Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act.

I want to thank Chairman DeFazio, Chairwoman Norton and Chairman Lipinski for their tremendous work on the Surface Transportation portions of this bill. I would also like to thank the leadership for including water provisions from my Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, and thank Chairman Grijalva for including my water recycling bill from the Natural Resources Committee in this package.

Mr. Speaker, the surface transportation section of this bill will make a significant impact in improving American lives by reducing commute times, increasing safety on our highways, bridges, buses and rails, and improving our environment.

As the senior Californian on the Committee, I am proud that this bill will provide $37.5 billion in transportation funding for California, including $26.5 billion for Highway projects and $11 billion for Transit.

H.R. 2 includes important provisions I have worked on to improve transportation in the San Gabriel Valley, California, and our nation. These provisions are:

A new Transit Worker Protection Program providing $60 million per year for transit agencies to work with transit unions to identify and implement transit worker safety measures such as bus driver barriers and blind spot removals. This will improve security and safety for all passengers, the bus drivers, and pedestrians. This program is based on my bill H.R. 1139, the Transit Worker Protection Act.

The bill includes a provision to allow local transportation agencies and cities to give preference to our local residents when hiring workers for transportation projects. With Southern California raising incredible funds for local transportation projects, taxpayers in our region should be given preference to work on the local projects they are paying for. This will allow that.

$2.5 billion for a new highway rail underpass construction program (known as a grade separation grant program). This was created after we had the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments testify earlier this year regarding the importance of highway rail safety and the very successful Alameda Corridor East underpass construction program in my region. This will create important safety and commuter benefits by separating the rail line from the roadway.

$1.725 billion for electric bus purchases. This is important to Foothill Transit and LA METRO in my district who are rapidly purchasing electric buses for their fleet. It also helps these transit agencies with funding the electric charging infrastructure and the maintenance of these new-age buses. This will also support the workers in the electric bus industry including my constituents who work at Proterra bus company in Industry, CA. We must continue to improve the air quality of our region with clean bus implementation.

$7 billion for bicycle, pedestrian, and safe routes to school projects. Many of the residents and cities in the San Gabriel Valley use this funding to improve bike trails and walkways that allow students and workers to safely get to school, work, and the Metro station or bus stop.

The bill updates competitive grant funding requirements for transportation grants so that projects in the San Gabriel Valley have a better chance of being selected based on the merit of their applications. Southern California transportation projects such as the 57/60 confluence project and the Alameda Corridor East Highway Rail grade crossing separation projects are the highest ranked projects in the country but consistently get overlooked because of politics. This bill makes the grant requirements more associated with project quality and less by politics.

The bill allows states to use federal transportation funds to build suicide barriers on bridges. Studies show that the vast majority of suicides on bridges are because of a sudden impulse, and if a barrier were erected the person would not continue with a suicide attempt. This is based on my bill with Rep. Beyer of Virginia called the Barriers to Suicide Act (H.R. 4309).

The bill includes a provision that would require the Department of Transportation when working with local agencies on transit oriented development projects to address homeless housing assistance. The expansion of the Gold Line in my district has created important housing opportunities for residents that could be used to also address the homeless crisis we are facing in the San Gabriel Valley.

The bill creates a Truck Driver Leasing Task Force that is based on a bill I introduced last Congress, H.R. 4144, the Port Truck Driver Bill of Rights. This will focus federal regulators and policy experts on creating solutions to controversial leasing arrangements in the trucking industry that are especially found at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These illegal tactics by some trucking companies underpay truck drivers by forcing them into leasing arrangements that require them to work long hours without abiding by minimum wage laws, let alone reasonable pay and benefits. This task force will address these unfair practices against workers.

The bill allows electric vehicle charging stations at park-and-ride lots and rest areas located along the highway. Federal law currently prohibits electric vehicle charging stations at these locations and my provision will fix that. This is a huge problem at 20 park-and-ride lots in Los Angeles County including the El Monte Bus Station in my district, which is the largest bus transit station on the West coast. Electric vehicles owners should be allowed to drive to the metro station and charge their car while taking transit.

The bill stops the Trump Administration from threatening to withhold $250 million annually in FAA grants to California airports and divert $70 million in CA State and Local general sales taxes away from their intended purpose. This provision was included in my amendment on the House floor that is the same as my bill H.R. 2939, the State and Local General Sales Tax Protection Act. This restores 29 years of FAA policy that the restriction on aviation fuel sales taxes for aviation purposes is based on excise taxes and not general sales taxes. This will allow the State of California, California Counties and California cities to continue to spend their general sales tax revenues on their voter approved purpose.

