take your seats. thank you. c-span3 live today. just waiting for the american public transportation association conference to begin. they're in washington d.c. for their annual legislative summit.

take a look at some of the work recently in the house on transportation. cq role call reporting recently on the first transportation bill of the new congress. they worked on that last week. the passenger rail reform and investment act approved by committee last month by unanimous vote and the congressional budget office saying the bill would authorize $7.2 billion in spending from 2017 to 2020 the biggest grant to amtrak. we're live in the american transportation association's conference. >> had a great, great session already this morning, 7:30 this morning. who was all in there eating breakfast? all right. all right. listen, welcome to apta's 40th annual legislative conference and to our nation's capitol. yesterday was some great sessions, weren't they with the mayor of washington d.c. and various speakers.

it was just wonderful. thanks, everyone, for being here. the conference really comes at a moment momentous time in the industry, and we have a lot of things to do. this week we're gearing up for a new surface transportation bill out there. this opening session really sets the stage for our discussions over the next few days. in this session, we'll hear from michael molanifey, president and ceo. we'll hear from janet konecky with the u.s. chamber of commerce, and also pete ruhan with arcbuc. first our sponsor this morning is route match. help me welcome joseph hills from route match vice president for business development who will share a few comments on stage here. so joe. [ applause ]

>> thank you, phil. thank you, apta. again, my name is joe hughes. i'm vice president for really three parts of route match software. product management rkts, our customer relations and business development. as a brief overview quickly, route match provides software for public transit in both the rural and urban, small urban areas. we figure we've worked with many, many people in this room phil to begin with and many other agencies here in the office here are our partners. we every year come to this event because it, to me is theie epitome of the pure partnership. it represents a group of people that go off and do their own business separately, but here they're partners for the greater good overall. we're very excited to be a part of this. we would like to think that we can help in any way we can but

we hope to get to work with all you guys for the next two days and learn a little bit about where things are going and hopefully make some impact for the greater good of the whole industry. so with that in mind, i have a couple things. one, don't forget while you're here that the purpose of this event, and it reads to direct the industry's advocacy efforts and legislative strategy. the key words i saw there were the advocacy, so everyone here is an advocate. and second is that you're doing it for the industry. and so please look out for your cohorts, your friends, the other guys who couldn't be here. don't forget the rural folks who don't get to come to these things as often, and make sure you remember that as a partnership that's the way we believe it works and we would like to see that from everybody here. and finally, please participate if you haven't signed up for the stand up for transportation day on april 9. we think that will be a great thing coming out of here in terms of momentum. again, thank you, apta thank

you, phil, thank you everybody, for being here. i do believe this is the most important event of the year. that's why we come to sponsor and look forward to seeing you guys in the next two days. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you joe. really appreciate your sponsorship of this opening session. before i get too far in the program, i want to recognize the apta executive committee, the board of directors and past apta chairs. if you're in that group, please stand up so we can give you a round of applause. [ applause ] >> thank you for all your work and all your service. many of the leaders in this room -- i was -- let me say i was honored to share the apta strategic planning effort about a year ago or so. we got it approved by the full board of directors.

this plan really sharpens our focus, guides our operation for the next five years. this is the cover of that document. i think the marketing folks did just a great job in putting this together. five significant challenges that we put forth and we were calling these mega trends, sort of the environment that we believe that we will be working in for the next five to ten years. just very quickly, and you won't see them -- this is just the cover of the strategic plan itself, but safety and security was the first one. resource advocacy or funding. we've been talking about that all week. work force development, demographic shifts and technological innovation. and so those five things we identified in our strategic plan as mega trends that we will be facing over the next five years. and i have to say, we've been

having conversations about funding for quite a while. we've been talking about safety and security. we had a great session yesterday that i sat in on positive training control. all of these things, these five mega trends that i just laid out are so so significant. so you'll see these off and on for the next year or so as we work on these issues and look to address these issues. you can go to the apta website. this document is on the apta website, and you can read it support its objectives and help us address them. let me talk just a little bit about funding, and i've been talking about this for the last six months or so. you've heard me talk about rebuilding our country's infrastructure. and this is one of the big reasons why we're here in washington at the legislative conference, to advocate for a

long-term transportation bill. this is about building our own country. this is about nation building right here. this is about infrastructure investment and rebuilding our infrastructure in this country. and so i have called for this national day of advocacy, this stand up for transportation that you've heard about. and this is the logo that we've put together. and, you know this april 9 date -- this is actually the last conference that we will have before that april 9th date. or is there another one? there may be another apta conference. no? all right. so this is it. we are gearing up for this. the strategy is collective power as we bring attention to our infrastructure and talk to

congress. on this day, april 9, we're looking to conduct media events press events in as many american cities as possible. and i'm happy to say that i believe we have about 140 events or so. that is a lot of events all over this country. it's time for us to work together, republicans democrats, at the white house it's time for us to work together, as you know, to make sure that we address this what i call embarrassingly massive infrastructure deficit. the last time i looked, this infrastructure deficit was about 88 $90 billion. that's just to maintain our current infrastructure. so it's time to fund that state of good repair it's time to do all those things. as we move forward, and i always talk about the whole car analogy.

it's almost like buying a car and not changing the oil for 10 years and expecting that car to continue to run. it's really ridiculous. i was at the board of directors meeting. i was talking a little bit about how ludicrous it is for us to have to beg for funding to maintain infrastructure. 10.8 billion trips last year 10.8 billion trips were begging to maintain our infrastructure in this country. it's really a shame. i was talking about this at the board of directors meeting and usually i get kind of worked up. i get pretty passionate about this infrastructure thing, and i was talking at an event and i was getting pretty passionate, and i told myself to slow down or my taxes would be audited if i kept talking bad about our great leaders. but this stand up 4

transportation day is very, very important. so if you have not signed up please do. i think we have a board out front and we will continue to do that. a couple of things, and i think -- i wanted to show -- i was at the transit ceos meeting, and i talked to the transit ceos about signing up. at that transit ceos meeting in phoenix, we had mayor stanton there. yeah, that's mayor stanton actually signing to have phoenix as a part of this stand up 4 transportation day. everyone has a vital role in this. as i mentioned, 147 agencies and businesses from coast to coast have signed up. look at that map right there. now, if you're not on that map -- who is not on the map? you're not going to raise your

hand. we've got to fill up this map. 147 agencies and businesses with over 100 events so far. so now is your chance. grab a pen, sign up. a few things that i would just mention in order to sign up for this first, is act now. the second is identify your partners. apta has a resource tool kit on the website where you can look, you can figure out who your partners are. we want to recruit all types of groups bicyclist groups, environmentalists, seniors, veterans, students, people with disabilities. we want to have, in your areas, in your local areas, we want to engage everyone in this stand up 4 transportation day. the third piece is planning your event. a ribbon cutting a rally an

employee roundtable turning your buses into billboards, sharing stats, and the fourth big piece is looking to apta for support. as i said, apta has a resource tool kit on the website providing messages resources, you can customize it to your area talking points, suggested talking points all of these kinds of things. please do that. let me end my comments with sort of a priority of mine. we were talking about the funding. i was talking about this yesterday in another meeting. we talk a lot about the funding, but i like to talk about the career pathways and growing our own qualified work force. i was talking the other day about if the money begins to flow -- because i do think we're going to get a long-term transportation bill this year.

i really believe that because i don't think that infrastructure apathy can last forever. and i don't think dysfunction at the highest levels can last forever in terms of infrastructure. so i do believe we're going to get a long-term bill. but what i talked about is if we get that long-term bill and if money and manna falls from heaven tomorrow and we have a long-term transportation bill will we have the qualified work force to build and rebuild this infrastructure in this country? and i'm not sure. i'm not sure that we have the track maintainers of the signal folks, even the run cutters. i'm not sure we have the qualified work force in this country to maintain our infrastructure. and so this idea of building career pathways for the hardest to fill positions in this industry are very, very

important. because we have to grow our own, and that includes in this career pathway community colleges that includes trade schools, building this type of career pathway where we can grow our own. so when the money does flow, we will have a great pool of folks that are already trained to do this work that is much needed in this country, rebuilding bridges and highways and legacy systems and all of those things. so get on board. let's get started. and i hope to have 200 events by april 9, or on april 9, and i think we can do it. with that, please help me welcome apta's president and ceo, michael melanify. please give him a hand.

