is to allow up to 140% loan to value with a clear view that any loan that is deeply underwater would have to be written down substantially to get within those parameters. and so, that it's really the key legislative change that with the

required under their proposal and to create a separate one from a traditional mmi fund in order to make sure that we protect the mmi fund. and that those are the two key pieces of the legislation that would be required. >> so, i appreciate that separate fund. one of the question is, how do you put the money into that fund or that tries? certainly one strategy is an insurance fee for families into how participate. another possibility raised as a broad-based financial sector fee of some sort. but i have looked at the issue of instead of utilizing that approach, utilizing a risk transfer fee as they fall in. often for companies who hold mortgages that are underwater,

recognizing that there is substantial risk of holding underwater mortgages that they pay a risk transfer fee. and then laying this out over 40 years, a few out basically a spread between -- because the federal guarantee funds between 2% and say a 5% mortgage, you end up with solvency under kind of reasonably conservative presumptions. but it is not zero risk detest romantic things can happen and that is for the federal government guarantees for fha becomes the essential for extension of federal government guarantee to utilize the federal home bank system and this is -- it is struck me in the end a lot of conversations hit the rocks on the notion that there is some risk. i guess the point i want to make and ask you to respond to is we took enormous risk as a nation, if you will in helping a major

financial institutions in helping out the auto market. it seems to me it is reasonable we take modest risk starting with spreadsheets that say they will actually make money. but worst case, there may be some risk. at the upside of helping millions of family is be out from under water and hide their financial fee is a huge upside risk and i think we have to get the conversation away from saying there is some zero risk way to approach this. just throw that out there. >> senator, i think you've made an essential point. first, let me be clear that we did propose initially a way to pay for this broader-based refinancing. we are very open to looking at the ones that you propose to additional e. on these loans. there is a number of potential ways we like to work with the

committee on potential ways to pay for it and we and we been talking to senator feinstein about it. you've hit on the key point that there is no question that they refinancing these loans into fha loans that there is some additional risk that we had because of the transfer. i think the fundamental questions are first, how do we minimize that risk? and by both focusing on current loans that meet additional underwriting criteria and by lowering those caused, these are safe was to begin with. second, thereby fully paying for it, we are offsetting any accepted losses that might come. and third and most importantly, none of that calculates exactly which are talking about, which is there is enormous potential upside if we can just move house prices a few percentage points

for this broad based refinancing , the benefits to the taxpayers to improvements in the performance of fannie mae and freddie mac, fha and the broader list the economy would have for a potentially enormous. and so, the benefit of doing this, we believe substantially outweigh any potential risk and we've tried to find and we want to work with the committee to find as many ways to offset those risks as possible. >> thank you, mr. secretary. i appreciate the administration's attention to the non-shia see challenge i look forward to working with members of the committee and administration on that issue. thank you. >> senator hagan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and secretary donna been coming thank you for your attention this morning. we've mentioned this before but i have the utmost confidence in the

judgment of banks in north carolina. i think he'll do a tremendous job as manager of the global mortgage service there settlement area. i saw this morning one large financial and petition has begun delivering on the commitments under the settlement identifying 200,000 customers and may ultimately qualify for principal reduction program. can you discuss where we are on the implementation of the settlement and perhaps discuss some of the progress that is being made? >> absolutely in thank you for your support of joe smith. i think he has been terrific in the early going of this coming terrific addition to the team in terms of implementation. not only haven't i think he saw the report said bank of america has begun billing about 200,000 letters to borrowers. going beyond that, there have

verdict in principle reductions that have been delivered to families as a result of the settlement. there were many families being evaluated for other types of modifications that then were able to get very quickly, after march 1st principal reduction. it's not a huge number at this point. it is in the thousands, are very thousands of families already benefited and hundreds of thousands more getting letters and not just from bank of america, the female from all of the five banks. the other critical see its implementation has begun around the servicing standards that were in the settlement and specifically your first deadline for implementation of the most critical pieces of the servicing standards is coming up within the next month or so and we would be happy to get you a detailed timeline of when the standards have to go into effect, though we are very encouraged by the pace with which implementation is moving on services standards.

>> annika made of parameters but how much virus may be eligible for? >> it really varies by location. what we are seen as that in the most deep the underwater state, california, nevada, principle reductions are exceeding $100,000 for homeowners. in a state like north carolina, we expect to see where the range of 50,000 to $100,000 on average. but these are substantial changes for the families. and just to be clear, the requirement in the settlement is that not just the principal reduction happens, but there's demonstrated ability for the family to pay and remain in the home for at least 90 days. so what is critical that happens is that it gets the family to a sustainable level that will keep them in their home long-term. >> thank you. >> following up a conversation we started in february last year

in front of the committee, we want to be supportive of what the department and fha do to ensure the long-term viability of federal insurance program. to that end we spoken about how to strength and enforcement authorities available to the fha. can you talk about some of the changes the fha would like to see in order to help it manage the risk posed by the noncompliance on the part of fha approved lenders? >> this is critical and there are two major changes that we have been seeking in legislation , we are working actively with your colleagues in the house to be able to get this legislation through. we came very close last year as part of our budget and didn't quite get there. one is to clarify our ability to hold our lenders accountable through indemnification. we just issued a rule that expands and makes clear the standards that we have for indemnification. but there are certain types of

loans from lenders that we don't have clear authority to do that on. that is a critical piece. the second is we have a somewhat perverse provision in the way we can enforce that allows us to go after lenders only for regional or local violation based on their track records convert to other lenders in those areas. we can't actually disqualify an entire company nationally through our current standards and that is simply that simply doesn't make any sense in something we would like to have clarified. other smaller provisions, it the other thing i would add and this is particularly relevant for north carolina, is that we have smaller lenders that today can't originate loans under their own name unless they have the full ability to issue securities and other steps. we have a lot of concerns in the

dakotas and other areas where we have a lot of smaller lenders, that they want that ability. that is something we take makes perfect sense and that would be included in the legislation as well. it is not directly connected to enforcement, but it is something you'd be interested in and is an important piece. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> we will go to a brief second round. is there a timeframe within which any changes that need to happen? are we losing the opportunity to improve the market if these changes are not -- are delayed quite >> mr. chairman, this is such an important piece of this and this is why i think you perhaps heard the president mentioned the important of this issue as one of his top legislative or your 80s. he is going to be in nevada on friday and will talk

specifically about the importance of expanding refinancing. there is a real urgency here because interest rates today are at the lowest level they have ever been for 30 year mortgage. but if the economy continues to improve, i think all expectations are that this window of record low interest rates may not last a significant period of time and therefore it is particularly urgent that we take advantage of this. as i said earlier, low interest rates like this are typically one of the most than you shall hang on a macroeconomic level to boost the economy and yet we are simply not seen to date the full benefit of this record low interest rates that we should be seeing and the quickest most effective and i think the most bipartisan way that we can increase the boost to the economy of these record low

interest rates is to quickly get these proposals and act did and that is something i think hopefully we can all agree on and move with real speed in getting this done. >> senator sheldon. >> lister secretary, u.n. senator cornyn gotten a little dialogue about first mortgage, second mortgage and the impact, dealing with fha, dealing with gics, fannie mae and freddie mac there have been a lot of proposals about the administration dealing with that basic prop pelaez got first lane, which is first priority, second claim, which is the second. if the value of the first lien goes down or you pay it down or negotiate it down, then the

value would logically follow the value of the second lien to go up, is that correct generally? generally speaking. >> generally speaking, yes. >> assuming the property value. do it at 250,000-dollar mortgage and a piece of property first lien and fannie and freddie are fha or whoever is the government-sponsored enterprise at a first mortgage inure to $50,000.2 wordage and a few by negotiations lowered to $250,000 lien to $780,000, just throwing that out, wouldn't all of the value as a means to property value is worth the value of the second lien would be enhanced?

>> if there is no requirement that she write it down. >> you're -- you mean write down a second lien? >> with actually implemented by requirement in our camp program and in the settlement program. >> if you took the second program to do with the second. others are not going to do it. >> exactly. here is the problem, senator. >> so that's the -- >> this is a real issue. frankly i think we have learned our lesson that as we take about what the highs housing finance system looks forward, dch of clear rules on. if you write on a first-come you have to write down the second significantly more. those kinds of things need to be implemented. we have done so in the various programs that we have the

ability to control that secondly for force that on the second lien. but the problem is there were no girls on this except when you get to foreclosure. any foreclosure you have to write off all of the second before you touch the first. >> otherwise the second goes to first. >> that's right. the problem is they don't have rules of the road for what happens in a modification or in a world where the second thing is current and you don't have the ability. the good news here is for about half of the underwater love, there is no second. so this is only an issue for a portion of them were you only have a first flame, the issue is cleared, right? >> the property is low, isn't in a quite >> the basic property law in foreclosure. the problem is what we should have done is have rules of the road in the investors will tell you this now. you know, we should have as long as they're made forward --

>> don't get for three times. >> that's right. i think it's important that we have clear rules of the road going forward. on the other hand, what i don't think we can do is throw up our hands and say we can't do anything because there were rules of the road. we try to create them. investors might not think are perfect and i agree they're not perfect and we try to find ways to improve them. but we have made this a real priority to say you have to write off the fat cat lim at least as much as the first and if you seriously delinquent you have to write it off 100% before you touch the first. >> i can see the rationale of negotiating with the lender that has got a house, got a mortgage on a house that's probably precarious and could be foreclosed and renegotiated

because they take a bath and set a may want to avoid and are not in the housing business. the money own business. so i can see them do that. a lot of are concerned and i think senator corker has enunciated this to a very, as we do not want the taxpayer to take the head. in other words, a lot of the owners of second mortgage securities, could be a factor bailout. we don't want to do that and i don't think you want to do that. you understand where i'm coming from? >> absolutely. we should work on provisions that could work work on in the legislation that would focus on second please. >> tummy which you would do. >> as we get in the settlement, we could require any service or

that was coming in to refinance a loan. they would have to take write-downs on the second lien -- on the first lien to 130 lcd. we could require if they control the second, which a lot of them do. they would have to write down the second as well. we could do something like that, similar to what we did in the settlement. here is the issue, though. >> you could make them do it if they didn't want to? >> we are not -- absolutely. here is the issue though. what you have oftentimes is a first lien holder with a service error and a second controlled by a completely third-party and the question is, even if they write down on the first is beneficial to the person who holds the first time are you going to cut off your nose to spite your face? will you do it right down because the second lien is refusing?

that's the problem with not have been the roses there is the ability of a second lien holder to basically block whether it is a refinancing our principal reduction, even if the principal reduction is good for the first lien holder. it may be good for the second as well. that is the dilemma we have been by not having clear rules on what you do here in so we've tried to break that by putting in place rules that we can certainly do that in the case were talking about here, with a refinancing universal refinance proposal. >> i want to go back to the gses and we've talked about this in your administration has made proposals in this area. what would concern some of us to appear on the gse right now, that the gses would take a hit ultimately, the taxpayer now since the taxpayer is holding the gses?

you see what i'm getting now? >> so to be clear, because then he write-downs the gse is but it would be done through the setup to program, the requirements for the second lanes to be written down would apply to that. in other words, any institution choosing to write down a first way they controlled the second would have to write down the second as well. so i think we have a way to deal with that issue. the second thing as there is more and more evidence differ deeply underwater loans, those principal options actually benefit the taxpayer. and so, we think it is important to move forward where there is evidence that these are net present value positive, were they actually benefit not just a homeowner, but the taxpayers will because there is more likelihood to repay.

>> do you believe this era may be next year will have at least a million foreclosures as some people think? >> the number of foreclosures is down substantially. the current expectation lasher was less than a million actual foreclosures. certainly we are on track to be, so far this year, lower than that. we've seen some evidence of a slight increase following the servicing settlement. and foreclosures, but not a substantial jump and i think it's likely at this point were less than a million. >> the real states, california, nevada and florida ensure you have some of it everywhere. >> we have actually seen significant improvements in california and arizona, some in nevada and 80% reduction of foreclosures in nevada actually. >> what about florida? >> florida because it is a judicial stay we haven't seen as much improvement because the timeline.

