with safety but people actually use the entire roadway in different ways. it's healthier it's cleaner in some cases. i think that continuing to support the transportation alternatives program and helping us build additional tools to support states as they measure safety of bicyclists and pedestrians and bring it up to a standard that we expect of every motor transportation. >> yeah. so right now we're seeing that upwards of 3/4th of children killed are killed in urban neighborhoods the more we can reduce the numbers and make the streets safe for everyone, i think the better off we're going to be and i am looking forward to working with you. i think it's a very exciting way and by the way, i think you're just doing a fantastic job. i think you understand cities having been a mayor and i appreciate all the work that you

do. thank you. >> thank you senator. >> thank you. we will recognize now senator rounds for his first introduction to this committee and how delighted we are to have him serving on the committee. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. secretary, thanks for the opportunity to visit with you just a little bit today. coming from south dakota it strikes me that in our home state, we're between 800 and 9 900,000 accept during the time of the sturgis rally and then we bump up considerably. it seems like as a former mayor of boston the discussion there in terms of you've had the opportunity to work on transportation projects from a different point of view. a large metro political area and yet one in which you're dealing with the federal guidelines and rules that are required in order to qualify for federal funding.

in south dakota dakota we have similar challenges but on an agricultural basis and a rural basis. just curious as to your thoughts with regards to the projects that as you've indicated earlier in your statements and so forth that they need to be modernized. and we have to be more efficient if we're going to expect tax payers to put more dollars in at some point in the future. how do you move forward from the federal side now when you're working with communities large and small states large and small, differing expectations in terms of the quality and yet at the same time, the need for modernization of different projects. what do we do to convince and gain the confidence of the individual tax payers who look at a federal operation here that under traditional operations take a huge amount of time just to get a project ready to go

approved and then actually built. what do we do to convince them that we have modern ways and more efficient ways to actually deliver those probablingjects in a timely basis. have you gotten ideas. would you share with us a little bit in terms of your thoughts of what we can do to actually deliver -- a simple way of saying it more bang for your buck when it comes to the dollars that we're going to be expected to invest in order to maintain the infrastructure today. >> sure. we've had some conversation already about project delivery and things that can be do to improve it. and there's another idea that i haven't mentioned that i think is worthy but essentially, i think we can greatly accelerate the delivery of projects speeding them up in other words by having more concurrent reviews occurring at the federal level. i would also urge creating tools that incentivize the states to do the same thing because sometimes the delays that occur

are not just federal delays sometimes they are state reviews that have to take additional time and giving the states more tools to be able to accelerate is also useful. in addition to that, there's a quarky thing in the federal government when it comes to multiprojects, ones that involve potentially highways or rail or transit and that is that the reviews are sometimes -- they require separate reviews so even within our own department on a project that has different modes involved sometimes we have to have two different sets of reviews occur and it doesn't make sense to me that we do that. with you it's a requirement that comes that i think could be fixed by legislation. so i think cleaning some of that up would be useful and it would also allow us to move forward without compromising the environment and ensuring project integrity. the other thing i would say

though is that i think the public has gotten used to a deteriorating system. and i would urge that if you give us the tools to help speed up projects which i would urge in the way that i just discussed, that we also look hard at making sure that we have the resources to make the kind of impact on folk's commutes and their ability to get goods from farm to market or whatever and make sure that this counts. if you're going to go through the brain damage or trying to figure out how to get this done make it count for america and make it so that people actually see it and feel it because i think another part of the bang for the buck issue is that if we are essentially mabnaging a declining system folks are also going to lose confidence even if we speed up projects. >> secretary thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you sir. >> senator. >> thank you very much mr. chair and thank you secretary.

