is out of driving distance of a march madness event. mr. bolden: that was several regionals. they are everywhere. mr. allen: so, this march madness really is madness. there is a lady all the way in the back. hand her the microphone, please. joanne: think you very much. i got a question about the projects you're talking about. for example, the mars project, this is an age in which students have relatively short attention spans according to your research. perhaps mars fatigue to be setting in. but also some other interesting projects. one dr., as you know has , pioneered a project where these stars are the object and 100 years is the goal. of course there are public forums and a lot of research being done as to how to get there. how can we stimulate people going towards that goal? >> you are absolutely right. going to mars in the 2030's is a long time from now. unless you're in the program.

that's 14 years from now. we are talking about humans in the martian and environment in the 20 80's. and we are going to do that -- we are talking about humans in the 2030's. we are going to do that. but there are all kinds of precursors. how many of you saw the movie, "the martian"? did you read the book? those of you who read the book know that mr. weir in his book gives you what nasa has been doing for the last 40, 50 years. it's called precursors. every time you turn around we are sending another satellite. it is either going to be in orbiter or a lender. curiosity yet landed. in 2020 we will launch another rover. collecting samples from the martian soil. we have to figure out how to get it and bring it back here. before we send new horizon to pluto -- before we sent new horizon to pluto back in july, it just keeps going.

it was a long journey. nine years to get there. things that we want to do now is increase the speed. so i need young men and women interested in another way to get to mars. mars is eight months to get to. that is too long. it's too long for a number of reasons. for the human body, that much exposure to radiation and the like. we are trying to wring young people in who can see a return in two years, as opposed to 14. we want to build uplinks. in the university them want to start working on the explain. seeing them fly before they get out of school. if they are eight maker, if they are working on small sets. they can do that in a matter of

six months. the way that they can respond today, fly the cube sets and do it as what we call a hosted payload, we just stick it on a satellite that's going into space anyway. for a week or two these kids have their own control center in their school. they can watch the satellite as it brings the image to earth. or it heights down a preplanned message which says, hello, i'm here, i'm the cube set from st. mary's high school, or something like that. >> i'm with the american association of geographers. we've had huge growth in our organizations membership over the years because of gis technology and are currently working in the k-12 field to get the college board to adopt an ap gis course. mr. allen: let's tell everyone what that is.

>> geographic information systems. kind of the precursor to gps. we have been trying to get this course adopted so that the kids will think about it through the k-12 age, which the currently only do it the college-age. last year they signed a new law for the country. every student succeeds. one big challenge that i see is that it basically returns most federal education dollars to state control. i guess it is how to get them as individual entities to think about stem or steam education and focus on it without federal priority for it. mr. allen: can you hand him the microphone, please? mr. kamen: that's really a terrific question, although we support the decision, it's not just for the state.

first, it is ground up. we have a regional set of directors. in some states we have three, like in california. they work with local education agencies to promote the first concept. to bring it into their school with funding. you would need to work with organizations that have a local footprint and many of the engine -- organizations do. that is at least my opinion. >> if every student in every state and county's four h, one reason we have taken to collaborating with them is because we have 50 of what we call those education grants in each college. whether is the massive consortium. 50 of them around the country. it's in hundreds of counties. every single county in the country. nasa now teams with them to provide the content. we provide information on science, engineering, you name it and it gets out to every

county in the country. that's one way, with someone who asked the question about how you get the schools to adopt and use it for science and engineering and the like? we've gotten them to do it with the department of education and 21st century education and learning. trying to work with the state to get them to understand the absolute lu of this education and the fact that they have got to take this money and reinvested in giving their kids the opportunity in the stem education fields. it's really up to you all, the states, the municipalities to control the schools. if you do, it will wind up being a football stadium. mr. allen: the gentleman against the back wall?

>> thank you so much. i have a question about these big concepts. mr. allen: please identify yourself. >> my name is henry stephenson perez. i'm a physician and i specialize in helping people at an individual level grasp the concepts that are staring us in the face. intelligence. i'm a cancer doctor. we are changing the way we are thinking about cancer. for 100 years we focused on the cancer cells and now we are focusing on the intelligence of the surrounding environment. that's the only word that we can use. they don't really have a word for that, not really. my question is simply this. if you think about how scientists might think about the concept of intelligence, at the start of the industrial revolution, or 100 years before that when we were solidly in the agricultural economy, we certainly would have come up with different definitions for what we thought intelligence was in 1816 versus 1916. here we are in 2016 and i'm wondering if this is a good time just to think thoughtfully about

what is intelligence in the 21st century as we start to retool the whole thing. thank you for your patience. mr. bolden: that's a good question. mr. kamen: i think that what you said was some of the most fundamental presumptions of we have made. throughout time. back to 1816, you can go back to technology before that. a few hundred years before that it was called the dark ages. nobody in their own time ever realized. i doubt that some monk in the dark ages said that i've got a great idea, but this is the dark ages.