[ applause ] ♪ >> got to start out with some theme music in the morning. good morning everyone. how we doing? didn't phil do a good job? give him a hand. phil washington our chair. [ applause ] >> each year at this time we gather here in washington d.c. to share the message of public transportation with our elected officials in congress to help them understand the important impact that we have on the vitality of this nation and i am so thrilled to have all of you join us here today. your commitment to come here to the nation's capitol to share our story is so important. thank you for making that effort. opportunity, as we come here together, is to meet with our colleagues, to share ideas to share concepts to influence decision makers. well, this year is more significant. this year is more pressing. mac 21 expires in a short 83

days. and the presidential election that's only 610 days away. not that far at all. the good news is we have a great message to bring to the administration and to bring to congress. you know what it is? americans want more public transportation! and the numbers tell it all. it's extraordinary. look at the figures for 2014 hot off the press. last year there were 10.8 billion trips taken on public transportation! say it with me! 10.8 billion! it's outstanding. that is 101 million more trips that were taken last year. this, ladies and gentlemen, is the highest public transportation ridership figure in 58 years! the last time ridership was this high gasoline was 23 cents a gallon. isn't that extraordinary? the public revolution for public

transportation is happening, it's happening now, and it's happening all a krolscross the country. this phenomenon isn't just in our largest cities it's happening all across the nation in cities large and small. look at that it's not just on the coast. some of the highest ridership happen in cities under 100,000. when you hear people ask i'm in a small town, i'm in a rural area, why does this matter to me? the ridership increase in cities under 100,000 was actually double the national growth rate last year. this is extraordinary. there are great things happening. from san diego to nashville from harrisburg illinois to bowling green from wanache, washington to new york city, people opted for public transportation in record numbers. and riders are telling us they want more public transportation. and now you need to let congress know that we need to make the investment in public transportation to meet this

growing need. it's incumbent upon all of us to educate our legislators. they need to know that this nation must have a robust multimodal service transportation bill. we cannot continue to have short-term extensions. in the last 10 years, we've had 23 short-term extensions on the surface transportation bill. this is not how you bill the greatest country in the world. this is not how you lead a national economy. this is short-term thinking. this is not how our country works. we need a big, long-term, surface transportation bill. are you with me? absolutely. when do we need it? now. absolutely right. now, one other reason we need it now is because there's a presidential election coming and that is going to suck up all the oxygen in the room. we need to focus now. we need to make it happen now. you need to get up on the hill and make these things happen.

how do we achieve our goals? as chairman of washington shared with all of us advocacy and local education. sure, we could share the messages here in washington, d.c. you hire us to come up and see the experts. but you need to share that local message in your towns and your communities. it is so important. but when you go up on the hill the next couple of days, take this packet with you. it is loaded with information to help you educate our members of congress, to help them see the $10.8 billion that -- or 10.8 billion trips that we've got going on in this country. you need to show them how this investment is paying off in growing demand and how we need it to continue provide safe dependable reliable service each and every day. congress doesn't need to go very far to see public infrastructure. look at the capitol dome. it's happening right where they work every day. now it's time for you to help share the message how we need to

make investment in our frein infrastructure as well. when you're up on the hill some may ask you, how should we pay for this robust transportation bill? certainly it's our job to explain surface transportation and why it's so vital to our nation's infrastructure and our nation's future. but congress that's their job to find the resources. now, you may hear that policymakers are asking that we're going to tell you, hey you should be grateful for the status quo. it's okay to just get what you get. you should be thankful for that. do you know what you need to say to them? good enough is not good enough. a short-term bill, that's not getting it. we need a long-term surface transportation bill that is essential to operating a strong and a secure public transportation system across this nation. remember that you all in this room, you are the subject matter experts.

if we aren't up there saying we need to make these investments who will? don't be shy. don't hold back. let them know we need to make these investments. now, some people will suggest that the moneys that are going to transportation are a diversion of those highway dollars, that we need to get transit out. if we could just get rid of that, stop this diversion, then we could solve the nation's highway problems. don't you fall into that trap. you let them know that story is not correct. remind your legislators that in 1983, president ronald reagan put forth a program to raise the federal gas tax from 4 cents to 9 cents. you know what he called it? a nickel for america. 4 cents for bridges roads and highways, 1 cent for transit. that's the origin of the 80/20 split. the dollars that go to transit

in the highway trust fund and the mass transit account have always been there for transit. they've never been a diversion. set the record straight. it's about a system working together. we're here to defend the system to make sure the system works well together. we've had a very long partnership. partnerships are what makes this program work. partnerships between passengers state, local and federal governments. that's what makes our nation so great and makes our transportation systems work so well. let us not forget it is an interdependent system. our buses and trains take cars off the roadways so we can have the free flow of goods products commerce and services throughout our roads and networks. it all works together as a system. so removing us from the highway trust fund, well, that's a bit like, i don't know removing the steering wheel from a bus. it doesn't make any sense. it all has to work together.

now, d.o.t., they have their own bill a robust, six-year bill called the growing america act. it's true, we may not agree with every single subpart or section of it, i have to tell you this bill does a great job of telling congress that we need to move in the right direction and that this stuff matters. but we can't do it alone. we have to work together. we're very pleased that joining us at the conference today will be fta acting administrator teresa miller, and joining her will be acting administrator sarah feinberg. they will be acting on proposals and taking your questions from the audience. we're also thrilled that joining us here on the stage will be two great leaders in the transportation field that work tirelessly here in washington d.c. when you see me testify up on capitol hill there is very often two people standing right there next to me, janet kavinoky

and dr. pete lorraine. great transportation leaders. they're going to help tell the story about how we have to work together to move the ball forward. now, passage of a surface transportation bill, it's a lengthy process. the first stage, we passed that in december of 2013. we gathered the information, we gathered the needs we put the data together, and we brought it to the hill and we brought it to our partners so we could all see together what those needs were. now we're in the second stage of that process when different ideas are put together that start to coealesce into a bill. there are lots of different bills out there, lots of different ideas. do not be distracted by the shiny things in the water. stay focused on our mission stay focused on our message as we shepherd through the next stage an actual transportation bill. we should be bold in our approach because we know the needs are real.

we know that demands from the public are real, we know that the infrastructure investment needs are real. and we know that we have been able to functionally fully demonstrate public transportation as a significant, financial impact on this nation's economy. in fact for every dollar invested in public transportation, the economic return is four times that, $4 of economic return for each $1 invested in public transportation. it's not just about that economic return, it's about jobs, it's about getting americans to work. there are nearly 50,000 jobs created or sustained for each $1 billion investment of federal dollars into the public transportation system. this is a huge return. but even more importantly, the federal government doesn't build our rolling stock they don't build our buses trains and transit shelters. the private sector does that

the consultants the oems, they make this business happen. those federal dollars those government dollars that come through to our industry, most of those are capital dollars. did you know that fully 73% of the government dollars that come into transit flow right through to the private sector? they're creating jobs all across the nation. good, high-paying, high-quality jobs. be sure to share that jobs story with the policymakers up on the hill. tell them how they're creating jobs and opportunities to get the jobs in cities large and small, urban and rural all across our nation. but with a job, it doesn't end there. you're going to do a great job on the hill the next couple days, i know you are. you're going to storm that hill. when you go back to your communities, that's when the real work happens. that's when you bring your members of congress and elected officials to your properties, to your companies. show them don't just tell them, where the federal dollars are going. let them see and touch and feel

your trains your buses, your transit shelters, your factories, your offices your job sites. let them meet your drivers, your mechanics, your dispatchers, your drivers your engineers, your field workers. let them understand where these federal dollars are going, that we are creating great public transportation options for people in all 435 congressional districts, all 50 states in this nation. help them understand the perspective of where these federal dollars are going so that when they are in their town, when they're driving to the next rotary club or other event, they can point to that train, that shelter, that station and say there's federal dollars at work there and i'm proud to see them enhancing that ability in my community. and they can see that it's all part of a system. and you all make that happen. you convey that message. so as we finish up our meetings this morning as you all take to the hill, as you hear from administration and members of congress and our partners up here, take these messages take

