologize for being a little late. I was over at Commerce introducing Gordon Gee for the NIL hearing, and I wanted to make sure I did that. So, um

Formerly of Brown University.

Formerly of Brown University, formerly of Ohio State, formerly of Vanderbilt. too, so he's he's made the round.

Thank you. Thank you.

Uh, here's a historic fact. He has signed more college degrees than any other col- uh, university president in the history of the country. So, thought that was pretty cool. Um, so I wanna thank you, Administrator, for everything that you do and that your agency has done to improve roads and bridges across the country. Notably in West Virginia, I wanna extend my appreciation for a few, the grant award uh, the grant award for the Dumbarton uh, the the Dunbar Toll Bridge, uh final environment documents for the Wardensville se- segment of quarter H of the Appalachian development highway system. In addition, quarter H will reach a critical milestone later this month, when a segment from Kearns to Parsons opens to traffic. This milestone would not have been possible without the assistance of the Trump administration. These projects will have a positive effect on the quality of life for West Virginians and also help drive further economic development. Today we look forward to hearing your testimony regarding the federal federal highway administration or fh fhwa s proposed budget for the coming year, and implementation for the final year of the infrastructure investment and jobs act. The budget requests over sixty six billion in total funding for fhwa. This amount includes approximately sixty five billion for programs that are funded out of the highway trust fund, and approximately one point five billion for programs that are funded out of the general fund. Because we are in the final year of the IIJA and Congress's efforts to reauthorize federal highway and bridge programs continues, the budget request does not include detailed account level requests. The budget request also reflects an updated organizational chart for the agency that includes an increase in staffing of F of FHWA's division offices in each state. As a federally funded state administered program, the FHWA staff in these division office offices are crucial for timely and informed approvals of projects and funding. After a reduction of FHWA's workforce, there are states that are sharing division administrators and personnel serving in dual roles and vacancies up and down the directories for division offices. I supported FHWA's concerted effort to staff these key roles, and I look forward to the administration's testimony in how they will achieve the staffing numbers reflected in the request. which are necessary to effectively administer these programs. FHWA plays an important role in faithfully implementing the final months of the IIJA. While I'm proud of the role I I played in bringing about that law, we have since learned how challenging it has been to administer at every level of government. Last year, Secretary Duffy testified to this committee that the prior administration left a backlog of over thirty-two hundred announced grant awards but unsigned grant agreements. This backlog in included important projects in all of our states, and certainly mine is no exception. The agreements must be signed so these grants can deliver meaningful improvements to our surface transportation network. I appreciate the significant progress FHWA has made in advancing the grants within its purview. My home state of West Virginia has had previously stuck grants for projects across the state, including in Bluefield, Coalfields, Charleston, Beckley, and others. But unfortunately there's more work to be done. I'm troubled by estimates from FHWA that the coming August redistribution amount will continue the trend of being historically high. August redistribution is a unique accounting process to ensure that the annual obligation limit of F FHWA's programs does not lapse. Specifically, this process pulls back oblig obligation limitations that can't be used by non-formula or allocated. and redistrib redist redistributes that to the states to use on the formula programs each August. The practical result of a historic August redistribution is an end of the year scramble where lower priority investments may be carried out to avoid a lapse, but not because of their transportation benefits. This year, FHWA is estimating that states must use eight point five billion of obligation limitation in the last two months of this. I'm concerned with the the solution that FHWA's budget request proposes to address this issue. FHWA's proposal to extend the period of availability for the obligation limitation for allocated programs does not address the root cause of these historic amounts. Too many allocated programs with overlapping pers purposes and eligibilities is a big contributor to this issue. On a related note, we saw a significant lapse in contract authority occur, specifically over three hundred and seventy million dollars lapsed, and the biggest driver of that was the Protect discretionary grant program. I'm concerned that another lapse in contract authority would occur this year. I look forward to hearing from the administrator on the actions that FHWA is doing to address these financial issues. Finally, as my colleagues have heard me say many times, we need to understand what worked and what did not work under IIJA, to inform our legislative agenda going forward. We've conducted oversight, received expert testimony from federal, state, and local partners, and collected feedback from our uh Senate colleagues. I'm using what we've learned from these efforts as we develop the next surface transportation reauthorization bill. As I continue to be guided by my three overreaching principles, one, improvement of the safety and reliability of America's surface transportation network with impactful investments, Two, reform and modernize federal programs and policies to increase efficiencies. And three, address the variety of surface transportation needs all across these states. To achieve these principles, I'm focused on crafting a bill that targets investments in road and bridge projects through flexible, predictable formula funds to the states to deliver on-time on on-budget projects. I'm working to cut administrative overhead, reduce duplicative programs and avoid federal overreach so that we can avoid future grant backlogs, funding lapse, and project delays. We have worked ahead of us on this bipartisan agreement. I'm committing to working with our partner committees in the Senate, colleagues in the House, to deliver a bill to the President's desk, and certainly working with my ranking member, Senator Whitehouse, as well. I look forward to working with you, Administrator McMaster, on these priorities, and I now recognize ranking member Whitehouse for his opening statement.

