>> i wrote something one time k and it stated that in the south he was looked at as a hero. and when you have anytime a crisis, your people are always looking for someone that they can look up to. you had a person here who escaped a blockade. he devastated union commerce. people in the free world or the other parts of the world, if you will, europe and stuff, you have to understand commerce be back then was ships. no planes. stuff like this. seas, he captured the imagination of people in england, france, everywhere. and people were constantly writing about him. but, now, if you were from up north, you hated him. and just like anybody, you're going to label himyou hate him -- him if you hate him, the

lowest names you can think of. which they did. he was a very honorable man, and he hated that his name was being used in a way that wasn't being honorable to he or his family. the united states government and all governments frown upon this because, okay, you're disturbing their ability to fight a war, you're also disturbing their commerce. and semmes countered with that. he said he was doing nothing that hadn't been done before, especially by the united states. during the war of 1812 and especially during the american revolution. we didn't have a fleet during the american revolution. and there were people, since the government could not bay -- pay these people, they made them, the if you will, privateer, private individuals who would go out and stop commerce or disrupt the british fleet. and that's exactly what they

did. >> this weekend learn about the rich history and literary life of mobile, alabama. saturday at noon eastern on c-span2 and sunday at two on c-span3. >> coming up today at 12:15 eastern, the alliance for health reform hosts an event focusing on states and the medicaid expansion under the health care law. the surgeon general from arkansas and michigan's medicaid director will take part. those two states have chosen to undergo medicaid expansion. live coverage begins today again at 12:15 eastern on c-span. and tonight at eight, a discussion on terrorism featuring former homeland security director michael chertoff, tsa administrator john pistole and a panel of security experts who describe the terrorist threat as it exists today. here in new york city john miller talks about the terrorist mindset when planning an attack. >> we obsess they'll attack the water supply, the food supply, they'll poison the milk in the

cows, they'll do a biological -- they sit around up at night while we're tossing and turning thinking about what they're thinking, and they're thinking about i need to kill people. i need to have the streets running with blood, i need people running and screaming, and i need it on tv. i'm not worried about causing a blackout. i need people to die. terrorism is theater. it requires a storyline, it needs a big, dramatic scene, it needs that story arc, and the big scene, the money shot involves blood and bodies, and that's what they're thinking about. they ain't thinking about the grave i have. gravy. >> and deputy police commissioner john miller is part of the panel also discussing developing threats and homeland security strategy. university of southern california will host that event and that, again, is tonight at eight eastern on c-span. >> and on this monday morning a live picture from the newseum

here in washington, d.c.. the u.s. chamber of commerce along with the national association of manufacturers and the council on competitiveness and the organization for international investment is hosting a discussion on america's aging infrastructure. speakers include chamber of commerce president thomas donohue and the national association of manufacturers' president jay timmons, this event marking the start of infrastructure week 2014. it's a series of events focusing on the critical need to modernize the country's aging infrastructure. should get under way in just a moment. live coverage here on c-span2. ♪ ♪

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>> and once again we are live this morning here in the nation's capital as the u.s. chamber of commerce is hosting a discussion on the nation's infrastructure. this event is starting the beginning of infrastructure week 2014. it's a series of events that are focusing on the critical need to modernize the country's infrastructure. while we wait for it to get under way here in just a couple of minutes, the u.s. senate will return today at two eastern for general speeches and at 5:30, a vote to advance the energy efficient bill. here's a look at the senate agenda for today and for the rest of the week. >> timothy canna writes for the

hill, the house is out next week for another weeklong break, but the senate will be in. thai scheduled a procedural vote on energy legislation, and the headline says it's crunch time on energy efficiency bill. what's the status of that measure? >> well, the status is that on, as you said, they scheduled a vote on monday for that bill. what's mainly holding things up right now and really what might hold up the bill as a whole is that the republicans really want to get some amendments into that that really are energy related amendments, but the democrats including, including senate majority leader harry reid, have been, have essentially blocked those amendments, and they don't want to allow those in there. one of the amendments, of course, would be to force the approval of the keystone xl pipeline. reid is open to having a vote on

a separate bill just for the keystone xl pipeline, but he doesn't want these other five energy-related amendments to be considered for this bill. so last week -- or so this week he used a procedure called filling the tree to prevent any amendments from being considered. >> host: so, again, senators on both sides of the aisle calling for a vote on the pipeline. what seems to be the mood of the country on building the keystone xl pipeline? >> guest: well, you know, a lot of recent polls have really shown that the country does support this pipeline. for the most part, the polls have shown that the possible jobs that are going to come from the construction and from the operation of the pipeline really are outweighing some of the environmental concerns that environmentalists have brought up about the pipeline. so really, yeah, you know, it's something that the american

people support. >> host: are senators on both sides of the aisle, do to they support the separate vote on that? >> guest: all of the republicans do in the senate, and i believe it's at last count about 11 democrats also support that. senator mary landrieu from louisiana who's sort of leading fight for the democrats said most recently that she had 58 votes to approve the pipeline which, of course, you need 60 votes to get a filibuster-proof majority. she beliefs that she -- believes that she will have that many votes, you know, within the next week, essentially, to pass that. of course, she only has 58 now, so, you know, we'll see be that actually happens. >> host: now, tax extenders legislation is also on the senate's agenda next week. what's in that bill and what senators are leading this effort? >> guest: so, yes, as far as

we're expecting to see a floor vote on that next week. so really what that would do is extend, basically, around 50 tax breaks for almost all for two years. for my beat, for energy, there are a number of very popular tax credits on there that encourage alternative fuels, encourage energy efficiency and things of that nature that, as i said, they're pretty popular. so those expired at the end of last year, and this would extend those for two years. the senate finance committee approved that bill at the, in the beginning of april i believe it was, and, you know, there's a lot of bipartisan support for a lot of these tax extenders. so we'll see where that goes. >> host: well, how does the

senate's bill on extending tax credits compare with the house's current efforts on the issue? >> guest: so on the house side they're really taking a different approach where they're doing sort of a few, a few tax breaks at a time. the most recent one, i believe, was at the end of april, and that was, you know, that was around -- it was largely, it was six tax breaks, excuse me, including some research and development ones that the business community really likes and that have bipartisan support. however, the house republicans in the majority are really, haven't really shown to be receptive to the senate's strategy of, you know, of this big tax extender thing. so, obviously, if the senate passes it, it'll go to the house for their consideration. but really at this point the

house's tactic has really been smaller bills at any particular given time. >> you can tweet timothy cama and read his work at thehill.com. thanks for your time today. >> thanks so much for having me. >> and the senate gavels in at two other than today. -- two eastern today. live coverage here on c-span2. and live now to the newseum for panels on repairing the nation's infrastructure hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce. the program should get under way in just a moment. ♪ ♪ >> well, good morning, even. everybody. ♪ ♪ >> music this early this morning. good morning and welcome to infrastructure week 2014. i'm janet, the executive director of transportation and infrastructure here at the u.s. chamber of commerce, and this morning on behalf of the council on competitiveness, the national

association of manufacturers, the organization for international investment and the chamber we are pleased to kick off what we hope will become an annual week of spotlighting the nation's public infrastructure that serves as the physical platform for our economy. in the fall of last year, a man challenged two organizations; the chamber and the council, to work together to raise the profile of the nation's infrastructure issues, to recruit new ceos and top-level voices to the cause and to generate more interest among the business community for addressing the challenges we will discuss today and throughout the week. little did i know that a year later we would be here today ii national and regional media campaign involving a steering committee that unified business, labor and think tanks. paul uracy is the president. paul, thanks to your vision,

your dedication to maintaining, modernizing and expanding our roads, rails, rivers, runways, airways and water pipes and your ability to put the chamber and the council together for that all-important first meeting, we are here today. paul, please accept my thanks and the infrastructure committee's steering committee's gratitude for hntb's general sponsorship. please join me in welcoming paul, -- paul uracy. [applause] >> well, thank you, janet. it just seemed like a pretty easy idea to get this going and get this group together. and the right thing to do. i have the honor today of introducing the first keynote speaker, tom donohue. a number of years ago the chamber was courting hntb to join. we had a number of visits and

were deciding what we were going to do. finally, i don't even remember who it was, said why don't you go visit tom. so after 45 minutes with tom donohue, i saw exactly why it was great for hntb to be part of the claim per of commerce. chamber of commerce. i saw everything they were doing, everything that they, that fit what hntb needed in its business and in influence in washington. but more than that, i saw a man with a vision for what america could be, the passion to get it done and backed by an organization that was working to implement his ideas. since becoming president and ceo of the chamber in 1997, tom built the chamber into a lobbying and political

powerhouse with influence across the globe. during tom's tenure the chamber, lobbyists, political experts, legal advocates, communications and technical experts have won business victories on capitol hill. i think we're all familiar with all the victories they've won. in an era of economic and fiscal challenges, tom has aggressively advanced the american jobs, growth and opportunity agenda, one of the key issues facing america today. under tom's leadership, the chamber has emerged as a major political force, a force that needs to be reckoned with and a force for business. with all those accolades, and everybody knows what the chamber does, i'd like to kick off infrastructure week by introducing tom donohue. [applause]