thank you for the steady hand and detailed presentation and the points that you're hitting on certainly resinonate in oregon regarding the movement of freight, urban transit, innovating finance. support of transportation for manufacturing, the connection between rural communities and markets. all of those. so well done and thank you for coming out to oregon to take a look at our crossing that certainly the federal government was a huge partner in. and the network of light rail and street cars and rapid bus transit that is being utilized to try to address some of those job to work or home to work challenges, the lost time that my colleague from new jersey was talking about. something that has really struck me and certainly resonated in my town house across oregon is the

low percent of our gdp that we're investing in infrastructure. i think that's just a point reiterating. the numbers that i have generally seen but i have a feeling you have better, more detailed insights on this is that the u.s. is now spending 2% of our gdp on instra fruktstructure that europe is spending 5% and china is spending 10%. i was struck in two trips to china watching beijing going from being a bicycle city to having a bullet train going 200 miles an hour. it was one of the most surreal experiences in my life. are those numbers in the ball park? how does that reflect on the difference between the

foundation we're building for the economy of the next generation and what our competitors are doing. >> it's a great question. those numbers are in the ball park. you know, here is -- there's several challenges some of which you've pointed out. one of them is that our global competitors, they have the benefit of picking and choosing from the things that we've done with our system and figuring out which of those things they are going to engage in whether it's rail or highways or ports or whatever. and improving upon what we've done. it then becomes a matter of if you're a manufacturer, if you can get things from shop to port faster, some place else, it creates a competitive disadvantage for us. so one thing is that the rest of the world looked at what we've done and they are building new

stuff that in many cases is better than ours. secondly we have an ageing system, you know? some of this stuff that you're talking about in china is relatively new. we have two problems. we have new things that we need to build that we're not building and we have old things that we built a long time ago that need to be fixed up. >> both of those problems create a huge challenge for this country. the third issue that we have is that -- and i mentioned this before but i think we've allowed our system to be stove piped. the reality is that if we're going to improve our ports we need to improve our road systems and our bridges and our rail systems. if we're going to do all of that, we need to also make sure that we are taking care of our inner coastal waterways and ensuring the free movement

there. our system is the system of systems but we can't starve it and to your point we're under investing. >> thank you very much. >> thanks. >> senator carper. >> thanks. i want to thank you. i just want to applaud you and senator boxter for the spirit in which you approach this work. it's an inspiration to me and i think to all of us and i hope an example to our colleagues in the senate and to the house. >> and we will make it work. >> mr. secretary, a lot of nice things have been said about you this morning. some have been really over the top. you've been named the -- referred to the former mayor of charlotte. boston. i don't know what else you have in your background but there's an old staying in our state is flattery won't hurt you if you won't inhale so all of these nice things they are saying about you, just don't breathe too deeply and you'll be fine one of the major take aways from

the election last november was the notion three things, one people want us to work together and the spirit that senator boxter and inhoff bring to the proceedings are what the folks are looking for across the country. they want us to get something done. something real done. not just talk about it. not just bemoan. actually get things done. the other thing they want us to do is to find ways to further strengthen our economic recovery which is now almost in its sixth year and starting to move well. still people are hurting. still a good deal that needs to be done but one of the best things that we could do. a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines who would like to do construction work. i understand they are fully funded we could put 7 or 6,000 people back to work. the other thing is we've heard any number of studies from

people a lot harder than me that have talked a lot what happened to our gross domestic product if we do a robust plan for america. it's between 1 and 1.5% growth in gdp. it's real growth. i think the senator used the terms the 800 pound gorilla in the room. and i would go back to those. there's an 800 pound gorilla in the room and it's our unwillingness to pay for things that we really want or need. the energy policy would include generating electricity from gas cole, nuclear, wind hydro other sources. i think we may need an all of the above approach not just financing. there's a lot of ways that we could finance stuff. basically it means we're funding

money. but there are three pd -- public/private partnership. repat ri repat riation could be helpful for getting one time projects. for example the tunnel i came through under baltimore, was built in the civil war. that's an example of a one time project. it needs a lot of money and can be funded by something like repat repatriation. the idea that we have not talked about a whole lot here is user fees. we've paid for our transportation inis it a sfrukture through years. the tax that was adopted 21 years ago, .18 cents worth dime.