Thanks very much. Um, with your leave, Madam Chair, I'll say a word about uh, permitting reform before I uh,

Okay.

go to that. Um, our status there is that um, the Chair and I continue to make good progress. Um, I very much believe that she and her team are operating in good faith in making uh, progress, and I hope that that feeling is um, mutual. Um. The problem that we are seeing is, uh, frankly not Republican versus Democrat in Senate. It's legislative versus executive. Um, I'll even go so far as to say that I think that the White House participation, two words, capital, White House, participation in our negotiations through the chair's staff and um in some direct conversations um while not aligned with what i wanna do is not out of the bounds of ordinary political disagreement and negotiation and compromise but once you get away from our negotiations that's where things start to go to hell Um, we had to pause the negotiations a while ago. Um, and we did so because of repeated illegal stop work orders on projects that had hundreds of millions of dollars invested in them and that were nearing completion, that were completely unjustified. And because of the astonishingly adhesive quality of the secretary of the interior's desk, from which no piece of paper ever seemed to depart. Um. There was that uh, roach motel, you know. They go in, they never come out. His desk was the roach motel of clean energy permits. And we reached an understanding that the uh, nonsense on illegal stop work orders would stop, and it did on the five projects. And we reached an understanding that there'd be some lessening of the adhesive grip of the secretary of interior's desk for solar and wind projects and senator heinrich um seemed initially satisfied with where that was going and the third understanding was that there we'd see continued progress and we really aren't seeing much in the way of continued progress um the problem that we're facing right now is that even if the interior secretary's desk has become only a partial roach motel the department of defense is full-on no projects past muster there are two hundred and fifty wind projects more than two hundred and fifty wind projects awaiting what is often a standard approval at the department of defense the general concern that has been indicated is that they have national security issues Well, I happen to doubt that any member of this committee could tell me with a straight face that all two hundred and fifty wind projects have national security problems that prevent them from going forward. I think the idea is preposterous. And I don't think that there's a good faith effort at the Department of Defense to sort out where there may be a national security issue, and where there clearly is not. I think what happened is that the venue of obstruction of clean energy projects shifted from the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense. Same game, different court. And it is getting very frustrating. Uh, Senator Heinrich and I are both continuing to negotiate with Chair Lee and Chair Capito. And we're continuing to move forward. But this has to stop.

Will the gentleman yield on that point?

Yeah.

Uh, as, as my friend knows, I'm, um, have the opportunity of being chair of the Armed Services Committee and, and I, I, um, join you in, in that statement and, uh, and would inform my friend that, uh, that I'm working to uh to to get some resolution to the problem.

