or we go to december 31 the end of the calendar year. i personally am in the end of the calendar year year camp but that takes us $11 billion and remove the uncertainty to the state. we get a more robust construction fee. i have been in a lot of discussions about this over the last few days and it's not clear where we are going. people have moved back and forth on both sides of the hill on about the turn of the should be. the administration opposed to short-term no money. for a while that went great in the senate and then they backed off. on the house side bill has proposed that we do the year and and then of course we have to find the $11 billion to get to year-end. that is a brief summary of where we are at or where we'd like to go and i would be happy to take questions for a couple of minutes. anybody?

are right good, i will leave. [laughter] anybody have a question? ..

>> >> of course, have to get funding somehow from the paul ryan ways and means committee but as a know from past experience with shuster

at the helm riding shotgun good things can happen. also for the record for the $10 billion he got back and he was secretary that is the great airport with $100 million for that one. but we want to move right along first average just like to get each member of the panel to be recognized. first of all, of the president and ceo and regina who was president and ceo of the society of america. and the congressman from utah the knowledge of his

house on a lot of good things including trade in then we have michael lewis president and ceo of the deputy secretary of transportation got a few things going but then allowed him a to ease out with the panel. but i think the timing is significant as a leadership in the senate with the infrastructure funding we need to do what is necessary

with though whole package with the people liked the highway bills with their resources with the aggressive advocate and amtrak and still feel very strongly about that. it is like supply-side economics if you want more growth you have to invest in it. if we compete in the global economy we have to improve our global infrastructure so we will commit to that we will get this done so when i got that call from president reagan from the secretary of transportation and we ought

to have the guts to do it again. so let's just part thank you for being here to set the parameters. >> thank you very much and good morning i like your idea about the whole package. but one item that is important with the very significant event with amtrak i just want to make sure all the folks that were affected hopefully we will of the speedy recovery that first responders who were on point immediately our deepest thanks to them and

the other thing that i observed as there is always the silver lining. in the united states people step up and you can see people helping each other trying to help them get out of the wreckage watching an interview talking about her experience she looked at her shoes. someone gave me their shoes. that's what we need to do so wanted to recognize that. but with the infrastructure because we celebrate what we do but in today's world but

to recognize long-term as administration was working pretty hard to get the country to look at the infrastructure investment we did unveil of steady that is the 30-year framework the topline to have 70 million more people over the next 30 years with an increase so if you add that and couple it together you think about what does that look like? not just the issues for to day but the demand of the future. over the past six years congress has funded our

programs through 32 extensions. in the private sector you do not run your business to a three months at a time and one could argue it was a 27 month extension in but that is not how you run a multibillion-dollar per year business and as somebody mentioned some states have pulled back for this construction in season about $2 million worth a picture mitt because they don't of the certainty their federal partner will be there. so the timing just is not good if we don't expand beyond may 31st at expiration is coming up in a

couple of weeks because of a the long term approach. the administration under president obama we call it the grow america act the investment plan for the country we have submitted it to congress that if you don't like our idea is we want to hear yours we are prepared to chat so i will wrap up my comments because we're short on time but at the federal level we want to be good for the end -- federal partners of what supports real and the frail and dash rail system not just today but into the future looking at any city and what has happened from

the economic impact the history is there. they give for inviting as. >> and thank you for your time i do remember with the highway bills and the legislator was hanging out in my office and almost got him a desk. [laughter] get in the house and the senate to meet with those leaders who work together we have not had enough of that but when you sit down and talk it is amazingly you can accomplish how about that congressman? you have found a way to get results? >> thank you senator is good

to be back where i joined this committee as the freshman. i do have the magic formula but i have some thoughts the way we can frame the issue and first of all, we all recognize the goal you have members of congress that understands the need for investment infrastructure security passed a significant hurdle of the issue at hand so we can agree where we want to be and challenge us how we get there is very difficult to come up with the long term solution that adequate cleveland's our infrastructure the ranking member did an excellent job to describe the last few years with the summary of the needs that we have.

how do we move forward from there? but in congress there is of certain understanding of the cost of uncertainty but the first year business scores learning that it is a cost the future always have a level of uncertainty but to put in another there on top of that with the short term extending is a cost for the country i would suggest they need an education on the importance of that cost of additional risk that hurt the country's economic foundation so we need to continue to emphasize that long-term certainty for those who make decisions but the title of this panel is competitiveness have

increased opportunities to enhance the rest of the world that is a great framework for this issue to reach members of congress is no secret it is characterized by the polarization that has fallen into the trap of the us person is the mentality but maybe we can shift that then is the rest of the world and thus is the united states of america to have greater emphasis to reach consensus because the fact of the matter is those who want substantive details but investment infrastructure is of a key factor they invest in far greater percentages of gp and even in the new

did digital world it turns out infrastructure still matters more because you have to be so much more efficient than it is the important part of the efficiencies so i am proud it is it in the context of competitiveness that is the framework congress should look at this issue for the long term transportation bill. >> we're going to be really good ways to find to get things done. >> we're all highway users reader like gridlock either so from the point of view of highway users for the

competitiveness is the great honor to be here and i worked here as a lowly stafford so it is an honor to be back here to talk about these issues. the organization around representing those around the country the motorcyclist gore the truckers' those the rely on logistics' like ups in basically the taxpayer of the for those who pay the gas tax law would they want to raise the gas tax? we paid our full share one into% of the interstates even enough for other things including public transit programs we want to be

responsible citizens to pay our way and the key thing is can you imagine what our country would be like if we didn't have a highway trust fund? often we justify this program on the basis of jobs and we are being short-sighted because of the really need to talk about the investment and roads for the united states. we have a network of only 40,000 of which is on the interstate system that carries 25 percent of the traffic in this country 40 percent of the traffic on 3% of the road so the project that benefits every citizen to invest in a core system is a no-brainer.