meanwhile the price of asphalt concrete, steel, labor, they have all gone up. we need something like when we talk about base load for energy cole nuclear, gas, we need some base load here for transportation funding. raise $175 billion. it would be a real infra infrastructure investment program. on top of that we need to do a whole lot more. those other items that we referred to would be very helpful. >> you and i had some good conversations of late. some of my republican colleagues have talked about why don't we just offset an increase in the user fee by reducing personal income taxes for low income people or others? >> the problem with doing that, we have a $480 billion budget deficit. to the extent we get rid of

personal income taxes we make the deficit bigger. one of the things we talk about is finding savings is it. you shared a couple of ideas today and could actually save money. could you just very briefly tell me where i went to get karna assada and what we can do to help. i think it is an opportunity done right in a way that doesn't compromise the government. i think it can be done very well. it would save money not just money at the federal level, it actually would work down stream at the state and local levels as well. >> in addition in terms of sal saving money. i think the more we work to accelerate projects that fofmove

through the system at any given point or as we work on becoming better with innovative financing schools. those are places where i think we can also stand to accelerate and get projects done a little faster. we've worked very hard to make the program move better and faster. i think that's been a success. but riff still needs some help and i think the private activity bonds would use some too. i would ask for you to help understand that list. to the extent that we can find, modest but real and define ways to offset the increased user fees of sallings. not in a way that degrades our

environment but help us to find is it find it. i know you will have some of your people do that. thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much for being with us mr. secretary. in your statement you talk about how much expedite high priority projects. i agree. in wyoming we have high priority projects that can be as small as replacing a single engine bridge or replacing a segment of inner state 80. >> can i ask you how they will affect states like whoa wyoming. >> what we'd like to do is do this on a continual basis. it could be more on a routine basis for virtually all projects. i think that working with congress to develop those tools, again, to do it in a way that's environmentally sensitive.

i think we can get that done and actually move the ball forward a bit. >> thank you mr. chairman. en in light of the fact we have governs standing governors standing by. we will wait for them. >> thank you. this is an incredibly issue for new york state. mas mass tras it nearly 8.5 million people bride the buses and trains in the city. would you agree that it is important for them to receive money through the trust fund if congress were to cut funding for public transit? >> well, absolutely i agree we need to retain resources from

mass transit. it is vitally important. of course in the state of new york and many other parts of the country, there's also a very substantial rurmal program that we have that's also there as well. what would happen is our roadways in high use areas of the country would become inundated with the traffic. freight movements and would actually stall and that would be a disaster for the country. what we really need is a nation that moves more towards multimodel movement. one in which the users have choice and the more choices they have potentially you get more cards off the road. dwr this is all sim piby otic, sim

bee ot sim by otic. $4.2 million drivers and 1 million aircrafters but nearly two years after they are taking steps to improve the resiliency of the transit network. >> can you speak to some of the challenges with regard to constructing a more resilient transportation network. what has been affective so far and what policies would be helpful to ensure the dot as well as state and local governments have the tools that they need to improve for resiliencey and plan for severe weather. >> this is an important topic.

it cuts across many of the department's programs we learned a lot when we got involved with the hurricane sandy recovery. and we're taking the learnings that we de55ed from that and trying to build into programs and recruits, construction. for instance, we found out that top lights needed to be etched in the ground to be more resilient resilient. we found in new york where the electical wires had been behind the trains. >> i ran off and we're actually trying to see those get implement that. but having said that one of the challenges that we're going to keep running in to are under

investing in our investigation. the less funding we have available, the less we'll be able to make an impact. >> my last question, i know you'll addressed already. improving pedestrian safety is a critical issue in new work. whether it's vision 0 in new york city or projects to improve and how we do our make up we save lives. we should make sure that we continue to invest in critical programs that protect beddist rest pedestrian safety. >> it's an incredibly important question senator. between 2009 2013 we actually

saw an uptick in pedestrian threat. it's one of the few area areas in our entire department where we're seeing the outtick. our transartation which provides us resources to help provide things that have been useful. we've also made significant investments through chair including new york city's program. and then final ri we'rely we're working across the country to encourage information sending because a lot of the cats are at the local level. >> thank you. we're really going to do this and thank you for your service.

