It cannot be business as usual, and we have to look at everything we do and ask if that is the right, smart way to do it.

It is good to see you. Thank you very much for your service.

Yet, in recent years, Congress has underfunded the Endangered Species Act, and the draft legislation that we are holding this hearing on today does not provide a meaningful funding solution for species conservation.

Not only do people travel from far and near to see the endangered species, all kinds of threatened and endangered species on Delmarva Peninsula and in Delaware, but when they do, they spend money, and they support our local economies.

A word of advice for counsel as we look for principal compromise on what is an important issue, but a difficult issue.

I continue to believe that our State, along with the Service and all States, could do exponentially more to recover species and prevent new listings with additional resources.

I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a 2017 letter from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, which recommends that the statutory and scientific integrity of the endangered species be…

Anything you want to mention with an eye toward helping steer us toward some kind of principal compromise on what is a difficult issue, important issue.

Congress should allocate additional funding to the services to implement the Endangered Species Act.

it is in all of our interests to make sure that we do have checks and balances in our system.

I believe--and I know that my colleagues believe--that funding has got to be part of the conversation.

I am not fully convinced that a similar process is possible right now in Washington, DC.

If policy changed to require transit projects to use TIFIA and Federal grants for no more than, say, 50 percent of the total project cost, would that make TIFIA less attractive to project sponsors?

What we don't have is the will to pay for them.

the user fees, the ones that we traditionally use.

I think in the long term we move to a vehicle miles traveled approach.

In 1998 Congress found that 'a Federal credit program for projects of national significance can complement existing funding resources by filling market gaps.'

One of the things that Brian mentioned, we are very grateful in Delaware for the program and the ability. This money actually enables us to build this road.

I think you raised an important point, and I thank you for your comments.

I see this project coming to a conclusion. I am going to actually clip the ribbon I think probably in November.

I am just trying to get at the toll rate versus the TIFIA rate.

And was deferral actually an attractive aspect as well, that comes with the TIFIA loan?

Some of us believe that there is value in the three Ps, public-private partnerships.

However, I agree that there may be more to do to expand access to TIFIA loans to all of our communities.

The TIFIA loan that we have obtained enabled the US 301 project to move forward, improving safety and regional mobility.