i think that today cancer -- as an example, my brother is an oncologist and he would say that it isn't the cells. we shouldn't be treating the disease, we should be treating the patient. and by the way, it's the immune system. it took us 100 years to get there and now we are starting to get somewhere, but what you said i think was the fundamental perception of what we know and how we know what we know and how we are going to use that to move

forward being more critical than ever because the world is moving faster than ever and those other jobs that you could have, you could make a living as a farmer. you could make a living on a production line in 1916. today there's nothing left. if it can be done by menial labor, it's been done by a machine, computer, or robot. i think that what he said going forward was that intelligence was adding real value to real problem solving being the only way that humans can succeed in move forward. the rest of it's going to look like the dark ages. why don't we all collectively make sure that kids have the most valuable tool they could possibly have? a broad-based education. particularly in analytics in mathematics. mr. bolden: i apologize, i didn't think i had an answer, but we talk about demand. there is no shortage of supply. the big question today is demand. we are now facilitating the potential success of a commercial space industry. why do i say the potential success? we now have more rockets and rocket companies then you can shake a stick at in the u.s.. so we have returned the ability to launch to united states shores. space x, orbital sciences, you name it. what we are lacking is the demand. a place for those things to go,

and for all of these astronauts that people claimed would open the world with commercial space. because everybody wants to go to the international space station. platforms in the lower orbit. on the international space station we talked about the human immune system. we don't understand it. it goes through changes when you go into the micro gravity environment of space. we have learned a lot over the 30-40 years that human beings have been flying. we don't really understand. we just finished the first ever studying human genomics. mark and scott kelly for a little bit here, identical twins. we will get more new knowledge from the twin study than people ever thought was imaginable.

we have the ability to do this as a nation and an international space community, but we've got to respond, we've got to provide the demand and put more platforms out there. if you want to be a pharmaceutical developer, put a platform in space where you can send the seeds for those pharmaceuticals without astronauts. when you go through microprocessing and pharmaceutical development, we got exercise. every time we get on a treadmill or a bicycle or something, you don't know it, but the vehicle starts to shake. that just drives and materials processor berserk. now you're taking the concept of microgravity in space with no g and all of this stuff and introducing it. you got to exercise. now you are shaking your stuff. along the small platform from the international space station, put your pharmaceutical

development there. you will get pure semi-conductors, great drugs, all kinds of stuff. that's the demand that we don't have yet because everyone is sitting back relying on nasa to provide the space station. that is not a demand for a commercial space industry. i've been saying that for seven years now. we have got to create the demand for the supply that we are developing. mr. allen: thank you for that question. two thirds of the way back, the lady with her right hand up. i promise to come to the other side of the aisle in just a moment. >> thank you. my name is autumn lewis with the national council on teacher quality. something we haven't talked about is the shortage of stem educators throughout the country. what are your suggestions for districts and incentivize talented individuals to not only pursue degrees but go back into the classroom and train the next generation? mr. kamen: train girls in math and science. let's be realistic, industry with its shortage is willing to pay unbelievable premiums for

kids with no engineering -- that no engineering k --now -- know engineering, your opportunity to make two to three to four times as much as a teacher can say that whatever the challenge was to get great people to be teachers, it's even tougher with science and technology teachers. my mom was a teacher. i hate to say this, but i think an unintended consequence of preventing women -- my mother was a young woman -- from going into business in doing all the other things they should have a right to do, really smart, passionate women went out to teach that were smart enough to realize the most viable thing this country had is the kids. these incredibly talented women became the teachers. now these incredibly talented women like a somewhere else. as a pragmatic guy i would say

to you it would be naive to assume the best of the best and put them in a classroom. if they chose to be an engineer, they didn't choose to be a teacher. i go back to my sports analogy. lebron james is not a phys ed teacher. that's ok. he would not have as much of an impact in one classroom.

he is in. and then the teachers have the skill set to touch it. i think we ought to be doing is -- we have taken 140,000 world-class passionate people, when he whom are women, scientists, engineers. let them be the role model. that's why we call them mentors, not teachers. you get the best of both worlds. you don't have to pay them. they do it effectively. these are world-class capabilities. then the teachers would have no problems. if the kids are passionate to learn, the teachers will do just fine. in the same way of redefining it as a culture problem, not an education problem, let's find 100,000 young scientists and engineers that want to become teachers, good teachers, and we can finally pay them. none of those assertions are likely to happen quickly. a partnership between great schools. let's have access and get the whole tech community to be there cheering for these kids and being their role models. that we can do. >> let's give a little time at the end for our guests to summarize quickly. two more questions. yes, quickly.