>> thank you membering member boxer. >> i'd like to ask the second panel to come in. our first introducer will be senator sessions. he's trying to get in to another committee hearing. could our witnesses please come in and sit down. >> mr. chairman, i think our new senate is trying to get busy today when you have four major committees at this exact time going on that i'm a member of. i know others are in conflict --

on top of that, something like 16 votes so we're going to be busy. at this time, i would like to welcome our panel. we've had a little bit of illness around. it's changed the make-up of the committee a little bit. i'd first like to introduce for introduction introduction processes, i am honored to introduce robert bentley. the 53rd governor of the state of alabama. he's a long term practices physician. it's reported that he finished at the top of his medical class but i would not be surprised. in fact i'm sure that's accurate. he made job creation with automobile manufacturing alabama showing some real growth. it's ice chair of the congress committee of the national

governs nags. he was just re-elected a to make some real tough decisions. he had a big victory this election. he understands the physical challenges we face. what our needs to do do to spend our taxpayer money wisely. governor bentley thank you for coming. it's been a pleasure for me to work with you. i have the highest respect for you. i would say this mr. chairman. i want be able to participate in the questioning, i don't think. we will see how that works out. i hope to get back but i share your way that we need a highway plan and that we can pass that soundly infessed and paid for.

that relies on our governs to rely on the future so they can plan for oir their getture. because the uncertainty that's out there, even know you know i'm a frugal person but somehow we need to make this one work. thank you for your leadership and try to for inviting goorn bentley. >> thank you very much we recognize senator rounds for his introduction. i believe i met your guest when i was up in south carolina. that's entirely possible mr. chairman. my opportunitied to is to first of all introduce the state of the transportation in south dakota. i have known der inn for years now. i.

if. >> so i can just share with you all of here, he has seen the ins and outs. in a rural state there's always a challenge of how you make the dollars and spread them out and literally, the deliver the best you can and yet come back to eye legislative body who's always questioning how you're spending the money. if i could i just want to share with you. in south dakota we've not challenges lierkke everybody else. 85,000 miles of highway. 91% of the state's structural deficient bridges, the federal provide is vital to insuring funds that we need to man taj and making sure everyone can

travel safety throughout the day. >> i look forward to work working with members of the committee. we do need a bill for transportation across the united states. i just hope as we move through this process, we find a appropriate way to fund it on a longer term basis and we also learn that we've got to do it as possible as we can. when it comes to delivering these services something else. we work through this in a pos sieve sieve. we're going to have find a way to recognize the urban look.

with that mr. chairman, thank you. senator sanders. thank you very much for insighting the governor of vermont for being here today. i think everyone on this committee understands that our instra structure is collapsing. we used to lead the world in terms of infrastructure. according to the report we're in twelfth place and in the state of vermont we have the same problems that everyone else has in the state. we have poll holes, congestion, broken bridges. we were hit with hurricane ire

even. the devastation to our infrastructure in parts of the state. we worked very hard to build that infrastructure. i appreciate your updates. i know you're going to be there but we're doing our kids and grandchildren a great disservice if we don't warm up to infrastructure problems. mr. chairman, thank you very much. >> thank you senator. we're very proud to have all of you here. we had some illness i think so the full panel is not here but i appreciate very much your coming. it's important and i do believe when i look at this politically its going to be necessary to have a lot of pressure. a lot of pressure from the states in order to get the support necessary to get this

through so it's going to be heavy lifting but we know you guys are available and able to do that. we will start with opening statements. governor bentley will you be recognized first? >> okay. thank you sir. good morning everyone. it's a measure for me to be with you and i appreciate the senator sessions, great introduction of me. great friend. and i appreciate all of you, all the members of this committee. i'm here on behalf of the national governor's association and also the people of alabama. we're on the national government association economic development and commerce committee. we served together on a bipart bipartisan basis. all the governors of the states basically have the same problems that have just been mentioned to me today.

i'm here to highlight some of these problems and some of the situations that we have. the first priority when we look at priorities is to really to continue to maintain a strong partnership between the federal government and the state governments. you know there are selected projects across this country that are of national and regional significance that states and the federal government can partner together on that will benefit our entire country. one such project is our -- is in alabama. it's our mobile river bridge also known as the i 10 bridge. central sessions had to step out. he knows this very well. this is a project that reduces the congestion in the tunnels that help with the growth of our great city there in alabama. this is a project that -- this is a major project that we need to be working on. >> one of the second priorities that we need to look at is long

term funding which has already been mentioned. funding certainty. now at the federal level is essential for budgeting for future projects. we as governors and ceos of the states we understand how important transportation infrastructure is to creating jobs in our states. certainty allows govern the ability to plan and execute long term multi-year transportational projects. took office in 2011 we've recrewed 63,000 jobs for the state of alabama. key infrastructure is needed. in alabama, we're witnessing the first hand of partnership and job creation and infrastructure improvement. my first term of office, i recruited a 100 million company to willcox county.