That is extremely helpful, and I thank uh the distinguished chairman of the armed services committee for uh whatever he can do to be helpful. I would note that when we hit our obstacles with uh the eh EPW and interior uh energy committee uh agencies, um the chair, senator Capito, is very helpful in achieving that resolution, and had the support of your, uh, whip, Senator Brasso, and of your majority leader, Senator Thune. So I think there is a very solid path forward for continuing to get this progress, and I hope it comes. There is a moment, even when my and Martin's good faith negotiations with Mike and Shelley produce a good faith bill, but my caucus won't support it, because they have zero confidence in any degree of faithful execution of the agreement by this administration. So, I think it's in all of our interest to try to build a track record of some degree of fair executive administration in this area, not only to continue the successful and good faith negotiations that are going on, but not to poison the well with the votes that we're gonna need to pass this bill down the road. So I appreciate very much Tier Capito's giving me the space to uh make that observation. Very grateful for Chairman Wicker's uh comment. And now I'll turn to our uh witness here today, Administrator McMaster. Thank you for uh being here. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided a bipartisan blueprint for federal investment in our nation's infrastructure. Shovels continue to break ground on projects across the country, many of which waited years to move forward and billions of dollars from the i i j a remain available to bring more projects to fruition. Even in this final year of the i i j a, I urge you to continue to implement that law, all of it, in all states. The i i j a offered a complete approach to infrastructure investment. It funded roads and bridges, bike paths and sidewalks, and yes, electric vehicle charging infrastructure for americans who choose that form of transport and it funded transit and rail too in short it was designed to offer americans more mobility with choices between internal combustion engine and electric between driving and mass transit even walking or biking as we're learning painfully over the last months having transportation choices really matters today president trump's war in iran has raised gasoline by nearly a buck fifty, pushing costs near or above four dollars per gallon in every single state. Since the start of the war, Americans have spent an extra forty-five billion dollars on gasoline and diesel. Guess who benefits from that? The president's big fossil fuel donors. By the end of the year, big oil could have an excess profits windfall of nearly a quarter trillion dollars. With driving a gasoline-fueled car so expensive, many people are looking for alternatives, and cost is not the only reason. If you live in an urban area, you may be sick of being stuck in traffic. Maybe you're looking to improve your health and wanna bike or walk to work. Make America healthy again, kinda. Unfortunately, the big oil transportation policies this administration has pursued, have limited these alternatives over and over again. On EVs, which are already cheaper to own and far cheaper to and don't belch toxic exhaust. The Trump administration froze the charging and fueling infrastructure grant program, holding up funds for more than a hundred and thirty grants, including in my home state of Rhode Island. This froze more than a billion dollars and harmed many Americans who have chosen electric transportation. On mass transit, the Trump administration proposed cutting the budget for transit projects by nearly twenty-five Percent. On rail, the Trump administration attacked major projects in New York, New Jersey, and California. And on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, the Trump administration has canceled, or tied up in red tape, dozens of grants. The Trump administration's big oil transportation philosophy is that there's only one right way to get from point A to point B and that's in a gasoline-fueled car. Cost, traffic conge- congestion, air pollution, safety, and consumer choice, be damned, Trump's big fossil fuel donors must be rewarded. The Trump administration policies serve his big oil donors, not the Americans who need affordable, reliable and safe transportation choices. Putting Trump donors first is bad enough. Add wholesale violation of Congress's role to authorize inappropriate grant programs, and targeting of blue state projects for the sin of being blue, we should not put up with this. Two weeks ago, the house transportation and infrastructure committee advanced a surface transportation bill I don't love their bill but I do want to acknowledge their hard work, to move the process forward. If we want a bill to get done in this congress, we need two basic things. First, mister Administrator, we need implementation of the law. All of it. All of the grant programs, including the ones Trump's big oil donors don't like. including the ones in blue states, Trump doesn't like. Second, we need all the relevant Senate committees to get on board. This committee, under Chairman Capito, is doing what it can. But agreed top lines from leadership on both sides and engagement by the other three committees is necessary. And to get our support, it all needs to be done in a

Right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Whitehouse. Um, this afternoon we are joined by the Honorable Sean McMaster, Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA. I look forward to hearing from Administrator McMaster about the agency's proposed budget, of fiscal year twenty twenty seven and the implementation of the current programs through the end of the fiscal year. Administrator McMaster, thank you for being here with us. Before we move forward, I will uh administer the oath uh to receive your sworn testimony. If you would please rise. So raise your right hand there and answer the following questions. Do you swear the testimony you're about to give to this committee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God. Great. Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. So we will now proceed. Administrator McMaster, you are recognized for your opening statement.