>> thank you very much were coming here. my name is jeff krasner. from capital management. mr. allen: little closer, sir. >> i'm reminded of cheryl samberg and jeff bezos favorite book growing up, "a wrinkle in time." i'm not sure if you've read it lately, but it is a fascinating book which inspires individuals at a sixth grade level, even a high school level. if you could somehow with that type of passion where you are reading that type of book, maybe 250 pages? where you can inspire that type of passion and creativity through graphic novels, through comic books, through games.

mr. kamen: jeff bezos is pretty cool. he formed a thing called the mothers of invention. jeff bezos has a mother, jackie, and a father, mike, who i was on the phone with this morning, actually. they came to the championship. they are huge sponsors and supporters. at a point, i think inspiring young kids with science and technology. it's the simplest solution for 25 years. the big concern is how much we lack the rest of the world. you can say it over and over again. it isn't the school's problem.

they cannot fix it. we need to fix it. if we decide as a culture that we need to promote something, it works. we are not 29th in the world at olympics and they are all amateur athletes. this country needs to focus in a real hurry. we are in a race for catastrophe. i don't want catastrophe to win. inspiring kids by whatever means it takes will be the solution. mr. bolden: science fairs. i fell in love with science when i was in net seventh-grade. i teachers, one was my seventh grade teacher who introduced me to a science fair and i never didn't do one after that. you don't need to do a big project, he said. you just need to do one. it was a classroom science fair. the president, the reason he

brings hundreds of kids to washington, d.c. every year to try to emphasize the critical importance of allowing us to participate in something that is available to every civil -- single student. and it does not require a lot of money. solarst one was getting a cell and having a ring a bell. that is pretty basic. getting kids into science fairs, you can do that in elementary and junior high school. you cannot get everybody, but some of them will be hooked. i could go on and on. >> ma'am, all away in the back? this will be the last question. rebecca: i'm the numbers lady, rebecca clam. i teach in middle school and now in the beginning to get young kids interested in adventure building. i challenge you all that if you are going, i will be doing two of the playgrounds. it is called building number of.

it can be done from preschool to phd level. it's where the numbers live. all the numbers. they are building the town. i am at maker fair's, science fairs, i'm out there and i teach teachers how they can bring activities into their room. they are afraid they will not have time for the test, but i show them how the kids get so engaged with my patents on puzzles, building, and it's math. math is now fun, it's not out of a textbook. i want to talk to you about bringing it down lower, the only age of ever done. i love having the parents be busy while the kids are busy so that they don't do it for them. i have things for them. it is called building numberopolis. i will be at the maker fair. inventor fares. i will have the kids from young ages creating puzzles and creating houses that reflect numeric patterns. and shapes.

they are building polygons. mr. allen: thank you very much for that unpaid commercial. [laughter] well done. it's very important what you're doing. let's have one more question, then, finally. the gentleman in the back with the laser? yes, sir? please. >> thank. last november you said that the united states should include the chinese space program. why do you think that it is necessary for the countries to work on the space program? do you think in the near future it might be possible for these two countries to start working on such kind of a program? mr. bolden: i think that what we do with china as a partner in areas other than human spaceflight -- it's a matter of law that we cannot do bilateral programs with china in human spaceflight. i believe it will happen one of these days. it is not something i am present

late focused on. but we do work with china on in incredible basis in terms of science. looking at glacial characteristics in the himalayas will stop looking at things like earthquakes. even looking at some aspects of lunar science. you take what you can get and you go. it's one difference between nasa and the company. the government is inherently slow. and so one, if you want to work , inside the government environment, you have to be patient. am i happy? no. but are we making progress? yes. and so one of these days -- no one was have ever dreamed you , know, that before the berlin wall fell that the u.s. and former soviet union would be collaborating in space. today as a matter of fact as a , direct result of the berlin wall -- falling get and

it was a geopolitical decision. we need to find somewhere for them to go so that they wouldn't do bad things. what better place to send them than to collaborate with nasa and our international partners on an international space station? a lot of people think that started with russia and the u.s. russia was one of the last partners to be brought in. president clinton directed nasa spaceegrate the russian agency into the international space station. oury they are one of harbors and a key partner. patience is a virtue. it will happen in times. i go with the president. when the president leaves, i leave. but it will happen, be patient.