>> well, thank you very much, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm pleased to be here. i'm not sure how i feel. i got back from europe late yesterday. but i'm ready, willing and able because i'm absolutely committed to the subject that we're going to discuss today and this evening and tomorrow and the next day and that we're going to advance in every way we can to meet challenges that we all face. and, paul, thank you for your introduction, but more particularly, thank you for your support of the chamber and, more specifically, thank you for your support of what's going on in the infrastructure world. i'd like to also join janet in

welcoming our cohosts, the nam and the organization for international investment and the council on competitiveness. the more people you get in the room behind the project, the better we're going to be, and i appreciate working together with these folks. we've created a great program for today that couldn't be more timely. as early as august, the highway trust fund is going to run short of money. i predict it'll be a little sooner than that. states won't be guaranteed to get reimbursed on time for money they've already spent and will probably slow down their own commitments. ..

by the way, it will also cost us a lot of jobs while we're trying to create jobs, this will be taking the most important types of jobs away. several members of congress acting in good faith to put forward plans that address our long-term funding issue, and we applaud them for the efforts and i know there will be more discussion in town this week on those attempts. others are suggesting that the political reality is that we will have to settle for an infusion of cash into the highway trust fund as a stopgap

measure. where are you going to get the cash? used to be there were ways to do it. i think it's a little tighter now than it was. it may be true that we can get an infusion but it's hardly the long-term solution we need if we want to maintain a world-class infrastructure -- world-class infrastructure system. every few years we wake up and have the same conversation about funding the same fights over the gas tax and the same scramble for money. the only problem in recent years we have been doing very well. you do know that i guess in round numbers, 20 years since we increased the gas tax. now don't get me wrong, money is important. you can't make a dash if you don't have the cash, but don't for a minute think that's all we have to do to get the infrastructure issues working. if you look at everything been discussed in recent years --

recent days and weeks around environmental issues, many of those are somewhat in conflict, not because they are wrong but in what we're trying to do where we are trying to spend our money. in fact, what everybody would agree to is that we need a comprehensive forward-looking program that meets the needs of a competitive 21st century that embraces innovative approaches and that instills confidence and earns the support of a jaded citizenry. i mean, the of are built that bridge didn't help us, didn't go anywhere but we certainly heard a lot about it. today i'd like to suggest a plan that might reach that objective, a plan that can get us past the stale and repetitive debates we've engaged in for too long, a plan that will appeal to the american people and our elected officials because it focuses on the benefits of a 21st century

infrastructure system, a plan that will emphasize transparency accountability, technology and innovation. it's a plan that relates to the lives of everyday americans and will help drive their enthusiasm for increased public investment in infrastructure. the plan is built on five pillars. most plans in washington are built on five something. we decided pillars. the first pillar is enhanced transparency and accountability. put in english, let's get the american people to be confident about what we're doing. americans will never buy into a long-term funding plan until they have their confidence that their hard earned dollars are going to be spent wisely. for decades there have been stories of wasteful porkbarrel projects, bridges to nowhere and bringing home the proverbial bacon to win votes.

not all those things are bad. i told janet today, i understand why we took away all the efforts to bring home a deal or a bridge, but maybe if we would all get together and we would make a professional list of what had to be done, and after everything was funded and permitted, then they would let the members of the committee, in, and in order of their seniority or good looks, they could pick one of those projects and we would let them say it's theirs. but the bottom line is we've got to get people to trust what we're going to do. there's got to be a change. we need more transparency and accountability throughout the system, especially to explain to people how projects are selected, implemented and paid for. the public has a right to expect more business minded transportation and financial

standards and infrastructure projects. all new construction and major upgrades should be the subject of a rigorous economic analysis that indicates a strong return on investment, or a return of need that the community must take care. the public has a right to expect that once selected, projects are subject to a strict performance management, and are done in a timely fashion and in a cost effective way. often we put so much bureaucracy between the idea and the conclusion we all forget what we start out to do in the first place. and the public has a right to expect that when congress promises to spend the public's money on transportation, they keep that promise and don't divert the money to some other project. implementing these reforms will not only improve the efficiency of our system, deliver better benefits and keep the cost

lower, they will instill the public confidence we need to do this on a long-term basis. the second pillar is to streamline the regulatory system. the public needs to know that once they commit the money it will be put to work quickly and efficiently for jobs, growth and opportunity. lawsuits, by the way, lawsuits are fine. not ones that go on for months and years and years. permitting delays and bureaucracy to not only slow projects, raise the cost and outright kill them, but they can discourage private-sector investment and prevent implementation of cost savings and innovation. permitting is a good example. a federal permit is almost always necessary to build or upgrade transmission lines, nuclear power plants, airports, chemical facilities, and any other number of projects. the problem is that after the

permit is filed no one is in charge. there is no one timeline for approval, and parties have up to six years to sue after an agency makes its final decision. give me a break. so from the outset we are all looking at more than a decade, have been, just to break ground as well as the long delays and cost the legal challenges. we've seen exceptions and we've seen them work. we all remember back to that horrific earthquake in san francisco, and what we did there was we all got together like this country again and made it work. so what do we have now? we have the rabbit act which is working its way through congress, would put someone in charge of the permit come ensure coordination among agencies and put limits both on reviews and legal challenges. it would help speed up the develop of projects so that we can actually start building and

developing the country again and creating jobs and growth. efforts to streamline the regulatory process have been part of each of the last three major surface transportation acts. some progress has been made, but change has been slow. additional efforts like streamlining the permit system are needed. the third pillar is a more strategic multimodal approach. we need a seamless national connected system that links all the physical assets and all the transportation modes together. we need intermodal connectors that link railroads to ports, ports to highways, i wish to airports, and so on and so forth, much of which can be done by the private sector if the public sector is involved the way it should in a timely basis. this is where many of the greatest bottlenecks in freight transportation occur on that last mile that connects one mode

to another. our transportation and infrastructure planning system operates in silos across this nation and around thi around th. multiple levels of government and multiple industries that compete with one another. this lack of coordination raises costs and generates inefficiencies which means that the system remains fragmented and disjointed. if we ought to maintain a world-class infrastructure system, then we need to break down those silos, talk to one another and considered the big picture. in short, we need a network, not a patchwork. states have an important role to play but i think we can all agree that the federal government must take a leading role in making sure the infrastructure system contributes to a strong economy, and national security, and works in a seamless way. on the other hand, the ball been

responsible to the states which most of them don't want, as some have suggested means we will loose national connectivity, which is essential to moving american goods, economic growth and global competitiveness. that's a big price to pay. be sure states are actively involved in raising their own money, and aggressively going ahead and fixing their own infrastructure, but they know we need a national system. the fourth pillar is integrating technology into the surface transportation system. our lives revolve around gadgets these days, seems to me. we expect of information at our fingertips to make decisions on the fly, to adapt to changing situations. and the american people are going to expect that the relationships with the infrastructure is no different. it's time to make sure that our concrete asphalt and steal our

air traffic control system, our water pipes and other infrastructure, are smart. they will tell us when they're wearing out and then we can really worry about it. this is what americans do. we innovate, create, think outside the box, make the absolute most out of the resources we have. there are some exceptions. one might look at u.s. infrastructure system. now, the private sector know-how is already a leading congestion, helping travelers plan ahead, unlocking the gridlock at airports and improving safety, infusing more technology in infrastructure planning, construction and maintenance has the potential to be a game changer for the infrastructure system in the 21st century. however, technology technology implemented across transportation modes and industries is uneven across governments and often much slower than the pace of technological evolution.