we have to get past the idea simply cutting always is everything we need to do so i am here on behalf of road users we need to invest a user fees and receive the benefits far greater than the cost we raised over $200 billion but we lose that one-third of which could be prevented and reached over $200 million in traffic congestion that could be adjusted through technological investments. the cost-benefit ratio is as much as $42 in benefits for congestion improvements is

$6 for every $1 reinvest we draw from number one thru number 26 we're just so afraid to say we have to pay more that we let our country go to hell. so on behalf of users the retailers and restaurants those that have trucks all over the roads every single one and are hurt when they cannot get their product or services to people and they need to engage it is maybe number six source seven but that is an important way to reach out so i appreciate the opportunity to be a part of that. >> how can we have intelligence? >> with all those wonderful

companies doing development across this country frankly we have to start with where we are unfortunate to work in the trucking industry and telecommunications l.i. unfortunate and throughout to be associated with the transportation initiative looking where you want to take the country we have to have good roads and a good infrastructure and also think where we will be in the future of america has been extraordinary that we developed the intellectual capacity around technology that is worth the affiliate's to around the world because it is an international issue and while we are struggling not

just this week but as the world economy with the world investment i sat as a young child to watch as my father came up here year after year as chairman of the arkansas highway commission tear talk about look 20 years out or 30 years out yes famous deal with the issues but let's also have some foresight. soties use it to your in this room special these secretaries later should we tell them how long we have been friends? [laughter]

but looking for word out can reuse technology is the nation's largest organization with research and development in deployment and it is about 1200 public-private partnerships research and academia to say what are the issues now? were the issues for the future that we can use technology to a dance? little people i was coming here they said intelligent transportation? but it is about information and controlled technology to provide accurate and real-time information that

will help us to make sure we go from talking about surviving incidents to prepare incidents here to say it is an ancillary a discussion that is the year the congress put out $86 billion but don't just look at what you have but with the intelligent transportation in society in america to use those resources so i know there are a lot of things people want to say but i want 2.0 that this is just future oriented space to think the department of transportation because of the safety pilot 3,000 of these vehicles are already out on the road and

working with the dot they can push that out into other states. >> i have to tell a story but there is a lot of gadgets. but i had the hardest difficulty to adjust to it is heart stopping before i put on the break i am not sure i like that at first bayou get used to it. it is significant for safety and also before i colony michael i was for all sorts of transportation systems we didn't have a lot of those in mississippi i had the conference meeting and we

were trying to kill that mass-transit pilot hillary clinton. [laughter] was nine the committee and the conference so she was representing york and came out with the arguments and the statistics to not get out of the park that we are going to have to do this and read it that is a part of the whole package. >> thank you senator i am thankful for the opening story to help me to rally for public transportation. it is of privilege to be here to talk about global competitiveness in the role that transportation plays in the space. 2415 years ago cities or towns in america they are

very international is cities big and small but think back the transportation and choices were very by neary but today the subway or commuter train their using their phones to change how we move about our cities or how business come to our communities and special the international but say how can i get my people to work in is a thin dependable way? how can i be sure they will get out into the roadways but the reality is we have to find the efficient way to use the resources for

another 100 million people how will we make them work well together that is our works as a system of free kaput people long public transportation we can free of power and roadways to route our cities to do any more efficient and effective way we serve better moving those as depopulate those downtown at both ends of the spectrum to say i want to move downtown so if you look at these things last year we set a record of public transportation writer ship

10.8 billion trips the highest number since 1958 when the system was first signed into law. tremendous growth let's not forget there is a $0.43 drop in gas prices and a transit rider ship went up it is happening in cities big and small with those under the 100,000 population the majority of the funding comes from the federal government when 80 percent comes from capital purchases the role of government is to provide capital for the shelters and in the buildings the government doesn't build those things

they find them. but it flows through to the private sector to create jobs across this country in places like nebraska and north dakota and alabama to build trains and buses to make a huge impact on our economy ended is creating a sense of place and urgency to build new communities but transfer is the driver for new development as ec investment along these corridors there are local transit tax initiatives 49 of those past 69% passage rate 71% of initiatives are

passed the local share is there but it is a nationwide system that has to work together with the passengers paying their fair am of share. heart is not just the evidence packinghouse as we talk about the $86 billion backlog to keep the trains and buses running independently and on time so it must invest in a state of good repair so to stand up for transportation and day it is a great story national day of local advocacy 350 organizations around the country came from 150 vince more than 10 percent of congress they told those

infrastructure story aviation transit and roads and highway all came together so it is critical congress look at the multi-year well funded surface transportation bill at $100 billion for the next six years a program that has then stagnant since 2009 over $10 billion growing and by 2021 to make those investments into infrastructure it pays off whether trade control or the return on investment the 50,000 jobs created or maintained we have to look it infrastructure for this country the time is now the need is real the numbers show it good enough is not good enough to remain

competitive in this world. >> but i will say after that mass transit bill you have to become a a lawyer for the mississippi gulf coast but the buses made it possible to get to work. >> but this is about competitiveness with the senior fellow. >> there is a lot of pressures in our lives but i am very grateful to represent the membership today's ceos from labor unions and universities around this country to join that diverse coalition ready for structure week with

investment in america's infrastructure that is absolutely critical to our competitiveness. we although the statistics. many of you wrote them with the original research the american society of civil engineers with the investment gap into the trillions with the benefits at 3.1 trillion of gdp from fully close in infrastructure investment gap but they could get lost in all the zeros with the millions and the chileans the real cost can be far away but that is measured

were in delays from mass transit it is time away from your family and delays to invest to take advantage of opportunities for growth if you cannot predict where the economy will go with transportation or construction and you don't know of those federal dollars will be there to match or if you think about big businesses and not only make goods and services here but to export of the predictability and the capacity with manufacturing growth and manufacturing that they're willing to except goods today if it is

costing in the aggregate in terms of loss of competitiveness sometime in the future but that is the inability to create jobs today are to plan for the future and ultimately the loss of investment in your much more ready for the future. the tragedy is it doesn't have to be that way we can make the decision today to make those investments in infrastructure to keep our people moving. >> we will take just a of a question or to but that would give a hard question to the congressmen first. are they going to get this done this year?