mr. allen: in a world where we on otherte too much things, we can't find a lot of common ground in the areas of basic and technology. mr. bolden: as a 34 year marine, we deal with a lot of bad people. my son would tell you this. if you want to people to become good people, you have got to engage them. if you choose not to, i guarantee you they are going to stay bad people. a lot of people don't hear that. we spend a lot of time at people who want to be like us, won't what we have, but don't know how to do it. in so we try to go out and teach them. that is what general allen's will does today. his wife is wishing that he would quit. [laughter] but it is in his blood. mr. allen: every time i asked for questions we have a forest of hands still. that indicates how rich our

panel has been. let me ask each of our two guests if they would like to make a couple of minutes of summary comments and then we will go from there. mr. bolden: i think i've said enough. i want you to remember that your space agency is on a journey to mars. we have lots of things that we do that are not just in spaceflight. we have an incredible science program. we look at planets. we look at our own planet earth. we look at the sun and we look at what we call astrophysics. how did we get here? is there life elsewhere? stem education is the number one product. we spend $19.3 billion on it every single year. mr. kamen: we have to engage our enemies, otherwise they will just become a bigger enemy. two of the phrases used all the time throughout the first community are gracious professionalism. you heard charlie point out that these robots are fiercely competing in their two-minute rounds. and then in the pits the teams help each other if they have a

broken axle. gracious professionalism, along with what we call cooperati tion. the teams cooperate as they compete so we wind up with the best of the best. i started with this and i will end by saying this. in a free culture, and there is no culture for your than america, it's either your biggest strength or wait this. kids are free even. they have a bill of rights, not a bill of responsibilities. in a free culture when you get to do whatever you want, it's incumbent to inspire kids in this country to do it because they have a passion for it. if we are going to recognize that in this country of ours, we get the best of what we celebrate. the best of science, technology, global competitiveness, security , you've got to give kids some vehicle, particularly women or minorities, competing in the hearts and minds with what used to be the national pastime of distractions, which are great in the right proportion.

if you are policy people, all i can tell you is that we have created a scalable model. every major tech company in this country, everybody loves it. what you heard charlie point out the government moves slowly and the great irony is that nothing is moving faster these days than technology. government, getting teachers good at technology is not a likely solution. you cannot scale the old model of kids. you need hands-on, real learning that develops passion. we have the model. you need to figure out how to get government to be a catalyst to make it available to every kid quickly. if you don't, we will all be sorry. mr. allen: ladies and gentlemen, not long ago tom brokaw used the term "greatest generation." he used it in invocation of the

outcome of world war ii. the americans and their partners who had stood on the ramparts and defeated an existential enemy. i would contend that there is a new greatest generation. we have seen them in action. when we saw the bright faces on that video this morning, that's a new greatest generation. the greatest generation that will propel this country, our friends, and sometimes our opponents who will become our friends to another level of human existence. this kind of conversation today is what brings that to fruition. let's thank our panel today and thank you all for coming. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [crowd mingling]

fromwill say that my sense talking to people who are familiar with this case is that at the end of the day, there probably is not something there. there might be suspicious financial transactions. to substantiate this criminal public corruption charge proving terry mcauliffe did something in

exchange for a payment, at least so far they have not found the evidence they would probably need to substantiate that. gun to my head, i had to make a production now, i would say there isn't. investigation is ongoing. out, he is ant wealthy man in his own right. is.e he released summaries of his tax returns when he was campaigning. he was a millionaire several times over. a variety ofed in business deals and made a lot of money personally off of those. there is nothing wrong with that. he is a rich guy. a lot of that is already public. let's talk about the connection between terry mccarroll of -- mcauliffe and bill and hillary clinton. he has been a prolific fundraiser and in unpaid director of the clinton

foundation before he was elected as virginia governor. virginia is a key battleground state for hillary clinton. she will be campaigning heavily in virginia. how did all of that come together in this fbi investigation? >> he is very close with the clintons. you mentioned a lot of their actions. i think it is important to note that there is donor sharing their, a lot of the same people who have donated to the clinton foundation also donated to terry mcauliffe's campaign. one of my colleagues had a good story about that. him and the clintons are very close. my understanding of this probe is that it is looking at records and other things that date back board time that he was on the clinton foundation. my understanding is also that investigators are not looking ,pecifically at the foundation

that there was anything wrong done there, or looking at hillary clinton herself as to any wrongdoing. the focus is on terry mcauliffe and his deals. that encompasses the time he worked at the foundation. you cannot ignore in this heated political season is connection to the clintons. , investigating terry mcauliffe. let's talk about the timeline over the next couple of months with an eye on the november elections. one do you think we'll have some resolution whether or not the justice department will proceed with this? >> that is hard to say. i think investigators are really reluctant to impose deadlines because of elections. they are aware of what is going on, they don't want to bring charges to influence elections.