the majority of the build the system does not yet incorporate these elements. it might not be cost effective to that every new bell and whistle to the nations infrastructure, but businesses and government should focus their energies on deciding which technology warrants support, where, how and who pays for them. all right, i've been talking about all that because i've been trying to warm up to the fifth pillar because this is what it's all about. the fifth pillar is our business plan, creating a predictable stable and growing funding mechanism for infrastructure. here's some old news for you. the simplest most straightforward way to fix the highway trust fund and buy some time to develop new funding systems is to raise the federal gasoline tax, or the user fee or

you don't want a user? you don't have to pay for it. but if you want to use it, you have to pay for it. shipperschippers '04, truckers , the instruction cache the construction industry is sort and labor is for. that's one hell of a star. if congress were series about insuring money goes to the most essential product, and projects, most motorists would before it come to. at san jose university research found that 58% of the public would support a gas tax increase if they knew i they would be applied to building and maintaining roads, bridges and transit systems. pretty good. we have watched in six states, three of each flavor, the estate tax be raised with the support of its citizens. voters want to know where the money is going and that it's going to be used well and not wasted. that's how you get the vote. increasing the gas tax, however,

will require some courage which seems in short supply in washington these days. last, as i said when those six states did, they'd about the courage was there. now we've got to get it here in the capital city. the sky didn't fall to their economies didn't collapse. both republican and democratic presidents have approved modest gas tax increases. even ronald reagan sent a message on sunday people on the house side. so it can be done from increasing the gas tax is the right answer. it's tough, it's doable and it's the one thing we can do in the short order. and by the way, we've got to do the same thing for our inland waterway. the barge guys support raising the barge diesel tax so that their locks and dams and levees can be replaced and upgraded. if we're going to export american energy and agriculture, which we are doing more and more of, particularly on the agricultural side, we've got to

take care of that. as well as stop holding back the money already collected for the harbor maintenance trust fund. let's keep in mind that public money is only part of the equation. we must increase private investment as well. the private sector is prepared to pump a quarter of a billion dollars, $250 billion, a quarter of a trillion dollars in public-private partnership, or piii, if only certain barriers would be removed and if we could demonstrate we knew how to pay back what we acquired. although 33 states have passed legislation allowing piii, only handful of taken advantage of it, and even smaller sliver have established dedicated offices that can facilitate projects and help navigate their legal financial and technical complexities. governors and mayors need to

embrace piii is as a way of doing business. we need to seize every opportunity to get every possible source of capital so that the difficult project can get done and then quickly. this also includes expanding things like tifia, private activity funds and state infrastructure banks. by the way i listen to that stuff up one hell all the time and you can do it and it will work, but you can't do it until you lay the foundation which is the highway trust fund. today best estimates with the total u.s. spending on piiis are about 9% of the global total by taking some commonsense steps we can help drive that number went up. but let me conclude because you have been very patient listening to me. it is clear that the united states needs a new path forward on transportation infrastructure. it is time that we all pushed

very hard to create a contemporary, an innovative infrastructure strategy, one that embraces the private sector and its resources, invites the introduction of desperately needed fresh ideas and concepts, and drives economic prosperity rather than holding it back. jobs, opportunity and growth, we need them all. a successful plan would prove to the american people that our elected officials, to both of them, that infrastructure investment is a smart bet for our people, our companies and our economy. congress and the obama administration have their role to play. they need to own up to the responsibility of implementing a smart, forward looking, transparent and accountable infrastructure program with the necessary funding, please underline. that the private sector has a role to play in a very

significant way as well. we need to come up with solutions. we need to craft a plan, and we need to sell it far and wide. today i'm pleased to announce that the chamber incoming chairman of the board, tamra lundgren, you'll hear from at lunchtime will help us lead a national roundtable dialogue which will take place in five or six cities on each of the five pillars we discussed today might be more cities and only five pillars. we will then transmit a report to the president, the congress and everyone else who will listen with our principles and recommendations. some have accused me of being an optimist. i can't help myself. i'm irish for the most part. some people think -- well, so i say -- [laughter] it's time to start doing this

issue as an opportunity not only as a challenge. if we are smart we can set a path that will ensure adequate funding for years to come. we can create jobs, and we really need them. we can spur economic growth the country needs. we could promote cooperation among all levels of government and the private sector. we can ensure that money is spent wisely on projects with the greatest national benefit, and we can build trust and confidence in the american people and me clear all of the benefits this investment will bring. the chamber is committed, my colleagues supporting this effort are committed and we all are looking forward to working with you to get it done your by the way, if you go to every event this week, then just go home and don't do anything, nothing is going to happen. so somebody, all of us have got to go up and explain it to our representatives that we are so

glad to have them. and we need the money. or we might not keep them. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, tom. i would like to welcome our panel so that they can get prepared. if some straight talk about this country's transportation problems which is one of the reasons i like to work at the chamber. first am going to invite everybody to come in, please don't be shy. there's a whole other side of the room over here. i was unable to construct a new entrance this morning so you just have to help me out and walk all the way over there. we wanted to start today hearing from, but also hearing from leaders of real top notch business organizations. each with a slightly different mission, and approach all of which emphasized the concept of

competitiveness. which the world economic forum defines as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of the country, which sounds very serious. that's a pretty big step, education, trade, tax policy, regulars and come immigration, foreign policy, monetary, elections. we could keep going on. i could keep going on if it takes longer to mic them up but we'll see how that goes. what each of these esteemed association ceos want is the best possible platform upon which business can succeed and the united states can compete. and to help us dig into infrastructure relates to competitiveness, today we are very, very pleased to welcome eamon javers. he has worked at business week and politico, appeared as an analyst on all of the major

broadcast networks, and if you watch washington week with gwen ifill you often see him on the panel. he's also an author of the book that you may want to pick up, broker trader lawyer's body, the secret world of corporate espionage, which sounds kind of cool. so i'm going to turn things over to you. thank you, and thank you to our panel. >> thank you very much and thank you for the plug of my book. [applause] i think this would be fastened kind of this conversation. i want to introduce the panel and we will dive right into, plenty of time at the end for questions and i'm assuming and hoping your questions will be a lot more insightful than mine. i want to get to that as quick as again. starting here you all know tom. thanks, tom and the other panelists were being here. we've also got jay timmons, president and ceo of the national association of manufacturers. deborah wince-smith, president and ceo of the council on competitiveness come into my in the right, nancy mclernon,

president and ceo of the organization for international investment. thank you all for being here. let me start out with a statistic that i read last week that i thought was fastened. so much of the conversation focuses on big business and what their needs are. of course, that's important. this is also a conversation about american jobs and the overall economy. the s&p did a study by the chief u.s. economist last week. they said that their model estimate shows investing $1.3 billion in infrastructure creates 28,000 u.s. jobs and adds $2 billion in real gdp which is leads to a economic gains and the longer-term. if we could starting with jay and working away back down, give us your thoughts on what infrastructure means for jobs first and then the broader economy. >> thanks, eamon. and it's great to be here with such a diverse group of people. it's great to have tom kick this off as usual.