>> you go to court to do for closure? >> the timeline is much longer in florida and that has meant that it tended to be -- the effects of foreclosures have lasted longer. but it also means more families now hopefully with the settlement have the ability to stay in their homes. >> one last question that shift to the menendez boxer legislation we've been talking about. given that a lot of the menendez boxer proposal has been adopted or addressed through t.a.r.p. 20, if you know mr. secretary, how many additional homeowners do you estimate would be held by the menendez boxer legislation that aren't already being hauled by h.a.r.p. 20? >> these predictions for you have a voluntary program as we just talked about are particularly hard to make. so i'm not going to give you a specific number.

i will tell you range. at the very high-end, christopher mayer who was here testifying before the committee that it could increase refinances that close to 12 million. our expectations are significantly lower than now. there are some who would estimate it is as low as a million. we think that is probably too low, but somewhere in that range i think it is fair to say that millions of homeowners appealed to benefit your refinancing. as 11 million homeowners who will be called in the many could benefit from the refinance with gse loans that haven't refinanced. we don't think all of them under the criteria laid out in the bill. >> had to get them to do that? interest rates are very low, just to let you mentioned earlier. the best thing anybody can do is lower house payments they 5.5,

3.7 -- whatever 3.6, think about that. put money in their pocket every month. to stabilize the housing market sand. under most funds they can refinance at a penalty, can't they? >> you are the two key thing stopping them. one is they are not allowed at all to refinance. they may be, for example, above water in their first lien but have a plane that puts them -- makes it impossible for them to refinance. >> so it doesn't do them any good. >> in that case it would allow the family to refinance. second is that they may be able to refinance but the costs are very high. they may need an appraisal and what we see in a lot of cases is because there is essentially a monopoly on refinancing, whoever holds their current loan, whoever is the service error, they can charge them and we see

this very high fees. laurie goodman estimated as much as $15,000 in additional cost we are being charged because there was a competition between servicers. so what we're trying to do with legislation is removed areas to competition and that will take a family who may be eligible today, but they will look at the cost and features doesn't make sense for me to spend as much as $15,000 extra to refinance. or there may not have it. >> give me an example over the $15,000 before? >> it would be not just the cost of refinancing, appraisals that frankly aren't necessary given the risk is already at the gse. then, additional fees charged by that service or for the refinance. there is a range of those kinds of fees we can detail for you, but that's the issue. >> senator merkley, do you have any questions?

>> thank you, mr. chairman. yes, i do. first, i want to knock your comment about the window of opportunity that exists right now with low-interest rate at which accentuate that. the term as fierce as now as you were speaking and i recall many years ago in the early 90s i was involved in a project to help called project down payment in an effort to try to put together a down payment -- matching down payment fund to help stabilize a very low income area and portland and over the two years it took us to raise the funds for that down payment matching grant to help renters become stabilized in this community, home prices went from 60,000 to over 100,000 we miss the window of opportunity. i am afraid that that is going to happen here and so i really applaud your stressing that point. i want to turn back to the issue related to how to help

homeowners who do not have gse guaranteed loans. one reason i keep coming back to this as so many families come in to talk to make a searching about the challenges they are facing and i feel like it's a lottery. we look up whether they're the own happens to have been purchased by the gse is that sometimes it hasn't sometimes it hasn't been the family rarely does that we wouldn't know until he lifted up in a computer database and its like hey this is your lucky day. you're eligible for h.a.r.p. aren't sorry you're stuck with no program. sort of addressing an opportunity for families whose homes were not purchased as an important part of the sufferer. in the proposal outlined by the administration and it doesn't really have a name, but the additional fha program i don't need to put a name on that. >> the additional strategy for not fha, non-gse borrowers, do

you envision this in terms that refinance and first mortgages were first and second together in terms of 140% loan-to-value and how the breakdowns would occur? >> first of all, senator, let me just echo your point, which is, and this isn't just an issue of the economic benefits that broader-based refinancing would have for families, neighborhoods , economy overall and frankly the taxpayer through improvements that the gse is for fha. this is about fundamental fairness, the idea that it is exactly as you say. anytime you talk to a homeowner, it's very rare that they would no what type of loan they have. gse, fha. it seems inherently unfair. the president made a point in the state of union address that the families are doing all the

right things, pain loans despite whatever challenges they may have can't benefits simply because they have a different kind of loan from somebody else. one of the important points to ask is this issue of fairness that you raise. in terms of the question that she lasted in addition to the -- i'm sorry -- >> first and second and whether it would cover. >> i was just discussing with senator shelby, that's an area we would be very open to working with the committee to specifically add some language to the legislation on that. we have done that in the other efforts we've had and i think it's important when particularly where the service has control over a second lien and is coming in for refinancing like this that there would be a

requirement, not just the right on the first lien to the 140, but there be a requirement on the second as well. >> thank you. i know the first and second lien problem has bedeviled us and certainly we are wrestling with looking backwards and we have to fix it looking forward as well. >> absolutely. i would also add it is not a reason to not move forward here because half of all the loans that are underwater don't have the second lien. and so, there's a huge opportunity outside of the second lien problem to make progress here and i think there are ways to do with the second lien issue that could be productive here. >> turning to another point of this in the modeling at me and my team have laid out to try to understand whether a fund would remain solvent and what risk factors are comedy huge issue is the percent of families that in the first couple of years, was

still substantially underwater essentially default, default strategically or default financially, lose their job, can make the payments because at that point we've expanded the federal guarantee and the federal government is picking up losses, offsetting through insurance, offsetting to risk transfer fee or some other fine, but still the assumptions about that are critical and that leads to a conversation about what type of restrictions there are on a family in the first few years after the government picks up his guarantee to you basically put in place a rule is part of the mortgage that says, first you cannot basically walk away from this. and so, a legal requirement, if you will, it's kind of almost inherent in the mortgage to begin with. but then normally the issue of recourse is determined at the

state level. some states have recourse, some don't. the recourse serves as a fact that they reduce the number of folks whose day, well, our circumstances have changed. we want to move across town to a better school district emerges going to walk away from this house were going to rent. has there been a discussion about the issue of rules related to recourse or whether he do anything if the federal overlay on this? >> what i would say is those are particular issues, where we have families who may be delinquent or where there is significant print the reduction have been named. and that's i think the right focus and those types of situations. to be clear, what we are talking about kerry's families who are current and where they are not

getting principal reduction through the refinance in itself. there may be a decision by the lender to reduce the balance to 140 loan-to-value, but they still have a significant payment. and again, these are families pain and are current on their loans. so we didn't see a need to go beyond that, given these families are responsible, have been doing the right and pain and are not getting substantial principal reduction at least below the 140 ltv to be able to stay. i think it very appropriate in this case is, what you have proposed, which is to give them an incentive to be responsible on reducing their principal balance. as you know, but for members of the committee, the power of low interest rates is such that

anyone who is -- or just about anyone who is below 125 loan-to-value can get back above water within just a couple years. so what this is doing, if they are choosing to use those savings instead of lowering payment to shorten their term and be able to reduce principles faster, they really give themselves alighted the end of the time of that makes it less likely to default in future years. that is something you're exactly right in your legislation to incur. the last thing is on the investor side there is some concern these families coming down to low interest rate, are the ones going to be in place for a significant period of time. but investors are concerned about is they've been conservatives harp and other investors. will they see a continuous cycle of refinancing for these? but we've been clear on is that

she refinanced at a record low level, you will not see of refinancing a home quickly. that is a protection for investors that we think is important and we certainly have been open to doing in this broader-based refinancing effort. >> absolutely take your point about this is for families being current, the effect is many families about these homes in 2006, 27 committee for the bubble was at its height or even earlier. but as the crashes taken them below what they started, they have been making payments from four to 10 years or sometimes a little longer and yet they're still underwater. so they have shouldered us through the deepest point of this recession. and because of that they have good credit. so walking away does have a cost in terms of impairing their credit and this has led to the number of housing expert and the

assumptions doubled to thought every year and that situations. that's where i try to get my hands around that as the exposure of the us government. but this issue of the recourse that have been raised. thank you very much again for your testimony. i join your considering this is something we should be working on day and night and so we can put it in place for the families and the economy. >> i would like to thank secretary donovan for sharing his today. this community will continue to explore ways for their housing market immediately and then the long-term. this will require a multifaceted approach and i look forward to

working with my colleagues to continue that effort. so with that, this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

>> anything else is interest in the world, very significant nonlinear times exposé of the most highly classified documents of the war. the thought that i see. i didn't read the story, but that was leaked out of the pentagon? >> there's a whole study done mcnamara and they carried on by clifford and the peaceniks over there. this is a devastating security breach. >> in washington d.c., listen and 90.1 fm on channel 119 and a c-span radio.work.

>> house and senate negotiators met for the first time today to take up a transportation bill funding roads, bridges and rail projects. this implements a two-year $109 billion bill approved by the senate in march. the point of contention remains. the keystone accel oil pipeline. house republicans want to include a provision in the bill speeding up its approval. this is two hours 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> welcome everybody. the transportation bill will come to order. i welcome each and every one of each of the house-senate conference. it has been seven years since we've had such a conference, so it is an exciting moment in history i ain't them are very

pleased to have you here. as per a long-standing agreement between the house and senate, we alternate back and forth between the two bodies on taking responsibility for chairing the responsibility bill conference. i'll begin by recognizing chairman mica who will be a key partner to complete the conference to nominate the chairman of the conference. chairman mica. >> well, thank you and good afternoon. as he mentioned, senator boxer, the house and senate alternate on chairing the conference and the last bill and conference was chaired by chairman don young has had success as a contrary and that was back as you also mentioned in june of 2005, some seven years ago, so this is an historic gathering indication and now it is a turn senate to

chaired this conference in keeping with that bipartisan and bicameral tradition, it is my honor to nominate senator barbara boxer is the chairman of the conference for the service transportation bill. this very second? >> gas, first of all, let me say we have worked tirelessly on this thing for a long period of time. barbara boxer and i -- senator boxer and i don't agree on a whole lot of things. but on this we agree on infrastructure. i may say to all my conservative friends here that i have had that ranking for a long time as being always one of the first or second listed conservative members, but i also say on issues like national security on the big spender. i think that's what we're supposed to be doing here and i couldn't be more pleased to have worked with senator boxer during the development of our bill and

it's a pleasure to me for secretary nomination. >> carry no objection i am pleased to hand the gavel over and congratulate senator boxer as chair of the transportation bill conference committee. >> john amen, thank you out of you for your warm words. i returned them and i think we will really celebrate each and every one of us when we get this work done and i believe we will. so, i would now like to nominate congressman mica as the vice-chairman of this conference. is there objection to that? hearing that it is so ordered and you are now vice chairman. now before you begin my opening statement i want to lead the process will follow in order to get our work done. and our conference meeting today, each committee chairman will have up to five minutes to share his or her thoughts and others will have up to three

minutes. after today's meeting, staff will begin working on behalf of conferees to address all the issues of the conference. those issues include, and i will list them. one, highways, bridges, roads and routes. two, finance, three, transit. for, highway safety. five, the restore act. six, other issues such as the harvard maintenance trust bind to keystone pipeline and coal ash. we must finish our work without delay because they must provide enough time for the conference report to pass both houses and get to the president's desk before the current extension expires on june 30. we must complete the conference report by early june in order to meet this timeframe. if it is necessary, we will reconvene right back here in this room at that time. without this microphone. i will begin my opening

statement followed by chairman mica. we'll go back and forth, senate and house, chairman of making numbers followed by all others by order of seniority. so we will go right down the stables. and now we can start my five minutes please. colleagues, i trust we all know how fortunate and how blessed we are to have this opportunity to save or create 3 million jobs and protect thousands of businesses as we meet the needs of america's transportation system. let me make this point, senator schumer in particular to you. this is not working. there is no other group of americans to get this chance, none. nowhere does anyone else have this opportunity, failure is not an option for us, not with 70,000 participants, not when 50% of our roads are below

standard and not when construction businesses and workers are separate. now would thousands of middle-class construction jobs are being launched right now due to the extension. because of this ms extensions come in many states have limited funds available to hire workers for construction projects due to funding uncertainty, costing thousands of jobs across america right now in each of our state. we do here today in the days and weeks ahead its ramifications for so many businesses. today, just a couple hours going up at the california oil refinery and learned that one third of their business is asphalt production and that business has declined 40% to 50%, the uncertainty of funding for transportation programs is hurting them badly. i learned from the association of equipment dealers the same uncertainty caused to rent equipment rather than this has

depressed the business of the equipment dealers, placing a further drag on the economy and increasing employment. as we work to pass in a transportation bill, here's a picture i want you to keep in mind. it is the super bowl stadium filled to capacity. look at it. imagine 12 of the stadiums filled to capacity. that is how many unemployed construction workers there are today. 1.2 million. so we start giving to our battles are fun to come to think about the families and businesses who hire them. they are counting on finish it. look, as senator inhofe and senator boxer can agree on a bill, then we all can agree on a bill. and senator sessions and senator sanders can agree on a bill, we can all agree on a bill. senator baucus and senator blanche can agree on a bill, we

can all agree on a bill. that many pundits and experts abrogate did when it comes to this bill. they were wrong in the past and we never pass it to the senate. if the house didn't pass it never be here. we are here. now the ball is in our court. those of us around this table, it is our job in we will do it and we had the wind at our back because we have the senate will map 21, a reform bill that received 74 boats. it protects and creates 3 million jobs than a million of those came out of a program i worked for senator inhofe and chairman mica on as well as mr. rahal. it is a program which leverages dollars 30 to one. that is an additional million jobs. so i wants you all to know from the house in particular, this is a bill reforms bill.