Chair Capito, Ranking Member Whitehouse, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here before you today. The Federal Highway Administration is carrying out President Trump and Secretary Duffy's vision getting America building again. The fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget will enable us to carry out this vision. We are focused on large, durable projects that enhance safety, our top priority. While connecting our country and our people, we are delivering on our goal to get back to basics by building big, beautiful infrastructure. The Trump administration inherited over thirty-two hundred projects backlogged at the DOT. As of May fifteenth, fifty-three percent of those backlogged projects have obligated funding and are finally underway. For federal, for the Federal Highway Administration administered grants, we are moving forward with over fifteen hundred competitive grant awards from the backlog left by the prior administration. In just the time since President Trump took office, we have obligated nearly eight point four billion dollars for competitive grants at the Federal Highway Administration. We also announced over six hundred grant selections, totaling over two point four billion dollars. Federal Highway Administration is also working diligently to issue notices making more funds available for critical investments in transportation infrastructure. None of these achievements would be possible without the hard work of the entire staff of the FHWA, both at headquarters and our division offices. Based on the latest National Household Travel Survey, ninety-one percent of travel in the United States happens on our roads and bridges. That is exactly why we must get back to basics. and fund this infrastructure. Our results speak for themselves. Comparing the first year of the Trump administration to the last year of the Biden administration, FHWA authorized more unique projects, including more construction projects by sixty percent, and obligated and expended more funds in support of critical infrastructure projects. We are accelerating project delivery and slashing unnecessary regulatory burdens. Last June, secretary duffy revised the department's NEPA procedures and expanded the NEPA assignment program to empower states to remove unnecessary delays and costs. Last year, the secretary announced a NEPA assignment agreement with Texas, and most recently Maine and Nebraska joined the program. I was just in Ohio last month to renew our agreement with them for an additional ten years. Additionally, we asked each state to identify their top three priorities. we have already cleared over thirty five of them and will continue to work closely with states to deliver the rest safety remains our top priority at the department last july secretary duffy launched fhwa s safe roads initiative a back to basic strategy targeting non freeway arterials where over half of us roadway deaths occur in a unified national response all states identified nearly forty three hundred freeway arterial segments and intersections for safety and operational improvements. The safety of the traveling public, as well as the men and women who maintain our roads and highways, is incredibly important to me. In twenty twenty four, eight hundred and fifty people were killed in work zone crashes in America. This is unacceptable. I was proud to announce in April that we are investing half a million dollars in a brand new training program to manage and design advanced work zones. We are offering this training free for the first in-person training to every state plus our uh technical assistance program partners. FHWA is also working closely with our state and local partners to enhance crash responder safety through our traffic incident management training. In support of the Trump Administration's commitment to training one million responders, the Federal Highway Administration hosted its first ever National Day of Traffic Incident Management Responder training at the DOT headquarters this year. Traffic congestion hurts our nation, choking our economy, and stealing priceless time from American families. In April, the secretary launched the Freedom to Drive initiative, urging governors to partner with the department to tackle this crisis. Utilizing every federal tool to reduce gridlock, I look forward to reviewing states' responses later this month. This year, as we celebrate America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, the interstate's seventieth anniversary, and the route sixty-six centennial, we reflect on how far America's transportation system has come. I look forward to working to build on our historic legacy and usher in the new golden age of transportation. Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would be happy to answer your questions.

