Hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Esty, Hearing on Examining the Administration's Infrastructure Proposal

Hearing

Thank you, Chairman Shuster. We are now over 400 days into the Trump Administration -- far past the 100-day mark, a period during which the President promised to enact a bill to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure.
After a lot of talk, the White House finally releasing its long-awaited infrastructure plan three weeks ago. Sadly, my frustration over the long delay in getting to see the White House plan was dwarfed by my frustration over what was actually in it.

(1) An infrastructure package must contain real Federal funding
An investment of $1 trillion in Federal infrastructure funding will create or sustain 16 million family wage jobs. Instead, President Trump's promised $1 trillion has turned out to be only $200 billion over 10 years for a broad swath of infrastructure needs. That's $20 billion a year to cover all modes of transportation, broadband, wastewater and drinking water, as well as veteran and GSA facilities.

And let's be clear -- this $200 billion in "additional" money is proposed in the broader context of $168 billion in cuts to existing transportation and infrastructure funding over the same 10-year period. So in reality, the President is proposing very little, if any, "new" Federal money.

The White House envisions that the "new" money that they can take credit for as Presidentially-led investments will actually come from the State and local level -- by tolling and taxing citizens more, or by bonding to be paid off by future tax revenues.
Congress and the White House missed a massive opportunity to raise revenues for infrastructure in the tax bill. Which is mind boggling, because over 250 Members of Congress--with robust representation from both sides of the aisle--wrote to the leadership of the Ways and Means Committee, urging that a permanent solution to our Highway Trust Fund crisis be included in a tax bill. And so, we continue to spin our wheels on how to bridge the gap between nearly universal support for fixing our Nation's infrastructure and our massive funding needs.

(2) Selling off public assets is a cash grab -- not a solution
To bridge this gap in part, the White House infrastructure plan contains several attempts to push a privatization agenda. This isn't a solution.
There is universal, bipartisan agreement--even among those in the private sector--that P3s will not solve our infrastructure crisis alone and will do nothing for the vast majority of surface transportation projects.

(3) We can't streamline our way out of underinvestment
Let me address the favorite Trojan horse in infrastructure--environmental streamlining. Rolling back environmental protections will not save hundreds of billions of dollars.

The vast majority of projects--90 percent--are already exempt from full environmental review and proceed under a Categorical Exclusion (CE). Only 4 percent of projects require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement, the most detailed review document. And for the surface transportation projects that do undergo a detailed review, the time for completion is less than four years.

In the last decade, Congress has passed extensive legislation to expedite environmental reviews based on input from State DOTs. Timelines to complete various levels of environmental review have fallen significantly as a result. While there may still be legitimate policy changes Congress should consider to expedite project delivery, which I and many of my colleagues are open to hearing about, we must avoid artificial deadlines and punitive actions.

(4) Let's work with what we have -- existing Federal programs
The White House talking points claim to want to give States and local governments more decision-making power, yet they have proposed to direct 80 percent of infrastructure funds ($160 billion of the $200 billion) to grants or loans selected by the Federal Government. Again, these programs are coupled with cuts to existing programs under which States and local governments currently select the projects.
Investing in existing initiatives will ensure real investment will be available immediately to spend on the projects State and local governments determine are the most worthy. Ranking Member DeFazio secured a provision in the FAST Act to ensure that if additional funding came in to the Highway Trust Fund, Congress will not have to act further to see those dollars put to good use right away. By utilizing the existing structure, each authorized highway and transit program will get a proportional plus up.

The clock is ticking. Since President Trump took office, time wasted by commuters, travelers, and inefficient goods movement has already cost the economy more than $179 billion.

If the President and the Republican leadership in Congress are serious about making infrastructure a priority and finding new revenue to pay for it, then we have a unique opportunity to make badly needed investments in our roads, bridges, transit systems, rail infrastructure, airports and ports that we have been avoiding for decades.

Let's work together. Let's seize this opportunity. And let's make a real investment in America.

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