it consolidates 90 programs just in the highway part alone. and eliminates air max and give states flexibility. it establishes performance measures, accelerates project delivery so important to you and sets up a knew for a program. the country needs us to pass the surface transportation bill so we can fix our agent infrastructure. the house of our business and workers depend on it. again, why do we have the wind at our back? look at some of the groups that are supporting us. just look at this. this is really amazing. just a few of the 500. aaa, afl-cio, and state highways and transit officials, public transportation association, civil engineers, general contract years, equipment dealers, distributors, u.s. chamber of commerce, and the

u.s. conference of mayors. and again i say, if the afl-cio and the chamber of commerce can work together, surely we can work together to. in addition to our core mission, we have a wonderful opportunity with the trust fund to secure the program. so colleagues, i look forward to working with each and everyone of you. the doors opened i know we can succeed. it's an honor to turn to vice chairman mica. he met well, thank you so much, senator boxer in thank you for your leadership at this conference and also for working with me as they've tried to come down this long road is getting us to a conference today. as some of you may recall we start on the house side with mr. rahal and went across the country to hear from the

american people and a lot of the stakeholders of people who don't have jobs and communities that are waiting for the congress to make a decision on infrastructure. we conducted a bipartisan, bicameral hearing, probably the first i recall in los angeles together. i think there's a strong commitment not only from our committee, but everyone who has gathered here. under the other side there were six extensions on the transportation. there was a shutdown would make that mr. oberstar and i were going for a six-year bill. that was not to be. i regret that. mr. oberstar was a wonderful individual who did all he could to move this process forward and i was saddened when the administration that that time i

did actually to cut his legs out from under me 10 from a short-term measure. that's really what puts us in the slate. a lot of people say this can't be done, but i've got senator rockefeller and i've got senator hutchison over there and we had 17 extensions before i became the chaired the committee some 14 months ago. we did an essay bill. it wasn't what everybody wanted. everyone would've done it a little bit differently, but we've got the law of the land the president signed on the 14th. so i think this can be done. there are millions and millions of americans who don't have jobs in the hard-hit construction industry. but while we all share a commitment to build our nation's infrastructure, we've got to

really focus on what is in the transportation bill and if it does get the job done. i think in order to achieve that goal -- and it is an important goal for people without a job in crumbling infrastructure for this country that we include some serious reforms. you can't just continue to throw money at problems. they tried that in the stimulus bill to enough years after they pass this thing is though, which was only about 6% or 7% infrastructure. 35% of the money was stuck in washington. we heard and every one of those hearings from west virginia to los angeles the need for reforms. i am here to say it's not just spend my money or throw money at problems. let's have some serious reforms that get projects moving across this country. let me set the markers out here.

we are going to have to pay for this and pay for responsibly. we're not going to raise taxes. anyone who wants to raise taxes on the wrong conference committee. we must not include earmarks. we cannot add to the federal bureaucracy. but i took a red tape paperwork and start streamlining the process that actually get things done. but that is the message i come with today. shovel ready has become a national joke. we saw that again and stimulus. talk to any of your folks out there. they will tell you that at the federal government gets involved, i think you came to some of those hearings, and those of you on our committee said the federal government gets involved, the rule of thumb takes two to three times as long and it cost a reported times as much. and that just is not the way to go. so i think we've got some

programs that are broken. we need to consolidate some of the duplicative programs that we have and really roll up our sleeves and do a better job. we've got to do more with less. the american people demand it. our future for the country requires that and we are only going to burden our children and grandchildren if we don't address again doing things in a different fashion than we have done today. so all of my colleagues and they've got some great other leaders to hear from. senator boxer that deal with different components that we are all committed to what together and get it done. thank you and i yield back. >> thank you. senator inhofe. >> thank you, madam chairman. i cut my remarks sure because i agree with everything said over here. i would only say there are people in the senate side is

that there's no way in the world do get a bill in election year. we pulled it. we did and now they are saying the same thing will never be a litigant is stunning. and of course now we have the issues to deal with. i think most of us, certainly in this room know the cost of what it is to work on extensions. i said i think when i second the nomination of senator boxer that you know, those of us who are conservatives and it's been that effort because there's several house members that i don't know yet or not they are serving in the house to let the conservative members know my feelings and that is having been ranked as the most conservative many times that the conservative isn't the best. if we operate on extensions that caused her to 5%. we're throwing 35% of

infrastructure by not doing it. it's hard to explain to a lot of people and i won't repeat that, but let me just mention one because this probably is the reform that is known as meaningful to those of you who work there but as members and that is on enhancements. as he notes written into a 10% of the transportation programs or 2% of the total funding has to be on following this enhancement to be highly densification museums and all that. a lot of us, including myself and conservatives thought that is not a good program. you've got to keep in mind, people out there paying the taxes at the pump expect that it should be going to roads and highways and bridges, construction. it really satisfies everyone

because in my state of oklahoma fido want to spend 2% on what they categorize as enhancements come i can use it for unfunded mandates for requirements that we have out there and that pretty much solves the problem. instead of local control of things. a lot of people say well you ought to be really proud of the democrats on the committee in the senate because they agreed to send things that we didn't believe. we really got together. and i can remember in years past when i was on the tni committee for eight years than i remember your daddy at their chairing the thing, but shuster, john paul hammerschmidt, norman matta. and i can remember when norman matta was appointed to a position not too long ago and i called him up and i said, i want to call and congratulate you. this is the only probably can you came to your fundraisers.

that is what we have in common that we knew what was important. national defense and infrastructure. that is what it's all about. that's ever supposed to be doing here that's overdoing that we're doing with this bill. i'm anxious to get on with this thing and get it done and i believe i have every expectation never going to be able to that which the vast majority of people want done and i have a reauthorization bill. >> thank you so much. representative ray hall followed by senator baucus. >> congratulation on being selected chair. let me start by being as optimistic as i can in seeing how happy i am here at this point. ..

and i know how important time is. time is of the essence. those conferences all share a common goal, the desire to work together in a bipartisan fashion, in a bipartisan fashion to develop final legislation to create jobs and to improve our nation's transportation network.

i have the greatest deal of confidence optimistic that this conference will continue that fine tradition. today we have some 2 million construction and manufacturing workers are still waiting for jobs, capable workers waiting for jobs and it's past time for the congress to act. we must indeed seize this opportunity to pave the way for economic progress and job creation. the time to act is now. it to you looked at the legislative time schedule. we have on the 22, 22 legislative days have in which to act before the current expedition expires on june 30 of this year we cannot afford to waste any time. our road contractors are waiting. the american people are waiting.

the construction season has already started. the time to let contracts house passed or is expiring very soon. and we should be letting these contractors know with certainty not 90 eclipse at the time, but for a long term robust extension of time we should let them know that they can hire workers, that they can put their willing and capable workforce back to work on the ground. we must rebuild our nation. we have seen what other nations are doing in the way of infrastructure spending as a percentage of their gross domestic product they are literally leaving the united states in the last and we all know those figures are. so it's time the congress gets its act in gear. we cannot let our hard heads to get in the way of hard hats.

we must quit taking political jabs at one another and indeed put jobs at the forefront for the american worker. with that i want to get ready the chance to speak and not use all my time. i do want to say to each of you as members of the conference committee first and second of its seize this opportunity in a bipartisan fashion to do with the american people have long expected us to do and that is to get the job done. thank you madame chair to read german boxer. >> thank you very much. senator baucus. >> thank you, madame chair. first things you for your leadership. it's been stellar as you've worked with senator inhofe. i spent last week at home with the people i work for and my montana bosses sent me back with

one clear priority to get jobs the tourism hub in the interstate international court are is also home to the montanas highest unemployed rate. we have low unemployment, very high double-digit in western montana. on thursday i sat down with business leaders, local officials, contractors to discuss the bypass. what's that? it is skirted west around to move traffic rights efficiently from surrounding communities that means easier access for trucks moving goods to support american jobs, less time for tourists sitting in their cars and spending money at local businesses. and dozens of construction jobs. construction season has started. 14,000 montanan jobs, 1.6 million across the country depend on this highway bill. the bipartisan senate bill received the unanimous 18 urban

rural western and eastern, southern progressive and conservative centers. and 75% of the full senate supported it. it provides certainty to the communities to begin construction. investing high-wage jobs without adding a dime to the deficit and the official scorekeeper in the cbo says it produces a deficit. both parties achieve three goals. guarantee funding for september, 2013, not add to the deficit and keep the trust fund solvent moving forward. over the next two years we put $9.2 billion into the trust fund covering the cost of the bill of lading $3.6 billion cushion. in total we put 14 billion into the highway trust fund over ten years. this actually reduces the deficit by $10 billion over the ten year budget window. where possible we focused on the

next transportation and energy and included an idea from the republican senators to transfer the underground surge tanks to 3 billion surplus and the trust fund. both rely on the fuel tax for funding so it made sense. we comply of the house of representatives proposed by replenishing the general fund for the amounts moved into the highway trust fund. the finance committee also paid for the investor to programs the committee's rely on the downside of the highway trust fund namely secure the schools. payment taxes and land of water conservation fund. a short bill is what we could afford. it buys time to discuss what americans want for the 21st century and how to pay for it. significant reform cedras national priorities like the program consolidation, project deliver accommodate the improvement, performance measures, or safety funding and a national network. insurers would leave the

construction jobs stuck waiting for certainty to move forward. these are jobs that are needed, projects just like those bypassed in the districts and states that need a green light. so i say let's get to working and pass it. >> thank you, senator. we will go to the representative followed by senator hatch. >> thank you, chairman boxer. i think that we can all agree that the funding improvements to the nation's infrastructure is vitally important to spurring economic growth and creating jobs come and because of that, i believe this is an issue that can and should be addressed in a bipartisan manner. cities and towns depend on the infrastructure to ensure they can attract businesses, to look to the communities and create jobs. in my house is michigan where it remains of the national unemployment rate having a safe and reliable transportation system can provide a strong foundation to attracting business development. however given the current

economic climate we have to look at all spending including infrastructure spending through the lens of the fiscal responsibility and as we know the highway trust fund hasn't been able to keep up with current levels of spending. as such a successful conference report needs to include real reforms to ensure highway programs are sustainable. and with that perspective in mind, i just have the two main principles with which i approach the mission first three we must ensure that we to give fiscally responsible route to fund infrastructure improvements and simply put, if we can't afford it, then we shouldn't pursue it. second, the bill should create more, not fewer opportunities for job creation this inquisitors in the energy economic needs through the measures like the keystone exfil pipeline majorities in the house and senate agree that the pipeline needs to be approved and if the administration refuses to act, then the congress must. so, our task today is clear. we must correct meaningful reforms of the transformation programs to ensure reliable