but they will tell you if they are going to bring charges, when the evidence drives them there. they don't artificially imposed deadlines on themselves. certainly, i think those in the leadership will be cognizant of these elections. i don't think you can put a timeline just based on what is happening politically. >> washington post reporter matt zapotosky.\ his work is available online. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> this weekend, the libertarian party called it national convention in orlando, ford appeared the candidates face one another in debate. see it saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern and sunday at 9:45 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> madam secretary, we proudly

give 72 of our delegate vote to the next president of the united states. [applause] ♪ >> now the heads of washington dc's metro rail system and the federal transit administration testified about safety and reliability issues at metro. they appeared before a house transportation and infrastructure subcommittee on tuesday. this hearing is two hours 10 minutes.

call the hearing to order. i want to welcome everybody and our witnesses today. we are going to discuss how the washington metro system is going to address safety and reliability issues. the issues important to all the members here because when we get constituents coming in, we want to make sure that they see the nations capital they are able to move around the region safely and efficiently. the federal government has invested billions in the metro, but it is not safe or reliable. it has been late i long-standing -- by long-standing issues. there is a common refrain, lack of communication and safety procedures which are put riders and workers at risk. the focus is to have a system that will change. we have a new general manager who will talk about his commitment to improving safety

and addressing the maintenance backlog. the committee will be watching to ensure that talk turns into action. the federal transit administration is playing an important role as the direct safety oversight entity. to sharehere today with us what it is going to do to provide safety and reliability. we cannot buy a safety culture. they have to take responsibility of writing safe transit in our nations capital. they have to be accountable to taxpayers who are funding them. i will yield the rest of my time to commerce woman comes stock. comstock.swoman >> thank you, chairman. friday, when paul we didn't -- wheaton terminated 20

managers, seven of whom were considered senior, we hoped this would be the beginning of a new era of cooperation. we need to find it new ways to run this rail. board members should be more focused on finding experienced board managers. according to data, metro rail 120%-100 50% higher they and comparable systems. mr. is why i appreciate help inields recent

addressing these issues. and how we could restructure metro and address some of the issues coming out and how we can find ways to do better. i am concerned there is a clause that states the authority should not contract out or subcontract normally performed by employees which would result in a layoff, transfer, or demotion. does this prevent metro from having the flexibility to contract work out to have the best people at the best price do this work. businesseso met with who have done business. they also want to see how we are using new technology. technologies that can save money

and increase transparency. i hope we can explore that. since imf chairman on the subcommittee, we're going to be looking into hearings on that. we want to find the best, most cost efficient measures. disturbingddress the report that was on the news last night about a rape that occurred last month on metro in broad it daylight at 10:00 in the morning. we also have concerns about a sick personal safety. people have approached me about safety issues and this is something unacceptable and eight concern that this is something that was not immediately made known. we talked about the new area of transparency. and finding better ways to save

money. i appreciated that you are trying to put market will on the front line. there is ant is why need to have more people protecting our customers and constituents. i think the chairman for the hearing and for his efforts on this and i look forward to hearing more today. >> i have to begin by saying how much i appreciate this hearing. outink this hearing points this is to the immediate region and to the federal government itself. we are locked into this together.

no other has to respond to three different jurisdictions. neither were modern near those in federal government can help that to get over it. it is there and it is one of the reasons for its complexity and those complexities play prominently into the changes that are needed. for example, this morning announced he was appointing a high-level official from his office to hasten the jurisdictions.

the new chairman has taken steps that have acknowledged and necessary to be sure inconveniencing. dual -- we have issues that collide. we want the public to be safe ride and geto where they are going quickly. going to solve this during this process when they are overhauling the system is one of the issues we face today. challenge romano will read to after this single year rebuilding much

of the system is how to keep it that way. i want to hear more this morning about that. what does that mean? it is a scary word because it means something is embedded and ramada operates that has to be dug out. the cultural notion has not been defined. give federal transit administration oversight over public transportation in the united states. does it reinforce that in the past act? that pile ontos --a that it would like to fda that it would like to fast track.

some of the funding is being held up because inexcusably on top of all of the other issues, and had eight financial isis and how it dealt with applying for its federal grants. that has to be worked out very quickly. it looks like the national reactions have then taken but the federal transit association has not responded appropriately. we expect the federal agency to respond in kind. mr. chairman, i am anxious to hear the testimony and i appreciate the testimony the witnesses have prepared. i can see how much the hearing means to the region. coming the members for as well for the i yield back.

