Oral Testimony Before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies

Chairman Diaz-Balart, Ranking Member Price, and members of the Subcommittee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today to discuss the President's 2017 fiscal year proposal for the Department of Transportation.

Every year since I've been Secretary, I have urged Congress to pass a long-term surface transportation bill. Today, I have come, in part, to thank Congress for passing a bipartisan surface bill last year, the FAST Act, which has done a lot to remove the cloud of uncertainty hanging over our surface system for the better part of a decade.

Today, I also ask you to join the Obama Administration as we seek to build on the FAST Act with an even more robust, 21st century-focused plan to win the future. For FY 2017, the President's plan includes $98 billion in transportation investments--a net increase of $30 billion over the FAST Act levels to support advancements in safety, repairing and replacing infrastructure, and driving forward innovation and emerging technologies that can help us move faster, more efficiently, and safer in the future.

The President's budget proposal recognizes that neither the current patchwork funding approach nor the rigid and antiquated distribution of transportation dollars through a formula is going to put our Nation's infrastructure in the best possible position for our kids and grandkids.

As the long, tortured debate about how to put together a long-term surface bill has shown, transportation bills are no longer "lay ups." If we do the hard work now, it will save us stress when the FAST Act expires.

While the FAST Act helps, we are still playing catch up, and the same demographic and economic pressures are coming. Our survey of future challenges, Beyond Traffic, tells us that we'll be stuck in even worse traffic than we have today:

70 million more people by 2045, creating even more demand on our transportation systems;

Freight volumes increasing by 45 percent to 65 percent with more trucks on the road;

And, more of the population -- is concentrated in what social scientists and other observers call megaregions.

In short, our funding and funding distribution models for America's transportation are rear-view mirrors, and the massive demographic and economic pressures are front windshields. With the FAST Act's passage, Congress should re-think our strategy, and the President's budget offers a pathway for the future. Specifically, the President's request proposes a new Clean Transportation Plan.

This plan not only increases spending on infrastructure, it also looks to spend the money smarter --pushing it to the local and regional levels where system integration is most needed and where projects can be built much faster. That's why the President recommends a series of innovative, new grant programs that advance a 21st Century regions approach with an average annual budget of $10 billion over the life of the plan.

Also included is nearly $20 billion for transit to address the needs of fast-growing communities and more than $6 billion a year for high-performance passenger rail.

Finally, the Clean Transportation Plan includes funding to help us prepare for the future by providing nearly $4 billion over 10 years in research to support the integration of new transportation technologies, such as autonomous vehicles.

The President's FY 2017 budget also requests nearly $16 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, including $1 billion for NextGen investments. This funding will enable the FAA to continue operations at the current funding level while maintaining its focus on aviation safety.

So let me thank you again for the opportunity to appear before this committee as you consider the President's request. I appreciate all of your work.

I look forward to answering your questions.

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