he gave us some good things to think about and has really presented the challenge as we all know it here. the fact we are all, this group is so diverse and the fact the sponsors are so diverse i think really is a testament to the fact that we can get something done here. and eamon, it really is all about jobs. if you look at our competitors all over the world and you look at what they're doing with infrastructure, and you realize that they are not stuck in the 20th century. they're moving forward to the 21st and planning for the 22nd. that means it'll going to keep up with our competitors we've got to do the same thing. for manufacturers it matters in every step of the process, whether it's receiving inputs for our goods or being able to deliver our products to our customers here in the united states, or the customers abroad. you mentioned the statistic for

every 1.3 billion invested in infrastructure been increase about 23,000 jobs but that's pretty basic figure and i think that's borne out. for manufacturers can for every dollar that's invested in infrastructure spending it result in about 40 cents for manufacturers. so i think when you look around at all of the different research products that have been done studies that have been done, everybody agrees with got to do something. i brought with me a little hint of some the studies that been done in the last five years. this is just five years worth and this is -- >> have you read all of those? [inaudible] >> this is just a sampling. it's not everything that's come out to a lot of this is from the federal government, the states, from think tanks, our groups here. and the conclusion is office and. we've got a problem. we've got to do something about

it. we partnered, at the nam we partnered with building america's future, one of the sponsorship today, and we surveyed manufacturers john mclaughlin and alice rivlin, we will give you more information on those false but the topline is what we found is 70% of manufacturers, the people that this country relies on to generate the lifeblood of the economy, 70% think our infrastructure is in poor or fair shake. two-thirds of manufacturers, everything is goes back to what tom was talking about, two-thirds believe that every single possible funding solution needs to be put on the table for discussion that doesn't mean that we're all going to like the outcome of every one of those potential solutions believes we should be talking about it. and we do need a multi-year long-term strategy for transportation so that we are protecting america's economic

leadership. >> is all about fashion also about politics. i wonder if the politic conversation has been damaged from your perspective by the obama era stimulus? and the question of whether or not government spending can create jobs, having, -- become so controversial. does that make your job and going out and some infrastructure investment, doesn't make your job harder? >> well, we haven't increased the federal fuel tax in 20 years. and the president has been in town for five and change. so we still had a 15 year head start on not doing what we should have done. i do think that you could say because of the crisis we had, economically, because, in the chamber supported the program he

put in. we disagreed with a lot of the stuff in it, that america had to do something. the world was watching. but what we've been saying the whole time, and you know we have a big sign on the building about jobs, by the way, 20 some thousand jobs, a billion plus, and if you just put, it would've been a lot more jobs than that in some of the things that were promised but weren't able to be delivered on. but i don't think we name names. i think we say that for 35 members of congress and the 100 members of the senate, into the white house, here's a chance to put people to work, save lives, because a lot of stuff on roadkill a lot of people. tend to our national security which is why the roads were built in the first place, and run funds into state and federal coffers, like people and institutions that are doing this

work. and i think it's time to say okay, enough is enough, now do it. maybe when we get ready to run out of money, you know, halfway through this year it will be a little easier to get their attention. >> do you think people are more willing to hear that argument this year as opposed to past years? what's the receptiveness as you have your conversation? >> i think they're willing to the argument i think if you put the whole infrastructure challenge in the broader context of competitiveness and global exports and leadership as well of course as jobs in our economy, we could clearly make the case very easily, we have the data and a great group that came together and a very proud to be here with them has documented our work, not only do we have a federal deficit, we have an infrastructure deficit. i mean, the amount we are under investing compared to our peers and competitors around the world

is staggering and we're seeing the impacts of that on the competitiveness of our firms, but we also need to relate this to what we would call and innovation deficit. because so much of the opportunity and the cost of what we're going to do to really take america into the 21st century infrastructure journey is an innovation journey. and when she think of the new material, the it system, the sensors, the whole, all the things that are going to enable our firm to be the leaders in 21st century manufacturing, just think of the infrastructure opportunities now that relate to the energy transformation. the discussion right now about the keystone pipeline and all that going on, think of the old pipe in the ground and get this one, hopefully it will get approved, it's going to be the state of the art. no country in the world will

have that, and then the high skilled jobs. i'd like to put up on the table the competitiveness agenda for this country is about talent, technology, about investment and infrastructure, but all of that takes us to an innovation economy where we will have high skilled jobs and this will infrastructure rebuilding and what it means for america really is bringing all those things together. so in many ways the infrastructure challenge becomes a systems integrator for all the things you need to do as a nation. it clearly needs to be bipartisan and it needs to have public private partnership. i do want to call out our friend and colleague of all of us at the table, paul yarossi, because it's a lot of his vision and leadership that is gotten us here. it's a tremendous opportunity for americans speak you represent international company that are doing business in washington and around the country. talk a little bit about the perspective of those companies that are coming here to the united states looking to do some of his work.

what are they looking to do and what are the particular challenges your group faces the? >> thanks so much, and thank you all for having me on this panel. they are just in which group. and it is a very diverse, but it's good to be here to talk about a topic that so many of us agree on. and my companies, somewhat different perspective than those we talked about today. they are not homegrown companies. they've made a deliberate decision to come to the u.s., and fast, influx jobs and capital from abroad to the u.s. but it's a good thing for our economy, right? we did a study last year which showed that insourcing companies over a decade period raised their industries average in almost every relevant economic indicator. they increased u.s. gdp by about 25% when the private sector average overall was about 14%. they pay a 22% premium in terms of wages and compensation to the

u.s. workers over 5.6 million americans. they invest heavily in u.s. r&d, buy locally, and they produce here not only to serve u.s. customers but to serve the world as well. they produce about 20% of u.s. exports. so infrastructure is very important. these companies are very diverse. i represent sony, siemens, basf, nestlé, unilever. so they are very diverse. but the cfos of our companies in a recent survey said quality of infrastructure was one of the top factors in choosing a location for investments. and it's not a coincidence that as the quality of u.s. infrastructure has declined, so has our share of global cross-border investment. so in 2000, the u.s. 137% of all cross-border investment. in 2012 it is 17%.

other countries are getting their act together. to our improving the infrastructure among other things. and in order -- >> where are those companies going, do you think what is not looking at the united states, who are biggest competitors in terms of infrastructure and resources? what are the other options if you're a big global company to say united states crumbling, i'm going to go to x or y? >> i would just jump in and say obviously china is making huge investments. they have a long way to go but we did a study at the council with deloitte looking at what global ceos around the world think about manufacturing competitiveness. in terms of infrastructure, the u.s. was ranked number 19 in that, but the good news for us on that overall study was talent driven innovation and a lot of intellectual assets are also in places where customers and markets are. i was even of their having huge problems right now with the world cup, that brazil has a

very sophisticated strategy on infrastructure with the brazilian national economic development bank that has more assets than the entire world bank and now it's being leveraged for infrastructure. i let my colleagues speak, clothe the emerging markets in asia but also increasingly in the middle east. again that's another part of the world that is ensuring that they're going to have the state-of-the-art infrastructure, whether it's reports and movements of goods, and you know, many of us have been to singapore, we sing have these folks are also becoming magnets are a lot of the production. not necessarily just behind innovation work. >> deborah mentioned the piiis. micah burgess are headquartered abroad are very accustomed to public-private partnerships. both developed and emerging markets have gone in this direction. england went there about three decades ago. deborah mentioned brazil and

chile. china, and i'm also adding chile, who have built really great infrastructure with private sector involvement. and the u.s. environment, both political as well as structurally, it's not set up as well to accept some of that type of investment. >> tom, it's interesting. i'm going to bring this up because i'm an enormous nerd and you watch a company like elon musk testimony. elon musk cannot with this idea last year for what he called a hyperlink which is entirely new piece of transportation infrastructure in this country that would lower the time travel between san francisco and l.a. to about 30 minutes. it was a crazy science fiction i did when he threw it out there was nothing to me was how instantly people pooh-poohed it and said that will never work, candida in this country, we can't build anything this big our new. the politics would be too complicated. and the reaction to that idea what you think it's crazy or not

and it might be crazy, was fascinating to me because there seem to be this attitude in the united states that we just can't do the big new thing. this is the country that sort of invented the big new thing. tom, i wonder as you look at all of the infrastructure investment that is contemplated, to what extent has the united states lost its ability to do those really large, important things? >> welcome if you went out in the street and asked the american people who is the biggest manufacturer in the world, should let you do this, oh, china. china is the biggest. really? no, we are. who is the most efficient manufacture in the world with a few exceptions? we are. where people come to do the more manufacturing because of the cost of energy? we are. and there are all sorts of big, new things going on all the time. while we been fracking for 69 years, the ability to do

horizontal fracking and all that sort of stuff has made the cost of energy in the united states compared to europe which, by the way, is critical to the united states. europe is our single largest export market, a look at what we've done to drive the cost of energy here down to a quarter of what it is there. look at what we've done, and by the way, there's one bad thing, we've taken 45% of the jobs out of the manufacturing business. did we get rid of people? no. we substituted information technology in robotics and process engineering and supply chain management, and so now we are a country with some people as a result of that without jobs and where jobs without people because we need really skilled folks to do this. we are a sophisticated, most productive -- we are the most productive economy in the world, and a lot of our big ideas are going on right under our nose.