>> i wish i could tell you they would do long term but i think it is the short term through december 31. >> then will paul ryan and schuster and others find a way to get a bill done? to get the major infrastructure or highway bills done it takes a while to get the courage to get it done. we have talked about that. we need to do with this year although i must confess they like to hold highway bills tuesday election year it would be smart politics to do with in the first quarter can we find a way to make this happen in? >> those individuals the leaders of the various

committees. >> if they can come together as they have in the past and anything is possible but you have to have the money. figure it out. any questions from anybody? i think we're close to being on time. thank you for being here roger. now bring up the next panel. [applause] >> they would just warmus up. now we will keep things going. to have communication from chairman schuster is in baltimore. we got a notice from this morning we will stay in touch the secretary mendez

who pays respect to those who lost their lives, said bin, at present and injured, more than 200. it is a significant incident. with the chairman to be there to take care of business. but then to bring on the next panel. thank you to all of you who are here and have another panel and hopefully informative end for the panelist. i served in this room for a very long time and the chairman of the committee sits there trying to set up

by the cameras but they didn't want to go along with that. with the panel about the difficulty to fund the transportation bill with that increase of 4.$0.3 and the agony that we went through to pass the $0.10 tax has it was going down in 1993 was 4.$0.3 tax -- gas tax you did not notice very much and i cannot tell you from a political standpoint

i will put my name to increase the tax everybody will see it everyday every event that they go to. i want to bring up the panel of what is happening right now. a lot of them are not being done but a lot of them a lot of projects that out there in the hour private sector make a big difference in the infrastructure to take the privilege of just being the moderator of the csx and right outside the radian building that now has all the permits this city the district the federal

government to redos the virginia avenue tunnel. is an old under the democratic club to bring real traffic called away from the south to the northeast you cannot put double stacked containers because the container is too low. it is a huge bottleneck. is the to do a double tracked the at the same time were the both of them that would eliminate the bottleneck.

with a 2.3 billion dollars of infrastructure and the reintroduce jennifer who is the group general manager so go ahead and make your comments to summarize and we will have questions. >> is such a of pleasure to be here to create the opportunity of a support forum. floor background with the

international infrastructure base in northern australia but we operate networks of toll roads to improve the ability and address congestion in major populated cities including here in the washington area with the express lanes that run through northern virginia but to put it public-private partnership to work to support those economic outcomes to focus on the opportunity and look at specific projects i want to do some with busting about sustainable funding for transportation and to widthwise public-private partnerships talk in a the

revenue alternative for transportation and with these partnerships that is not the case and all this i a i estimates there is $250 billion of private capital out there we could put to work to improve infrastructure in this country but the only way to tap into that is if we have stable funding to put both resources to work to drive transportation and and and outcome. looking at specific projects bringing the best of the public sector together is worth it to licking in

individual projects here in northern virginia on the other side them the river to see the outcomes from the partnership we have constructed a 45-mile network that to provide the option for more reliable in the congested virginia region they carry much for your business and you're here today because you took the express lane as some are probably sitting on i-95 at the moment but let's get those economic outcomes this is $3 billion worth of transportation improvement in the economic outcome

treated $5 billion of economic opportunity in the virginia market including $800 million of contacts if you look at a year like 2010 will express lane project for that one year they really hit the needle with the economic outcome virginia has to have credit because by using that public-private partnership they can give it a return of 110 times their investment to leverage private capital at 110 times return looking at capital cost that are provided through those projections to economic outcomes if you look at the network to what they provide

the great story for '95 is open to travelers since 2012 -- 201295 is open for months it will show of the improved ability in the region and look march 2015 the 95 expressway the customers have an average of 20 or 30 minute saved her trap especially on thursdays and fridays saving and as much as two hours per trip to get them to work on time we have 610 bus trips every day so by looking at those solutions we can use those savings for bus travel and

on i-95 30 percent of traffic is carpool since we opened that three out of five using even more often because of that reliability for up -- of the project across the spectrum of travelers toll paying customers to reap the benefits now with the cat travelers who choose not to pay a toll to save between five and 30 minutes per trip because of the safety and mobility improvements so again it takes a lot of courage to try something bold and different view can deliver significant outcomes

that drives our economy but unless policy makers make other bold decisions to put long-term funding in place to help drive mobility here in the u.s. >> the next panel is the director of the transportation enterprises we are glad you're here and look forward to your comments. >> i.m. here today representing the of viewpoint of the state transportation provider i have been the director for five years within the colorado department of transportation which

provides mobility read the fourth in the metro denver area while colorado is not one of the top 10 states has doubled in size from that $8 million level we are projected to grow another 45 million in the next 20 years with important research centers that is critical not only to the state of colorado but the region itself has not increased its gas tax for 20 years we are facing a

horrendous financial crisis in terms of providing not only basic maintenance but the critical mobility needs in the metro area five years ago i participated in the creation of a peace of legislation that address day critical bridge and with much controversy we could enact the license plate fee which was earmarked for the repair of bridges in the state and we made some headway but to redress long-term needs retry to enact a pilot program on the user based feed and that

lasted about 10 days in the legislature before it was dumped out of the bill but the third part was the creation of the enterprise that i now direct of finance relief innovative finance was code word for public-private friendships a concept brand new in our state and still is in many parts of the country. as jennifer described some critical elements that our difficult to explain there isn't a funding source but a financing source we pay for the money provided by the private sector sometimes

more dearly than others but five years into the process we are about to open in the first major project a 22-mile stretch between downtown denver it is a managed main project also a transit project we will compete with the automobiles with the rand bid transit service in three or able to find companies willing to participate even in this case to take the revenue risk that will exist in that

corridor. in colorado between three and $5 million of transportation needs just to deal with the mobility of the issue in the metro area for:billion dollar project in procurement now and we are looking forward to a successful results from that we have problems on the interstate intersecting denver north and south and east and west and we have known arabia how we will pay for those projects with the corridor between denver in the recreational areas which