them to the hill, share the story that we need well-funded long-term surface transportation bill. we need it for our industry. and ladies and gentlemen, we need it for america. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you michael. very insightful remarks. thank you for your strong leadership, your dedication to the industry. now it's my pleasure to introduce our featured speakers. first up is janet kovanecky -- i probably already chopped up your name again. janet. janet. a nationally recognized expert in transportation policy funding and finance with the u.s. chamber of commerce. janet wears several hats at the chamber. she's the chamber's executive

director of transportation and infrastructure and she is vice president of this america's for transportation mobility coalition. she also leads the chamber's let's rebuild america initiative. help me welcome her to the stage. janet, please. [ applause ] >> thank you phil. and thank you, michael, for having me here today. wow, what an energetic opening. i have not been to a conference that started out with this much energy in the morning maybe ever. i don't know what you guys were doing at 7:30 i don't know what they put in your coffee, but that's pretty terrific. and i'm so pleased to be here again at apta. you're going to hear repeatedly, if you haven't already it's important for you to be here. how many of you have heard that it's important to be here? this is a test by the way, because you just heard it. if you don't raise your hands, i'm afraid you're asleep.

all right, how many of you believe that? okay. well, thank god, i don't have to convince you of that, because there is new staff on the hill. you know some of the people you're going to go talk to you've talked to for years and they're going to say it was great to see you again but i already know your story. for some of you you're walking into offices when you go up the hill with new staff. it's a 23-year-old that's looking at you going, transit. what's transit? i thought they only had that here in washington, d.c. you've got to tell them your story and why it's important for your community. how many of you have an office of your senate you're going to go see today? these people do not know anything about what you do. i'm going to put money on that. so you have a chance to go in, and it's not just about, you know, talking about a little bit what's going on in your town and why this is important, you can't

kind of sit there like this you've got to explain to them how you fit in how transit fits into your economy, how it fits into your transportation system how it creates jobs how it sustains employment, but most importantly, how important the federal government is to that. how important federal investment is to that. because there is a lot of noise on capitol hill today. you know we transportation people, we tend to think that we're unique and we're special. we're like, we're transportation, we got a trust fund this is all good. except that for the last 10 years or so, well, it hasn't been quite all that good. and now when you go to capitol hill, you know it took the senate six weeks to pass a department of homeland security bill, the senate and the house. just an appropriations bill, by the way, nothing complicated, just an appropriations bill for the department of homeland

security. the senate spent three weeks debating the keystone pipeline. we've kind of done that one before. i don't know if you're familiar with that, but yeah we've been there, we've done the keystone thing before. the president vetoed it, will probably have a veto override but the senate took three weeks to do that. they've got a debt ceiling debate coming up. they need to pass a budget between now and i don't know, may 31st. in june the export/import bank that's going to expire again. we have a medicare problem coming up in a few weeks. there is a lot of noise on capitol hill. so you being here helps cut through that noise. because you're a person from their district from their state representing employees. you're buying things out of the supply chain. you can say, yep i'm buying buses, i'm buying rail cars. you're putting a face on it. you might have 10 minutes standing in a hallway with a

23-year-old who doesn't know anything about transportation. you might have a half an hour with a member of congress, but this is your chance. here's why it's really important. transit is under attack in washington. i cannot open a newspaper during a week when i don't see an article, when i don't see an op-ed that's been placed by the heritage foundation -- i know it's heritage foundation because i've seen their stuff -- that says transit is a waste of money out of the highway trust fund, and that if we just fixed that little problem, we took that waste out, we would solve all of the transportation funding problems, because roads are all that really matter and they're all that are really federal. we're here today -- can i use a bad word? you're here today to call bullshit on that, people. you're here today to say i don't care if carly fiorina signed an

op-ed in the wall street journal or one almost identical in the los angeles times that says transit is a waste of money. you're looking those congress in the eye you're looking at that staff and you say you tell me this is a waste of money. you talk about the people riding your buses or riding your trains and you challenge them. because it's real easy for them to say in meetings on capitol hill -- you know, they get together, they talk to each other. by the way these are people the u.s. chamber helped put in office, so when i get fired, michael, my resume is coming to you. mort, i am definitely not sending you my resume. thank god i'm not qualified to work at metro whatsoever. and they sit around they're like, hey this is really easy. we need another 10, $15 billion. we're just going to dump out transit. that's easy for them to say to each other but it's going to be real hard when you're in their offices. you're going to hear them say, well, the market ought to decide. transit is really local.

private sector will build it or the local folks should pay for it. i was in south carolina doing a presentation at the south carolina chamber of commerce infrastructure day. anybody here from south carolina? okay, in the back, thank you very much. you had a congressman there who for the most part said all the right things, including, we we ought to raise the gas tax. i hear he got some phone calls about that but i compliment tom rice for saying, you know what we probably ought to do is raise the gas tax. then rice put up a chart and he showed, well south carolina, we don't get any real transit money back, and if we just got rid of transit, then we could fix the highway problem. so which i replied thanks to brian tynan's quick research to me as i'm typing on my phone south carolina, 74% of your resources for transit come from the federal government, so don't tell me it doesn't matter, don't tell me it's a small amount.

that's a pretty big deal and that's in south carolina. then he said well, you know we give all of this money to washington, and it only goes to, like, two transit systems in los angeles and new york. really? so you get to go up to capitol hill today and explain to them look, it's not all local. this is about the economy. you get to tell them look we've been investing in transit for years. this isn't all about the market should decide. again, i'll mention i do work for the u.s. chamber of commerce. i get to say all of the fun stuff. and this isn't waste. this is about investment, and it's about a complete system. so you're important today on capitol hill because you are going to go up there and you're going to take on those people who are saying transit doesn't need to be a part of this. you're going to take them on directly, and do not let them off the hook. do not let them tell you, i'm not on the committee of

jurisdiction, i don't have anything i can do about it. that's crap. they can call their leadership, they can show up on their monday or tuesday leadership meetings and they can say these transportation people are wearing me out. we've got to make sure we do a bill. because you know how things get prioritized in the united states house and the united states senate? when members come back from recess and the house is on recess this week when members come back, they tell their leadership who has been beating them up and that helps determine the priority list. you know how resources get managed in the united states senate? when they realize if we don't get something on the floor and get it done, our members are going to get beat up at home. so it's time not to let them off the hook. i'm going to give you one other thing to think about, and that's, you're all in this together. we're all in this together. the u.s. chamber of commerce, the american road and

transportation builders association, the americans for transportation mobility coalition which apta has supported for years, which arpta helped to start. we're all in this together but for you in transit, you are all in this together. if you go to the hill and it becomes bus versus light rail or people drag you into conversations, well i don't know why you're doing a street car, you ought to do this instead. or if it becomes big transit systems versus small transit systems, that's just the kind of division that congress needs, it's just the excuse they need to say well, there is no unity there, we can get rid of those guys. you have to go with a unified voice today. you have to be representing transit, you have to be representing transportation, passing a long-term transportation bill. don't let them drag you into a conversation about whether what part of transit is better than the other, should we be using buses? should we be using light rail? i hate that d.c. street car.

forget that. that's not what this conversation is about. this conversation is about we need a long-term fully funded transportation bill that supports growth that supports investment that supports jobs. just like michael said, we need it now. we're going to be standing up with you for transportation on april 9th. what perfect timing, phil. you know, april 9th is the very end of the easter recess or as they call it district work period. so for the 10 days before that because that recess starts on march 30th you can be taking people out and showing them projects, showing them where federal investment happens you can show how you're partnering with d.o.t.s. you can show how transit is impacting your business community. and then on april 9th just in case any of you hadn't really thought about what you were going to talk about on april 9th, what a great story you have

for the media in your area. what a great op-ed you have to place or a blog post or shoot, a whole set of tweets. because you can talk about what you've been doing for the last 10 days showing your members of congress and your delegations showing your communities what transportation is about why transit matters, why we need to fully fund a transportation bill. if any of you can't pick up the phone and call your state or local chamber of commerce, you need help with that let me know. michael has got my cell phone number. shoot, i'll give you my cell phone number if you really want it right now, but it might just be easier if michael gave it to you later. we will make that happen. phil, that is just a tremendous opportunity for all of us to stand up together for transportation, and i'm proud to stand here with you today. so thank you all very much. [ applause ] >> thank you janet.

