Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. Madam Chair, the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program in this bill will address critical infrastructure needs that will improve America's economic competitiveness, but will also bring tremendous benefit to our communities, especially districts like mine, which is the epicenter of the international supply chain flowing through the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach.

Freight corridors that run through districts such as mine, and those in Chicago, Houston, Florida, Charleston, New York, New Jersey, and Seattle, bring jobs and spur economic growth. However, they also create congestion, pollution, and safety concerns.

One of the primary strategies to alleviate these issues--congestion, air pollution, and accidents--is to build rail grade separations that allow trains and cars to flow freely. In fact, grade separations are explicitly mentioned in the bill as eligible to receive funding from the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program. However, the $100 million threshold far exceeds the cost of most grade separation projects.

To better achieve the intent of this bill, my amendment simply clarifies that a program of eligible projects, such as a corridor of grade separations, be eligible to receive funding from this program.

There is ample legislative precedent for ``programs of projects'' to be eligible for funding, most notably, in the TIFIA loan program, the National Highway Performance Program, and Highway Safety and Improvement Program.

This amendment recognizes that addressing nationally significant transportation challenges are not always best addressed through one major project but, instead, a comprehensive package of related projects that achieve a meaningful national objective.

An example of this type of project is the Alameda Corridor-East, which was first recognized 10 years ago by this House in SAFETEA-LU. The Alameda Corridor-East was designated as a Project of National and Regional Significance, spanning four counties in the Nation's largest urban area, stretching over 100 miles of rail.

In my county alone, Riverside County, this Federal funding, in partnership with local self-help tax dollars, has made possible nearly a half billion dollars in freight projects that are cleaning our air, making our constituents safer, and making the national economy more efficient. However, of these 16 projects on the same corridor, the highest cost project was $67 million. Yet, together, they have had a tremendous impact on the transportation system.

My amendment ensures that this momentum can continue, not just in my district, but in all communities that are impacted by our national freight system. This is an easy technical fix, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

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