Thank you very much. And thank you for your emphasis on work zone safety improvements. We've had some of those who've lost their lives. I mean, that's a stunning number, really, eight over eight hundred deaths. Um, some of them occurred in my home state and they're very, very tragic. Uh, in twenty twenty two we had the West Virginia DOT secretary before us talking about IIJA and he predicted that funding for the core fundi core formula programs would be obligated but that the funding for discretionary grant programs uh would face challenges. In fact, the NEVI program, which is the um um charging stations for electric vehicles, has significant unobligated unobligated balances and few investments to show for it, as uh West Virginia in and of itself has had to pay several consultants just to figure this out, and I don't think we have one um EV station yet that's been built after all these years. The ballooning balances in these discretionary programs have has exacerbated the August re- redistribution which I addressed in my opening statement and scrambled how states can program their funding for next year. So these are such a problem that this committee has had, we intervened last or two years ago for the bipartisan legislative, fixed to sweep up unused credit assistance. And then this year's, last year's transportation appropriations bill rescinded and repurposed billions of dollars to try to avoid this issue. So we've gotta get that financial house in order. What are the obligation rates of formula funding compared to the discretionary programs?

Yeah, thank you, Senator. Thank you, Chairman. Um, you know, obligation rates for specific programs vary wildly at the federal high administration, at USDOT. There's a number of factors that implicate uh our ability to obligate. With the growth of discretionary programs in the last um in the last funding or authorization bill, we have seen um you know, a number of our um partners who have uh received awards struggle to obligate. So I think Um, there's a number of factors. Sometimes it's the complexity of the program. It can be the complexity of the project that's awarded. It can be the experience of the recipient that we have. Um, and it could be the lateness in the awards being made in the given cycle with the, um, fiscal year funds associated with it. So we see, um, a tremendous amount of, um, difference in the ability, but it would be challenging to say one program versus another program are challenged, more than others. It, If you dig a little bit deeper than that, you really have to kind of find out specifically the type of program, the capability of the awardee, uh, and it kind of varies wildly across them. I would be happy to work with you and provide specific data so you could look at that

OK.

and maybe talk more fully about what we're seeing within each specific program.

OK, let me ask you this, cuz you you've referred to this twice about the, uh, ability of the awardee to follow through on the project. I believe IAJ opened this, uh, opened up the ability for cert other certain awardees to to apply for these uh metropolitan planning organizations and others. Um, this is something that I have an interest in as we look forward to the to writing the next uh surface transportation bill to make sure that we address this issue on the front end, rather than where you're addressing it on the back end. Can these folks really actually follow through with matching and technical expertise? Is that what you're talking about, the MPOs and all that that have received? Cuz the state DOTs were already set up for this as they have been doing it for years.

Yeah, but that's one of many factors, right, but the capabilities for people who haven't received an award before, um, it can be an impact in our ability to work with them to get them across the line to obligate these funds.

But generally, these wouldn't be state DOTs that you're talking about.

Yeah, generally.

Every state DOTs

Generally,

knows.

state DOTs have more resources to address this specific challenge.

Right. And then what happens is, that awardee comes to the state DOT for the help too. I mean, not naturally, in a small state in particular. uh you would go to your state d o t knowing that they have the extra piece sitting

i wouldn't wanna discount the interactions that my division offices will have with these with these and also i didn't mention one last factor project readiness

right well true

sometimes

yeah

awards are made for projects that are you know way out in the future and that can be a challenge as well

so how are you partnering with the state d o t's to insure that you we can successfully program the i wanna ask about the august redistribution stuff talked about it how do you see that issue how can we get rid of that issue how can we keep it from growing and and where are the pitfalls there

yeah i mean i think the growth we've seen in redistribution is a direct reflect of the um complexities and the growth of programs that we saw under ija so pre ija you would see august redistribution in the four billion range today uh it ranges from seven to i think we've had over nine billion um earlier this year in january we distributed an estimate to our state partners of about eight point five billion as you referenced earlier uh in your opening statement and we're working closely with the states this uh is not an easy task for them to to plan ahead to absorb and we work closely with them uh consistently from january we expect to issue an update on this maybe as early as this week but in the coming week or two we will send a more current update to our state partners to let them know what we see as the current estimate for redistribution