she's fantastic, isn't she? she really is. [ applause ] >> now we'll hear from peter ruwane, president and corporate executive officer with the american road and transportation builders association. pete has 40 years of experience in the economic development, transportation construction, and national defense and i heard you were a marine as well. i'm army but, you know. all right. all one service. he's the vice president of the chamber's america's for transportation mobility coalition. he previously was a deputy dregt tore of the office of economic adjustment and the office of the secretary of defense, and he was on the president's economic adjustment committee. please welcome peter ruwane. [ applause ]

>> morning. i'm glad i got here early to hear the comments of phil and michael and janet. i have only one response. hoo-rah! i picked up a great idea on how to fund our problems on the way in here. anybody valet park? $42? holy moses. so you tell the members of congress they all are to valet park at this hotel every day of the week they're in town -- that's only three -- and we'll get 10% of that for the rest of the year to fund at least the transit program, if not the whole bloody thing. yikes. well, michael i heard you twice

this morning on wpot. for those of you who don't know about that that's the leading radio station here. it also has the leading traffic reports every morning. you didn't tell me that truck was broken down on 295! i would have been here on time. good message two separate messages, by the way. well done, as always. okay, folks. don't have much time and you're on your way -- we're going to hear some other speakers first but i hope all of you know there is a t in our name and our members design all modes of transportation improvements, capital transit projects, in fact that's a major market for members, and that t has been there nearly 40 years now.

we're about -- what is it 113, 114 years old? that's a pretty long time. we're very pleased and janet made reference to this. recently, michael and i co-signed a letter to the wall street journal which got published, and believe me to get that published responding to the wannabe presidential candidate carly. carly carly. that was a lot of fun, and of course we did some public opinion surveys at the end of last year together. and over the years, i think many of you know this, we've had a number of joint advertising programs together in our lobbying efforts and past legislation, and, of course, as phil and michael both referenced, and janet as well, we've been partners on various coalitions for many many years. so i feel very comfortable here, i feel very much at home.

i know there is still some out there that like to divide us and think we only represent the highway industry. that's a crock. we represent the transportation construction industry. generically, our members build all the airports they design them all, all the rail all the ports, all the high speed what little there is and of course, the highways and transit and bridges of this nation. so working together i mean it can't be overstated. it's been said already but i'm going to say it again. the importance of us working together in these coming days and months. now, you know that we have upon us janet mentioned this very well, the club for growth and heritage, i call them out. i'm not afraid to mention who they are. they have informed a lot of people with bad information, and

they're out there trying to divide us they're out there putting bum information in the mainstream, in the media and frankly most of what they put out there is illogical, it's not fact based. and those two groups have one thing in common, though. they're both wrong. they're both wrong. zero sum game is a metaphor we all like to use. we're not going to get trapped in that. we're here to advance the cause of transportation because frankly, there's a chronic underinvestment in all modes of transportation in this country. so we're not going to get trapped in a food fight. we're not going to do that for sure. that's happened a few times in the past. in fact, i remember when i

joined arthur in the last century, that's exactly the way it was by the way, some of you remember that. we were the highway community. apta was the transit community. never shall they meet. what a crime. that was sad. that was very sad. that has not been the case in recent years. so the vast majority of congress, you already know this. they do recognize finally, what we're facing. the facts not the myths, that have been adequately conveyed by all of us over the years, over the months, over recent days so none of them, none of them can say they don't know the truth. they may refer to the latest ad or radio ad that they've heard. the crime the crime and need to

invest, but folks, the facts are out there. that's one of the good news things. now the last eight year ss, the last eight years of uncertainty have clearly led to some bad decisions around the country a lot of spaces held up their investments because they don't -- they can't count on the federal government's partnership. we've essentially had a frozen program in recent years. in fact, we've had major cuts no one wants to talk about. but we've taken nearly a $3 billion cut in the overall highway program for sure in recent years so i'm here not to talk about negative things but to talk about positive things. i said the truth is out there. people know the facts.

and more important than that, more important than that, after this eight-year period of uncertainty, of indecision, of putting things off, i do believe, bill made this comment in his opening remarks i also believe that we're going to get a long-term piece of legislation this year. now i'm among the minority. see janet and others nodding their heads. there are a few of us here who believe that. a lot of our colleagues don't. they don't. a lot of our members don't. a lot of our member companies do not believe we're going to get a long-term piece of legislation this year. you know what they're doing as a result? they're laying back. some are laying off. and that has caused serious problems in the economy and that uncertainty, and i'm not going to you know, give you the latest on this but we monitor

this very closely. you're well aware of some of the major states, that already announced their cutting back. and here we are, march we got to the end of may, to deal with the extension. but most importantly we still don't know what the solution to the highway trust fund problem is. besides the valet parking approach that i mentioned. but look. they know what they have to do. both sides of the aisle know what they have to do. we think that they will have the courage this time to do the right thing. we're very encouraged. particularly on some, i won't call them jailhouse conversions. they might be. but we had some conversion ss of longtime resisters, longtime opponents of doing the right

thing. they're now prepared to do the right thing. so we're going to roll out something here in a few days that will add to what's being discussed at the moment. nothing incredibly novel. in some regards, simply a reiteration of past proposals. dressed up a little bit. garnished with new information, new facts, and aimed at getting this debate off of a dime. off its rear end. and you're going to be surprised at the bipartisan support. you're going to run into this week. i mean maybe not surprised. but maybe shocked. some of you are probably shocked. and i think it's real. i think you're going to see a very serious attempt to finally

deal with this in the coming weeks. now we could talk about very specific things and i'm not sure you want to do that. but a couple of things have happened recently, that's why we have this positive outlook. we're naturally optimistic, sometimes people think we're foolish. but we're not members of the surrender brigade in this town. and it's a pretty big brigade. pretty big brigade. but they don't want to face the tough political opposition that's still out there but you know just last week, just last week, 285 members of the house, 285, at 412, 415 whatever the number is 435, it's a majority!

on both sides of the aisle. trying to say hey, let's get it done, let's resolve this problem, let's get it done. we've also seen right after the elections, in fact, last november the new senate majority leader on national tv said there's only two things we want to deal with right away tax reform, and taking care of the transportation trust fund issue. and so don't tell me there isn't support out there. there is real world support. it's up to us, it's up to us to close the deal. so where are we? people love to ask that question. you know, where are we? where are we? i don't know. where are you standing? you're right there!

you know i love to say, you know one of the old marine sayings, one hair short of ugly. you know what that means? one hair short of ugly, well it is ugly. and it's going to get uglier come the end of may. so the timing is perfect. you couldn't have scheduled this at a better time. your april events we also have a transportation coalition coming in after easter with all of our gifts from that holiday, and we're going to be storming the hill, as well. so we're going to have a wave, a wave of industry representatives carrying a message, and trying to get congress to do the right thing. but, you know, we could talk all day about specific solutions, but the bottom line is this.

this whole issue forget about all the ways to divide the pie. it's a political problem. it's a political problem. how do you solve political problems? you solve them politically. they're not going to listen otherwise. we've had facts, commissions, studies, research, up the ying yank for years decades, centuries. this is a fact free zone. you solve this politically and that's why you're here. it's been well side, bill, michael teed this up perfectly. janet added the icing on the cake. you got to tell your story. you got to tell the specific

facts, and you got to say folks, you don't do the right thing, there will be consequences. political consequences. now a lot of people don't like to do that. you know we tell our members you got to talk to them back home you got to get in their face. you got to tell them your story. but what good is all that? today, they know most of that and that's very different than in the past. you now have to add that final sentence, we are keeping score. we're paying attention. we're not stupid. we're not naive. you are here to sent -- you were sent here to do a job. and guess what? it's a very tough job. with all respect. it is a very tough job. that our elected representatives have.