but i'd absolutely agree that people look at the united states and wonder now, ma can we do it or will we do it? that's a fundamental issue, and that problem isn't all about government or all about people around the world. it's all about our own citizens have gotten pretty comfortable, pretty, you know, don't like conflict, don't like risk, don't like to work too hard, you know, in some places. i think we need to stop and think and think with our children and our grandchildren, what are their futures about. >> jay, talked a bit about the energy side of this. i've read a rare bit of good as last week the united states will become one of if not the leading oil producing nation in the world in the coming decade. that's a conversation i just can't imagine us having 20 years ago when i first came to washington. it was very doom and gloom about

energy in this country and we are losing out to foreign competitors. now the energy picture is changing. how does that change the infrastructure peace and how does that change what you're going to to do in the coming year? >> so, five years ago i think we would have been hard-pressed to have the conversation that the united states could be the world leader when it comes to energy production. but back to your previous question, what we've been able to accomplish with natural gas, as some indicated, and fracking, is an example of those big ideas that the private sector has been producing in this country. and i happen to believe that americans, there is no limit to what americans are willing to try to achieve. but i do want to add one little because i think it does factor into our ability to maintain this edge over this leadership position on energy production.

and government, it is the government role. when we look at complacency, we look at conventional wisdom that america's best days, i should say conventional wisdom, but what some americans say america's best days are behind us. that is ridiculous. one of the reasons that's ridiculous is because at some point the american people are going to rebel against the government, that it is taxing to moscow regulating too much, that is saying that we can do things that we could do i in the past. added the energy is a perfect example of that. so what we been able to achieve on the energy front i think will allow us to maintain our economic leadership it but it's in that as well. are starting to see new roles come out on fracking, or an effort to centralize the

rulemaking process. the stage of doing a great job when it comes to maintaining public safety and health and ensuring that fracking is done in a responsible manner. we have politics at play when it comes to permitting lng exports, and we've got to get over that. we've got to move past that. and i think several people have indicated this is not just a problem that has occurred. it's competitiveness issue or the tax of the register this is not something in the last five years. for manufacturers we have been regulated to death over the last 30 years and has been ministrations a public and and democratic. congresses both republican and democrat. that's why you will hear everyone of us of it talk about the importance of regulatory reform would talk about competitiveness. the importance of regulatory reform when it comes to ensuring a 21st century infrastructure program, the energy is a key and it can lead the way, show us that path forward to break into

all these political barriers here in washington. >> i would just jump in on that and say that, we should really be also thinking, and we do, of our regulatory and capital cost system here as an infrastructure. because unfortunately we have allowed ourselves to be no competing globally with other competitors who don't want to compete on that. they want to commute on the high value products and services they provide. we are being hobbled by that, so an example is weird like about the energy at the potential to move from energy week for the first time to be energy strong which has huge geopolitical security implications right now with what's happening in russia and other parts of the world. but our product liability laws, for every study that's ever been done says that our product liability laws and, are a huge

hostile set of behaviors for innovation. and talk about where a lot of the next generation assets will be put. i believe and know from examples of companies that the u.s. council they will not be put to because of our products. one thing i wanted to say, jacob in reference to fracking and all that, again this gets back to the public-private partnership in a row for the government, the actual research and development that enables horizontal drilling and fracking really started some 30 years ago. this investment in the department of energy and the exciting thing about that is if you look to the next iteration of that, there is work underway in our national laboratory to actually develop new practice to move into this fracking area, that having to use as much water, i haven't used the mix of chemicals that give concern to the environmental us. also worked to make in budget manufacturing and energy, to begin to develop synthetic rare

earth material which left huge applications who -- implicatio implications. >> you wanted to jump in and tom, i know you wanted. and everyone start thinking of question. will go to q&a and get everybody involved. >> one last quick point about energy. in the cfo survey we did of over 100 cfos of foreign-based companies in the united states, energy ranked as one of the most positive reasons that these companies are investing here, manufacturing here, using the u.s. as an export platform. but what was interesting if we did some cross tabs and look at the energy companies themselves, they are the most pessimistic because they are worried about regulation. they are worried about sort of standardization and rules coming down the road that might interrupt their business plans that they no, they can be successful. so energy is one of our top competitive advantages but the

energy compass themselves within my membership are concerned about the future. >> tom, you had a point. >> i think it was absolutely appropriate as we talk about infrastructure to get around to energy. i just want to make one point about energy. there's only one absolutely predictable major crisis facing the united states that we all know is there and nobody wants to talk about. that's the ugly elephant in the room and there but it turns the back and pretend it's not there, and that is 10 years from now we'll be in a situation where the federal government over 10 years would have grown its budget from 3.8 trillion, the 6 trillion. 60 some% for endowment, 15%, plus or minus, for interest on the debt, and when you get all finished like 22% for the military and everything else

that our government does at home and abroad. >> infrastructure has to be in there. >> the number gets huge, and most of the money goes to do things. that's entitlement, medicare, medicaid, social security, military entitlements and so on. we were walking around for a long time, the reason we wouldn't look at the elephant, we did know what to do. people living longer and longer. by the way, i like that. people living longer and longer your with cost getting greater and greater, what are they going to do? we found some things we can do to help, but 10 years from now we will, if we do it right, if we don't let people stick their heads in the sand and pretend it's not something we have to deal with, we will develop the american energy system to the point where we can take a big bite of that entitlement. and if we don't, we are really

in trouble. >> i have to jump right in and see if you look at our economy that doesn't have productivity, they tend to be, well, they are in the education system and health care system and that tells you something right there, that we are not, having systems that have productivity growth and all that as well. on the solution to the entitlement, look around the world, a country like israel, very innovative in what they're doing, they just decided they're going to increase the age before people could get their social security. >> we are already doing that. >> but we are still working on 1930 model, but that would be me to have a huge impact if you could get a bipartisan agreement to increase that. >> i want to ask you all about congress and but this particular congress is capable of, if anything, the shooter i want to make sure we have a chance of

people to ask questions. i know we have some folks roaming the halls here with microphones. i actually get see all the folks over there, so if anybody is racing their hand, let me know if the questions in the back. i want to get everybody involved as well. talk a little bit about this congress. everyone seems to be more of us completely pessimistic about it. its ability to do anything, even the most passed bills issue because the total gridlock on capitol hill. listening to you all come you get the immediate sense this is a pressing problem, has to be dealt with, crucial for the future of the u.s. economy. what kind of faith do you all have that this congress can rise to the occasion and do something this year, given the gridlock and political best we've seen and given the fact that there's an election coming up? >> no problem. so actually it would be a perfect issue with the election coming up because the public overall supports modernizing our infrastructure.

so tom, i'm an optimist and a lot of people are sort of betting against congress taking any action this year, but the timing of the highway bill running out, for right now, and these are great issues that i think the public can get behind with strong leadership. >> deborah, what is your sense of this congress this year? is this a caucus can do stuff or is it is a congress that would just want to get home and camping and stay in their trenches? >> on that particular point i'm not as optimistic that they will do anything they. i think they will do some incremental things around the margin but i do think that we have a huge opportunity now to be setting the stage for the next election and things, and to make the case that ultimately, and tom alluded to this and i think jay did as well, what we're talking about our fundamental national city issues as well. you think about the homeland

security challenge. something -- we know this. our transportation, if we don't have water, if it's under cyber attack or whatever, we will have one week before people start dying without water. so i think also presenting this as much more -- is very, very critical but i'm not as optimistic on what this congress is going to do. but hope my colleagues are. >> tom, are you still optimistic? >> i am optimistic. so if you look at a period of time from now until the election, you are some things we either have to do or get set to do. everybody talks about lame duck deals. every now and then, like every three decades or something we will have one that really does a lot of stuff, but other than that it's a lot of mickey mouse. but i really believe that there are three or four things that either will get some done or will have a shot before we're finished. one is we will get the tax

extenders, don't you think, for the most part. how long therefore is hard to say. but we will get that because taking those way would be another huge tax increase on american industry, which would affect jobs. i do believe that we are absolutely crazy if we don't take advantage of having passed an immigration bill out of the senate. going back and doing it again might be harder, and do something rational in the house and put it together and let's get the three or four things we really need their, and we've got a lot of heat on that and we're going to put a lot more. and then -- >> do you think immigration is doable this year in an election-year? >> yes. >> really? >> yes. >> you are more optimistic than i am. >> if the republicans don't do it they shouldn't bother to run a candidate in 2016. i mean, think about that. think about who the voters are.