it is the county with the highest highestcox this new facility will enl ploymploy them. the state gave 7 million of construction money to build roads to this plant and it will make a difference in the lives of the people of that area. the third i would like to mention is the flexibility we need in federal dollars. the ear marking of federal dollars hurts the ability of government to allocate funds within our states. and i want to share also in many testimony very quickly. i want to show a program very quickly and it's an innovative

program that we have started in alabama. it's something we call the a trip program. we have put a billion dollars to repair the roads and bridges of how county in the state of alabama. we have been able to borrow these at a very low interest rate. the fact that we have ourselves used our gasoline money to back these bonds we should be able to do do a few more. this thing, congress will have the opportunity to set a new vision for instructure but as a country but me must it new.

governs congress to pass a long term transportation pill that provides the country needed to plan for future projects and the flexibility needed to taylor those projects with the unique challenges that face debt. mother, look ford to working with you:i thank you torefor you. >> thank you very much. i really wish you rankinghere. it's a real honor to be here. two, govern bentley on behalf of the nga, govern bentley and i work on opiate adriks ishdiction issues

i think he states the comment that we all know that our economic prospect and our nags d time. i know his govern wished to be here. we got whacked pretty hard in the north east. a little bit of a snowstorm on our transportation infrastructure. in termant we would but he aren't as acouplecustomed to show. >> i should say -- that's the deep death just wanted you to

know that. all right. listen, i'm going to phrase put govern in. she just basically sent my message for me. we know that we can't prosper as a nation unless we fix what senator sanders referred to which is we used to be number one. we're 14th. you all together with the u.s. senate have the ability to this with congress. i want you to know on the ground what this means. what it means to vermont is not all that different to whoa eming, south dakota new hampshire s. our challenge in rural states is we sometimes for guest that 81% of our train post-works runs through our rerl

states. vermont as an example, you can see vermont vermont doesn't have many people but it matters to the robbers quality of life. we're the con projections tell us in the next three days, we're going to see our rate transportation by 50%. we have an crumbling infrastructure. the bigger birds carry more of your maintain because we can't and we all know it's crumbling but you got to be read the big.

it's important to remember that the rule states really have a special burden. now the northeast states have an increased burden because simply because of private. if you look at what we're facing together, we're dealing with a much shortened construction season, we're obviously have freezing and that youing that takes an extraordinary toll on our pavement and bridges we have to throw salt around it which is really terrible to bridges. it doesn't help pack mybut all of the rural states are in this one together. i wanted to just say a word about listening to the rural state challenges. i thought i'd be brief here but not having to raid you my comments but then i lost my

notes. i want to say something about the funding for those of us who are using the battle. for me govern battery just replay. what happens to a governor like me is that when there's uncertainty about funding or when the trust fund sout ofis out of money and you're literally not able to send the match back to the states, we're in a terrible position having to dig for cash that we did not anticipate needing or turn to contact and say we can't do the work we contacted to get. we have to remember when we talk about getting this done and we know that may is the drop dead gate, in my cases next month we will let congress to be done

next spring. remember your building reason runs from mid-april early may to october, somewhere around thank giving. so those are the challenges that you faced. there's sometimes the perfection that states can go at it alone. that they can figure this out without the partnership with the result result. go i go across the george washington brinl washington bridge and i dream i have that passage to get over a bridge. we're often asked, why don't you

do tools in vermont. so let's remember that while the small rural states have a more intense instra instructfrainfrastructure. we had few funding sources to do it. so i really appreciate the opportunity to be with you today and we would love to answer any questions that you have. i just want to make four quick recommendations if i could. >> all right. i'm afraid we can't do that governor. thank you very much for your presentation. secretary. >> thank you chairman. ranking member boxter, senator allens and members of the commit eye, i appreciate the opportunity to be in front of this committee on behalf of south dakota dug as dugard. he wanted to be here himself because he would have under the the attack.