but they wanted it. they knew that ahead of time. we didn't force them to come here. i don't see these guys and gals up there in chains. they're here on purpose. and that is to solve our nation's problems. to deal with our nation's challenges in the future. that's why they're here. keep reminded of that. so how are we going to do it? well, we've got to change the debate. the debate is, you know, as i said i think there's clarity in most quarters now. but you know you got to remove, you got to remove the bubble wrap around these discussions. if i get bruised i might get hurt. baloney. take it away. and say, these are the hard facts. these are the hard facts and if

you ignore them there will be consequences. we keep score. we're not up here on some band trip. not up here to go out and get ripped off. we're here to do a job. so it's no time for subtle decency. no time for subtleties. and as janet said, when you -- if you think you're talking to daffy duck up there, you know, hey, be patient. be patient because remember what is the key after these meetings? follow up. you got to follow up with everybody you met with, everybody you talked to, and you follow up back home. you go back and visit their local offices, a just went to d.c., i saw senator upy up, he said such and such she said such and such, i want you to know that and by the way when

they come back here and go into recess lots of them coming up i want to see the end, i want to take them out to my job site as janet mentioned, et cetera, et cetera. also in terms of avoiding the subtleties, don't -- you're going to hear ideas that you know we had this i guess my -- i don't know. i was in annapolis yesterday. we don't you know for the saint patty's day parade. i live in annapolis. the new governor was lead inging the parade. and i'm there with six of my nine grandchildren. of course i've got a beer. so the governor comes up he's got a green thing on and i say governor you going to build the

purple line, right? he said i'm in favor of the green line. i'm in favor of the green line. so i'm serious. we did intervene on that project as some of you know. we don't normally do that. in fact i just sent a nice valentine's letter to governor cuomo last week about the situation in new york. i'm sure we got plenty of folks here in new york. we don't normally do that, either. but both of those situations had national implication ss far beyond their respective states because if they don't invest here, we don't invest in this state, it affects all the adjacent states, it affects the whole bloody country. i got to tell you, my 5-year-old grandson pulls me over and says pop, how come he didn't give us any candy? he didn't give us any necklaces. i said peter, that was bad.

can't give you candy until you give them candy. he looked, okay. so you're going to hear some of what i call jedi mind i won't say the next word, crap. in terms of how they're going to solve the problem. there's an elementary basic known way to deal with this. what's it called? raise the bloody user fee. raise the bloody user fee. have the political courage to do this. it's right in front of you. it's the most proven, the most efficient way to get it done. do it!

do it. or-rah! >> give all three of our speakers a great hand. now bear with me we're going to do a photo-op. i'm going to ask the speakers to come back up, and guess what? we got the t-shirt. and the bag of chips. come on up please. no, we don't have a bag of chips.

♪ okay. we'll hear more about transportation infrastructure in our next session. we've got the mayors transit roundtable starting promptly at 10:30 right back in this room. we are adjourned. thank you for coming. ♪

taking a break here. the american public transportation association conference. in about 15 minutes, we'll be hearing from mayors during the transit roundtable. mayors from mesa, arizona st. paul, minnesota and fort worth, texas. also today happening in washington, d.c. on capitol hill, the house out today. members are on a district work break in the senate working on executive nominations. they're in at 2:00 eastern time. and votes on nominations after 5:30. also, some news today, gop senators making news with an

open letter to iran as negotiators continue talks on iran's nuclear program. 47 u.s. senators including tom cotton, here of arkansas warning that any deal that's struck with iran will be short-lived, without approval from congress and would nearly be an agreement between president obama and iran's supreme leader that could be easily revoked by future presidents. negotiations are facing an end of march deadline to produce an outline of an agreement with iran. we'll keep you posted on any updates on the c-span networks. again in a break of our live coverage from the american public transportation association conference. while we're in a break we're going to be taking a look back at some of the remarks from earlier this morning by the president and ceo of the american public transportation association. also want to let you know that legislative conference is bringing together more than 600 transportation leaders as they

are aiming to direct their industry's advocacy and legislative efforts on capitol hill. this year insight on the 114th congress, some updates from the u.s. department of transportation public transit and also intercity passenger rail. some of the things to look forward to during this conference today. we'll be taking you live all the way until about 3:15 p.m. eastern time this afternoon. >> going to start out with some theme music in the morning. good morning, everybody, how we doing? doesn't phil do a great job? give him a hand. phil washington, our chair.

♪ ♪ >> got to start out with some theme music in the morning. good morning, everybody, how you doing? doesn't phil do a great job?

give him a big hand. phil washington, our chair. each year at this time we gather here in washington, d.c. to share the message of public transportation with our elected officials in congress to help them understand the important impact that we have on the vitality of this nation, and i am so thrilled to have all of you join us here today. your commitment to come here to the nation's capitol to share our story is so important. thank you for making that effort. opportunity, as we come here together, is to meet with our colleagues, to share ideas, to share concepts, to influence decision makers. well, this year is more significant. this year is more pressing. mac 21 expires in a short 83 days. and the presidential election, that's only 610 days away. not that far at all. the good news is we have a great message to bring to the administration and to bring to congress. you know what it is?

americans want more public transportation! and the numbers tell it all. it's extraordinary. look at the figures for 2014 hot off the press. last year there were 10.8 billion trips taken on public transportation! say it with me! 10.8 billion! it's outstanding. that is 101 million more trips that were taken last year. this, ladies and gentlemen, is the highest public transportation ridership figure in 58 years! the last time ridership was this high, gasoline was 23 cents a gallon. isn't that extraordinary? the public revolution for public transportation is happening, it's happening now, and it's happening all across the country. this phenomenon isn't just in our largest cities, it's happening all across the nation

in cities large and small. look at that, it's not just on the coast. some of the highest ridership happen in cities under 100,000. when you hear people ask, i'm in a small town, i'm in a rural area, why does this matter to me? the ridership increase in cities under 100,000 was actually double the national growth rate last year. this is extraordinary. there are great things happening. from san diego to nashville, from harrisburg, illinois to bowling green, from wanache, washington to new york city, people opted for public transportation in record numbers. and riders are telling us they want more public transportation. and now you need to let congress know that we need to make the investment in public transportation to meet this growing need. it's incumbent upon all of us to educate our legislators. they need to know that this nation must have a robust, multimodal service

transportation bill. we cannot continue to have short-term extensions. in the last 10 years, we've had 23 short-term extensions on the surface transportation bill. this is not how you build the greatest country in the world. this is not how you lead a national economy. this is short-term thinking. this is not how our country works. we need a big, long-term, surface transportation bill. are you with me? absolutely. when do we need it? now. absolutely right. now, one other reason we need it now is because there's a presidential election coming, and that is going to suck up all the oxygen in the room. we need to focus now. we need to make it happen now. you need to get up on the hill and make these things happen. how do we achieve our goals? as chairman of washington shared with all of us, advocacy and local education. sure, we could share the messages here in washington, d.c. you hire us to come up and see the experts.

but you need to share that local message in your towns and your communities. it is so important. but when you go up on the hill the next couple of days, take this packet with you. it is loaded with information to help you educate our members of congress, to help them see the $10.8 billion that -- or 10.8 billion trips that we've got going on in this country. you need to show them how this investment is paying off in growing demand and how we need it to continue provide safe, dependable, reliable service each and every day. congress doesn't need to go very far to see public infrastructure. look at the capitol dome. it's happening right where they work every day. now it's time for you to help share the message how we need to make investment in our infrastructure as well. when you're up on the hill, some may ask you, how should we pay for this robust transportation bill? certainly it's our job to explain surface transportation and why it's so vital to our

nation's infrastructure and our nation's future. but congress, that's their job to find the resources. now, you may hear that policymakers are asking that we're going to tell you, hey, you should be grateful for the status quo. it's okay to just get what you get. you should be thankful for that. do you know what you need to say to them? good enough is not good enough. a short-term bill, that's not getting it. we need a long-term surface transportation bill that is essential to operating a strong and a secure public transportation system across this nation. remember that you all in this room, you are the subject matter experts. if we aren't up there saying we need to make these investments, who will? don't be shy. don't hold back. let them know we need to make these investments.