are central to the economy and the state we #doubt cash reserves used for capital projects and counting on future federal revenues to finish those projects and we are at the bottom of the barrel then i say with a sense of urgency my job becomes even more critical because we have to look for ways to leverage what we can project from user fees. and i appreciate being a part of this and help the

are collectively able to deliver the message because time is critical and look forward to being part of the solution. >> i will go a little at of order to a former member of congress to give his perspective from the project area the does something to do sotho us about what is happening. >> have to take up personal privilege to go ahead and get the fast lane on 95 we would like to see that happen and your toll road is

great it is such a great alternative but i was a line of the appropriations committee in the biggest infrastructure project is the deepening of the savannah river we have been waiting 13 years to $2 million to give for federal agencies to sign off from the epa and fish and wildlife. along with sad -- that we had stakeholders in those who had an opinion of 300,000 jobs in the state of georgia that are involved almost directly with 15,000 businesses and of those that export in the state or

import, a 70 percent have less than 500 employees so there is the thought but that is not the case at all but we had to jump through what we could imagine and in 1733 we were playing in the mind nearly 200 years down there it is not a new concept but the global part is during that period of time china build of port from start to finish but if we're going to compete in the marketplace internationally we cannot have such a slow and tedious

and an uncertain permit process. the state of georgia was ready with skin and the game it with 250 million over 650 million with the states are always ready and that is important. the point is to dig deep enough to focus on the panama canal but fortunately for us in savannah and they were delayed so that helped us but it is part of the world trade but the second part now is railroads access , crossings, to make sure there are not delays then for the truck cleans we have to get back to

traditional surface transportation issues that is what we are working on at the state level it just passed the transportation bill the congressman and talked about what virginia had done. george is the reds to a republican governor and house and senate the state legislature increased the hotel and motel tax $5 a night but there had to be some funding mechanism for go beyond the act having served in congress from a legislator standpoint you need to have leadership that we really don't have gone a complete level. from the white house to the courthouse. . .

they have got to have 218 votes and unless we are

working on the entire congress then it is not going to happen. so that would be kind of my report. i appreciate. >> i appreciate. >> thank you very much. a quick question because i no you have so many. since the congress eliminated earmarks on special projects projects that are essential to being authorized and approved come back to allowing those type of endeavors? >> i think that what happened with the earmark debate is it got out of hand numerically and they got out of and in substance, board it really is traditionally when shuster held the gavel they would use of the individual members of the house. already heard from mayors

and county commissioners and governors and state legislators so you had an idea. it adds up to about $125 million. the state was ready to go for it. well, your not going to get that. that is that. that is where i think a lot of the leadership came from because suddenly that county commissioner, the city council everyone had by an. right right now it is sort of an academic thing. it gets fuzzy. not sure who actually make the decision. all that money might go to ohio. i might go elsewhere. that is where legislature cares about. about. there needs to be a way to address member priorities as a way of growing the vote. >> chairman.

a six lane highway. thank you very much. i no that you have something else you have to get to. i would like to welcome our next presenter. let's do mike. >> i am going to cede my see my time. >> we only get to do it once. >> chris guthridge's project director on infrastructure development, and we are delighted to have you here. >> thank you very much, sir. ready to introduce a swedish company 127 years of pedigree, one of pedigree one of the world's largest development of tractor companies, a champion for sustainable infrastructure

the way the company looks at its opportunities. it has 10,000 employees in the us and the us is our number one growth market. we are just completing a five-year business plan cycle but within the infrastructure development side we think in ten years ahead. this is a hugely competitive market lots and lots of international companies are all vying to get the next opportunity. you know we are here to and what the opportunity to invest in america's continued growth but that also includes workforce development, minority supply chain because in reality we cannot grow the way that we want to unless we can

actually create, you know the these centers of excellence. what we need are reliable programmers and projects on the federal, state and local levels. we want an opportunity to show the value can be created by using innovative procurement and financing means. we want fairness and transparency. you know, don't blame public-private partnerships for shortfalls in permitting and acquisition procedures. we want decisiveness. once you set a path you know, you need to stick to it. last but not least, this is all about execution. and just to show a personal side to it when i was a project director for the tunnel, when we won the bid for this 2 billion project

a really large construction worker came up to me and gave me a big hug and said thank you for assuring my job for the next five years. and that is the reality, the impact on families and you know, there are reliable project streams come and just quickly to talk about the midtown tunnel with which i was very proudly associated this is a huge technical undertaking. this is this is a public-private partnership that cannot be done without one side of the other. 5,100-foot immersed concrete tube tunnel. eleven segments. fabricated in sparrows. baltimore the segments floated down to the

elizabeth river. then laid in 100 feet of water with a 1 inch tolerance. the engineering that you get with these megaprojects. and we cannot do projects like this without things like you know, federal land to a particular a very key part of the financing for this project. project. what we see as critical success tactics, firstly joint stakeholder management, and we learned a lot of that as stakeholders and representative talking about getting the whole house on the side but this is much more than that. this is about getting all the political spectrum in the taxpayers and the users of these assets going

through an educated process. i would like to applaud what colorado has done in terms of the approach to get public outreach. utterly critical. if if you do not have a project champion, that is a real issue. but many of these projects were just founder. last but not least, to make the., dv you know, business enterprises i mentioned this earlier, but just for the midtown project alone we had some 28 dvds and 124 vendors already on board. a very a very key area of these projects, not just creating and constructing, bringing up the community around it. >> thank you for that perspective.

next he would like doctor holloman mcgee who served with the sec. and the department of transportation and is now at howard university, professor there. share some thoughts. >> thank you. happy to be here. i wish to congratulate the recognition of transportation infrastructure. it is so very important. transportation, and my eyes and many others is economic choices about moving people ideas command things more importantly i am a mathematician, engineer, and scientists, chemical engineer as a matter of fact risk, uncertainty, and growth.