he he sends his regrets that he could not be there here but i would like to highlight a few key points from this statement. first of all we appreciate you holding this early in congress. to pass good federal service legislation will pitch the nation. the nation needs long federal transportation funding and long term financial stability in order to strengthen the economy and anything. you believe the transportation should further simplify regulations and program requirements providing states with additional flexibility to meet their unique individual needs. the federal transportation program must face in the nation which youing rural areas like ours. south dakota, is far from markets and population centers

but she was important to me and the national economy. >> that's right. i remember rememberand enable other culture and other kids to love to markest and ground. extensions and very short term authorizations are a particular problem for a state like ours with a cold climate and a very short construction season. without multi-year funding we had to focus more than we would like on short term and smaller projects. i also want to emphasize the need for highway and transportation investment is apparent and states are taking action. in south dakota, governor dugard just this week introduced a proposal to our legislative session that would significantly increase state investment in transportation in south dakota. while we're trying to do our part, states cannot do it alone.

we need a strong federal program, states like south dakota have very few people to support each mile of federal highway and be able to maintain our portion of the national highway system. the world population of 7 billion is expected to groet by 70 million a year. sometime first of the truck traffic in from congress meaning it doesn't have a destination in our state but it certainly serves the nation. before we encouraging we would like you to do what you and hike and make it more flexible. we know there must be private programs for the public b but as

an a exam that would have him in bright spirits. he urges congress to simplify the program where it can so that program dollars can provide more transportation investment in projects that. i will see but congress should continue to strib ut the vast majority of things. must continue to recognize a mying again mr. chairman. thank you for the office. i'd be glad to answer. >> the state is going to take the prerogative and get the

start. governor bentley has a rescheduling problem. i would only make this one comment governor bentley, but when you talk about certainty. this is always a problem that you have when you're dealing with the government. right now there's all of these regulations that are creating hardship on people. >> there there anything that you would like to elaborate on. >> safety is the post probably the most important and if we have that certainty, we can deal with it. it's so difficult for us as a state to not know with will get funding. in this end, which it supposedly will, it makes it difficult on us of ul all.

one of the things i put in place place, we need to repair what we already have. we have to repair what we have and mansion they are mansioning. >> so we have borrowed at such a low straight because we have such a high rating bond in alabama. but we need 69 million every year to pay off those bonds over the next even to 18 years. we just need certainty. whatever the federal government can help us with and we appreciate that farpartnership. it is a partnership. all states connect, obviously. so the certainty to me is the most important thing. >> very good. >> senator boxter. >> thank you. i just want to our panelist and i want to make a quick point and then i'm going to ask the

government. >> i am so for a simplification for flexibility. i worked with jack before i went on the air. keep that in mind we have to mind that sweet pot, it may work hard on this. governs i know how it is port and take you away from your states. i govern i wise so interested in your improvement program because it's a billion dollars program. a billion dollars program and the reason you can do it is if you're counting on future federal dollars so you have the garvey bonds. is that a correct explanation of

how it works. >> yes gee so i just guess because i think your point about the certainty is so key. i would like you in another way if your eloquent sane explain why certificate is so critical. if you don't have the certificate of this bill, how would this impact you back home? . again, let me say, i think certainly is the most thing that we have to deal with. over the last five or six years we've not had that certainty obviously. so we needed to plan. if we don't have -- we need five six, ten, whatever the number of uses that you side we just need to know what those are and we need to plan accordingly. and this program that i have put

in place and was able to put in place without legislation because the people of alabama had allowed us to bory and so they are -- we're using future federal dollars. right so the certainty is so important for me because i have signed a billion dollars in bonds and i want to make sure we pay it back. and we can pay it back in two ways. number one is if the federal government will help continue to give us some certainly about what they are going to give the states. plus the fact that we can do it better because in alabama we have such a great bond rating. we have a better bond rating than the federal government. so you know, we're able to borrow this money at such a low rate, certainly lower than inflation rate for delaying the repairs on these roads and bridges so certainty is just -- it's essential to us. >> thank you governor. i know you spoke for both