infrastructure system while also helping to create more opportunities to find work. i'm confident that if every member of the conference committee is committing to finding a solution we can and will do it and i look forward to working with my house and senate colleagues and yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you comer representative. senator hatch. >> thank you madam chairman. i don't think anyone in this room would contradict me when i say we all want to conclude the conference committee as quickly as possible in a way that puts our transportation pergamon a stable and predictable footing that ensures a strong voice for the local communities in this process. frankly i'm very concerned we move ahead on this. those of us that have spent the last several years working on the tax and have seen the provision that expired last year still languishing know firsthand that lifting of of a series of short-term extension reduces our

ability to think long term and undercut sound policy making and of course undermines the certainty of our economic needs. i am concerned as the senate passed the transportation bill particularly in the finance title does not put us on a sustainable and predictable path. the finance panel practically amounts to a search under the cushions for loose change and the approach taken to putting it together as difficult as it was will become more difficult going forward. if the finance committee markup on february 7th i laid out some basic principles, and i think they are withdrawing from now. users of the highway trust fund ought to pay for building and maintenance. more simply, the user pays principle ought to be maintained. this also entails more discipline on the spending side than currently exists so the users of the given program do not also pay for other fashionable programs they do not use. additionally, revenues and spending should line up one a year by year basis. and by understand that we are so

offtrack of implementing this may take some time. but before we start writing checks we should have some understanding of whether the checks will clear. this point is linked with the use of the principal and along with it, it ensures the taxpayers and actual partners in setting our national transportation priorities rather than just a pack animal. the burden placed upon it by others. i am very concerned and i also want to know there are the things i will put the rest of my statement on the record player to note my strong support for the keystone exfil pipeline express how important it is to get the project built. this highway bill was touted as a jobs bill and there is no question that keystone would create jobs. good paying jobs but in addition to that, it would promote stable energy resources from a friendly country who wants to do business with the united states. we need to be doing more to develop our own energy resources. thank you to the leaders of this conference for the opportunity to the statement for the

committee on the interior affairs from august 10th, 1964 this report concerns the creation of the fund the receipts transfers from the highway trust fund. this report in part reads, quote for this transfer from the highway trust fund will have no delayed effect whatsoever in completing the highway program. under revenues are exceeding expectations and even with the proposed transfer the highway trust fund will conclude in 1973 with a surplus over 300 million dollars. we look at this event today at noeth that they did not transpires of the predecessor from nearly 50 years ago expected to greatly our colleagues in 50 years will be able to deliberate on this conference and a different light. we need to get this done. we need to work well together. we need to keep within budget. and i personally appreciate all the work that both sides have done to get us this far, but we now have to get it done for the benefit of our country.

thank you, madame share. >> thank you, senator. representative followed by senator johnson. >> thank you. >> thank you, madame share. congratulations to you, not just for the election but for the hard work that the senate has done moving this legislation forward. i don't think there is any more important legislation face in the congress than the transportation bill that will renew and rebuild america. we know the facts. the transportation infrastructure is rated bdy by the american society of civil engineers. it continues to deteriorate. congestion cost americans more than $85 billion a year and we waste more than 4.2 billion hours stuck in traffic. there are as you pointed out, we have 12 and a half million americans unemployed over 10% of them in the building trades and we know that for every billion dollars spent on transportation will create about 30,000 jobs.

the jobs bill for this conference is before us and i think it's important to focus on the transportation related provisions of the bill and the financing and not get bogged down in this conference on unrelated and divisive political projects. the keystone pipeline and blocking the epa for protecting public health come to mind. senate bill is already a compromise, and we appreciate the work you've done. you've produced bipartisan legislation while unfortunately the procedurally parallel house bill was never even voted on on the floor of the house. with that in mind, i hope the conference can address the following issues of a balanced transportation system that includes freakin' transnet come intermodal that to preserve the bipartisan cochrane amendment ensures local governments have access and control over some of the transportation bill's most popular programs enhancements, biking, walking, not only of the

popular, they are cost-effective they create jobs every million spent on the transportation alternatives creates 50 to 100% more jobs than simply road projects alone, and they produce 63 a i think it's important to preserve the senate passed provisions. i'm not going to suggest they are perfect or there aren't friends of mine in the environmental community who have significant concerns, but they will decrease product delivery time, reduce red tape while protecting the public stability to participate in transportation decisions. in contrast, the house language that never passed the house would allow federal and state governments to build roads, lines or railroad crossings without any coordination with local government officials. the neighborhood or anybody living in the smd. no requirement alerting the

local citizens. that is a prescription for more gridlock not less. i strongly support the senate cost saving fix it first language that encourages states to maintain their existing infrastructure. it's common sense and it makes sense. projects of national and regional significance i hope is something we can all get behind. as by including strong buy american provisions. this will help keep american spending in america. i strongly support the hard work that is done in the finance title. that buys us time. it's not the long term solution for how we are going to finance long-term rebuilding and renewing the country. but it gives us the to construction cycle. it gives us certainty that we can work on the larger issues.

i support the transit that has been championed by senator schumer and our house colleagues that insures the federal government treats all commuting modes the same and the provisions relating to the qualified on this for private activity bonds and exempt facility bonds for the project are each important that the private partnerships in the communities depend on the vital infrastructure i support their inclusion. this conference gives us the opportunity as i said for two years of stable transportation investments ranging from areas that secure the schools on to the access investment from the maintenance fund. on balance i think our friends in the senate have given us a solid bipartisan free markets. i can tell you, having surveyed people in the house, there is bipartisan interest in the house and i hope that we can build upon it moving forward. thank you and i yield back.

>> thank you. we will now hear from senator johnson followed by representative. >> chairman boxer, thank you for organizing this conference meeting. i share with you the desire to produce a strong transportation bill quickly. the senate banking committee were reported the public transportation title of 21 unanimously in early february and is now time to finish this bill. my investment under the transportation infrastructure that the priority of mind and the banking committee. i want to thank the committee's ranking member senator shelby for their help on the transit title. americans make 35 million trips on public transportation every

weekday. the transportation agency's. this will help the transit agency's trust and create jobs. the transit funding alone in the senate bill supports 386,000 jobs. 21 also makes long-overdue reforms like the oversight for the public transportation. these safety reforms have been stalled for two years. all of our work to complete a federal bill. in calcutta a transportation bill will support 10,000 jobs and improve our highways and transit service. 1200 of our states bridges are

strictly deficient. our state completed bill will provide. we should not let another construction season go by with uncertain federal funding. we need to work on a bipartisan basis and send the ll to the president the for the current expires. i hope this conference will not be bogged down with controversial issues that did not relate to transportation. senator boxer, chairman, i look forward to working with you and all members of this conference. i hope to make quick progress. thank you. >> representative upton. >> thank you madam chair. i do appreciate the opportunity to give a statement and to be part of this very important conference committee. investor is supported on the

jobs at the national security and it's real opportunity for us to get something done. backend gentry president obama said the new year's resolution was to do whatever it takes to move the economy forward. i believe that this conference is an opportunity for us to do just that. to be successful we need real reforms to the highway program that will make the most efficient and effective use of the taxpayer's dollar, and we need to seize the opportunity to do something good for our energy security, which is so essential for economic growth. as a negotiator from the energy and commerce committee provisions within our purview include the congestion mitigation and air quality program under the clean air act overseen by the national highway traffic safety administration to recall vehicles if the i will be particularly focused on making sure that we as a clear focus safety as it always has. as with any policy, overly prescriptive mandates have the

potential of the agency's focus and divert from existing priorities. i also very supportive of the house language ensuring dollars from the harbor of maintenance trust fund go towards their intended purpose of maintaining harbors dredging. maintaining our commercial recreational harbour is essential to local girls come infrastructure development and the countless jobs across the great lakes to read these are not only my own state's most treasured national resources and hit the bills also whenever the strongest economic assets and the livelihood of tens of thousands of michigan families and businesses depend upon our harbors and deserve the certainty of knowing the gateways of opportunity will remain open for business. other important matters in the house passed bill and with a path for expedited approval of the keystone exfil pipeline and the state based regulatory framework for the safe management use and disposal of coal ash.

while the connection between the items in a transportation and for stricter package may not seem obvious, in fact, the policies make perfect sense in the content, the context of this package. coal ash is widely used as a component in construction materials including concrete. so the regulatory regime governing its management has a direct effect on the cost and the durability of the roads and bridges to read the epa proposal to reclassify this material as a hazardous waste would make the construction more expensive, infrastructure the would build and not last as long and of the liability which translates to cost would be higher for everyone. the federal framework for the states to regulate the management is a common sense alternative that maintains environmental protections until last fall by two to one margin.

likewise, the keystone exfil pipeline to include in our final agreement hot. this is a jobs and infrastructure project is the ultimate job and infrastructure projects. keystone xl has undergone extensive environmental review. the department worked with over ten other federal agencies for more than three years and concluded that construction and operation of the pipeline with limited fire medellin pact subject construction at keystone xl was preferred over not building the pipeline at all he that's because pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas tanks to the pipeline safety requirements that many of us worked together to finalize and see enacted earlier this year. they develop a new route that avoids the environmentally sensitive areas. and just last week the company we submitted its application the

time for delay is over. this is a 7 billion-dollar privately funded infrastructure project that will create and support tens of thousands of jobs and bring tremendous energy security. it's been thoroughly reviewed and its route in nebraska is being resolved with input and agreement from that state. expedited approval of the keystone exxon pipeline is already secured a broad bipartisanship in the house, and it has bipartisan backing in the senate and i am eager to see it in its final agreements something to madame cherry and chairman mica dewitt i look forward to working with all of my colleagues to get the job done and i yield back. i want to say the last two or senator shelby followed by henry waxman. since the people -- he's here, beautiful we will continue to go down the list and when you show up we will call on them because we are going to do it by

seniority. in the banking committee chairman johnson and i work together to produce a bipartisan legislation that eliminates outdated inefficient programs and promotes greater efficiency and effectiveness in public transportation systems it maintains public transportation funding programs at $10.5 billion a year of like the previous authorizations bills we were unable to provide an increase in the baseline funding amount for public transportation we were able to provide a substantial increase to existing programs by eliminating the yes eliminating the much discretionary programs, the program that previously contained earmarks totaling

$984 billion that included earmarks we eliminate all the earmarks of a previously included in the reauthorization to read these reforms allowed us to provide public transportation systems with an increase in their guaranteed formula funding in the next ten years. i believe that we must hear to institute a system went that encourages investment and maintaining our aging public transportation infrastructure that everybody's been talking about this issue also known as the state of good repair is an extremely important issue for public transportation. and the senate bill makes it an enjoyable part of the transit programs. the process has undergone significant reforms in the senate bill 1813 to the capitol

investment projects it also includes the new pilot projects with this all-purpose of expediting project approval and attracting private investment these are just a few of the provisions i believe would improve the delivery of public transportation services and also pleased the committee was able to work together to develop a bipartisan bill that passed the committee with unanimous support, and the senate with an overwhelming vote. madam chairman, before concluding, i also wanted to touch briefly on the restore act it was included in s1813 by an amendment on the senate floor with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 76-22 it also included the concept of the act always including myself simply requires

80% of the clean water fines paid by companies responsible from the 2010 deepwater horizon oil spill to be split among the five gulf coast state areas that were most impacted by this bill provided a would help protect communities repair and protected ecosystems, revive the fishing and agricultural industries, reinvigorate the tribal and tourism industries and restore the economies of the severely damaged coastal states the region has already done much to help itself and is much needed assistance to allow them to achieve a fuller recovery is to the people of the gulf i mentioned that to the entire nation that depends on a healthy gulf region. i believe strongly that this legislation is essential to the gulf coast and i intend to work with my colleagues to ensure that the senate-passed version

is included in the final conference report and for everything madam chairman and congressman, chairman mica, thank you both. >> thank you so much. >> thank you madam share. we are authorizing the federal surface transportation programs important for the communities across the country to create jobs and that's why it's important at this conference committee will. the senator together in a bipartisan manner to develop a strong transportation bill that will create jobs and help the economy. the house on the other hand does not even attempt to craft a bipartisan bill and was unable to pass a partisan republican bill to the transportation policies affect all the fuss but as a conferee from the energy and commerce committee i will limit my comments to those

provisions within the committee stressed action. the senate transformation bill contains safety measures that will greatly enhance the safety of the cars, trucks and buses on the roads. the senate bill will improve the electronic expertise in the department of transportation. it mandates new safety standards to the sudden acceleration to the electronic systems performance ne become a giving consumers the importance of the information of the provisions are similar to what the energy and commerce committee approved in the last congress. furthermore the reauthorization bill requires important standards for child safety seats and booster seats and it includes mandates for strong motor co safety standards that are desperately needed but have languished at the dot for years. i strongly support these provisions and urge their adoption and the conference.