>> thank you. i turned to the chairman. >> thank you. i think the witnesses for being here. norton, edwards, we have the entire area. it is an important issue. it is important to all of us. millions of people come to washington, d.c., every year. this transit system should be the crown jewel of transit systems around the country. we have got to bring those things into a alignment and this needs to be a system and safety has to be paramount. for over 50 years, the metro system has benefited from support. it is important to the nation to

get this right. the money that the federal government gives, providede writers are a subsidy to ride the system. workafety of people we with every day who depend on the government of being a safe and reliable system. despite that, the safe the reliability record has deteriorated. it has not switched its responsibility to operating. a culturales is change at metro. i am pleased the new ceo is doing that. transit federal administration has taken over and is here to talk about that

oversight it needs to be done because metro has not done it appropriately. it onery fox has given year to step up to the plate. the oversight. we strengthened fda safety oversight authority and increased funding. for more citizens of america contributing to the system. this should be the crown jewel of the system and we deserve to his record as a manager of making things up run in the upper way. he has the right resume and his strong statement in the first year has woken folks up to the need for strong management. welcome my

colleagues here today. mr. flowers on this issue. i yield back. . is said we are here under these circumstances. there are certainly issues. it's get to the bottom line. congress has neglected to make sufficient investment in infrastructure. cities are struggling between pressure to build more transit and option in what is arguably the most congested traffic region in the united states of america and maintaining the legacy systems. congress has not been willing to be in equal partner. dollar backlog to

bring it transit up to a state of good repair. that is good. but with the amount of money there, we are never going to get a state of good repair. never. we are treading water. right now, dot says the average annual level required to eliminate the backlog is 18.5 billion dollars per year. we are putting up 10. that does not sound too good, doesn't? pretty embarrassing. and exceptionalism, we are killing people on a transit system with a combination of budgetary pressures and management issues. we going to make real progress on the management issues and will hear about but what about the money we

cannot ignore the need for additional investment. when the recovery act passed , 4%, i voted against cities like chicago just pulled projects off-the-shelf and they have the money committed in 30 days. they could have spent 20 percent more money waiting to happen that are critical for the safety and security of their writers and the efficiency of the system. the thousandore pound gorilla in the room. we are putting up the money we need to be a good partner. we don't help with operations. we are just walking away from that. that is why we are here today. let's not say this was just a management issue, but the bottom

line is this is not a unique circumstance. what is happening here in washington dc is getting attention. happening in every major legacy system across the country today, it is happening in cities that want to give their people new transit options. we shouldn't have to make choices here in the country, the u.s. can afford to do both. we can afford to partner and help them rebuild and maintain and build up new options. it will take a new attitude here in congress about the many ways to help increase transit and highways lending. we were allowed to vote on one amendment when we did the fast act.

money from the tsa to help pay for that bill, and now people are standing in line from the -- at the airport. we will keep shuffling things around until nothing in this country works anymore. thank you, mr. chairman. >> we have the honorable steny hoyer, the honorable jerry conley, and the honorable john delaney. i would ask unanimous consent that are witnesses full statements be included in the record. that is so ordered. we will start with mr. boyer. --mr. hoyer. myselfnt to associate with the remarks of the gentleman from mr. schuster. clearly, this was the crown

jewel. nobody would call it the crown jewel today and cleary it must be the ground jewel -- crown jewel. millions and millions of everyday constituents in this room is the system. i appreciate the opportunity to , and the need for robust investment and high safety standards. the safety and reliability of the metro is of critical importance, not only to washington dc and the surrounding communities, but it is critical for the smooth governing of the government. both civilian and military rely on the metro to get to their office and duty stations. my district is home to 62,000 federal employees, and many who serve in military jobs located here in regional installations.

many depend on metro to get to work each day to survey american people. tool foralso a crucial the millions of americans and foreign visitors who come to our nations capital you cheer. that is the premise which underlies our federal focus. i join the rest of the national capital region delegation last wednesday for them meeting with mr. wiedefeld. wmata's plan. the releases -- recent instance of fire and recent shutdown have wrought a number of very critical affairs that must be to ensure that writers are

always safe when using the metro system. problems arethese the results of past failures to invest adequately in long-term maintenance and upgrades. new 7000 series cars are brought into the fleet, we need to make sure that the tracks and tunnels that these new modern cars run on our up to date as well. metro safety and reliability is a critical can learn -- critical concern to the communities. i am disappointed as i know many are that metro needs to implement the safe track plan in the first place. we should not be in the situations where entire lines may be shutdown for maintenance and where the reliability and predictability of schedules has been undermined. i am very impressed with mr.

steps to put metro .ack on track we have a ways to go before we can get to that point. it is encouraging that with is acting torship -- mr. chairman i hope the subcommittee and the full committee will support investments in metro safety and service of the safe track plan will be as successful as possible, as quickly as possible. congress has a responsibility. to make sure that the metro system, which we call america's anday can well serve those serve american citizens as well. i want to thank ranking member

eleanor holmes margin for her untiring advocacy on behalf of metro and all of those who ride it. mr. chairman, i want to assure and ms.mr. schuster defaziond mature -- mr. that the delegation is united in on workingnation with you that america's subway system is a system second to none. thank you very much. >> thank you. next is congressman connolly. thank you for having us here today. i delighted to join with my colleagues. i serve as the ranking member of the government operations subcommittee of oversight and government reform committee, which held its own hearings on metro.