So by putting that out in January, you're basically informing the states that they need to get ready for this, so that they have programs ready, so they're not scrambling August twentieth to try to figure out how to do or August first to how to do this. Is that

That's exactly right. We start in January, giving them our initial our initial best guess as to what we will see for redistribution. We update that sometime around the middle of the year, and then we uh we'll let them know finally later later on in the fall as to uh what the final redistribution numbers will look like and what they um what they will receive after they request

so um last month you put out amendments to notices of funding opportunity for two discretionary um programs that had previously been competed some applicants including west virginia's division of highways are being required to reapply for projects seems to me if you've applied once and received what's the story behind all this

yeah thank you um our efforts with these two programs in particular was to make sure that we cleaned out um some unnecessary requirements from the last administration green and dei language was the particular area of focus for that um one of them in particular does have uh twenty twenty three funds associated with it the scenic byways program so we're particularly

scenic byways

scenic byways we're particularly focused with that program and a focus on project readiness we know we have to award obligate uh those funds before the end of the fiscal year so we're really laser focused on that one in particular and making sure we don't have uh lapsing funds within that.

ok and what's the other what's the other program scenic byways is one there's two

uh

that have uh that have

the planning not the planning not large is that the one you're referring to

uh uh i don't know it must be uh

the bridge planning so we issued our updated bridge planning not large

yeah bridge

uh nofo with up to three billion dollars available and so we'd like to see and so that was cleaned out as well as far as the requirements under the last administration and we're looking forward to um completing the application process here later this month and then working expeditiously to award

gone over my time sorry uh senator whitehouse

thanks very much uh welcome back uh administrator um there's a lot of stuff that is still jammed up and i think after a year and a half uh of this administration it's getting a little stale to be blaming that on the biden backlog so called um my team asked you about two weeks ago for your current list of all of the uh awarded grants that are still pending action uh by the department and we have not received that i'm assuming that somewhere you actually have a list of what all the awarded grants are that are still pending action when might we get that list we assume that was something you could scroll off basically overnight

right remember i uh i'm aware of the request and we are processing that at the department um and as soon as i'm able to share that i absolutely will

um give me a time frame

uh i know it's still under review that request and it's processing through the department

You see, that's becoming one of my least favorite phrases. Um Because we see so much stuff that is quote " under review", close quote, that never seems to come to pass. And I wanna make sure that I understand what the review is that this is under. We've asked you for a document that presumably exists. Just send it. Where is the review required in that? It's beginning to look to me like under review is code for we're not gonna do it, but we're unwilling to say so. Because that would. Get us in. You know, legal. Trouble. Um. If under review is a pretext. I would. Really advise you not to go down. That. Road. Um. We've got. for instance that i mentioned in my opening remarks the charging and fueling infrastructure program grants there are hundred and thirty of them out there one of them is in rhode island it's more than a billion dollars held up and it's been held up for more than a year uh in theory that's under review but then i see that administration fy twenty seven budget which proposes to rescind all that obligated funding Which again makes me think that perhaps under review is a pretext for. Not gonna put the money out, despite what Congress said, in the hopes that we can successfully. Repeal it. And that. So it's not really under review, it's being deliberately stalled. In the hope. Of a. Uh, recision. Coming. And, um. So. I guess I'd want you to be a little bit clearer. about why a list needs to be reviewed before it can be sent over here. And I'd like to have you explain what really is the status with these charging and fueling infrastructure program grants. Because I will tell you that under review is really starting to sound like a pretext and not a real thing. So, give it your best shot.