on version of the, the house-passed bill includes extraneous and antienvironmental provisions. the house bill contains a legislative earmarked with a keystone xl tarzan's pipeline weakening changes to the governing to the coal ash that undermine environmental protection. the president has made absolutely clear that he will not sign legislation containing a legislative year marked for the pipeline the normal at the mystery of review the project, keystone should be treated like any other project and should be made on the merits of the proposal once the reviews are completed. it's also extraneous. the epa is actively considering how to regulate coal ash and we should let that process

continue. the coal ash legislation to pass the house would prevent the epa from implementing the current law through the country. it would block the epa from regulating dangerous practices like dumping ash with high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and chromium into the communities that live in the valleys below them. those sentiments are dangerous. they present the same risk as the one operated by the tennessee valley authority is in kingston tennessee that burst in december 2008 but released on hundred 45 million cubic feet of toxic sludge in the river and surrounding lands and created a superfund site that will cost up to $1.2 billion to clean up. we should reject any efforts that restrict the epa authority to deal with these real risks. there's a lot of false

advertising surrounding the coal ash and debate. current federal regulations do not restrict the use of coal ash in concrete and counter to what you may hear today the epa hasn't proposed to regulate such beneficial use. we should not stop the epa of its authority to protect public health in the environment based on half truths and scare tactics. finally, the house republicans have included the amendment in this bill. this amendment eviscerates the national environmental protect policy act and we get the portions of the clean air act responsible for ensuring the pollution related to transportation stays in check. this terrible policy must be rejected. the conference committee has a clear choice we can work together in the time we have to produce the bill would be signed by the president and would keep our economy on the mend alternatively we could spread the coming weeks are going over

the keystone xl tarzan's pipeline whether we should or shouldn't allow the epa to ensure the safe disposal of coal ash and whether we should weaken other environmental laws. it's my hope that the house republicans will not hold the entire country's transportation infrastructure hostage over these extraneous provisions of it's not jeopardize this opportunity to create jobs with the ill-conceived and i environment. thank you german boxer. i strongly agree with what chairman waxman has said, and i think it is almost impossible to overlook the importance of safety. we always talk about transportation in terms of outmoded bridges and now we have the phenomenon in some of the eastern parts of the country of natural gas trucks going up to 120,000 pounds going over single

bridges and catastrophes at hand. so, safety is important to want the money spent for jobs, for transportation and bridges and transportation modes. in so doing we are to be conscious of the safety aspect. we have dealt to the to talk about safety as something that can about naturally and it's not the way it works. we have to pretty much talk in legislation or else it won't happen. we talk about reducing drunk driving and it's still very much a pretty to talk about increasing seat belt use. i can remember when i was a

teenager plus something not using a seat belt thinking it was pretty cruel i can't in mengin who it was i was thinking about at that time that there's a lot of people who don't use seat belts and you have to make people do that. it has to be a fine of some sort increase in child safety with chairman waxman referred to incredibly important. children are larger than the seats they sit in but it doesn't change the way they make the seats or make the attachments. these are not dramatic but they are tremendously dramatic in terms of what can happen to a child. distracted driving is a huge subject. thousands of people died. hundreds of thousands of people were injured because of destructive driving. it's simply that somebody --

there are a couple but very few and if you text it's about 4.6 seconds and that is covering two football fields and into football fields it means you're going over a cliff for into retreat that is humorous to say but not humorous if you are a parent or suffer that disease. i think detective autoparts. we have had a lot of activity in the committee because our job is safety in this conference but in general, too consumer protection and safety and we have defective autoparts. we've dealt with that with reference made to the speed of the you can't stop. in the american heart, twice. no matter how hard you put on the break you got to stop that

stuff because people die from that stuff. that's what we go about doing in this and also just the training. i think it was up new york we had that plane accident that byron dorgan was so fascinated in and it turned out that the pilots were just tired because they come all the way from the west coast and the east coast on a plan that goes from somewhere to somewhere else and there are no rules or regulation of any sort that say they have to have a decent amount of sleep but we put it in the legislation they have to have sleep and have to be tested. i don't know how far you go but that could be a problem people are driving ten, 12 hours a day and there has to be a test of how their alertness is because there are 80 to 120,000-pound

tracks the most virginia so there's disaster around the corner, as we have a lot of smart safety improvements and i want them to be up-to-date. i have to say that the senate passed a very good bill and we got i think 74 votes for it it was highly bipartisan one when he it was highly effective we have not had anything from the house side at all because i choose to think that we will reach for a better place. but we have to work hard to do it because we don't have much time. thank you. >> thank you, senator. representative pacings. >> thank you madam share. the federal government slow cumbersome bureaucracies consistently getting in the way of job creation and economic growth know where is that more

evident than infrastructure and energy projects for the red tape and duplicative programs hamstring ability to approve projects and get americans to work. for this conference report to be considered a success, meaningful reforms need to be made to streamline the government efficiencies for infrastructure projects. similarly improving the keystone pipeline is an opportunity to address high gasoline prices, put americans to work and reduce america's dependence on foreign oil. while the president has repeatedly refused to act, i believe the congress must from the perspective of the natural resources committee one of the most important ongoing challenges is to reduce overlapping and regulatory requirements streamlining environmental reviews will propose them to move forward in the smarter and more efficient manner. to be blunt it is cheaper to build a road if the federal government stops requiring more paperwork the natural miles of

asphalt. a streamlined reforms by chairman mica are superior to the senate. the legislation to its version of the bill including a number of the jurisdiction of the house resources committee. there is the payment in lieu of taxes bill and secure roles. congress absolutely needs to address both of these issues but it's important to recognize one-year extensions are not fixes and the communities impacted deserve better. the senate added the restore act which directed funds to the states affected by the deepwater horizon spill but also as a part of the restore act created a broad new federal programs the house natural resources committee has spent more time and energy on the matters affecting the gulf but i'm

sympathetic to the impact of the bill on those gulf states but i'm not sympathetic to the notion that an effort to protect wide support replete to the gulf states requires the federal bureaucracy with permanent new federal spending programs. there's a provision dealing with those and frankly ocean policy should not be in a highway bill. last was particularly egregious for the senate to put in the highway bill up to $1.4 billion in new automatic spending in the next two years to buy more land across the nation through the land and water conservation for the a&w. the mandatory land under the lwcl is a fiscal dereliction of duty. the maintenance backlog of american federal lands to register as a multiple billions of dollars we should be

addressing this backlog not adding to it. furthermore while the lwf doesn't require until 2015 the senate bill extended an additional seven years. the proposed highway bill doesn't even extend transportation funding as long as the lwf is authorized. and lastly under the law, the lwcf funds come from offshore revenue. yet in mandating the bill over a billion dollars of new automatic spending the senate in this bill and as a body during this congress there's been absolutely nothing to open the national gas drilling. lwcf is unrelated to the restore active is totally unrelated to the highway bill with nearly three years to go until it expires and in fact not one committee in either body has held a hearing on renewing lwcf.

there's no reason it should be part of the conference report. with that i yield back my time. >> thank you. we now go to senator kay bailey hutchison. >> thank you madam chairman. i want to see you in senator inhofe have done a wonderful job on the senate side with congressman rahall on our roi faa bill and the was a huge accomplishment. so i do think that we can work this bill out and we come to terms where everyone will know that they have won something for america and the interest that we have. as a senator rockefeller has mentioned we've come to a complete consensus on our committee for the five bills that are the part, our part of

this comprehensive bill. senator rockefeller went through some of those. i would like to point out a few key points. first the safety act, which sponsored with senator sherrod brown, will bring minimum safety standards to the inner city buses. it doesn't deal with the intercity buses or transit systems but the buses that go across the state lines particularly those that are hired by the groups, church groups, elder briggs have had a notoriously bad record and this cannot continue. our bill is pretty modest and requires seat belts to be in the buses offered for higher. i would think that would be a minimum seat belt.

it makes it more difficult for bus companies that have terrible safety violations to then reincarnate themselves to use the exact same equipment under a different name which has been the case with some of these horrendous accidents that have killed people in these buses. i think that is a very good bill that has strong support in the senate and we can work with the house to include it. the commerce title also reauthorize is ntsa for two years and gives it the tools necessary to protect and save vehicles and equipment from entering our country while protecting the supply chain from unnecessary disruption and duplicative reporting. on the other titles think the innovative financing of the infrastructure especially as one

of the right parts of this bill and will expedite project liberty and it brings in the private sector in the state's and it is also keeping the state's with a decision making to enter into these projects, so i think that is one of the great parts of this bill we have other parts of this bill with a harvard maintenance fund, which is a big priority for all of us that have waterborne transportation with its the ocean or the gulf of mexico and i hope we can keep the harvard maintenance fund where it belongs which is to help, it is a fee that should go back into harvard maintenance and not be put other places in our budget because the fee is collected from the users and it should be able to help the harbors to be

able to maintain and george their own harbors. i also support the keystone pipeline which is the best job creator that we have that doesn't cause a dime of taxpayers' dollars. and i do hope that the committee will put this in the final bill, and i think it will add so much to the jobs as well as the ability to have the gas from a friend canada the revenue and having to buy it more expensively from other countries after it has shipped across the sea and back. reauthorize and the secure role schools mentioned by the chairman is so important for the resource constrained role communities that have restricted property-tax bases because the federal property in their areas. so these are parts that i hope

we can all work together to put forward and thank you for calling this hearing correctly this meeting we were all talking. i hope the talking leads to something productive. thank you. >> thank you so much. representative markey to is the mature woman boxer, members of the conference committee, i am honored to join chairman hastings and chairman bishop of utah as conferees on portions of h.r. 4348 in the senate amendment in the resources committee. founding, planning and building roads and other transportation projects have impacts on water and air quality scenic values and natural historic and cultural resources. a previous congresses have succeeded in enacting some highway bills by balancing the transportation needs with protecting the quality-of-life

for those living and working in areas impacted by transportation projects. this congress would have to achieve similar balance if we are succeeding in passing this legislation in a timely fashion. unfortunately, provisions included in the house bill make achieving such balance significantly more difficult. last week transcanada reapplied for a permit for the keystone xl pipeline to carry oil derived from tarsands for the united states for exports. the state department made it clear it is committed to a rigorous transparent and thorough review of the permit. section 204 of the house bill needlessly circumvents such a review depriving the government of the opportunity for input in the process.

this section shouldn't be included in the conference report. especially since the bulk of the natural gas is great be exported of the country any way. to dissect the united states comes with environmental risk all borne by the united states. to balance the risk and make good on the repeated claims of job creation and to require any oil transported in the pipeline shouldn't be approved to meet in the united states for sale. if we are to bear the environmental burden of this project, we should read the economic benefits as well. they should be tied together in a package. not satisfied with curtailing the public and put in throw review of the project the house legislation contains sweeping environmental waivers and exemptions for all

transportation projects. let me say that again, all transportation projects have sweeping environmental waivers and exemptions. title vi of h.r. 4348 is wrongly described as streamlining the. these provisions stop the process in its tracks. the title six includes our pachauri time limits that will hobble environmental reviews and exemptions and exceptions so broad to make the statute meaningless. these drastic provisions are in the complete lack of evidence that environmental reviews prevent building highways or other transportation projects. in reality, the process is not a barrier. it is a shield protecting families and local communities for the big government building roads, big government building roads without considering the impact on those living in the

area. through eminent domain and other heavy handed tactics transportation projects already displaced homes and communities. title six of h.r. 4348 would remove any remaining influence local communities might have. the senate streamlining provisions are unnecessary but because they are narrow they are less dangerous. the senate amendment makes significant investments and other programs designed to protect local communities and local economies. the conference report should include funding for the land and water conservation fund secure schools, payment in lieu of taxes and the restores not for coastal communities including creation of an ocean endowment. this bill is vital for job creation and as job security. unnecessary provisions should be abandoned in favor of balanced strategic investment and local

communities. i look forward to working with the committee to produce the conference report in the interest of all the american people. thank you madame chair. >> i want to give a sound of how we are doing. we are doing very well. it's about an hour and 20 minutes since we started and we have an hour and a half left in order to get everybody a for 46 to the time. you have really all been right to the point and you are telling us what your prairies are this is important for all of us to hear. if you need to get some coffee we have some right back there. we want be insulted if you rise of the middle of somebody's speech. where we are on the senate side we are down to three minutes per center because what we did is the five minutes have to do with the chairman. the release of a couple of chairman on the house side to hear from and so we have senator

durbin for three minutes and representative call for five minutes. senator durbin. >> thank you, madame chair. i had a great five minute speech. [laughter] it's great to be on the conference committee. i asked my staff is what happened to the last highway transportation bill in the house. you will remember this. congressman yondah. it passed 412 to nine. in this time the past the date the house couldn't pass. how could a measure so easy to pass a few years ago be so hard now? we eliminated because of congressional redirected spending. more members could become important projects in their districts and states. the lemonade 500 plus engines that pulled the bill across the finish line. we had a bipartisan bill the last time it to him up and it's not and third there are people that want to add baggage to the strain. we've heard about it already.