and i just did that to get everybody's attention last night. >> everybody should immediately tweet that by the way. that should get out there. spent the second issue is where our nation with people without jobs, and jobs that people. we need all these people that we are training in the universities. the best university in the world and we tell them to go home? when you didn't you send the worker to where -- the work to whether people are. the third reason we need to do this, and i'll have another fun thing, you know, the bottom level of work, people who are seasonal workers, people in agriculture, you talk about health care, i will tell you, something of this as i know something about. we get a big thing last week together, and that is the retired people in nursing homes and retirement homes and all of that. i've been giving a lot of speeches and a lot of speeches and say we will do what it is immigration thing, you're going

to go to the nursing home and pick up your mother-in-law and bring her home. >> right. because if you don't have the labor force that's out there working, generating -- then you don't have the ability to put -- >> just sit down for a minute, put a chalkboard up and say look, we have five or six things that are really a challenge. ..

a position and we know we are here to talk about infrastructure but i do think that immigration reform is give you an idea of what can be accomplished. i think it will get done this year actually a little bit different than in the lame-duck session. the final piece of legislation. >> i think that, too. >> that would be the fallback. >> and for manufacturers come immigration reform, like infrastructure and other issues come is an imperative. tom benjamin the workforce issue. issue. there are 600,000 jobs in manufacturing 600,000. this bill can go a long way towards helping us fill those positions but more importantly than that a pathway to citizenship is a sensual to manufacturers because we work

very hard to build communities. when you take the present law to its current natural conclusion, we would be ripping apart communities. we would be ripping apart the fabric of the nation. we are committed to getting other things unlike the extenders that was mentioned, but also we need to see movement forward on trade promotion authority, something every president since roosevelt has had it is essential to increase our economic footprint in the world. get the infrastructure coming at you have a very different issue. and the issue is if this thing goes belly up in july or august or even before the september expiration of the current build. now i used to work for a governor, george allen of virginia coming into that governor was pretty effective when it came to talking to members of congress about how infrastructure funding was impacting our ability in the states to do jobs. jobs. therjobs.

they were governors both republican and democrat pounding on the doors of congress and when the american people are saying you cannot hold up our state's ability to fix roads and build new roads to provide easy ways for us to get to work and back and by the way, we really do care because we work for a living. we really do care about getting the goods that we are producing to ever customers. the american people are going to send a very strong message and i never doubt the ability of governors to get things done and. >> i absolutely agree. >> let me open up questions because we have people that want to jump in. with a script to my left and then go to the right and loop back around. right here in the middle. go ahead. if you could give your name in organization. >> i am bob hirschi a web consultant. what can you get for an economic consensus and get the money together to get things done?

to make interesting question. can you use the internet and i would also throw in social media in terms of mobilizing political support for what you want to do. does that giv give an added tood how do you use task? >> social media is without a doubt a very powerful tool and i think that you can absolutely build up to see what's happened around the world, build up some nice political support for that we also need political leaders willing to take some risk and we need the ability to -- i raised the issue of public-private partnerships earlier because it's something the foreign-based companies are used to doing. getting more acceptance of death for the social media as well. often times politically that a foreign company is going to release and operate the toll road is used as the reason to

defeat the project itself. a spanish company is going to come in and do it, not sure where that spanish company will take the road. but in virginia -- >> they aren't going to move it home. [laughter] >> that we have seen the success of that before. everyone traveling on the hot lanes can thank the australian company for partnering with the commonwealth of virginia to do so. social media is the way to get people to understand it better but we also need the government willing to show leadership and not just look at what the polls are showing or what twitter is following. >> by the way, think about how fast those hot flames got a built in virginia. that works very well. >> and we have one of the microphones? >> patrick's table with the metropolitan policy program in brookings. historically about 27% of all infrastructure spending comes from the federal government so

states and localities are picking up most of the tab. what can the federal government do to support the innovations whether it is public-private partnerships or support the gas tax increase across the country -- what can state and local readers do in organizations do to help them touched the ball forward? >> look at a project. the federal government actually -- and if you take an individual project and put as much as 50% coming into the state and local communities can divide the other 50 -- but if you are the governor today and the mayors and others in the communities involved, you're going to be very nervous about putting your money up on projects that you're not sure the federal government is going to bring. they probably say we get paid sooner or later but in the meantime we will hold the bag. what are people doing? they are having their own meetings with governors and

local officials and saying we are going to hold up the road and fix the bridge next year. and it's already starting to happen. and when that happens, then people are laid off because -- or people are not hired. and i think people just have to understand that this is a partnership. not only the public-private partnership, but this is a partnership between the levels of government, and if one of those -- is one of the major players takes a block, something tells me that you're not going to be able to finish the information -- a equation. >> we also see a lot of gridlock at the local and state level for the infrastructure coming initiatives that would add value to the region at large, and i think of the example that we hear so much about.

the newport in charleston that has been a gridlock over the permitting of things and i don't know if this is an anecdote or true but if it's true it is shocking. it's taking longer to get the permits to do the digging of things, but it took to build the entire panel o panama canal. we block the highway system that enables us to go from coast to coast and the transportation. so i agree 100% with tom on the investment issue but also the permitting and regulation could get down and it's so bogged down that is something that is really dangerous when you look at the electric grid. that's a case where a country like brazil -- i use brazil again. they have a natural grid. and here again of course we don't coming and we saw the consequences of that with the

devastating storms. so i think that this is where the governors could step up and do big things that would impact the overall nation as well as their state and local issues as well. >> you wanted to jump in here? >> one of the things the states can do is continue to innovate. because let's assume we get a bill done before money runs out this summer. we are going to be using the old system, the old model. and whether we increase the gas tax or not, it's not a long-term sustainable solution to the problem. when you look at virginia whether you like what they did or you don't like what they did, they were willing to think outside the box and other states were doing the same thing. those ideas need to come into washington to be considered for whatever the next abilities that is accomplished. and i'm actually looking forward

to the leadership on this issue, and i know that there are a lot of other associations that would like to be a part of the dialogue for the future. we need to get over this hump right now, that we need to put everything on the table for the future years. >> a question over here in the back. >> hello, with the american shipping magazine covering the supply chain and trade. i want to see if i can wrap things into one question. >> now you're starting to be like a white house correspondent. [laughter] >> everyone talks about educating the congress about the need for infrastructure. more and more, it seems like most lawmakers get it, but you know, at the end of the day it's these other outside political factors that influence things. so, you know, whether it's a gas tax increase or other funding come at the end of the day how do you get beyond that to, you know, when you have a lot of movement for smaller government or no taxes, no tax increases

how do you get to some funding mechanism when the ideologies, you know, are set in stone? and then if states are -- some states are taking on more investment on their own. they don't want to wait necessarily for the federal government. some states are funding advancing money for the port deepening. so i guess the question of devolution to the state's -- is that a catch-22? if the states figure we can't wait, this is important to our economeconomy and they start ing -- and that's a good thing. on the other hand, are they sending the message to congress like they are going to do it, so we don't have to. >> a couple good issues in there. let's start with the ideology question. as you make your case on capitol hill, how do you deal with the rise of an anti-spending ideology on capitol hill?