i learned that from a great economic teacher an absentee teacher at the university of chicago, chicago, great book on the project -- subject. risk is about what you know and uncertainty is what we don't know. innovation enterprise and growth is about jobs. and more importantly how we remain competitive in the united states and the world. and when you are looking at growth you have to think about how you invest in technology and how you employ it control is about taking advanced technology developed 45 years ago and implementing it today are basically running a 19th century railroad system in northeast. 50 percent of the train control has been implement

it between new york and boston but only 5 percent between new york and washington dc and through the philadelphia corridor. without that deployment of technology lives are lost. so, often times what i do is look at the public understanding of science technology. often times that is what science and technology and transportation is about, understanding transportation there are seven grand technologies. trying to develop. one is information technology incurred from the folks at it s really saying we are trying to provide information. the other technology is looking at how health issues

coupled with transportation, we want a healthy transportation enterprise but healthy people engaging in how the transportation. then there is advanced wireless communication. transportation is always about mega- scale engineering. big, large projects. transportation is also getting smaller. we we are actually doing virtual transportation more often than physical transportation. and we have wireless communication we're moving people and ideas and things virtually telecommuting, virtual offices, that is transportation that involves wireless communication. microtechnology is about competing transportation, choices and decisions involved in transportation. researchers are now looking much further, 50 years out where things get very small and often times what i was sharing with secretary slater's advisor is, we will

be looking at molecular computing, 750 times faster than the highest performing computer we have now. why do we need that? we are trying to figure out the traffic patterns of the northeast corridor for daily flights as well as rail systems. the rail is costing our economy $100 million per day do we want to advance in these advanced technologies or lose a hundred million dollars a day and get into the business derailing trains off-track. looking at advances in brain research, and research, and this is so important in transportation dealing with the human factors which is really what it is about but when we look at air travel southeast asia is expected to be the largest growth in air travel by 2050.

but we have close to or well orwell over 1100 people who have died in airplane crashes in the last year since march 82014 which was the inception of 370. still trying to find the aircraft and also in other parts of the region, of the world, impacted by airlines are we had to look at the psychological practice of involving what we called a cockpit post september 11. should we bring the navigator back? that way we can make sure that when we lock that door we have strong human factors and issues looking at psychological factors of pilot and personnel inside the aircraft cockpit. finally, we need to look at technology. in the western society as we get to an

older society, how to engage with moving people and things, the mobility issues? finally, i would like to tap into what we are looking at. it really involves not only developing advances in transportation of technologies which involves investment but more importantly workforce development gauge a knew supply of scientists and engineers to understand these advances in technology engage in more importantly as we look at engaging in transportation which will involve training many, many scientists and engineers only in america but across the world, particularly the southeast asia region, for flying we have to look at pilot shortages. how do we train as pilots for advances in technology for an aircraft with a glass cockpit and how do we look at those technologies that are developed in the western

side of the world and engage with the eastern side of the world when you are basically trying to fly an aircraft? imagine if you are flying in aircraft made in china command it was largely in a society in chinese and you are english trying to fly the aircraft. it would be very difficult to get an entity involved. that is what we are talking about. in closing i agree. i think the infrastructure transportation is important. how risky are we taking a risk and how certain are we? how do we grow the transportation enterprise for 2050 and beyond? people, ideas, things, both virtually and physical. >> thank you for those thoughts and insights. our final presenter the

head and president and ceo of a project right here. the union station redevelopment corporation here to tell us what they are doing and what they have done. >> thank done. >> thank you, and i want to thank you for the privilege of being here today. i say i have one of the best jobs in the world, the privilege of working on washington union station and preparing it for the 2nd century project. a little bit of history i am sure you're familiar, but it was in about 1901 thanks to the leadership of the senate they saw the need to revitalize washington dc. in the early 1980s it had fallen into major disrepair. again fortunately the us rc was established as a a

public-private partnership with the goal of reinvigorating and rebuilding the station is a multimodal transportation center i would revitalize the neighborhood neighborhood, and i think that we can see it achieve those goals. it is now time to yell into the next century and once again rebuild and build a new transit oriented development and link the eastern side of the city and the neighborhoods of capitol hill, noma, and downtown. two years ago amtrak announced its vision plan for 2012, and there are a number of partners involved in that plan a nonprofit as well as to developers. to briefly give you a vision for that plan we entail preserving the historic buildings but completely rebuilding all of the infrastructure behind the

facility new rail new railyard, catenary, much of that infrastructure is 100 years old and not working well and certainly not what the northeast corridor needs in order to address the issues and provide for long-term transportation for the next 100 years. redevelopment redevelopment is critical to amtrak and serving the northeast corridor. washington union station is the busiest metro station in the system. even though it is not a transfer station and only serves one line. there are plans to expand services. we also have an active bus station there now serving over 37 million people a year in washington union station. to give you some comparison i like to call it our 4th airport. airport. it is a busy place, and i am sure you are familiar.

it is a great place to be but we need to take it to the next evolution. that is what we have been working on command we are deep into the planning phase. phase. we hope next year amtrak begins construction in the current concourse under the full buildout which will take us conservatively speaking 20 years. the plan would be to do the inside of the station in the 1st phase. amtrak would completely rebuild the east side of the railyard and a private developer will literally build development with homes, offices hotels overtop that we would build the west side and the developers with incomplete. we're not only creating a knew transportation system but a knew neighborhood. it is really an exciting project. obviously it will take a long time and we need a stable 1st -- insert of funding and certainty.