keystone pipeline is such. we can't really criticize the process in the senate because our first amendment offered by senator blunt of misery was on family planning on the senate transportation bill it was rejected. the second thing i learned is we cannot agree on what we disagree on coming to the conference committee. here's what i say is obvious. look at the senators that have gone before we consider the political spectrum they represent. they reach a bipartisan agreement that past 74 period 22. we have a bill. you have an extension of current law with a lot of extra writers. third point i would like to make, the bill the house couldn't pass thank goodness managed to mobilize the groups that don't even talk to one another, the chamber of commerce, the afl-cio. the heated the bill and told me make sure it doesn't pass it hurts, 15 present of the federal funds for highways over the next five years he eliminates the 20%

set-aside for mass transit, it takes 25% of support for amtrak eliminates the grants, the list goes on. i salute my to illinois congressman that had the courage to step up and say they wouldn't even vote for that bill has well and the final point i want to make is this is in the first keystone pipeline this is the second one. the first one from alberta goes down to roxanne of illinois in my district to the comco refinery where they've invested a billion dollars in reseeding the canadian tarsands, cleaning them up into viable products we did this with the approval of the administration and the ordinary course of process. now comes keystone xl and the suggestion is if we can pass the bill today, gas prices will go down tomorrow. not true. last week on friday the state of nebraska announced finally where they want to place the pipeline and the state of nebraska said

keystone excel pipeline they will need six to nine months more to permit in the state of nebraska. so those who suggest that the federal government is dragging its feet don't know the facts. the second point on coal ash, we have a coal-fired ferry that goes from wisconsin to ludington michigan and drops 500 tons of coal ash in michigan each year. if you'd like those 500 pounds of coal ash the people that voted for the provision please tell me the like we can send them to. >> thank you, senator. now we go to representative hall for five minutes. >> i'm on the science and technology committee. i'm not sure i know how to do that. [laughter] for my longtime friendship with senator byrd and i would have

taken four minutes and given him four minutes but that didn't happen. we need to leave the acrimony to other bills and get together on this transportation bill. it's that important. i want to think chairman mike for his leadership in this conference and his commitment to reforming federal surface transportation programs to ensure hard-working taxpayers dollars are being used more effectively and more efficiently ..

it's been two years since the deepwater rsn tragedy and the people of the gulf coast are still suffering, but says. the steps we take in washington determine the success and right of recovery at the gold coast so it's vital we make sure resources are made available that are officially directed to areas the purpose is where most needed. i support of all of the above energy strategy, we have an opportunity to create jobs and begin the process of alleviating the energy process by concluding language and directing the approval and also the keystone xl pipeline. finally, it is my hope that each of these provisions within the jurisdiction be negotiated on merits alone, not used as leverage for areas outside jurisdiction again.

i'd like to express my appreciation for the leadership and look forward to working with my fellow committee member, mr. kovac usurped on transportation infrastructure committee. i like to thank the speaker for the opportunity to work with the senate to craft a bill that will provide more certainty to state localities and infrastructure planning purposes and job creation. i thank you in your back my time. >> thank you, representative. we will turn to senator vitter for three minutes and then representative johnson for five minutes. >> thank you undemanding chair and a toothache chair mike for your successful leadership in this conference. i look forward to it. all of us are coming back to washington after a recess, a state or district work. i would venture to say that one of the as we traveled or district, try but our state at town hall meeting set up a

meeting for this constituents, every single one of those heard two themes probably over and over and over. number one, the big challenge our country faces is jobs. and number two, please find ways to work together more effectively in washington. not deter your principles that the window, not to ignore that, but to get beyond bitter and unnecessary partisanship and work more effectively together. you know colleagues, in a lot of ways this conference committee is a simple basic test about how well we are listening collect to play. if we are listening at all collectively, we can put something positive together and we need to do that because it is important sensitively and we need to do that to fulfill her duty to the american people because this bill is about jobs,

their jobs by the way, good paying jobs. it is about building infrastructure, which we know in many cases is crumbling and which is an essential core government role that everyone, including you. disagree is a core central role of the federal government. and we can do it without increasing the deficit and we can do it without increasing taxes. and we can do it and have been ascendant though with positive reforms like note caremark. they change before my support. so i challenge all of us to pass the basic test of whether we are listening to the american people. i want to outline quickly three priorities of mine. one is the keystone pipeline. i have been a long and strong supporter of that first introduced legislation well over a year ago. more recently worked with john

lovin and richard lugar and the senate on this and i strongly reported. i notice that the left leg in a vat food break through to create a better and slightly longer bill. secondly, i strongly support the restore act language for all of the reasons that i mention. it's the right thing to do and that's very bicameral partisan support. third, i strongly support the ramp back the amendment put on on the house side, which is very important and very positive in terms of maritime commerce and infrastructure we don't find enough for maritime commerce. we'll let the so-called trust fund to be stolen from and we really need to stop that. thank you, madam chair. >> representative johnson, five minutes. in that thank you are a much, chairman boxer and chairman we

are calling this meeting for leadership for the transportation program. i look forward to working with both of you and the rest of our colleagues to put together a bill that will get more americans that the work and have literally built to continuing struggling economy. despite the budgetary situation and the investments in our transportation infrastructure more only further burden our economies. in fact, the poor conditions of our highways, bridges and transit systems is already acted to cost american households and businesses more than $900 billion to 2020. the truth is we simply cannot afford to fail to get the reauthorization bill over the line. the region which i represent is

one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. last year the average dallas commuters spent 45 hours stuck in traffic or listing 22 gallons of fuel and an estimated $924. telesis chart congestion is prefixed to worsen the nation crossing over $600 million in 2010. the nation's explosive growth requires an expansion on infrastructure and transit services. but over a of texas transportation is dedicated to maintaining and replacing the state's existing roads and bridges. unfortunately the transportation is being phased by the dallas region. we can and should do more to improve the transportation infrastructure. that technology committee in the house i recognized that the long-term viability of transportation system is largely

on the development of new transportation to knowledge and materials that will make our transportation infrastructure safer, stronger and more sustainable. because of that, one of my priorities is to ensure the department of transportation's research and development programs have the resources they need. i also want to make sure the departments research programs are set to, well coordinated and prioritize. we cannot provide current transportation places an enormous burden on the entire man. we need to do more to minimize the impact of service transportation on the environment and public health and to do this lead to invest resources in cutting-edge research and lead to environmental and sustainable infrastructures and take knowledge use. we have both the vibrant transportation. a robust environment in the

transportation office get to a time when our transportation system is challenged by infrastructure and decline in revenues and increased usage access to reliable conversation data is more important than ever. i want to ensure that federal state and local transportation officials have data that they need to affect the plan efficiently prioritize their policy and investment decisions. and finally, i want to conclude my commenting on the gold coast restoration provisions under consideration the conference. whether or not you live or represent the coastal communities of texas, alabama, louisiana or florida the government provides a wealth of products and services to our nation. it is important that they still provide the framework and guidance necessary to allow us to begin to really and and more

importantly mitigate the impact of the deepwater horizon oil spill on the unique ecosystem and our economy. it is my hope that we can work in a bipartisan, bicameral bill that will provide our states, the department of transportation rail and transit authorities with the stability they need to plan long-term projects. there is no democrat or republican bridge. there's no democrat or republican roles. this bill is far too important for the american people and our economy to not come together. thank you and i yield that. >> thank you for a match. >> where the three-minute mark for for house and senate. and we are going to the next one on my list. chuck schumer is not here, so we'll go to representative

young. >> i think this is a plot, madam chairman. [laughter] mr. hall, i had the same problem. not an chairman and chairman mica commit thank you in thank you for this conference. mine is going to be very short. i really hope the senate will look at the reforms to try to expedite this process. the last time he wrote this bill would put in a provision to try to expedite. search somewhat, but not nearly enough. were still faced with 15 years delay. one is the road just to be built by the time it started and finished and it's a tremendous waste of money. look what the reforms have sent

over to you and mr. durbin -- senator durbin commit thank you for making me. i know my good friend mr. and how to recognize you. when i was chairman last time as mr. bachus and we passed a good will. you're right about the 500 engines. it does work. and this is very hard to go up that hill and i complement the chairman on this. not understanding lusty picture fingers involved in making this soup, not many people will drink it. and this is very important because what we have done is try to pass a bill that no one has any interest in and transportation is a subject that everyone should have an interest with bipartisan way trying to improve our ability to transport goods and receive good student of manufactured projects to the ports to be able to ship them out. we are neglecting their duty right now if we don't establish

a good transportation bill. this is when i'm going to be working on with the chairman and now they're working with the senate side if this breaks down. without i yield back the balance of my time. >> i'm please to be a big part of this conference committee. i want to thank you for your leadership as well as congressman mica. i look forward to working with you on this important endeavor. i believe this is a good bill and i strongly support it. i very much support the house approach. i like the house approach expand energy production and using. this two-year bill is a good will is paid for again and i

support it and we will work hard with everyone on this conference committee to see that we get it passed. with that being said, to provisions in the bill i believe are very important. first is keystone accel pipelined and also as a provision that would provide for recycling callouts, which is currently done, but provide the certainty needed to continue to do that. both of these provisions are very important and integral to a highway bill. first off, both enjoys strong bipartisan support. 293 votes in the house, including 69 democrats. 293 votes in the house. and the senate, 56@keystone are missing two of the members spoke of her support keystone is 58 clear majority in the senate. but it is not just a bipartisan. it is that we need to include

them on the merits. any and all concerns that have been raised in regard to the keystone accel pipelined have been addressed. it has been almost four years in the permitting process. the project will create thousands of jobs that will reduce our energy dependence on oil from the middle east and it will help us reduce the price of gasoline at the pump, which have doubled over the last three years and every single american consumer suffers from those high gas prices and certainly our economies that are so slow. u.s. of commerce supports the provision and so does labor. for example, on may 4, richard trumka, afl-cio president says they think were all unanimous by saying we should build the pipeline. warren buffett yesterday on fox business network said i'm not an expert, but it certainly seems

like it makes sense to me, and quote. four years is long enough. let's go ahead as an integral part. and i sit alone it takes 500 trucks a day off the road and we want to send 100,000 barrels of oil to market 500 trucks a day that the debt grows and create a real safety issues for our people. north dakota may pass up alaskan oil production but we can't get oil to refineries that we don't have the pipeline to do it. recycling is the same thing. it reduces the cost of her is that we provide strong environmental safeguards with the state led approach. we need to the provisions forward for the best tie with all possible. thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you, senator. >> madam chair, that mike doesn't work. sender and hostage in the cost of the extension one wyatt all

mentioned it in another. we have had -- those seven states recording that they will forgo a 60,000 job this construction season because of the temporary nature of the extension. they simply can't plan beyond that for federal funds. so if we can successfully conclude this conference quickly, then we can look forward to not only restoring jobs and those seven states and certain members of fatah death for the states of the abuse 100,000 jobs were gone. the arches construction jobs. with why america provisions for steel is manufacturing. transit vehicles and things that go into the transit vehicles are some sophisticated jobs we need not only in construction but is devastated but in manufacturing and other areas. i have sense of urgency about passing this legislation as reported by the senate.