Sure. Senator, I appreciate your um appreciate your interest in these programs and the grants and uh specifically cfi projects um that you reference in there uh the department and the secretary has moved between ninety and ninety five percent of all of the backlog through that departmental review there are a handful of projects and um uh you mentioned the cfi program specifically that are continuing to work through the departmental review process i expect those will come out um before long that will have um ultimate determination but those are the last remaining of the thirty two hundred plus grant awards that were made um i think it'd be fair to say the last administration loved making awards didn't do the work to obligate i will tell you of the ones that have moved through a federal highways we're more than sixty percent obligated now for all of the awards that have moved through departmental review um that we have under the federal highway administration to date about eight point four billion dollars which is almost on par with what the biden administration did in four years for obligations at federal highways so we're we're working aggressively to move through these projects we do have a handful left in the under departmental review i hear your uh concern and i i'd be happy to take that back and follow up with you and your team on

you can see i hope my question right

on the status of this and uh i am aware of your request

you can see my concern that when zero of one hundred and thirty grants have through it doesn't look much like an individualized review it looks like the entire program is being stalled notwithstanding its status as law um and i think that that would be a mistake again to go down that path if that's the path the department of transportation is going down um my last question and i'll ask you now and you can answer for the record is that we're still trying to figure out what the anticipated dates are for when federal highways will put out the next funding opportunities for the IIJA funding. So, uh, I'll just leave it at that. Um, with the chairman's, uh, permission, I'll ask that you, for the record, give us a date when the list of the awarded grants that are still pending action by the department will be provided to us. I don't think that's a very big ask. and that we get dates for the new funding opportunities and that we get a a clearer should we say explanation of why it is that zero of the one hundred and thirty cfi program grants have cleared your process

so i'd be happy to and if you'd like i can answer a little bit on the notices of funding now as

thank you

yeah we're gonna go to senator kramer

maybe i'll leave a little time for you after that But thank you for being here, um Administrator, thank you, uh Chairman. I I just feel compelled to respond somewhat to to uh Senator Whitehouse's expressed frustration. Both in his comments about the permitting reform negotiations, and and just the the the most recent questioning. Um I told him at the last um hearing of on permitting reform that I would stipulate to the f- stipulate to the fact uh the overwhelming evidence that the, that the um, president or the administration of the other party it, it, does, is not very cooperative. Whoever they are. Right? I mean, we have a long, we could all write our own chapter of the, of presidents from the other party holding things up. The, but, but my point that I wanna get to is, this is why it's so, so important, the work that, that, that our leaders are doing and, and everybody on permitting reform, so we can create a durable statutory law that no president regardless of party can you know stop undo a permit that's already been offered or or that that they could stop work on something that's been, that's been permitted already. So you just you inspire me to let's get this let's get this done. Um that said thank you for for being here and I I wanna uh say thank you um for being responsive and specifically uh for your help in getting the West Fargo Build-A-Grant project completed and and uh getting it signed earlier this year it's it's really an important safety project and i also uh echo the chairman's uh uh uh response to your um your efforts on regard with regard to safety you know we put a lot of emphasis on the importance of building stuff um but if we don't have safe roads it's you know they're they're not much they're not not much value so thank you for for that um we've talked a little bit about about um regulation reform and what not uh formula funding i certainly support that um i join the the chairman in that um but uh but i also wanna ask you about um you know any opportunities that we can you know additional opportunities to eliminate bureaucratic uh burdens on on states this is why senator kelly and i introduced together a bipartisan legislation to reduce asset management reporting requirements uh which will help our state d. O. t. as a is now they they're required to file every year our bill simply says how about every other year um that's you know it sounds small but it it's a major burden a paperwork burden that doesn't build any roads it's just paperwork um and i just want like a sense from you what what you think of the of that as a as one possible way to reduce the the burden on states