the challenges facing them are significant. i spent the last 22 years working in metro. first is a member of the fairfax county board of supervisors, as chairman i made appointments to the metro board. havehe past eight years, i worked with you and your colleagues here on this committee to secure the hundred $50 million annual federal commitment for metro safety improvements, which has matched the dollar for dollar of virginia, d c, and maryland. nobody is more disheartened than i am with the unacceptable and unsustainable affairs of metro. i want to start by commanding this committee for your efforts through the fast act to create a framework of safety standards for metro, and for all of the

nations transit systems as the fta, thehe fda -- oversight committee is a paper tiger without the proper provide effective oversight. our partners in virginia, maryland, ndc work together to set up a new metro safety commission next year that will be enforced the new standards. until then, secretary fox has appointed the fta as the oversight agency. well i disagree with that action, deferring instead to the ntsb's recommendation to use the fra's more robust safety standards, i share the goal for addressing the shocking laugh -- lack of safety culture. to that end, i welcome the opportunity to work with you for further expanding the fta's

address theto ntsb's urgent safety recommendations. metro's new general manager has indicated he is directing his team to explore what fra standards they can apply on their own. regardless of what cite out transit commuters are using, they deserve to know they are being protected by effective and enforceable federal standards. what we are witnessing today with metro is the result of a decades long march into mediocrity and dysfunction. best writers are confronted -- it ise riders scaring the riders away.

step oftaken the shuttering the entire national subway system for 24 hours in march. earlier this month, the two station serving capitol hill were closed during the evening rush hour. wiederfeld in order to condense three years worst -- worth of deferred maintenance, three years into one year. this will present significant and six stained challenges to the government. of course, metro cannot focus only on infrastructure repair. a complete systemwide change in culture is necessary. safety and personnel actions already taken by mr. wiedefeld

have served as a shot across the bow that safety and service problems will no longer be tolerated. cane are not problems that be fixed the right. metro and its partners face a monumental task and the federal government must be a full funding partner in this effort. welcome the opportunity to work with this committee to explore options for expanding into include operating subsidies. the federal government is the only member that does not pay any share of ops ration -- operations subsidy. these are separate but equally important investments, critical to metro's success. singleas been rc greatest achievement and our biggest single disappointment. working together we can restore the subway to a place of prominence it once held and

setting the standard for other transit systems across the nation and giving our writers a world-class system they sorely deserve. thank you. >> thank you. next is representative john delaney. >> thank you. i want to thank all my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to discuss metro. this is very important to my constituents. tos all important as we know everyone who lives in the national capital region and to all visitors. clearly, metro is no organization in crisis with significant deficiencies around safety, reliability, customer service and around financial management. if you diagnose the problems, you realize there are several causes. first, metro effectively reports to for governing restrictions, d.c., maryland,

virginia and the maryland government. this makes it difficult for the metro to get the funding and optimalt that would be for an organization of the scale. by any measure metro has been underfunded and it lacks a reliable source of funding which has creator greater uncertainty. it's beeny, mismanaged, perhaps for several decades. when you look at management decisions clearly poor decisions were made. i, like you, want to exclude the general manager from that criticism. he is off to a good start. there are other issues that need to be considered when you talk about what is going on. this gives to chairman shuster's comments about culture, metro has clearly had a deficient culture as it relates to its priorities.

i think it raises the governance question. what is happening in terms of the board of directors and governance and management of metro. i think governance really matters, because a good board sets the correct mission, sets correct strategic goals and recruits management to hold them accountable. and management changes secure the funding that the enterprise needs. the way they secure the funding is by making people believe that they are running the place right. this is a significant question with metro. right now they have a 16 person board and four of those members are appointed by each relevant jurisdiction. there are no standards for who those members can be. chairman, i think you said you can't legislate certain things.

you can do things to make sure we have the best people possible sitting around the table making the decisions. i have tried to put forth a framework where the jurisdictions will be required as part of their point of process to certify that the members there are appointing our experts in either finance, management, transit or in safety. i think this will put people with more qualifications and more experience around the board table at metro. i think it will encourage myger-term thinking, because sense is that these people will probably have more experience in board governance matters, and they won't think about their own unique interests in the particular jurisdictions they

represent, but spend more time thinking about the good of the enterprise. that's what a really good fiduciaries should do. in addition to supporting the new management changes, i think there are important things we can do around governance. who isud secretary fox, taking a step in this direction. of thently changed all federal appointees of the board and put up for people who clearly have expertise in safety. like to see some people sitting around the table who have finance experience, management experience and rail creating thato right mission and getting the right management team in place, that could change the culture of metro. >> thank you. will dismiss the first panel and we will bring the second panel up. thank you very much.