also funding for secure role skills which is critical in my part of the world and across the united states for many counties and states that have significant federal land holdings. and the harbor maintenance trust funds. i have advocated for years that we should spend the money is collected for harbor maintenance on harbor maintenance improvement act dvds for vessels. but we will need to modify the provision of the senate will agree to it to make certain we don't just plan general funding for the corps of engineers that we need additional funding for the corps of engineers. they were $40 billion backlog of critical projects both an application and flood control. there's a lot of jobs at stake on the table. we have a responsibility to act expeditiously, put aside differences and returned to the grand bipartisan tradition of

congress. transportation has always been bipartisan, always been a high national priority to them as george washington and abraham lincoln with dwight david eisenhower and ronald reagan as relates to transit and i hope we can deliver on that. thank you, madam chair. >> i want to see some of you are sending is that you have to live and you want your statements on the record. it's okay unless there's another idea what people than the record until 10:00 a.m. for your statement. in case you have to leave. but were trying so hard. i'm going to say here through every statement and i'm finding it really very hopeful. without objection will keep the record open until 10:00 a.m. for full statements. we are going to now move to senator bill nelson for three minutes. >> madam chairman, our people are hurting him the gold and i think it is indicative in the senate bill is sponsored by seven republicans into

democrats. and then when we pass the bill, what is a near miracle in the senate, the vote was 76 to map 22. and you wonder how, since there's only five g-golf states, how did you get the interest of the senators from 45 other states? it was a very small part, but an important part come in the land and water conservation fund, which is very popular, even among agricultural interest. all of this cobble together allow this then to have part of the bpe fund money and this could be substantial money, anywhere from what is estimated maybe $5 billion on the way up

to $20 billion. 20% of the money goes into the oil spill liability trust fund and or the treasury and the 80% is doled out according to a formula that all of those republicans and democrats came up with. and then was embraced by 76 senators. and so, i commend it to you who are not familiar with the gulf of mexico. you have heard he heard the words of senator shelby and senator vitter and that is all i want to say, madam chair. thank you. >> thank you, senator. next on the list is representative john duncan. [inaudible] >> teacher mike on commissary.

>> i want to commend you and chairman mica and all the members of the house and senate who are here today who have worked so hard to get us to this point. i look forward to working with a right to iron out differences and senator bill to the president's desk as soon as possible. this is certainly as others have said the most important job spell this congress will deal with because these are jobs that will be dunhill, not in china or afghanistan or elsewhere. over the course of this conference will be dealing with the large number of policy issues that affect other nations service transportation system. when that we emphasize and h.r. seven, delivery process. not accomplished much at all. too much government you are perceiving red tape and type infrastructure projects delayed transportation improvements and

increasing construction cost out of sight. according to the federal highway administration that project delivery process can take up to 15 years from planning through construction. this is simply a mixup will. another analysis conducted by the national surface transportation policy and review commissioned found that a $500 million project took 14 years to complete with seats cost double due to the impact of delays and inflation. with another hearing for estimate the cost sometimes tripled due to these delays. i hope this conference committee will be able to agree in real reference to streamline the project delivery process. i believe the conference report produced by this committee must set hard deadlines for federal agencies to approve the next debate highway and transit projects. many other developed nations are doing these projects and have the time or less than we are here in this country and this has change. these reforms must delegate for project approval authority to states and allow state and

environmental laws to be used to place federal laws where it makes sense to do so. also we must simplify approval process for projects within a facility right away. this is something we can do very easily. we can agree to these commonsense changes and i'm confident we can cut the time it takes to approve a project and they are thereby better producing cost of transportation projects an economic and safety benefits for those projects were engaged in a more timely fashion and as it goes we can do much more with less. i thank you, chairwoman bacher and make it and may yield the balance of my time. >> thank you. >> senator menendez is not here. representative costello is not here. am i right on that? representative whitfield here? yes, welcome. three minutes. >> thank you. maybe i'll go appear.

>> i think it would reach. >> madam chair, thank you very much. we appreciate the opportunity to be at this conference. it's my great honor to be here on behalf of the commerce committee for our chairman fred upton. we're all aware that the american people today do not have a very high regard for congress as an institution. we have an opportunity with this legislation to show that the senate and house can come together and pass the needed legislation to meet the many infrastructure needs of our great country. we all are very much aware that the senate has passed this

legislation overwhelmingly for 76 votes. were all very much away or that the house has shown overwhelmingly that it does support keystone and the key lashed language and would also like to see additional reforms on the highway bill. i for one think we can be successful in this conference, but i think the american people would be sick scantly disappointed if this fell apart because of something like keystone, particularly when in the final environmental impact statement out of the department of state after it dany for over four years between the option of not building the pipeline are building the pipeline, the preference would be to build the pipeline.

and there's been some discussion today about how long this brooded 1700 miles. the only portion changed was 60 miles up in the state of nebraska. the governor of nebraska, the legislature of nebraska supports this pipeline. and i'm cold -- i would just say the democrat administration republican at the ministrations have never treated kolaches a hazardous material. and so i would just say i think there would be a great disappointment once again if this fell apart because of two pieces of legislation if the people in america support and supported very strongly. i yield back the balance of my time. >> alan r. holmes norton.

>> zero, hello, hello. this should be a good omen. senator boxer, representative mica, first i want to begin by thanking senator boxer and senator inhofe not only forgetting to build on in a very difficult congress, but for the example you have set for each and every one of us around this table. traditionally this is the most bipartisan, the most popular and the least difficult bill to get through both houses and there's a good reason for this. this bill meets our obligations to perhaps the most important parts of our economy. not only on the own terms, but because they spilled fees so many other parts of the u.s.

economy. not senator boxer, i have at various long list of my most favorite and my least favorite parts of your bill, for example. but i am not going to devote my few minutes to detailing my brothers and i am not going to be to them. i am going to try to crack is what i've been preaching, especially when i say we send blame us to get added a lot out of this conference committee. this is likely to be the only jobs bill in the 112 congress that most americans would recognize as such. the bill already incorporate a kind of compromise is. get ready for. they're going to have the more compromises for the sake of jobs, for the sake of the

economy and yes, i dare say for the sake of the people we represent. let's do the job that was assigned to this conference committee and get the job done. and i yield back the balance of my time. thank you, senator boxer. >> thank you so much. we're going to go to senator menendez, please. >> thank you, not a chair and members of the conference. we need to pass this bill quickly in order to generate and protect two to 3 million jobs. we need to pass this bill quickly to boost our economy in the short-term and protect an essential asset for every business in america in the longer-term and from my perspective we also need to that will protect dedicated transportation funding to you by way of example, this is true for hundreds of millions of people across the country under the new jersey transit host 250 million passenger trips each year and

therefore essential to my state's economy, but also true for many states that the country. we were tired. i returned with johnson and shelby to develop a robust transit title and i passed him and slant of the banking committee will work to protect that in this conference. we all know the senate transportation bill by virtue out of the floor is supported by senate democrats, senate republicans and house democrats socially speaking. the only question is whether house republican colleagues will also work hard to pass the bill. after years of work were on the cusp of getting our state, businesses and workers the certainty they need to make infrastructure investments and that's certainly is critical in terms of unlocking the type of investments over the longer-term that will create great results. if we do not pass but we risk

bankrupting the transcendent teen transportation funding country screeching halt. given the high stakes they think no one in this room should be willing to put politics before retention and creation of two to 3 million jobs, put politics before needs of the community in efforts to revitalize their economy. in other words, it's time to start negotiating from the senate though that had bipartisan support and has a total elements of all of these titles in good faith. i hope that means keeping the advice of environmental issues off of this bill and matsui did in the senate process to get away the bipartisan bill through the chamber and that's a model as to how we move forward. the question is, do we work in a bipartisan matter and pass a transportation bill as we did in the senate? or do we simply try to ship for the bills failure. i hope you make a bill to make

america grow and get people back to work to make the foundation for long-term growth. thank you unamended chair. >> thank you knotted chair. we're followed by representative nadler. >> thank you, chairwoman boxer and chairman mica for this important meeting and i'm very pleased and honored to be on this conference committee. it is my hope is all of us have all of us have echoed that will work together to craft a reauthorization which puts people back to work and allows the local governments to fund important projects and move forward on them. we fastest a stick of a short-term extensions. it has resulted in projects, cancellation of new projects and every time we stick for transportation professionals they emphasize the long-term funding. i think we can produce a bill which will put people back to work on the reform programs have guided too large and less in the bureaucratic red tape. and our state of west virginia

with three west virginia on this committee and a tremendous need as all of us to prepare road construction, but our stay was one of the most beautiful states, same time archery and train staff to build and maintain our roads. last year we hope the listening section in charleston, west virginia with housetrained wing commander. the overall sentiment of those in the room that in the room that day was washington's close the process and environmental reviews and bureaucratic policy is tied at the hands of our state to delay construction as we now come a time is money. simple changes like revering projects concurrently better than consecutively can save states money. granting states categoric extension on existing right-of-way can allow states to add new lanes of highway without having to go through environmental review process for a highway for which they would be performed in encouraging state to entering public private partnerships can help states leverage federal funds and

decrease the need to spend money on maintaining rosenbergs ridge. a hazardous material will increase the cost of our concrete and further constrain their ability to improve infrastructure. the reason the highway bill is so important and the reason we are all is jobs. the service transportation program is a jobs bill. companies will hire and every single state. the keystone pipeline means jobs and energy from an energy state i know we need to tap a vast resources to echo the thoughts of many in this room. it's my hope we can work together to responsibly reform the service transportation program, maximize revenues and mainly highway test run. when he did put people back to work and give them certainty their job will be there. this can be done with reforms discussed in the longer we wait the more expensive it will be. more of our roads and bridges will continue to become data sets. i pledge to work together in a guilt that the rest of our time. >> thank you frame much.

representative nadler, you're next. >> thank you, senator boxer and colleagues for getting a reauthorization bill finally to conference. i'm honored to be a part of the conference committee and am hopeful we can report on the bill all of us can be proud to support. in order for that to happen will have to will have to work in a bipartisan manner and abandoned some of the poison pills that has been discussed such as the keystone pipeline and some environmental streamlining provisions. there's bipartisan support for common sense streamlining measures, but the language attached to the house bill goes too far and undercut. i have concerns about the keystone pipeline in terms of impact on global warming and questionable benefit american consumers. as with the environmental process is supposed to evaluate in the house bill mandates approval of the project superseding the normal process. that is the administration's objection and one should make it a nonstarter for everyone.

the senate bill includes the projects of national ritual significance program that we establish an current law. when we vote safety though, we recognize traditional transportation funding programs were insufficient to finance infrastructure projects of national or multistate regional significance. the projects of national regional significance program is to deal with this problem could invite us to the senate bill retains this program and are concerned the program is just an authorization subject to fund appropriations of the program might not be comprehensive enough to adequately address congestion and his movement around the country. transit appears well on the same page again come at least i hope we are in support of maintaining dedicated stable source of funding to public transportation programs. although there's some transit programs and policy issues to discuss an optimistic the transit title can make conference quickly and without controversy. and sure of us all of the issues on this villain in hopeful we can resolve the mullah and get a bill done quickly so we don't

have to pass another extension at the end of june, another extension that many people have mentioned to my certainty of not passing a major bill at this point denies that this economy and country so desperately needs, jobs. i look forward to working with everyone for the passage of the single most important jobs bill in this congress. a thank you in your back. >> thank you underrepresented tv ora. >> thank you, congress might have for holding this and needs to be part of this conference is a member of the ways and means committee with my chairman, mr. kant and mr. blumenauer. mr. chairman, the best result for this conference agreement is a highway bill that allows us to live within their means. we'll hear that a lot of my constituents. balance in those two results. this committee must work to reach an agreement that accepts this new reality. we must have real reforms.