yeah i mean in this administration we are laser focused on getting some of the federal bureaucracy down and we talk about regulatory reform a lot i mean the department's issued fifty two deregulatory actions more than six hundred thousand words removed um he issued um an ifr on NEPA process last year we're working currently to update our NEPA process uh in part seven seven one internally so we'll see if we have some action on that uh in the future um we have simplified our notices of funding we've cut them in half we're adding a um a standardized template for applicants to make it easier for them um and we are tracking obligation rates and working quickly to try to make sure that the dollars that are awarded get into projects and actually get shovels turning quickly um i everywhere i go and i speak to i do ask the crowd to provide us with opportunities to perform things administratively um and give us those ideas that we can then put in to make to make it easier for not only our states but our local partners who rely on these federal dollars and these federal projects uh for safety and for economic enhancement so um be happy to work closely with you and the committee on any ideas to make sure uh it meets kind of your desires as to what you're you're hoping to see but uh we very much share your interest in this and your concern um these programs can be overly burdensome at times and uh anything we can do to move forward projects more quickly and more uh efficiently we are absolutely supportive of

um the the house bill that came out of the committee uh tni committee i think it was sixty two to two i mean it was really overwhelming um did some really good work and one of the things that they did this got in a lot of um heat i guess is that they added a a fee for electric vehicles um i think it was a hundred thirty dollars for electric vehicles and some some smaller amount for for plug-in hybrids. Um, uh, obviously we have a shortage in the highway trust fund, given the efficiency of vehicles and the the sort of stagnant um attacks on on the, at the pump. Uh, it seems unreasonable to think that electric vehicles and and others should use the roads without paying into the trust fund. Um, and I don't know what the right formula is exactly, but I would like be interested to know if you have a a an opinion or suggestion on how we fund the the highway trust fund and make sure that everybody that's using the roads are are paying for them.

Yeah, Senator, um, I'll I'll just reiterate I think what the secretary has said on this matter. Um, his belief is that everyone who uses our roads should should support the maintenance and operations and enhancement of the roads that they're using. Um, I know this is an area of focus for you, uh, for the Congress, for the House as well. Um, you mentioned the trust fund has, um, some solvency challenges um but uh the secretary believes strongly and i agree that the our people our our vehicles the people who are using our roads should should participate in supporting the maintenance upkeep and operations of those roads

alright thank you thank you madam chair

senator markley

uh thank you madam chairman and it was so good to talk to you a couple of weeks ago you mentioned in your testimony that you're really focused on large durable projects that enhance safety and uh i raised several of them i would like to raise some again and one is the hood river white salmon bridge this is a bridge that is so narrow you might wanna like fold in your mirrors to avoid hitting it's a hundred and one year old bridge it has a weight limitation which means that uh semis crossing it uh have to go partially loaded uh it has high traffic at four point four million uh trips a year and it's ready for construction this fall it just needs a sign off on on a grant washington state rather than oregon is the applicant and washington state does not have a large uh or a major uh grant in this category and so i just wanted to again raise it and say in the goal of uh of restoring or replacing ancient infrastructure that doesn't fit the modern age this is a great project

senator i uh i i share your comments but i enjoyed the conversation tremendously um i appreciate the importance of this project for the state of oregon uh sounds like a great project like i said we're still in the process of reviewing the applications for the twenty-six round of funding and

well i appreciated your offer to consider uh visiting it and i look forward to to hosting you at at the bridge and you'll go oh yes this is

um look forward to it

and it's scored even higher under the trump administration's revised criteria than it did under the biden administration criteria so it's just well suited uh to this moment uh second i wanted to uh to talk a little bit about the uh interstate uh bridge replacement over the columbia river there are seven lift bridges or draw bridges on the interstate system nationwide but if you uh ask uh ai the question which is the one that that creates the most problem for congestion well uh the answer comes out well it's the i-five bridge and why is that two large cities portland and vancouver it has a hundred and forty three thousand uh trips on a weekday it has ten hours of congestion everyday uh a single ten to fifteen minute uh opening in an off peak period can trigger a traffic jam that takes hours to dissipate it lacks safety shoulders it lacks uh road merger lanes uh and so it is like if you look at the entire interstate system in i know you mentioned congestion being a a a factor this is the the congestion king and and uh we need your help uh getting this this baby under underway the replacement underway