we have proceeded into the planning and design and literally the way we have been able to because our partners consist of private developers in amtrak public-private and nonprofit. we literally sit down and look at what we want to do and need to do to keep the project on schedule and invariably at least one partner does not know if they will have the money to put up to fund the project. fortunately one of the other partners at the table has been able to say we will front you money this year so that we can keep the project going. obviously that works when we are talking about tens of millions of dollars but no one has the deep pockets when we get into design and are talking about tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. within the within the next couple of years we will be at a place where we need to know certainty of funding

and stable funding. we want this and plan for it to be a significant public-private a significant public-private partnership. we will have a number of options, but we cannot ask the private sector to step up and be there if we cannot make commitment of public funding. they absolutely need certainty. we also cannot embark on this project and start to build a railyard and start building it halfway through were start to build the development of the concourses from the private sector and stop halfway through. we have a great example of why we need flexibility of funding, options for the public and private sector to work together to finance projects as well as stability for funding. i am confident we have the leadership in 19 01 and 1981, the vision and creativity to make sure it

was one of the most iconic multimodal transportation centers in the world but we must step up with funding sources my creativity, and flexibility. >> thank you for that update i think the panelists. let me open it up to questions. speak up. i am old and death. -- i am old and death. >> technology deficit. >> medical formula. >> speak up. we can hear you. >> i am curious. how much of the project is expected to be public funding, how much will it come from sure or the

private side? >> we just started the master development plan. grimshaw and bbb and starting the need the process. they are hoping within the next year to 18 months but we have multiple potential sources of funding. currently as a nonprofit. as i said we have the best company. we will have multiple areas that we can monetize but the reason that flexibility will be so critical is to bring these different kinds of sources together and be able to do a financing package. that is what we are working on now. one of one of the critical pieces is knowing how much we can expect for the public part. >> the question. it seems we always hear how other countries passenger rail transportation like china, japan, european models are averaging 150 miles per hour.

we do not see that in the united states. what are we doing differently or what are they doing differently that we might learn from? any thoughts from anyone? why they are doing it differently, and is it more successful than here in this country? >> i used to commute from oxford into the city of london everyday using the great western line. for those who know their history, they were designed and built. the the whole.is, you know this is back in the 19th century. literally to give you a smooth ride as you can take. you run the high-speed

trains up-and-down. this is technology which was in existence in the 19th century. there is no reason why -- i mean, it is a lot of investment, but there is no question that you can create >> investment from the government sources as opposed to the private sector, combination, what? >> private investment in railway. >> i take it i take it the private passenger rail system pays for itself with ridership? >> you hope. >> sorry? >> you hope. if we were looking at public-private partnerships for improving rail systems particularly actually on the heavy transit or light rail in particular the reality is these projects to not pay

for themselves from the actual fair. and the risk of revenue still sits with the public sector but you can achieve an enormous amount with both a partnership of public and private. >> obviously one of the problems is amtrak does not come close to paying for itself. do you have any comments on how we are doing? i mean,, a private company but how are we doing as far as the funding operations? >> from our perspective these projects partnerships are successful when you can align commercial objectives of policy objectives. it is it is a difficult thing to do and is not suited for every project but the case of nine 7495,

we have the alignment where policy outcome perspective you heard me talk about time savings, increased transit jobs, economic outcomes from a commercial perspective we are pleased that 495 has come out of the box and a solid position so that we can get a return for our shareholders as well. that is what we need for the us. chris can speak to this as well. we need more examples in the us of projects that have alignment and have been successful delivering outcomes. those kind of case studies will give, i hope, policymakers encouragement to try these kinds of public-private partnerships and to be able to move projects forward like we have seen in other markets around the world. >> questions from the

audience? >> one more. >> it has been in the news because of the recent derailment. had you had positive train control it would have been able to stop before the accident. how are other countries doing? i i mean, do they have it in place? do you no? are we the ones lagging behind? >> sure. positive train control is 45 -year-old technology. we are dealing with trying to turn a train at 50 miles per hour slower than the cars on i-95. a turn that was designed for freight system. we have to separate freight from commercial. commercial is largely a straight line and when you look it really challenges

the united states. are we ready to do mega- scale engineering development? in a funding model like in mac 21 that has 27 increments? ..

were basically we don't have a handle on flying anymore. at a hundred million dollars a day in cost we can't build this were tired of the pain. more importantly on a serious matter, i think our

transportation enterprises in trouble whether we lost seven lives or whether we've lost a hundred lives. that's the most in a decade. i'm always mindful about that about safety. at the same time we put advances in technology we have a safer transportation enterprise. safety is our northstar in transportation. as engineers and scientists develop these technologies we have to implement them so we can become more safer enterprise and move forward. every every morning we have a choice and we have to make a choice on transportation. that engages us every day. it's one of the most discretionary areas in the

budget. that's when we say look what i brought home to you. a new train, a new curve in the highway, another lane in the highway. when was the last big transportation project we've done in this country? i think we can remember the big project in boston but that's about it. when we do this it engages the public hope in the transportation system. >> it is tied up in traffic in boston. i will think this panel very much for this presentation and for our audience. let me bring up secretary slater

to come up and close the program. >> senator we would like to thank you for the great job you did moderating the panel. let's give a great round of a prop laws. just a couple of points to close out. you should know coming into this room we asked the ranking member and the chairman if we could sit here. there elevated could you imagine sitting up there? could you imagine? no you could not. you need to sit here. we've enjoyed the experience. let me also say that clearly we've learned things i did not know.

i did not know we have as many passengers moving through union station, 37 million, and more than the number of passengers moving through the largest airport regions. that's fascinating, i did not know that. clearly this is helping us really appreciate the importance of science math and technology as it relates to transportation. i hope we can enjoy our conversations. chris thank you for letting us know this is a ripe market. i don't think we always knew that or believed that. thank you for saying that. when i look at you and when i look at jen, i think about congressman did you see what he did, did, he took care of some personal business. he said take care of item 395 and then he said to mike, my mother really appreciate that.

so he took care of some personal business and we acknowledge that too. hopefully all of you have taken care of a little personal business as well. clearly we have the movers and shakers who can get things done. let me close with this, regina harper mentioned and if i may as a point of personal privilege, i'd like to mention him as well, bobby hopper. as you know president clinton served as governor for him number of years and had a chance to appoint bobby hopper to the highway commission twice. these are ten year terms, so he's served 20 years as a member of the transportation.

when i came on he was the chairman. chairman. one piece of advice that i got from one of the members was, do you want to be a part of this commission? i said i'd love to and he said all you have to remember is to count to three. that was interesting, i said what do you mean? >> he said there were five numbers on this board. once once you are appointed by the governor you can basically do whatever you want and all the money runs through this commission so if you can get to other members to go along with you then you can practically do what you want to do. it's illegal and we've got the money. when i had a conversation with bobby harper and he said i represent the richest part of the state. he said you are from the delta.

that is the most economically challenged part of our state. he said, i think we should follow the advice and that is -- that's a lesson in power. i really think that's what the senator is talking about as they been leading these panels. they been saying let's go to all of the members not just those on the committee but to all. let's go to republicans and republicans. let's have members of the public sector go to the private sector and vice versa. so he gave not only me a good lesson but we've heard that lesson in this meeting today.

and with that we are adjourned. thank you. [applause].dent.