now, some people will suggest that the moneys that are going to transportation are a diversion of those highway dollars, that we need to get transit out. if we could just get rid of that, stop this diversion, then we could solve the nation's highway problems. don't you fall into that trap. you let them know that story is not correct. remind your legislators that in 1983, president ronald reagan put forth a program to raise the federal gas tax from 4 cents to 9 cents. you know what he called it? a nickel for america. 4 cents for bridges, roads and highways, 1 cent for transit. that's the origin of the 80/20 split. the dollars that go to transit in the highway trust fund and the mass transit account have always been there for transit. they've never been a diversion. set the record straight. it's about a system working together. we're here to defend the system to make sure the system works

well together. we've had a very long partnership. partnerships are what makes this program work. partnerships between passengers, state, local and federal governments. that's what makes our nation so great and makes our transportation systems work so well. let us not forget, it is an interdependent system. our buses and trains take cars off the roadways so we can have the free flow of goods, products, commerce and services throughout our roads and networks. it all works together as a system. so removing us from the highway trust fund, well, that's a bit like, i don't know, removing the steering wheel from a bus. it doesn't make any sense. it all has to work together. now, d.o.t., they have their own bill, a robust, six-year bill called the growing america act. it's true, we may not agree with every single subpart or section of it, i have to tell you this bill does a great job of telling

congress that we need to move in the right direction and that this stuff matters. but we can't do it alone. we have to work together. we're very pleased that joining us at the conference today will be fta acting administrator teresa miller, and joining her will be acting administrator sarah feinberg. they'll be here to share the administration's and proposals and taking your questions from the audience. we're also thrilled that joining us here on the stage will be two great leaders in the transportation field that work tirelessly here in washington, d.c. when you see me testify up on capitol hill, there is very often two people standing right there next to me, janet kavinoky and dr. pete ruane. great transportation leaders. they're going to help tell the story about how we have to work together to move the ball forward. now, passage of a surface

transportation bill, it's a lengthy process. the first stage, we passed that in december of 2013. we gathered the information, we gathered the needs, we put the data together, and we brought it to the hill and we brought it to our partners so we could all see together what those needs were. now we're in the second stage of that process when different ideas are put together that start to coalesce into a bill. there are lots of different bills out there, lots of different ideas. do not be distracted by the shiny things in the water. stay focused on our mission, stay focused on our message as we shepherd through the next stage an actual transportation bill. we should be bold in our approach because we know the needs are real. we know that demands from the public are real, we know that the infrastructure investment needs are real. and we know that we have been able to functionally, fully demonstrate public transportation as a significant,

financial impact on this nation's economy. in fact, for every dollar invested in public transportation, the economic return is four times that, $4 of economic return for each $1 invested in public transportation. it's not just about that economic return, it's about jobs, it's about getting americans to work. there are nearly 50,000 jobs created or sustained for each $1 billion investment of federal dollars into the public transportation system. this is a huge return. but even more importantly, the federal government doesn't build our rolling stock, they don't build our buses, trains and transit shelters. the private sector does that, the consultants, the oems, they make this business happen. those federal dollars, those government dollars that come through to our industry, most of those are capital dollars. did you know that fully 73% of the government dollars that come

into transit flow right through to the private sector? they're creating jobs all across the nation. good, high-paying, high-quality jobs. be sure to share that jobs story with the policymakers up on the hill. tell them how they're creating jobs and opportunities to get the jobs in cities large and small, urban and rural all across our nation. but with a job, it doesn't end there. you're going to do a great job on the hill the next couple days, i know you are. you're going to storm that hill. when you go back to your communities, that's when the real work happens. that's when you bring your members of congress and elected officials to your properties, to your companies. show them, don't just tell them, where the federal dollars are going. let them see and touch and feel your trains, your buses, your transit shelters, your factories, your offices, your job sites. let them meet your drivers, your mechanics, your dispatchers, your drivers, your engineers, your field workers. let them understand where these

federal dollars are going, that we are creating great public transportation options for people in all 435 congressional districts, all 50 states in this nation. help them understand the perspective of where these federal dollars are going so that when they are in their town, when they're driving to the next rotary club or other event, they can point to that train, that shelter, that station and say there's federal dollars at work there and i'm proud to see them enhancing that ability in my community. and they can see that it's all part of a system. and you all make that happen. you convey that message. so as we finish up our meetings this morning, as you all take to the hill, as you hear from administration and members of congress and our partners up here, take these messages, take them to the hill, share the story that we need well-funded, long-term surface transportation bill. we need it for our industry. and ladies and gentlemen, we need it for america.

thank you very much. [ applause ] just some of the remarks earlier there from the american public transportation association conference. starting up here in a few minutes, going to be taking a look at the mayor's transit roundtable next. we'll be hearing from the mayors of mesa arizona st. paul, minnesota, and fort worth, texas. and this conference bringing together 600 transportation leaders. the 2015 american public transportation association legislative conference. directing transportation industries advocacy and legislative efforts on capitol hill. this year, getting some insight into the agenda for the 114th congress, as well as some updates from the u.s. department of transportation, other public transit agencies and inner city passenger rail. while we're waiting for them to reconvene we'll take a look at some of the details of what else

is happening around washington, d.c. specifically the senate, capitol hill, we spoke to our reporter about what to expect today from the senate, and the rest of the week. >> we turn to neil a frequent guest at the washington journal. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. >> want to talk about the iran deal that's going on and the bill that was expected to be on the floor this week in the senate. and then got pulled. explain what's going on there. >> well, what's happened with the floor schedule was we had anticipated that on tuesday that the senate would attempt to hold a vote on taking up a measure sponsored by the foreign relations chairman bob corker of tennessee. that would effectively require

the administration to to send any sort of agreement that may be reached to -- with the irans over their nuclear program, to capitol hill, for 60-day period that would allow congress to weigh in on any sort of agreement. but what happened was that a number of democratic senators who had actually supported the legislation indicated to the majority leader in the senate mitch mcconnell, that they would not vote for their own bill until after a march 24th deadline for some sort of progress or resolution in these talks with iran. so there were -- what we were left with was the prospect that the bill was not going to be

proceeded to. in fact bob corker had even told me that he knew he did not have 60 votes for his own bill. and so that plan was put on hold until after the 24th -- >> and if a bill like this doesn't get passed eventually by this congress, how much say will this congress have in any sort of nuclear negotiations that are happening? >> well it's not clear that the way this is being structured that there was anything that necessarily the congress will have specifically regarding approving any sort of agreement with iran. now obviously if there is some sort of agreement reached you would have a situation where members of congress might be weighing in through something like the appropriations process when it comes to whatever kind of budgetary needs there would be that would be needed in order to implement the agreement.

but without this sort of legislation, which frankly at this juncture the white house has already indicated would be vetoed, but there's no -- there's no real way for congress to necessarily have to weigh in absent something like that. >> so with that legislation off the table this week in the senate, attention turning to the debate over the president's war powers request, talk us through what's happening in the senate this week. >> well so while they are working on the floor with a somewhat, well a much less controversial matter they're going to take up anti-human trafficking legislation that should have broad bipartisan

support, you'll see at various committees that there's been going to be all sorts of foreign policy related hearings. the highlight of which is as you mentioned in the opening that the secretary of state john kerry, new defense secretary ash carter and the, i believe the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as well are all scheduled to be testifying midweek about the president's request for an authorization for the use of force against the group that's called isis, or isil or the islamic state. and what we'll see, i think, is that that's going to really lay bare how big the gap is between the group of lawmakers who think that the request was too broad, those that think the request was too narrow, and i think that will be kind of the most

interesting thing of the week, and it may be that we find out that there's no way that this congress can really move forward with that request at all. the gap is as wide as we think it is. >> and then touch on some of those other hearings we're expected to see on capitol hill this week on some of those foreign policy matters. >> well, there are -- there's, as has sort of become a weekly occurrence, there's a closed briefing at the armed services committee dealing with iran. we're going to see again, another -- another hearing about the status in ukraine in fact in one side note today this morning, and this is not on capitol hill but it is -- might be of interest to washington journal viewers, senator chris murray a democrat from

connecticut is hosting senator mccain, the chairman of the armed services committee, actually up in connecticut, and they're meeting with the ukrainian-american community up there about -- about the situation on the ground in ukraine, and so that will be another talking point for the week as well as the other thing that we might see, i think as this goes forward we'll have the talk armed services it's going to be hard to see if anything is going to be done about russia in regards to ukraine. >> we appreciate your time this morning. thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> american transportation conference expected to start the mayor's roundtable in just a moment. we'll be hearing from mayor john giles of arizona. betsy price of fort worth 2 taking a look at some of the legislative priorities and advocacy groups and cities around the united states. good morning, everybody.