and jay can give us some thoughts on that. >> it's all about education. it's all about educating the american people to register, to follow their votes with their members of congress, to vote and we certainly do that at the nam. we not only works educate or 12,000 members and millions of employees that work for them, but also the general public on these issues. i think we have an obligation as a business community as well as labor and others to let folks know what's at stake here. it gets very frustrating for the manufacturers to have this skepticism coming from certain quarters of congress about basic functioning of the united states government. and the way to overcome that is through elections. we have seen come and tom mentioned some of these primaries taking place where the more reasonable heads are prevailing. and i think that they are -- there is an awareness now i'm on

the american people that extremism isn't going to create solutions. there needs to be two sides working together to get the job done. we are going to continue to work on that and we are going to continue to register people to get them out to vote to work with other associations like the chamber and the 240 council and factoring associations to get the word out. >> the other interesting question was on the states and whether or not as the states pick up the slack in the federal government, what message is that sending in washington? anybody want to tackle that one? >> i think it's an encouraging message that the american system still works. and i believe that's the comments that were made before and the most powerful politicians in the system are millions of challenging cities into governors. we are going to see a lot more

of that overtime. that simply sends a message to the politicians in washington that if you want to stay as relevant as the want to be, you better work really hard on the part of the system that you have control over. the commerce clause is argued both ways all the time and i have a few depending what the issue is. >> this isn't the only issue that we will see action at the state and local level to teach lessons to washington. so it can be one among many. and i see that happening across the board. but if somebody mentioned that one of the characteristics the public is looking for for those that will vote in 2014 is public candidates work on the other side to get past this gridlock? but what is disappointing to me is when you go past that top line question in the poll, people want their candidate to work to get to their position,

not necessarily to work to just compromise. so this definitely is from the ground up, which is why we need leadership to go beyond a sort of what people are thinking as a knee-jerk reaction and talk about and show action to get consensus on important things like infrastructure. >> i know you have a couple thoughts at the states and the others we've been talking about today. where do you think the conversation goes from here? >> in addition to the governors and mayors, let's think of what some of the regional associations of governors are doing because increasingly, you know, you can't really talk about the states as much as economic regions and how they come together. and usually that is across party lines. just in terms of where we should go from here, obviously we have a great coalition that has come together here. we know that we have to move out in both of the educational and

as well as the duty to build a case by the infrastructure is at the heart of the nation's future competitiveness job creation innovation, and i think that again the opportunity is now, not later into the extent that we can begin to put together an action agenda in the nea near-t, medium-term and long-term things we could do would be very, very powerful and the national infrastructure i think is the first of many. >> terrific. we have reached the part of thif this where the producer would be screaming at the top in my ear so i will wrap it up here and say to the panel thank you very much for talking about this fascinating conversation into all oand toall of you thank your listening. [applause] >> alright ladies and gentlemen, we are going to take a 15 minute break so you can refill your coffee, water, juice, whatever you're doing. please keep an eye on the

monitors and we will call you back in 15 minutes to hear from a great panel on international competitiveness. >> the u.s. chamber of commerce conference on the economic impact of infrastructure is taking a break now. the next panel will address global infrastructure best practices and future a representative from the european union and the british embassy for transport policy. it should be in about 15 minutes. we will have live coverage on c-span2. leading the conference this morning the remarks from the head of the chamber of commerce, thomas donohue. here's what he had to say. >> thank you very much and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i am pleased to be here. i'm not sure how i feel. i got back from europe late yesterday. but i'm ready, willing and able because i'm absolutely committed to the subject that we are going

to discuss today and this evening and tomorrow and the next day and that we are going to advance in every way that we can to meet the challenges that we all face. thank you for your introduction but more important for your support of the chamber and more specifically, thank you for your support of what is going on in the infrastructure world. i would also like to welcome janet, the cohost of nam and the international investment and the council on competitiveness. the more people that you get in the room and behind the project, the better that we are going to be. and i appreciate working together with these folks. we've created a great program for today. it couldn't be more timely. and as early as august of the highway trust fund is going to

run short of money and i predict it will be sooner than that. states won't be guaranteed to get reimbursed on time for money they've already spent and we will probably slow down their own commitment. and by october, projects will be interrupted, halted or never launched in the first place because of the uncertainty over the funding. this will further weaken the recovery. i'm not talking about the roads and bridges and all that right now. i'm talking about the economic recovery that will contribute to the slow deterioration of the system. it will undermine our global competitiveness and demonstrates to the world that america can't even get the basic things done anymore. it will also cost us a lot of jobs. jobs. while we are trying to create jobs, this will be taking the most important types of jobs

away. several members of congress act in good good-faith claims put forth the long-term funding issue and we applaud them for their efforts and i know there is going to be more discussion in town this week on those attempts. in the highway trust fund as a stopgap measure where are you going to get the cash? it used to be there were ways to do it. i think it is a little tighter now than it was. it may be true that we can get an infusion, but it's hardly the long-term solution that we need if we want to maintain a world-class infrastructure system. this is like the movie groundhog day. every few days we wake up and we have the same conversation about the funding, the same fights over the gas tax and the same scramble for money.

the only problem in recent years we haven't been doing very well. you do know and i guess it is around 20 years since we increased the gas tax. don't get me wrong money is important. you can't make the -- if you don't have the cash, but don't for a minute think that's all we have to do to get the infrastructure issues working. if you look at everything that is being discussed in recent days and weeks around the environmental issues. many of those are somewhat in conflict not because they are wrong but what we are trying to do and spend our money. in fact, what everybody would agree to is that we need a comprehensive forward-looking program that meets the needs of a competitive 21st century that embraces innovative approaches and instills confidence and earns the support of the jaded

citizenry. whoever built that bridge didn't help us come it didn't go anywhere. but we certainly heard a lot about it. i would like to suggest a plan that can get us past the stale debates that we have engaged in for too long about the plan that would appeal to the american people and our elected officials because it focuses on the benefits of the 21st century infrastructure system that would emphasize transparency, accountability, technology and innovation. it would help drive their enthusiasm for increased public investment in infrastructure. the plan is built on five pillars. most plans in washington are built on five something. the first pillar is enhanced

transparency and accountability. put him in the lush, let's get the american people to be confident about what we are doing. americans will never buy into the long-term funding plan until they are confident tha confidenr hard earneof theirhard-earned do be spent wisely. for decades there have been stories of wasteful porkbarrel projects, bridges to nowhere and bringing home the proverbial boot. not all of those things are bad. i told janet today i understand why we take all of the efforts to bring home video or the bridge. but maybe if we would all get together and make a professional list of what had to be done, and after everything was funded and permitted, then they would let the members of the committee come in and in order of their singer of your good looks, they could take one of those projects and we would let them say that

it's theirs. but we have to let people to trust what we are going to do. there has to be a change. we need more transparency and accountability throughout the system especially to explain to people how the projects are selected, implemented and paid for. the public has the right to expect more business minded transportation and financial standards and infrastructure projects. all new construction and major upgrades should be the subject of a rigorous economic analysis that indicates the strong return on investment or the return of needs of the community must take care of. the public has the right to the strict performance management done in a timely fashion in a cost-effective way and often we

put so much bureaucracy between the idea and the conclusion we all forget what we started out to do in the first place. and the public has the right to expect and when the congress promises to spend the public's money on transportation, they keep that promise and they do not divert to some other project. implementing these reforms will not only improve the efficiency of our system, the deale but thr better benefits and keep the cost lower they will instill public confidence that we need to do this on a long-term basis. the second is to streamline the regulatory system. the public needs to know that once they commit the money they will be put to work quickly and efficiently for jobs, growth and opportunity. lawsuits, by the way the lawsuits are fine. not ones that go on for months and years and years. permitting delays and bureaucracy cannot only slow

projects and raise the cost and outright kill them, but they can discourage private-sector investment and prevent implementation of the cost savings innovation. it's almost necessary to build their upgrade transmission line and power plants and chemical facilities and any number of projects. after the permit is filed no one is in charge. there is no one timeline for approval. the parties have up to six years to sue after an agency makes its final decision. give me a break. so, from the outset, we are all looking at more than a decade to break the ground as well as along the way from the legal challenges. now we have seen exceptions yet we have seen them work. we saw that remember back to

that horrific earthquake in san francisco. what we did is we all got together like this country can and we made it work so what do we have now? we have the rapid act working through congress that would put someone in charge of the permit and ensure coordination among the agencies and put limits on their reviews and legal challenges. it would help speed up the development of projects so that we could actually start building and developing the country again and creating jobs and growth. efforts to streamline the process has been part of each of the last three major surface transportation acts. the change has been slow and additional efforts like streamlining the permit system are needed. the third pillar is the more strategic multimodal approach. we need a seamless national connected to system that links all of the physical assets and

all of the transportation modes together. we need intermodal connectors to link the railroads to the ports and highways and so on and so forth much of which can be done by the private sector is the public sector is involved to believe that it should in a timely basis. this is where many of the greatest bottlenecks and transportation of her on that last mile that connects one to another. the transportation infrastructure planning system operates in silos across the nation and around the town. multiple levels of government and industries that compete with one another. this lack of coordination raises the cost and generates inefficiencies which means the system remains fragmented and distributed. if we ought t are to maintain a world-class infrastructure system, then we need to break

