• Mr. Matthew Polka

  President and Chief Executive Officer

  American Cable Association
  Download Testimony (498.17 KB)

• Mr. Larry Willis

  President

  Transportation Trades Department
  Download Testimony (737.12 KB)

• Mr. Larry Willis

  President

  Transportation Trades Department
  Download Testimony (737.12 KB)

Majority Statement

• Chairman Roger Wicker
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  Majority Statement

  Chairman Roger Wicker

  Good morning. I am here today with my colleague, Ranking Member Cantwell, to discuss a pressing issue facing our nation—the state of our country’s infrastructure. 

  As we all know, President Trump continues to call for infrastructure revitalization. Just last week in his State of the Union address he called on Congress to work with the Administration to pass an infrastructure bill. 

  Infrastructure impacts nearly every corner of our country and economy — the corn and soybeans grown in the Midwest that are shipped through the Port of Seattle, the $323 billion in goods shipped each year to and from Colorado primarily by truck, the manufactured products moving through the port of Anchorage, the 150 million tons of freight traveling by rail through West Virginia each year, and the billions of dollars of machinery shipped to and from Mississippi each year. 

  Unfortunately, what was once the envy of the world, our infrastructure system has fallen behind on what is required to maintain America’s competitiveness in a global market. 

  The American Society of Civil Engineers report card gives our infrastructure a grade of D+. Our ports are congested. Millions continue to be without access to high-speed internet. Americans spend eight billion hours stuck in traffic each year. As an example, Los Angeles drivers spend 102 hours a year in traffic during peak times, while London drivers spend only 74 hours a year. In Mississippi alone, there are thousands of structurally deficient bridges. These statistics mean fewer jobs, less time with family, lower economic growth, or worse. 

  Fortunately, improving our infrastructure is an area where bipartisan agreement and cooperation can be found. This Committee already has built upon and will continue to build on this history of bipartisanship as it relates to transportation and infrastructure legislation. 

  Just last week, we kicked off the 116th Congress with a hearing on 5G technology and the societal benefits of maintaining American leadership in innovation. 5G has the ability to usher in a new era of connectivity through facilitation of cutting edge medical services or autonomous and connected transportation technologies — that allow vehicles to talk to each other or to communicate with roads, bridges, or traffic signals in order to reduce accidents and increase mobility. 

  Last fall, the Committee led Congress in passage of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which authorized the federal aviation transportation programs for five years, promoting airport infrastructure, safety, and American leadership in aviation. 

  Additionally, led by our friends over at the Committee on Environment and Public Works, where I serve with many members of this committee, the 115th Congress authorized our water resources infrastructure programs by passing the America’s Water Infrastructure Act. 

  While less recent, the Committee played a prominent role in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation in 2015. The FAST Act — a five-year bill to improve our nation’s infrastructure — provided long-term funding certainty for transportation infrastructure investment. It also improved surface transportation safety, enhanced economic growth, increased freight connectivity, and streamlined project delivery. This important legislation expires in 2020. 

  Working with our colleagues on the other relevant committees, the Commerce Committee will continue to work on the future of our infrastructure system. Our committee has broad jurisdiction over issues affecting ports, rail, trucking, aviation, and telecommunications. 

  More specifically, with respect to transportation, the Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary, which includes grant programs like BUILD, which has never been authorized, and important programs under the Build America Bureau. 

  Additionally, this Committee oversees various Highway Trust Fund and General Fund programs under important modal administrations and independent agencies, including the FAA, the Federal Railroad Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Maritime Administration, Surface Transportation Board, and National Transportation Safety Board. 

  On telecommunications issues, this Committee oversees the FCC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce. 

  Given its jurisdiction, this committee is in a unique position to examine how technology, including advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and connectivity, can revolutionize transportation and mobility for the 21st Century. 

  During today’s hearing, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses: 

  * Mr. William Friedman, Chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities, and also the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority; 

  * Mr. Ian Jefferies, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Railroads; 

  * Matthew Polka, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Cable Association; 

  * Mr. Chris Spear, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Trucking Association; 

  * Mr. Larry Willis, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO 

  Their testimony will address many of the critical issues that this committee will need to discuss.

  I look forward to a thoughtful discussion on these important topics so we can work to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure.

Minority Statement

• Maria Cantwell
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  Minority Statement

  Maria Cantwell

  Thank you Chairman Wicker, and I too welcome all the witnesses here today. Sometimes a good message is worth repeating, so let me add my infrastructure investment rejoinder to your comments.

  We know the importance of infrastructure and we also know what happens when we don’t invest. Just this week The Seattle Times ran an article about how Seattle had the 6^th worst congestion in our country and that drivers lost a whopping 138 hours to traffic last year. That’s almost 6 days. So that is about productivity and about cost. To add insult to injury, yesterday 2019 Top Truck Bottlenecks reports came out and found that Washington state has six of the top 100 bottlenecks in the country. So to my colleagues comments about how freight can’t wait, and how the competitiveness of moving our products is critical to not just my state’s products, but to our entire nation’s, I thank him for mentioning those.

  In Washington state we know we have to invest in infrastructure, and we’re not alone. And traffic isn’t the only problem. We know that whether that is bad roads or packed busses or not implementing PTC, that they can have tragic consequences. So what we need to do is move forward. The bottlenecks that were mentioned by my colleague, on our rail lines, and also our inability to move product, can lessen our nation’s competitiveness if we don’t get infrastructure right. It’s not that people who just are consumers lose their products or have to wait or that the cost is more – we lose our competitiveness to other nations who might be able to move those products faster.

  And my colleague also mentioned the underserved and rural communities and Tribal communities that lack appropriate broadband access, which is critical to competing in the 21^st century global economy. So we all agree that we need a heavy investment in infrastructure. I know the president initially called for a one trillion dollar investment in infrastructure, but the plan that puts forth the 200 billion dollars of federal investment relies heavily on a public-private partnership and more tolls. I think this has been received with a great deal of skepticism across the country.

  What I think we need to do – my colleagues on this side of the aisle put forth an infrastructure proposal and really try to focus on the ROI that we get from infrastructure investment. Whether that is aviation, maritime, broadband, or things as basic as grid modernization, are about transforming our community and using the resources of our cherished infrastructure investment in the appropriate ways. I hope our committee will take a look at that proposal.

  This past month with the shutdown, I think we got a very clear look at what happens when transportation doesn’t work. We know that transportation employees, like air traffic controllers and transportation security workers, met their challenges but faced many of them. And we don’t want to see that happen again. The shutdown is a wakeup call for us that says we have to invest in these critical aspects of infrastructure to move our economy forward. So I look forward to working with the Chairman and the members of this committee on our economic competiveness as a nation. It requires real investment in infrastructure, and I hope that we’ll get a chance to talk about that. ­

  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Testimony

• Mr. William Friedman

  Chairman

  American Association of Port Authorities
  Download Testimony (118.73 KB)

• Mr. Ian Jefferies

  President and Chief Executive Officer

  Association of American Railroads
  Download Testimony (361.55 KB)

• Mr. Matthew Polka

  President and Chief Executive Officer

  American Cable Association
  Download Testimony (498.17 KB)

• Mr. Chris Spear

  President and Chief Executive Officer

  American Trucking Association
  Download Testimony (948.96 KB)

• Mr. Larry Willis

  President

  Transportation Trades Department
  Download Testimony (737.12 KB)