hello, welcome. great to see you. i feel a hair of enthusiasm in this proud today. and you're not going to be disappointed. good morning, i'm mike aleg ga the president and ceo of the utah transit authority, and i'm honored to be able to host this panel today with three great mayors from three incredible cities. i've been in the business a long time, four decades i started my career here in virginia. and i appreciate the fact that c-span is here to, frankly, help spread the dialogue about investment in transportation. you know in utah we have benefited significantly by our partnerships for the federal agencies. our first full funding grant came to us in 1997. subsequently to that we've gotten six full funding grants have built 140 miles of rails in

14 years, perhaps the quickest in this nation, and we are benefiting significantly by that investment. a decade or so ago, our community, state, local governments and partnerships with the federal agencies decided and made a commitment to invest their tax resources in transportation, highways and transit. we now are one of the best economic states in the country. i will tell you that no one no elected official have lost their job because of that commitment that they made a decade ago. in fact, our governor is now the chairman of the national association of governors. our state senate chairman of the national league of legislators. our chamber of commerce lane beatty has become on the national board of the chamber of

commerce. and our mayor of salt lake city is now the president and the national league of cities. and so, we are looked at, i believe, as a state that is well run, knows how to get things done but recognizes that investment in infrastructure are one of the key pillars to economic growth and vitality. so we're here today with three incredible mayors that are going to talk to you about their stories. but before i do that, i wanted to read the president of the united states, i've been told, is competing with us today because he's at the national league of cities. so i very much appreciate these mayors being here but i have a statement i want to read to you from mayor ralph becker who is the president of the league of cities. and he says quote, national league of cities and the american public transit association have enjoyed a close working relationship for many decades. the results of which have been

tremendous transit progress for those cities we serve. our great transit accomplishments in the salt lake region is an important example of the benefit of this collaboration. as the nlc president and mayor of salt lake i look forward to continuing to work with apta forwards a long-term, well funded, transportation reauthorization this year. the president's proposed grow america act is an important contribution to this must-do reauthorization effort. so with that, those who participated yesterday in the legislative conference heard from a gentleman who represents america's infrastructure alliance. he made three key points that will be the focus of today's conversation. number one, make it local.

okay. you have local here. number two talk about economic benefits and commerce. talk about how transportation does what it's done in utah. talk about how it will affect your community and lastly, perhaps most importantly, investment saves money. now is the time to make an investment, because it will pay dividends in the future. you won't be borrowing. it will cost you less. and i think the mayor will talk about that as we do some local efforts in that record. you're hearing from three strong, conservative, fiscally responsible, energetic, motivated, fast-growing communities. each of which have a passion for transportation and transit. these mayors have a vitality of their own and they are developing a sense of place in a community like no others. i like to say that the cities that are surrounding them salt

lake and dallas, and phoenix are suburbs to their cities there. so, let me have you buckle up your seat belts because you're in for a ride here. i'm going to introduce the three mayors in the order that they're going to speak, and then pose three main topics today. first off i want to hear and have them share with you stories about their city and what their vision is. second, they're going to drill down a little bit and talk about transportation, and their transit projects and what they see as benefits to the community, what their future for transportation are and then lastly we're going to zero in on the partnerships with federal agencies and things that we can do to the, and perhaps offer some recommendations to apta for things we can do to be great partners with local government. so the first mayor to my left here, on your right, is -- excuse me, mayor betsy price.

she is the mayor of fort worth, texas, it's the 16th largest city in the united states. established in 1849 i think, mayor? was an american outpost as part of the mexican-american war. but what i found interesting in looking it up online is there were three transformational times in fort worth's history. number one they were part of the chisolm trail, the cattle drive. and initially established fort worth. then they became the crossroads of the texas and pacific railway. the second major boone to that city. and then in the early 1900s, they had close to 400 miles of street cars in the dallas-ft. worth area. huge, huge investment in street cars. so i think we're going to hear from the mayor today as a mover and shaker. she was elected in 2001, the 44th mayor of this city. she leads efforts in engaging

and designing a healthy community. she talks a lot about alternative modes of transportation, particularly walking and cycling and maybe she'll talk to you about her walking and rolling town hall. she's an avid cyclist. yet she gets time to spend with her family, her husband her children, and her three grandchildren, and apparently she's a proud maverick with a bachelor's degree from the university of texas at arlington. mayor john giles from mesa arizona. i looked up on wikipedia what a wonderful thing. they call mesa arizona the center of population for arizona. mayor. >> center of the universe. >> center of the universe, i'm sorry. >> don't call us short. >> third largest city in arizona, the 3th largest city in the united states, and its history actually goes back 2,000

years ago, maybe we'll hear about this they developed canals in those communities another form of transportation. mayor giles is the 40th mayor of mesa. he started his mayoralship in 2014 but he's had a long history with governance being on the city council, and in many, many organizations, boards and committees. he has a policy sky degree from byu, brigham young university so he's a cougar. he has a law degree from arizona state, and has managed and practiced and manages a law office of his own. and born and raised in mesa. he's a marathoner. he's a triathlete. he has finished two full ironman. and this year, he finished his 20th marathon and his fourth boston marathon. so i think and i hope, we can keep up with him.

lastly and not least the mayor of riverton city, utah. from my community mayor applegarth served as the mayor, he's been there since 2006. this year they're celebrating their 150th birthday. it is a high energy, high growth community. the population has exploded. he'll tell you about that. it was listed by cnn as one of the top places to live in the united states. it also has a rich transit history in 1913 and has the salt lake and utah railways and urban life that went right through its community there. so mayor applegarth has been on city council he's worked as an educator he has a law degree, excuse me a doctorate from byu, is a cougar, as well, and he spent his entire career in the educational system.

he does have eight children, and 30 grandchildren. and he is a leader in our community. he is on virtually every transportation community. our relationship with the transit organization and the npo, the best i know of in the country and kudos to mayor applegarth and the things that he does there. so with that i'm going to ask the mayors to talk a little bit about their cities, and what they're doing so they can paint the picture for you of what's going on in their cities and then we'll move on to even more transportation agenda. so we can start with either one of you. >> hopefully the mic's not on we've been up here talking. i've been caught doing that. we're not capital steps although mayor giles said he would tap dance for you.

in addition to running marathons he's a tap dancer. and i guess we'll stand behind him. i understand that you're coming to cow town to fort worth in may and i hope each and every one of you in this room will come. you're absolutely going to love it. we are the 16th -- actually the 17th largest city now. we got beat out by 105 people in charlotte in the midterm count. i think that's a statistical error. but we're one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, since the year 2000. about 1,000 people a day come to texas, and about 350 of those people land in dallas or fort worth. so we are huge. we're 800,000 citizens now, and in the next ten years we'll be more than 1 million citizens. and you know we always say, we're a big, spread-out city. fort worth is 3 52 square miles and 344 square miles so

ultimately we'll be a big, big land mass. and texas her taj, as you know all, we're obviously behind on mass transit because we love our suburbans and we love our pickups and we're just now getting people to really think about public transit. we've always had it there. it's always served the working class. you mention street cars. believe it or not we used to have the largest line of street cars dallas and fort worth. bee don't have a single street car any longer. so we really poured a lot of concrete. but we all know as leaders, we know that you're never going to pour enough concrete to accommodate the growth. you're simply not. and our young leaders, our young millennials who are moving there for the high tech jobs for the defense industry jobs aviation tourism, all really want one car. and we're seeing them move back in the inner city, as well as our suburb cities, but we have to rebuild those inner cities

and keep them strong. and transit is a way. they want to be able to leave one car in their garage and not take it out, to take a circulator bus or to take a bus to the intermodal and really get around, and then they want that last mile to be a connection on bicycles. and we've really got a strong museum district. we have 65 million tourists last year in tarrant county. we've redone our convention center and about to redo it again. part of that is development from our transit system. our intermodal that went in made a big difference on what we have done. but we are the -- fort worth together gary thomas is here from dart somewhere even though he like to talk about our friends at dart we really are a huge region and like many of you in this room we tend to not be able to separate dallas from north worth. once you come you're going to be able to separate them easily and you're only going to come back to fort worth. because we are not the center of the universe.