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i was glad to see our democratic friends accept our path forward on trade yesterday. under our plan, the senate will avoid the poison pills that have been floated in favor of the very type of bipartisan approach we have been advocating all along. it follows the regular order. it allows senators to express themselves without endangering more american trade jobs for the people we represent. so this is good news. it's good news for bipartisanship it's good news for a new congress that's getting back to work. and it's good news for america's middle class. the people we represent deserve the kind of good jobs we could secure by knocking down unfair trade barriers. one estimate shows that trade

agreements with europe and the pacific could support as many as 1.4 million additional jobs here in our country. in kentucky, they could support more than 18,000 additional jobs. but we can't get there without first passing the kind of legislation we'll vote to open debate on this afternoon. it's the only way to enact clear standards and guidelines our trade negotiators need to move forward and that congress needs to appropriately assert its authority in this area. so yesterday's agreement is significant. i want to thank chairman hatch and his negotiating partners for the good bipartisan cooperation that got us to where we are. i'd like to thank the president too. no you're not hearing things. president obama's done his country a service by taking on his base and pushing back on some of the more ridiculous rhetoric we've heard. he was right to remind everyone

that -- quote -- "you don't make change through slogans." end quote. or ignoring realities. he should be recognized for it. the american people sent divided government to washington, but it doesn't mean that they don't want us to work together on issues where we can agree and on this issue we agree. today's vote moves us closer to achieving a positive outcome for the people we represent and i look forward to continued piven gaugement for both the president and members of both parties as we move forward on these bills. now, mr. president on an entirely different matter, it's good to see forward momentum on trade. that's certainly good for the american people. but there are other issues that both parties should want to address, too like the broken promises of obamacare. it would be nice to see more

bipartisan support there and i hope we will at some point because we all know that obamacare is a law filled, literally filled with broken promises. we all keep seeing reminders of how it fails so many of the same people we were told it would help. back in my state in kentucky, we're seeing how hospitals and their patients are feeling the negative effects of this partisan law. that's particularly true in the rural areas of my state. a recent report showed that obamacare's multimillion-dollar attack on hospitals in kentucky is expected to result in a net loss of a billion dollars over the next few years a net loss to kentucky hospitals of a billion dollars over the next few years. these hospitals are expected to lose more money under obamacare than they're expected to gain in new revenue from the medicaid

expansion. and largely due to obamacare. these losses are forcing kentucky hospitals to cut jobs, reduce or freeze wages and in some instances even close altogether. we've lost at least two rural critical access hospitals this year. officials report that kentucky hospitals are suffering partly because more than three out of every four kentuckians who signed up for obamacare was in fact put on medicaid, and we know that medicaid reimburses hospitals for less than it costs to treat patients, and so despite promises that greater access to coverage would decrease visits to the emergency room and cost -- and the costs associated with those visits, the vast majority of emergency room doctors now say they've actually experienced a surge in patients a surge visiting the

e.r. since obamacare came into effect. in fact, a recent survey reported that thousands of e.r. doctors have actually seen an increase in emergency room visits since the start of last year. one physician from lexington was quoted as saying he had seen a huge backlog in the e.r. because the volume has increased. he went on to say the e.r. volume rose by almost 1/5 in the first few months of this year, which is nearly double, nearly double what he saw during the same period last year. there are a lot of reasons for these increases but as one e.r. physician put it, visits are going up despite the a.c.a., and in a lot of cases because of it. volume in the e.r. is driven as a result of coverage expansion adding a lot of new people that has largely been borne by the medicaid program. as i've said previously, though,

increasing coverage doesn't guarantee access to care, and prior to medicaid expansion kentucky already faced a shortage of physicians participating in medicaid. now there are more than 300,000 additional enrollees in an already broken system. added 300,000 new people to an already broken system. and so when americans on medicaid get sick and can't find a doctor, who will treat the medicaid patients? where do they end up? of course, in the emergency room. here's how one kentucky newspaper described it last year. that's just the opposite of what many people expected under obamacare, particularly because one of the goals of health reform was to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by expanding medicaid and giving poor people better access to primary care. instead, mr. president what's happening, many hospitals in kentucky and across the nation

are seeing a surge of those newly insured medicaid patients walking right into the emergency rooms. one kentucky doctor described it as a perfect storm a perfect storm. we've given people an a.t.m. card he said, in a town with no a.t.m.'s. given obamacare's most famous broken promise about americans being able to keep the health plans they liked it's easy to see how a person who had access to good insurance and quality care before obamacare would find himself or herself forced into medicaid and into the emergency room today. a recent report found that among certain hospitals in kentucky, as many as one in five, one in five individuals covered by medicaid had previously had private health insurance. so unfortunately it wasn't hard to see this coming. a lot of us warned about it.