governors here. my last question to you is it is interesting to learn about the i 10 bridge project and you noted there are some projects of national and region significance that are too large to be funded without specific federal assistance. do you believe a federal government to allow these types of projects to compete against one another in addition to core highway formula funding would be popular among the states. >> well, i'd rather have them to compete than to not have it at all. you know i think that competition is always good. i think that as a federal government and i'm not speaking for the federal government because i run the state of alabama but i think that you do have to look at what is the most important for our security. for our economy. for our safety. all of those things you have to look at when you look at these

types of projects outside of the normal funding stream. >> thank you so much. >> thank you senator boxter. senator bosssman. thank you mr. chairman and thank you all for being here. in relation to this, can you tell us the impact of the two year bill versus a five year bill? what that does as far as certainty the necessity of the longer bill versus the two year bill? the other thing i'd like for you to think about along with that is one. frustrations we have is you know, you mention that we were number one in fra structure, if you look back at what the percentage of what the states are doing is more than it is now as opposed to what the states are doing. i think one of the frustrations that we have when we put money into the states because of the fiscal constraints with things like prisons medicaid and

education and things like that the states have a trendendous sometimes to shrink back you know and things stay the same as the process is increasing. you mentioned about your small state arkansas is a small state. to our credit, we passed a half cent sales tax to try and overcome the problems that you have. i wish coming across the 14th straight bridge that we could give you some of our traffic. that would make my life and many other commuters a lot easier but comment on the two versus the five year bill and then also the problems. how do we insure that as we try and do the very best that we can do to get money into the states that that's actually, you know, an improvement versus the states shrinking back. so in terms of the two to five, the most certainty you can give us. i got to say that govern bentley and i have both served in an environment where we would have loved to have two because we've been working month to month

since we've been govern. we've both been governs for four years so needless to say the more certainty you can give us the longer period of time the happier all governors will be. particularly with what governor bentley is dealing with he says to wall street, we have a funding source so i can turn to the folks of alabama andsy with certainty, we're going to be all right but we need it too because obviously we make similar decisions. >> so the two versus the five actually drives the cost up not only is there a certainty issue but -- >> the financial challenge between states. >> driving up the cost of the construction projects also. >> absolutely senator. >> the second piece is in terms of the partnership. my experience has been that we've had to increase our state contribution skruftjust to keep up with our federal match. what i mean by that is

unfortunately, the gas tax is definitely a tax not so unfortunately, it's -- it's good reasons. people are driving less miles and more efficient vehicles. we all know in the long run we're going to have to figure out another way to drive revenue both national and in the states. there's no reason why an electric car shouldn't be paying for the roads too. having said that, in my state as an example, we could not keep up with our federal match because of dwindling gas prices -- or should i say taxes without asking for more from vermonters just to meet what we'd already gotten in the past. in other words i was about to give up $40 million in federal funding which for me, an average transportation budget of $400 million, you know we're talking real money. having to cancel project that's are critically important as our bridges and roads crumble. so what i did and i don't raising taxes but we raised it

from .20 cents to .26 cents. we triggered half of it towards volume and half of it towards sale so we'd be able to see the price go up and down where obviously in a period like now gas cut in half we would have been totally demoralized if it wasn't totally on volume. we are making a better effort from a tax point to make that match than we were in the past. i don't know if we're unique but i can tell you that we're definitely not backing off on our residents commitment to rebuild roads and bridges. we've been asking for from them. i think a lot of governors have. >> you know one of the challenges with the two year to the five year program is due to the lenninggth it times to deliver any project of any size once we have that security of having a two year program by the time we start planning and deliver a project, the program is un

unfortunately overand we're back into a short term situation like we're unfortunately accustomed to dealing with. i agree with the governor's comments too on some of the negative impact of the short term month to month type of business that we're doing now as that is resulting and not necessarily being able to do the optimal treatments to our roads we're just doing what we can in a short period of time. often times it's a band-aid type mix that may not be the financially best thing to do but the only thing that can be done at the time.

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