but we have in the last two years and for the next three years we'll have $34 billion of infrastructure construction going on. we say everybody in fort worth has got orange cone syndrome. they hate us. they're sick of it. they're just sick of it. but we've got to get our public transit better. we've got to get it for the millennials coming in. and more importantly than the millennials the silver tsunami is here. the number of people who turned 65 a day, and will for the next ten years, if you haven't googled it google it it will blow your mind how many of us there are. and i'm one of those. and they tell me all the time, we want transit because we want to age. we're not going to drive for much longer. hopefully they will but many of them won't. they want to be able to take transit but they want to be technical savvy. they want to pull up the next bus locator and see when the bus comes. texas is hot.

fort worth is 110 in july and august. and you don't want to stand on the corner looking for your bus. you want to be able to be in your office or in your home and say, oh, here it comes all i got to do is walk down the street and catch it. and we're beginning to get there. the federal government has helped with some of that. but it's also got to be a ride that appeals to people. they've got to be able to put their bicycle on the front which they currently can't, hop on the bus go to work, take their bike off and complete that last mile. and it really is a major reason for us. we're just not going to accommodate all the cars that we have. my friends that are in the car business hate it when i say that because they say we're going to keep selling. we're going to try to keep parking them and put them on buses. but gridlock will kill us. the growth that we've seen already the major arterial from mexico across the u.s., interstate 35, runs through fort worth and it's the best parking lot in the nation.

and we're actively remodeling it. in the next four years it will be remodeling, not the proper term, but renovating it and there will be an express lane courtesy of a federal grant down the express lane down the center. we have a development on the far north edge of ft. worth that's in tarrant county and denton county both, but it's ft. worth city limits called alliance town center. it sprung up from an old ranch property ch it is now 35,000 jobs and rapidly growing. part of our development incentive is that anywhere from 5 to 15% of the employees there to get a tax incentive have to come from the inner city and we've struggled with getting them up to 25 and when 35 is redone, the t, which is our transit authority will run an express bus up in the morning and reverse it and run it back down in the evening and they

will have to develop the circulator system to get there and that's already in the master plan and i'll talk just a second and then let them speak about the t. the t is our transit system funded by a half cent sales tax from city sales tax and the federal grants and rider fees. it's been very successful. our next big project is text rail or light rail. we have one rail project now. the first and it's a joint project with dart. the tre, the trinity rail express and it's about 8000 riders a day. a commuter line between dallas and ft. worth. young people and all people, really, they just don't see the boundary between the cities. they like to go to dinner, go to the stockyards, the museums and back and forth. but our next big project is going to be a light rail project and we're excite edd about that,

so, come see us, you going to love it. >> well thanks for letting me be here. things are so crowded at the nashltional league of cities with the president coming, we were joking, we drew the long straw and were lucky to come here aavoid the chaos. so thanks for giving us an out to that. i'll respectfully disagree as to where the location of the center of the universe is is. it's a dual edged sword there. if i'm a little grouchy i'm here instead of there right now, it's because during march mesa is the center of the basketball universe. if i wasn't here, i'd be watching the chicago cubs. we'd have the cubs or the a's and i'd be wearing short sleeves and sipping a diet coke with my feet up having a great time.

so, i invite everyone to come to mesa. march is a great time to be there. the weather's perfect and we have a lot of out of town guests, so, next time you're looking for somebody to do in march, put mesa arizona on your map. mesa is is a great place. we're one of the larger cities maybe is not a household word in your lexicon out here. we kind of anchor the east valley, the east part of the phoenix metropolitian area where about a half a million people, 37th largest city in the country, second largest city in the phoenix metro region. kind of big on our own, but still very much a part of the phoenix transportation system, mag and other regional transit authorities. we are the beneficiary of a lot of our funding through them, so we're the beneficiary of having that asset directly to our east. i'm sorry, to our west.

but again, on our own, pretty advanced, large city. while there was recently i think a few months ago, an interesting article in forbes that labeled mesa the most conservative city in the united states. and as a large, if you look up here, there's not a lot of large urban cities that have kind of a conservative bend to them, but you see probably three examples of that phenomenon up hering right now. and so it's an interesting location to analyze the popularity of transit systems. so, i'm curious to hear my fellow panel members talk about that. we are a large city we're a growing city. economically, we are still trying claw our way out of downturn. we have a large boeing facility in mesa. we just added the announcement of a new, $2 billion apple facility. we're riding a good wave of

economic development. i grew up in mesa in a downtown area that in my childhood was part of the old route 66, so, we had motels and a very vibrant interesting downtown in mesa in the '60s and early '70s. of course with the advent of freeways being built, the north and south of us, our downtown just kind of withered up and died and went to large big box malls. i think i see a lot of smiling faces. people recognize the scenario, so we're kind of a poster child for that whole, we had a great downtown. we built malls and freeways downtown withered up an died and i was on the city council in the '90s and we would find every possible way to try to pump life into downtown, that was literally a ghost town and we threw a lot of money at it and nothing seemed to stick and towards the end of my service on the council back in the '90s,

when i felt like i had worked that out of my system, one of the last votes i had was do we participate in this regional transit program that's going to bring light rail to the edge of our city. i remember being more than skeptical, thinking this is kind of cute, walt disneyland ride that will come into our city but i don't see it as something that's going to help us from a transportation perspective but i reluctantly agreed to go on with this communist conspiracy of bringing these silly little cars to the edge of ou community and thought i might live to regret that move. i am so delighted now to come back to city government and no one's ever been happier to be entirely wrong than i think i am. light rail has a huge boom to our economy. light rail has proven to be successful as a transportation system. to mesa. len yals, seniors,

especially. we've exceeded ridership. we're ten years ahead. but as popular and as successful as it has been as a transportation system, it's been more successful as an economic redevelopment system is. the downtown urban core of motels and other businesses that were dying, the property values along that light rail route have just skyrocketed and we're excited. this fall, we're dpoik to open light rail right to our downtown core. the construction is pretty much complete. and we've seen all this economic development activity and we have another two miles going further to the east that will be open in two more years, so through a variety of creative and aggressive financing models with the help of regional dollars and federal dollars, we've been able

to pull this off and it's really going to breathe life back into the core of my community that like i say, i and everybody i know of had pretty much given up on, so i'm here to tell that story and enkounch everyone to look to us to get excited about light rail. mesa, like these other cities, we're about 150 square miles. and so, we're kind of a spread out, urban suburb and community, so, light rail has got a lot of excitement, but at the same time, we're so spread out we have to figure out other ways. one train track going down the middle of our community is not going to have a huge impact on all of our transit needs, so we've tried to be sensitive to that. there's a lot of park and rides worked into this model. as we've progressed further east, we're going to find this next few miles going forward is going to take it actually out to

where people live in our community. i think we'll see the commuter aspect of light rail becoming more relevant. like i said, from a commercial perspective perspective, generating excitement about a part of our town, the people looked to with some amount of disappointment and almost shape shame, this has been tremendously successful and i encourage you to take another look at mesa. thank you. >> i want to make sure you understood one thing mike said. when he was it was our 150th anniversary, i hope you realized it was the city and not mine. with all these gray hairs, i wouldn't want you to get confused on it. i come from riverton, utah. i move there had in 1975.

where 20 miles south of salt lake city, so we're in the metropolitian area. when i moved there there were 3,000 people in 1975. in 2015 we have 42,000 people approximately and by 2030 i believe we'll be built out by then, we'll have 60,000 people. we're 12.6 square miles. i didn't leave a zero off of there. we're 12.6 square miles and we have a general fund budget of $9.2 million to kind of give you a feel for our city. as i became mayor, i wrote down some goals that i wanted to -- emphasis emphasis. i wrote down some of my philosophy and what i wanted