we warned that providing a supposed health coverage without actually giving someone access to health care is really just a hollow promise. you can promise coverage, but it doesn't mean anything if there's nobody there to care for the people who are covered. the same could be said of warnings regarding the impact of obamacare's deep medicare cuts. and the impact of that on hospitals. i wish the people, the politicians who ran obamacare through over the objections of the american people had heeded these warnings. we made all these warnings six years ago. so this is just one more reminder why obamacare is bad for kentucky, why it's bad for the middle class and why it's bad for our country but here's the good news. the new congress just passed a balanced budget this week with legislative tools that will allow us to begin to address

obamacare's broken promises. i hope president obama and our colleagues across the aisle will work with us to do so. we owe the american people more than obamacare's broken promises. we owe them real health reform that lowers costs and increases choice. i hope our friends across the aisle will work with us in a bipartisan way to help achieve that important outcome. mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: yesterday the house of representatives voted overwhelmingly -- and i m.v.p. overwhelmingly 330 votes approximately, to end the bulk collection of american phone records. last week, the federal court second circuit court of appeals ruled that the federal government's bulk collection program is illegal.

the majority leader seems prepared to lead the senate into reauthorizing an illegal program. he has spoken here on the floor in that regard. so how can one reauthorize something that's illegal ?f this is not a partisan issue mr. president. democrats and republicans are united in reforming the national security agency and how they collect their data. the house yesterday as i've indicated, voted in favor of reform overwhelmingly, but republicans in the senate want to move forward without making any changes i don't think so. the republican leader isolated his desire for a clean extension of illegal spying programs. for example mr. president the chairman of the judiciary committee in the house of representatives, mr. goodlatte said yesterday if the house gets an extension of fisa foreign intelligence surveillance act it will go nowhere, it is dead, according to the chairman of the

judiciary committee. republicans and democrats have vowed to filibuster a clean extension if the republican leader brings one to the floor. that's what's going to happen here in the senate. i've heard extended statements by the junior senator from kentucky who says that. there are others who feel the same way. even if my friend plows forward in face of what the bipartisan opposition is to this matter, it will take a week at least to secure the vote, and maybe that isn't even possible. we have a chance to take bipartisan action that protects american civil liberties. it would be irresponsible for us to squander this opportunity. mr. president, i said yesterday yesterday -- and my heart goes out to those who suffered in that terrible accident on the amtrak's northeast regional train, train number 188. dues night at 9:00 the accident

occurred. as we know now the train was going more than 100 miles an hour on a curve that should have been -- that it should have been going 50 miles an hour. it's very tragic. seven people died and scores were injured. there were about 250 people on the train. it's unfortunate that sometimes it takes an event like this before policymakers learn they need to do something. i guess they need to learn what they need to learn. the policymaker's failure to learn nothing at all. we learned the other night something that should frighten us all. the national transportation safety board one of its members, robert sumwald said there's technology available called positive train control that would have prevented this accident. that technology is in place in a few places in the northeast

corridor. this northeast corridor, millions of people travel there. it is not yet in place where the accident happened. mr. president, there are members of the republican senate who have for years denigrated, belittled and harmed the amtrak system. i've watched this and it's really unfair. they've attacked amtrak every year every appropriation process. many on the far right regularly try to punch the nation's train system right in the gut. they've made it a punching bag. and yesterday the house of representatives approved a bill that underfunds amtrak by another $250 million. a day after that tragic accident they say we're going to help amtrak by cutting spending another $250 million. the nation's train system can be

efficient and it can be productive. it can be a point of national pride. but too often mr. president the neglect of amtrak has left america's train system a disappointing embarrassment. amtrak is a vital part of our nation's economy and everyone should understand that. it helps i repeat, millions and millions of people get to where they need to go. it takes cars off congested highways. it take people away from airports. for the safety of rail passengers for the business it helps to foster, and for the reputation of our great nation, i hope that we could learn to invest more in this important national resource. they need more, not less. mr. president, my friend, the republican leader, must be in denial to come to the floor and talk about obamacare the way he did. he is neglecting the facts. and i will only repeat a few of them. number one there's 17 million

people that now have health insurance that didn't. using his own numbers he said one out of every five people go to the emergency room in kentucky had insurance private insurance. well mr. president four-finals of-- four-finals offifths of them had no insurance. they have it now. rather than cut health insurance funding in the republican budget they should not be doing that. the reason there's long waiting lines is because the republicans aren't helping us fund medicare and medicaid in the appropriate fashion. the late-senator ted kennedy once said, "an essential part of our progressive vision is an america where no citizen of any age fears the cost of health care." close quote we're not there yet. but since the affordable care act became law that vision has become more of a reality every day. the facts are indisputable.

health care costs are growing at an historically low rate. the overall health of americans is improving and health care providers are finding innovative ways to reduce health care spending while improving the quality of care that patients have just last week the department of health and human services anowdgessed a key pilot -- announced a key pilot program created by the affordable care act saved medicare almost $400 million in just two years. this is good news. the pioneer accountability accountable model was launched by medicare and medicaid services to improve delivery and payment options. it shows an average of about $370 of savings per beneficiary every year. rather than this be a model it should cover all patients. this model is serving more than 600,000 americans. the idea is called accountable

care. accountable care organizations organizations tie provider reimbursement to reductions in total costs for care for patients. better care, less cost. what is most remarkable is that huge savings are being achieved without threatening the quality of care that patients receive. in fact, the quality of care is improving. medicare beneficiaries within the pioneer accountable model have improved communication with their health care providers. they now have an ability to understand what is happening to their health care. their questions are being answered. these patients use inpatient hospital services less and fewer tests and fewer procedures. that's what it's all about. last week's announcement shows that the affordable care act is working to the tune of $400 million. can you imagine the impact that this pilot program would have on the health care costs when it is

expanded. it is true that we have more work to do, but these reports show that senator kennedy's vision for america's health care system is divided in the usual form. mr. brown: thank you mr. president. today at this moment, we begin the debate on one of the most important bills to come in front of the senate this year to guarantee that americans can find a more level playing field as we -- as we compete in the world economy to show that american -- that americans should not be patsies for other countries' cheating, for altering records and information that they submit to trade authorities that it's an opportunity to close an 85-year-old loophole that has allowed us to import products produced by slave labor and child labor and that we fix our currency system so countries and their companies especially in east asia, in