An additional amendment of mine was adopted on the floor to protect the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program from being raided by other programs. TIFIA is incredibly important to Southern California as we are able to use this low cost financing with our Measure R, Measure M, and SB1 money to speed up transportation projects so they are completed now instead of 30 years from now. This means Southern California residents, businesses, and commuters get the benefits of these highway, transit and rail improvements today instead of waiting for future funding cycles. This also saves money in the long run by shortening the time value of the costs of construction.

H.R. 2 also includes important provisions from the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee which I chair that would provide federal assistance to clean water projects, water supply projects, and environmental improvements and recreation. These include:

Reauthorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund at $40 billion over five years to construct water treatment systems that address today's water challenges to clean up our rivers, streams, lakes and ocean for improved drinking water, recreation, and the environment.

Authorizes $5.6 billion for clean water act grant programs (including $1 billion for treatment of PFAS chemicals and other emerging contaminants) that can provide direct assistance to local water agencies.

Authorizes $3.4 billion to reauthorize various regional water programs over the next five years that the subcommittee recently passed, which include: the National Estuary Program, the San Francisco Bay Program, the Puget Sound Program, the Great Lakes Program, the Chesapeake Bay Program, and the Lake Pontchartrain Program.

Appropriates $10 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for construction projects for flood control, navigation, and environmental restoration. This funding could be used to perform the Whittier Narrows Dam renovation project that will protect Southern California from major flooding events.

Appropriates $5 billion for operation and maintenance of Army Corps projects which can be used on the Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers to improve the river landscape and maintain proper flood control.

The Natural Resources Committee has included in H.R. 2 my bill, H.R. 1162, the Water Recycling Investment and Improvement Act. This will increase the authorization for the Bureau of Reclamation's Title XVI program, which is the most successful and primary water recycling program of the federal government, from $50 million to $500 million.

Title XVI provides cost-shared funding for water recycling projects that reclaim and reuse municipal, industrial, domestic or agricultural wastewater, and, naturally impaired ground or surface waters across the 17 Western states. This grant program has proven to be the most cost- effective in improving water supply by providing long-term savings, while boosting job growth and lowering our reliance on imported potable water.

By increasing Title XVI's authorization from $50 million to $500 million, it gives local water agencies the necessary funding to increase capacities for existing recycling plants or create new cost- effective projects to boost water supplies.

Since 1992, Congress has authorized 53 Title XVI recycling projects, producing more than 400,000 acre-feet of drought-resistant water supply. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding, there is a backlog of almost $1 billion dollars for congressionally authorized Title XVI projects--demonstrating a clear need to continue and expand funding.

Not only do these projects create jobs and boost our local economies, farms, and businesses, but Title XVI projects can be brought on-line with ``wet'' water, not paper water, in as little as two years. These projects provide long-term savings, which is why water districts and sanitation agencies are overwhelmingly supportive of this program.

With almost 50 percent of the country in drought and demands for clean water increasing especially during this pandemic, Congress must look towards programs that further drought proof our drinking water, irrigation, and recreation water supplies. As we work to explore new ways to expand our water portfolio and safeguard our local communities from future shortages and drought, it is imperative that Congress adequately fund, promote and expand water recycling infrastructure projects.

Mr. Speaker, before I close, I would like to thank the cities, transportation agencies and water agencies in my district and state that were integral at informing the Congress of their concerns and ideas for infrastructure policy.

I would particularly like to thank Mark Christoffels for testifying before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee regarding railroad safety issues, and his colleague Paul Hubler who is also Chair of the Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors.

I would like to thank my local transit leaders for giving expert advice on transit issues and the improvements to transit we were able to make in this bill. This includes Phil Washington, Raffi Hamparian and Michael Davies from Los Angeles Metro, and Doran Barnes and David Reyno from Foothill Transit.

And I would like to thank the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and our local city leaders who advocated for increased urban mobility with first and last mile solutions such as pedestrian walkways, bike paths, and improved bus and rail service. They also encouraged us to do more on transit-oriented development and address homelessness which we were able to accomplish in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I hope members appreciate the amazing work done by our Committee Chairs and Committee staff on this important infrastructure bill. They have spent countless hours, long weekends and many late nights putting this bill together through the odd working conditions of a pandemic. I would particularly like to thank my incredible water subcommittee staff Alexa Williams, Camille Touton, Navis Bermudez, and Ryan Seiger. I would also like to thank the staff who worked with me on provisions important to California including Helena Zyblikewycz, Garrett Gee, Jackie Schmitz, Auke Mahar-Piersma, Andrea Wohleber, and Matthew Muirragui.

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