Washington, D.C.—The following are opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, from Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) during today’s hearing titled, “America Builds: Highways to Move People and Freight.”
Video of Ranking Member Larsen’s and Norton’s opening statements are here and here.
More information on the hearing can be found here.
Ranking Member Larsen:
Chairman Rouzer, welcome to the Subcommittee, and thank you for holding this hearing to kick off surface transportation reauthorization.
The title of this hearing series, “America Builds,” says it all. Right now, thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, America is building again. Let’s keep it going.
Building transportation doesn’t just mean highways. Investments in transit, rail, ports and airports keep America moving, as well. I look forward to future hearings on how transit agencies and rail networks sustain our economy and how surface transportation reauthorization impacts these modes.
BIL funds are supporting over 85,000 new transportation projects in every Congressional district. The BIL helped create 1.6 million construction and manufacturing jobs across America.
These jobs, with good wages, benefits and working conditions, are driving the low, 4.1 percent unemployment rate while modernizing our infrastructure.
That is why it is unfathomable to me that on the first day of this Administration, the President signed an Executive Order to pause this progress, putting millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs and thousands of projects—located in every Congressional district of this country—at risk.
No Committee is more bipartisan than this Committee, and the pain of this part of the Executive Order is equally bipartisan. I want to call on every Member of the Full Committee to look at the projects in your district, the jobs in your district, and remind the Administration of this bipartisan pain that this will cause your districts.
Instead, we should be working together, across the aisle and with the incoming Administration, to celebrate the economic and safety benefits of transportation projects.
To ensure these benefits continue to flow to our constituents, we need to engage local partners in the next reauthorization.
Last week, we heard the testimony of Mayor Pro Tem Fuentes from Austin, Texas who reiterated the important role that local governments play in our transportation networks.
Local governments own 77 percent of the nation’s roadways, 50 percent of the nation's bridges, and 46 percent of urban and rural transit providers.
Over 90 percent of BIL highway and bridge dollars go out by formula to the states. Yet Mayor Fuentes’ testimony noted that the majority of car trips are local, and freight trips often begin and end on local roads.
This disconnect is why Congress prioritized some BIL funds to be distributed via competitive grants. These grants ensure that communities have a chance to secure funding and advance projects that may not be prioritized by state DOTs.
Grants play a big role in delivering locally driven projects. Just this month, DOT announced $5 billion for more than 560 transportation projects in every state, funding projects important to Members of Congress, governors, mayors and state legislators—Republicans, Democrats and Independents, all of which are put in danger due to this Administration’s misguided Executive Order on transportation funding.
Just since 2022, I helped secure over $103 million in RAISE grants for my District. These projects are developed, designed and driven by local input and support. I can tell that story 434 other times for every district in this country.
Thanks to discretionary grants, communities in my district can get to work on projects rebuilding Lynnwood’s Poplar Way Bridge, replacing the Lummi Island Ferry and modernizing Skagit Transit’s operations center and the Port of Bellingham’s shipping terminal.
The BIL also made its mark on the types of projects states and local governments are building.
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program is funding projects that make it easier for people to get to work or school. These projects support local economic activity and improve safety for residents in areas that have been separated by past highway projects, bringing communities back together.
The BIL established the $5 billion Mega grant program to fund large, complex infrastructure projects like the Brent Spence Bridge in Kentucky that have long been delayed due to insufficient funding.
The BIL also created the $9 billion Bridge Investment Program, which is helping to repair and replace aging bridges that support key freight routes throughout the country.
Finally, the BIL is investing in safety projects to help tackle the safety crisis in this country, with more than 40,000 people dying in motor vehicle crashes every single year.
The BIL boosted the Highway Safety Improvement Program and is providing—for the first time—direct funding to cities, counties and rural communities to save lives. Investments including Safe Streets and Roads for All grants empower your communities to plan and execute projects to improve how your constituents can get around more safely.
Keeping our transportation systems in good repair, resilient, safe and ready for future freight and passenger demand requires ongoing investment.
I am ready to make that investment, we’re ready to make that investment. Let’s keep it going.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I look forward to your testimony.
Ranking Member Norton:
I would like to thank Subcommittee Chair Rouzer for holding this hearing on the nation’s surface transportation programs and to express my eagerness for this Subcommittee to get started in the 119th Congress.
America’s roads are an important part of our larger transportation system. We rely on millions of miles of public roads and bridges, including one million miles of Federal-aid highways, to move goods and people across the country. These roads, in unison with other surface transportation systems like transit, rail and pedestrian and biking infrastructure, form the foundation of our economy.
In November 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—representing a historic investment in the nation’s transportation system. This law not only reauthorized our surface transportation programs through FY 2026 but also provided $1.2 trillion to maintain, improve and rebuild our infrastructure.
Within our Subcommittee’s jurisdiction, this law included $265 billion for highways, $108 billion for transit, $43 billion for multi-modal grants and $13 billion for highway and motor carrier safety.
Since then, the Department of Transportation’s hard work has resulted in the announcement of almost $600 billion for over 66,000 projects. This funding has gone toward projects in communities all over the country—creating jobs, improving safety and accessibility and promoting a cleaner, greener transportation system.
Now, with the end of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s five-year reauthorization in sight, this Subcommittee must ensure these investments continue.
As this Subcommittee considers the next surface transportation bill, it must prioritize safety. Make no mistake—we are living through a public health crisis. Over 40,000 people died on our roadways in 2023. Remarkably, this number represents a five percent improvement from where we were in 2021.
The brunt of these deaths has been borne by pedestrians, cyclists and communities of color. We cannot allow this trend to continue. We cannot allow any more families to be devastated.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law took safety seriously. For example, the Safe Streets and Roads for All program was established to help local governments plan and build out projects to improve safety and reduce roadway safety deaths. Through this program, 75 percent of the nation's population will be covered by these safety plans.
However, there is still work to be done to improve safety. We now need to support our local governments by continuing these locally driven efforts and connecting them with funding to build out these safety plans. Any reauthorization legislation this subcommittee considers must make meaningful progress on this issue. Safety is nonnegotiable.
We also must work to continue mitigating the impact of our transportation system on the environment, especially from gas-powered vehicles. Transportation is the largest source of emissions in the United States, and our transportation policies and programs must be reformed accordingly. Expanding access to transit, walking and biking is a critical part of the solution.
Thank you to our witnesses today. I appreciate your input regarding the needs of the nation’s transportation system and look forward to our discussion about the challenges ahead.
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