real reforms that reduce waste and redundancy that we all hear about from our local transportation officials and state transportation officials with respect to her highway programs, something you mr. chairman have been involved with and mentioned by mr. young, mr. duncan and others. i would like to reemphasize those reforms as part of a final package that goes forward. the agreement must also include a strength in maritime title by reforming the harbor maintenance trust fund with positions such as the one sponsored by our colleague in the house. representative charles pisani along with other provisions in policies that will ensure that u.s. maritime industries competitive with the rest of the world are very important as we move forward. these reforms combined with what is already mentioned a number of times, the keystone accel pipeline, a big jobs bill, a big

infrastructure program are the key ingredients for a highway bill that results in job creation and economic growth in our country. mr. chairman, look forward to working with you in the rest of our colleagues to produce a bill. >> thank you. congresswoman brown. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. senator boxer is not here. lummi just say that i know it's not anyone in this room, but i'm very happy to be on this conference and many members in the house, not anyone in this room constantly go to the floor and talk about the senate can i say thank god for the united states senate. typically with this transportation bill because they have set the example for why we need to do to move forward, not putting issues that's not germane to transportation bill. transportation is the engine that put american people to work. our competition is already there. the chinese for $350 billion in

the transit and what we're doing for the first time since ronald reagan cut the funding for transit. so there are many, many areas that i think we possibly can agree on are one step kind of permitting process to cut down on the amount of times and projects. that may take this time to say that i support and track 100%. amtrak has a ridership of about 29 million passages. we need to continue to invest in it. what our country needs right now is a service transportation to that strengthens our infrastructure and as someone said there was talk and talking, not walking the walk, put the american people to work. thank you, mr. chairman i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you so much. but mr. representative shuster followed by representative

coming. >> thank you a mature and boxer and congratulations on being the chair this conference. i look forward to working with you and all of the colleagues in a bipartisan manner. first i want to start by saying i agree with what senator inhofe said. transportation infrastructure is a core function of government and in fact i go back to adam smith in what the founding fathers as they listened to items that the crt for three things government should provide for citizens our security, justice and direct dana maintaining public works to facilitate commerce. i fully concur with senator inhofe in with the founding fathers. but also i'd like to remind my colleague, senator durbin mentioned last immediate transportation bill with bipartisan income but in fact the last two times as bipartisan. the economic situation was far different that we face today. the economy was strong the last attempt to pass a transportation bills. the trust fund was flushed with money and we did have congressionally good funding.

the wheels of today face unsustainable deficits and debt. we need to make sure we are moving forward with a bill that is paid for in a responsible way, not smoking mirrors, but to make sure we pay for this and pay for it in the right way. i also think there are things we buy into this. the keystone pipeline will improve our energy, ability to get energy and create jobs because they also believe this bill can be a job creator, can improve the economy. the key to what we believe in the house are the reforms, streamlining reforms. as many of you know it takes on average 14 to 15 years to build a major construction project, a highway construction project in this country. the states lack the necessary flexibility to decide what is the greatest transportation needs in their states and i might add putting mandates on them to restrict how they can spend the money and coming from pennsylvania with 5000 deficient

bridges it's impossible to say you have to spend on bike paths that could cause death to people on the road racers were not able to spend dollars s. precious dollars on rebuilding bridges. i believe we have an historic opportunity to reform transportation for the first time in over 50 years we've had a highway bill and i just want to look at one project they saw just a week ago. $680 million project. if we put on reforms which i believe will reduce in half major projects with interest avowedly say $60 on trends to $90 million. multiply that across the $260 million highway bill and which you have there is tremendous savings for the american people so they can do more with less. i look forward to concluding this in a successful way and a bipartisan way. without i yield back. >> thank you so much.

representative comments. >> i want to thank you i thank you all for your leadership. the choices they make in this conference become more lovable will have the mobility that will enable them to move ahead in their lives. the choices we make will also affect millions of jobs in our nation. in a report released/at the bipartisan policy center found overwhelming evidence the united states is feeling in its highways, bridges, transit systems and consistently falling short in making the infrastructure investments needed to provide for long-term needs of growing population and economy. before we discuss a single provision we should we commit ourselves to the value of investing in their own nation. from the beginning of the republic for development of the infrastructure supports their economic growth and success has been shared national priority.

i think we wish we'd been able to ride in the comprehensive transportation authorization bill in a bipartisan manner that has been characterized by previous house bills. as the house has failed, the senate passed a 21 legislation masland debates is for a discussion. while there are several provisions that will recommend for the legislation, i note the senate bill reauthorizes the disadvantaged business enterprise programs and extends the program to a programs. i strongly support these programs and ask unanimous consent to insert a record the united states department of transportation regarding the need for these programs. >> with that objection will do that. >> let me make clear as ranking member, i will strongly oppose any proposal that might be raised to use federal workers as a piggy bank to pay for a highway bill or any other

legislation, particularly when we have refused to ask the richest in our nation to invest one additional penny. that said, time is short. i encourage all members to work together with a profound sense of urgent and dedication to draft a final bill at equal to our nation steve. with that i yield back. >> thank you very much. we move to representative bishop and then representative boswell. >> okay. is this working? this works. madam chair, i feel honored to be a letter addressed a handful of my colleagues and so many senate staffers today. last night the idea that so many from the resource committee on this highway means that someone screwed up somewhere. i'm a highway portion is a lot of good reforms in the senate version and even more reforms in the house version. the keystone pipeline is an important issue and the restore act, most of which is on this

bill as well. they are extraneous issues to bring questions to me as a member of my committee and some of their lives in west. srs for one additional year is nice but doesn't solve the problem, especially when the house committee has passed a long-term version, which gives certainty to local communities on when they look at their money as a lantern solution to funding of srs. the land and water conservation fund is already authorized through the year 2015. that means its current authorization is longer than the authorization of the base to end the idea of authorizing arc setting for seven years of strange. especially when it has $1.5 billion of new mandatory spending which needlessly has to be offset or find obsessed with the $700 million eerie mandatory spending which is almost double what the program has been appropriated for each of the last five years in $250 million more than the president requested. when we have questions at the division between state and

federal split of monies, whether grant money is being used for the slush fund for purposes of this fund are used for some good programs, but others have been abusive and this provision has had no hearing on either the house or the senate by if this continues, it means there will be less likely to be financially balanced and also create additional and unneeded opposition to this particular bill. once again from someone in the west and especially this committee looking at provisions i find them at the strange. but i look forward to working with at least most of my members in here to find solutions to a long-term funding for the highway program. thank you. >> thank you so very much, representative boswell. >> thank you command chairman and for your hard work. we appreciate it even though you've been in the distance for some time.

we've traveled and worked together. i thought we could have a transportation bill went up to the fact we couldn't have one, but i think we still can. i'm an eternal optimist. one of those folks around the table with fantasies and we think it's cannot grow and rain and so on. we've got to get this going. the sketchers got so much at stake here that have been an advocate for all time but it feels my tired career here. i lived at the nato assignment and so it happens to communities. people just like us when they don't have fuel for their car or transformation, we don't need to go there. we need to do it. it seems like everything is spoonfed. but just i'll have it excited. i wonder if none of chairman, can you bring to the conversation some expert can tell us the keystone really

means? i think we understand the job is to construct not much conversation, but there seems to be a lot of diverse opinion about what happened to the finished project and what it means to the gas at the pump. i'd like to know if from an expert if there is such a possibility. i want us to get moving. i do want something to happen in your districts are mine and we have a lot of deficient bridges, but i cannot member the pain we all felt when the bridge in minnesota went down. we should not let that happen. our country was built on compromise. all of you have studied it. i have to and it's made us what we are. but still so you have to have a just one way or the other. the house has to work with the senate, senate with the house. they've got a platform to work

from. you've shown us, none of chairman your build to bring people together. so you know what? i'm counting on you to do it here. no pressure or anything, but you've demonstrated that in i want to be supportive. i want to see us get to go out to get to work and get this contract is busy and let's don't have another bridge fall somewhere because we couldn't do our work. without a yield back in thank you for your efforts. >> thank you. ac senator schumer is that. this is your moment, sir. three minutes to you. followed by representative bueller. did i say it right? how do i i'm so sorry. okay i got it now.

>> chairman boxer, it's a pleasure to be here. i want to thank you for your museum leadership on this bill. u.n. center and half deserve real accommodation for coming together on an outstanding bill. it's just what america wants. we want jobs, infrastructure and lack to be done in a bipartisan way where the parties are not fighting and you will achieve that i'm one of the most significant bills here. i thank you and i hope the examples you have sad, the two review, will be the theme of this conference. i'm whatever one's ideology is, left, right or center, i hope everyone in this room can agree to invest in infrastructure is a fundamental us government. i remind that the first big federal investment in infrastructure was started not by a republican, but by awake, henry clay, predecessor of the

republican party and henry clay decided internal improvements are some of the federal government should do. those are highways through the appalachians to open up the fire last kentucky, ohio, even western pennsylvania benefited from internal improvements. so the federal government has been involved for a very long time and i know very few say the federal government should not be a bunch of and road and mass transit, but they are distinct minority. the polling shows americans of all three parties agree. all across the country and especially in my home state of new york dirt roads, bridges and transit systems in need of serious repair and at the same time, and as the construction industry. and sure it's been talked about, that is so out of work and this is the best way to put them back. so i'm going to skip all of that part of my speech because they know people have waited a long time. i just want to make a few quick points. the senate bill gives states

like new york the tools and resources we need to provide a large legacy for public transportation systems were adequately. i know a lot of my colleagues don't have much mass transit, the first mass transit is for you what highways are in new york city. we get 3.5 million people on and off manhattan island. it's an amazing thing, economic agents close to a metropolitan area closer country's gdp. without mass transit it couldn't exist in there someplace is that it wide open spaces in some cities are spread out. some cities work in new york is one of them that we can't do it without mass transit. we serve 2.6 billion trips a year to commuters and a 5000 square mile area that covers about 20 million people. we can't continue to ignore the backlog. i'll ask unanimous vent the rest

of my statement be put in the record. we need help on mass transit and there's a number of us on this committee who will fight very, very hard for you. it's important to us as well as many of you. >> thank you, senator. now i will get it right. we will not hear from representatives that later. i thank you a maverick in number. it's exciting to be a part of this committee. it's exciting to be a part of our nation's transportation infrastructure. a strong transportation system is important to my corner of washington state as to any other region in the country. is critical, a link from vancouver to bolivia, safe, efficient movement of people and product names jobs for my region, and oliver regions. working together with members of both parties from both sides of the rotunda to keep our system funded in a responsible way.

and to help find solutions, folks in southwest washington want to see the best possible agreement from this committee and i'll do my best to help make that happen. in this group we have both solid experience, not in chair, and new ideas. both are needed to produce the solutions we need. for instance, innovative ideas that help us complete projects were quick way, were officially come to save taxpayer dollars while keeping the commitment to safe and reliable infrastructure. i understand their challenges in different is that we're going to have to work out. the biggest of course is the dwindling highway trust fund that must be strengthened. i've heard a lot of the merits of the senate bill. one of the things that neither bill does is provide a long-term solution for how we are going to pay for aging infrastructure. we spend it to a certain point, but we need a solution that's very important. a lot of us believe in

infrastructure and believe, like the senator from new york side it is something the federal government has to pay attention to and engaged and then i think the longer -- the longer-term bill paid for responsibly will best serve our all of our constituents and the american people. i'm ready to vote my sleeves and get to work. thank you again for this opportunity. >> thank you very match. representative bishop followed by representative are signed. >> thank you very much, not an chair. then in chair, chairman mike i., thank you for convenient surface transportation program. i look forward to working with you and our colleagues in a bipartisan manner to put americans back to work in repair and improve our infrastructure. this committee is a real opportunity to complete what is the two be the largest jobs package of the 100th congress. i think many would agree it's taken far too long to get to this point, we must try to find common ground and work together

to complete this the last release that construction season to support millions of jobs. none of us have ever seen a perfect piece of legislation, the map 21 is very good legislation. the bill passed overwhelmingly in the senate with a bipartisan majority of senate war, 22 and is fully paid for. estimates suggest the map 21 will save one point plan jobs and create up to an additional 1 million jobs. we have to get this done as quickly as possible. what are some sections of the senate bill at itc massaged by a graduated driver's license provisions, projects of national significance, positive control in the two-tier programs come i strongly concur with the senate bill. untroubled by portions of the house bill that undermine our nation's environmental laws, eliminate local input on infrastructure projects and tie the hands of federal regulators.