down the silos and talke talk te another and to consider the big picture. i think we can all agree the federal government must take a role to ensure the infrastructure system contributes to a strong economy and national security and works in a seamless way. by folding responsibilities of the state which most of them don't want as some suggest connectivity and essentially moving american goods for economic growth and global competitiveness as a big price to pay. these ensurof these ensure state involved in raising their own money and are fixing their own infrastructure, but they know that we need a national system. the fourth pillar is integrating technology into the surface

transportation system. our lives revolve around gadgets these days. we expect to have information at our fingertips to make decisions on the fly to adapt to changing situations. and the american people are going to expect that the relationship with the infrastructure is no different. it's time to make sure that our concrete and steel had the traffic control system or water pipes and other infrastructure are smart. they will tell us when they are wearing out and then we can really worry about it. we create and think outside of the box and make the absolute most out of the resources that we have. there are some exceptions. one might look at the infrastructure system. the private-sector know-how is already alleviating congestion helping travelers plan ahead

unlocking the gridlock in airports and improving safety and infusing more technology in the infrastructure planning construction and maintenance has a potential to be a game changer for the infrastructure system in the 21st century. however, technology implemented across transportation modes and industries is uneven across the government and often much slower than the pace of technological evolution. the majority of the system does not incorporate these elements. it might not be cost effective to added three new bill and whistle at the businesses and government should focus their energies on deciding which technologies were in support of the land, how and who pays for them to revive been talking about all of that because i have been trying to warm up to the fifth pillar. this is what it is all about.

the fifth pillar is our business plan that is creating a predictable stable and growing funding mechanism to infrastructure. here is old news for you. the simple and straightforward way to fix the highway trust fund and buy some time to develop new funding systems is to raise the federal gasoline tax or the user fee. but if you want to use it, you have to pay for it. lieber is for it and the chamber is for it. most voters would be for this too. the san jose university researcher for about 58% of the public would support a gas tax

increase if they knew that it would be applied to building and maintaining roads, bridges and transit systems. pretty good. and we have watched the states three of each flavor the state tax would be raised with support of the citizen. voters want to know where the money is going and that is going to be used well and not wasted. that's how you get the votes. increasing the gas tax is going to require. last, as i said when those states did it, they thought the courage was there and now we have to get it here in the capital city. the sky didn't fall, the economies depend, pinned both republican and democratic presidents have improved modest gas tax increases and even ronald reagan telling people on the house side so it can be done increasing gas taxes it is tough

and doable and it's the one thing we can do in a short order. and by the way, we have to do the same thing forever in land waterways. they support raising the diesel tax so that there are walks and levees that can be placed and upgraded. if we are going to export the circle jerk that we are doing more and more of particularly on the agricultural side, we have to take care of that and as well as stop holding back the money already collected in the trust fund. let's keep in mind it is only part of the equation. we must increase private investment as well. private sectors have had to pump a quarter of a billion dollarsto $250 billion a quarter of a trillion dollars in public-private partnerships. if the certain barriers would be

removed and if we could demonstrate, we know how to pay back what we have required although the 33 states have passed legislation allowing the piii. having the dedicated offices that can facilitate the projects and help navigate the legal financial and technical complexities. governors and mayors need to embrace piii as a way of doing business. we need to seize every opportunity to tap every possible source of capital so that the difficult projects can get done and done quickly. the private activity bonds and state infrastructure banks. i listened to that on the go all the time. it is a highway trust fund.

today the best estimates put the total u.s. spending on the piii at about 9% of the global total by taking some common sense steps we can help drive that way up. but let me conclude because you have been very patient and listening to me. it is clear that the investments needs a new path forward on the transportation infrastructure. it's time that we all push very hard to contribute to the contemporary innovative infrastructure strategy, one that embraces the private sector and its resources and invites the infrastructure that we desperately need for the fresh ideas and concepts into drives economic prosperity. the successful plan would improve for the american people that our elected officials to both of them that infrastructure investment is a smart bet for

our people can our companies and our economy. the congress and the obama administration have their role to play. they need to own up to the responsibility of implementing a smart forward-looking transparent accountable infrastructure program with the necessary funding. but the private sector has a role to play in a very significant way as bob. well. today i'm pleased to announce that the chamber's incoming chairman of the board, who you will hear from at lunchtime will help us lead a national roundtable dialogue which will take place in five or six cities on each of the pillars that we discussed today. it might be more cities.

we will then transport it reports to the congress and everyone else that will listen with our principles and recommendations. some have accused me of being an optimist and i cannot help myself. i am irish for the most part. some people think -- while it is time to view this as an opportunity not only as a challenge. if we are smart we can set up the path that will ensure adequate funding for years to come. we can create jobs and we can spur economic growth and productivity cooperation among all levels of government and the private sector. we can ensure that money is spent wisely on projects with the greatest national benefit and we can build trust and confidence in the american

people and makes clear al make e benefits this investment would bring. the chambers committe chambers y colleague is supporting this effort and we are all looking forward to working with you to get it done. by the way if you go to every event this week and then just go home and don't do anything, nothing is going to happen. so somebody, all of us have to go home and explain to our representatives that we are so glad to have them. and we need the money. or we might not keep them. thank you very much. plus [applause] >> the chamber of commerce president tom donohue with the conference taking place here in washington, d.c.. we plan to bring you more in a moment. this is a live picture now from

the newseum and members are taking part of the global infrastructure best practices. the representative from the european union and the british and is the first secretary for transfer policy. it should get underway in just a second. live coverage on c-span2. >> it sounds like we are all ready to go. i know it is a gorgeous day out. the next time we do a conference maybe we will do an outdoor conference and to set up blankets and picnic tables and that would be lovely. it always happens. conference is on a really nice days. it's tough. thank you all again for coming back. and i'm very excited to moderate this panel this morning. as we sat down to talk about

what do you do at an infrastructure week kickoff event my colleague from the national association of manufacturers who had to put together that whole stack of reports said you know, we really ought to be asking some questions. people that have an understanding that the united states has a secure infrastructure and that we have to compete with countries starting from almost a blank slate like we heard this morning on the opening panel and we know that there are great practices going on globally in the strategy and planning and financing we think that we can learn from. for the most part we have countries coming here. i work on a state highway transportation officials for five years and there wasn't a week that went by that we didn't have a delegation from somewhere coming in and figuring out the united states best practices for

an infrastructure. but i think that there are things to be learned from all around the world and that is why i am so pleased to have this distinguished panel today. a brief introduction as you know everyone's full biographies are in your programs. immediately to my left, doctor antonio who is the minister and principal advisor for economic and financial affairs for the delegation of the european union to the united states. i am told you are the number three representatives from the eu to the united states. we very much appreciate you being here in hearing a little bit about the strategy and planning. to his left, judith ritchie is the secretary of the british embassy here in washington. judith has a long history and transport in the uk and even as i was googling you who have

written a bit of history on the british transport so we will have to define that one a little bit later. nigel is with belford baby investments, direct investments and operation management infrastructure. he's going to be able to talk about the public-private partnerships and other financing practices in the uk, canada, australia, the united states. and finally, on my far left, doctor ben lent. i said i wasn't going to try the first name. but if you want to give it to us -- okay. [laughter] >> it's not that hard. >> it's not. i should have asked earlier. president of the group that does define construction management and operations of industrial facilities. he has lived in the netherlands, canada, the united states and is familiar with practices but is also looking from a company perspective of how different

strategies for infrastructure investment ultimately affect the business decisions and operations and what's important is that we have an end-user perspective. so, before we get started, i would appreciate it if our team could queue up the video on the ten t program. ♪ >> one of the basic ideas in the european network is to connect the part of the european union of the western part of the european union. ♪

we have a diverse range with lack of production and trusts and reliable traffic in terms of stimulating the regional growth. >> if you want to be competitive and if you want to protect investments come if you want to have logistic operations, you have to have it. >> it's not only worse but it's also where the cohesion countries can finance the projects. it's a very high rate. >> if we can link the country's east and west, then this can only drive the competitiveness for everyone to the benefit of the citizens and