Peter DeFazio

Today I introduced the Safety Is Not for Sale Act.

Let's hope that they can get this one done promptly

It is unfortunate that we had to have people killed to get to this point, which has happened before in Government.

We are here to ensure that the lives of your family members were not lost in vain.

You and your people are there for one reason and one reason only, to assure the safety of the flying public.

I want to be certain that that has not crept back in.

I am a strong proponent of this investment, because it will make freight movement faster and more efficient.

I don't think we should be handing it over for these decisions to be made over there.

The U.S. freight transportation network is critical to the economy of this Nation: 17.7 billion tons of freight valued at $16.8 trillion every year.

We need to be proactive in preparing to meet these growing demands on existing infrastructure.

How are we going to reduce the environmental burden of the freight industry, both in terms of pollution in urban areas, and also in terms of the carbon that it contributes to climate change?

The aggregate cap needs to be eliminated or greatly raised.

Railroads commend Congress for passing the USMCA and are hopeful that this agreement... will lead to reduced economic uncertainty.

The INFRA program is underfunded. CAGTC calls for an annual investment of $12 billion in multimodal freight investment through a competitive grant program.

A significant portion of freight growth and a disproportionate share of the cost of freight movements come from the last mile.

Medium and heavy-duty trucks contributed 23 percent of all transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2017.

The money is insufficient, and there is a huge line of very meritorious projects waiting for funding.

As important as it is, it has been neglected, in terms of our investment, as has the whole system been neglected by our levels of investment.

I have long been a champion of this program.

It is time for the Federal Government to step up on this project and others like it across the country.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and learning how Congress can help address current and future freight needs in a surface transportation.

Let's look at it from a fiscal perspective: more than 75 percent of declared Federal disasters are related to floods, and annual flood losses average almost $8 billion with over 90 fatalities per year.

Again, thank you for holding this hearing as we work toward reauthorizing the Water Resources Development Act next year.

Even if you don't believe that this is a result of climate change, we can at least agree that these extreme hydrologic events are no longer the exception and are now becoming the norm.

But we also have to look at whether or not there are some who do not believe in climate change.