>> i would like to ask that the statement of representative chris van hollen, a member who represents a jurisdiction be admitted for the record. i would like to ask you an animal's consent to correct the record and to have a chart that for mr.deral funding wmata, 17% of their budget is the industry average fares cover 62% of the budget where the industry

average is 23.3%. let this be entered into the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> we have mr. paul mr. , andfeld, carolyn flowers tim levain. that oursk consent witnesses for statements be included in the record. since the written statements will be included in the record please try to limit your comments to five minutes. mr. wiedefeld we will start with you. thank you for the

opportunity. i want to summarize quickly my parties -- since i joined on november 30. about what we are up against and then wrap up with some concluding remarks. , serviceof my priority liability of fiscal management. it is important to step back and think about the physical nature before we get into management issues. we have to recognize this is a two track railroad system, which presents a lot of challenges for maintenance. you cannot maintain the system without impacting customers. of at on top of that decades delayed maintenance and underfunding and that has created a lot of the issues. there is an aging fleet on top of that. that's on the rail side.

it's important to recognize that metro is more than just rail, it's a bus system. we do almost 600,000 people a day on the bus system alone. we have a much better fleet there, and basic infrastructure services that need to be fixed. in terms of the agency, what i found is what i have heard echoed here is a lack of safety in-service culture, and that is through the entire organization. there's no lack of accountability with a management, and also lack the strong management systems put in place. there is a lack of sustainable source over the decades. declinedcing ridership , some of that by performance level we have provided, but just the changing demographics. .ccess is increasing the demand

it is one of our most expensive services. mentioned, it is a concern for all transit agency. we have had some terrible incidents in the system. recently with passengers and some employees. in front of my mind is terrorism and we have to make sure we have to do everything to be prepared for anything that may be occurring there. in march, i released a customer accountability report with 60 action items we outlined on what there doing to increase performance and customer service portion of what we do. i did release over several weeks current track, the approach is not working. we need a holistic and transparent process. i have been working closely with the manufacture of the cars,

which is kawasaki. in service, 748 of those ordered. as soon as we get those to the point where we are comfortable we will start to increase that delivery of the cars. wellus fleet is maintained and will continue in that area. arehe metro access, we brokering third-party vendors to provide better service. in terms of safety and service culture, that starts with me, driving home that that is the most important thing we do. we have, with a number of things to reinforce that. we now have our track inspectors and people that have the ability to understand the system can shut down the system at any time , which is not the case in the past. we have a new chief safety officer which i just brought in earlier this month.

police,ooking at the where we monitor the system andy day, minute by minute we are adding new resources there. and of course, working with a terrorism task force. years has over the driven by economic development. behindiness community is it, elected officials are behind it and the riders are behind it. we'll deal with other issues from my perspectives in the future. that will continue to be my focus in the near term and we will deal with the issues as we go forward. with that i will be glad to take questions. >> thank you. ms. flowers? you.ank

thank you for inviting me to report on the to improve safety and reliability of wmata. counts, wmata has phone short. the result has not only been delay and disruption but also injury and fatality. our work go is to make sure that wmata restore safety and reliability for the riders and employees. we are conducting on the ground inspection, leading accident investigations and directing improvements that wmata must make. we are exercising the authority that the congress has authorized. the fast-track -- over the course of the past four years,

we have worked for transit industry stakeholders to develop or and adaptable. existstates do not the authority to step in. that's where we are today. clearretary fox has made f.t.a., wmata is temporary. maryland and the district of colombia must set up a new oversight agency that is compliant with federal requirements and capable of providing effective oversight. assumed oversight and we have been able to work with wmata to get results. wmata they have made steady responded toy have troubling deficiency.

also our investigation of this are as a result from looking at three key areas over runs, track is.grity and security some track was taken on service immediately to make repairs and hundreds of defects have been fixed. in addition to identifying and ordering the correction of safety problems, we have also conducted a review of wmata grant applications to make sure federal funds are being used per the regulations. must run billing wmata is the fact that has failed to create a culture of safety. i would like to talk about a recent example. on may 5 a third rail insulator

exploded alongside the platform at the federal center southwest station. although our investigation of this incident is ongoing and preliminary information shows that wmata's response was slow and inadequate. only did they fail to notify fta and a timely matter what their emergency response team waited hours for track access after only a cursory inspection service was initially resume. it was only later in the day one another fire occurred in the same area that the track was taken out of service on the problem was addressed. in judgment and breaches of safety protocol are unacceptable. safety must come first before service. as a result, we issued a safety toective requiring wmata take immediate action to prioritize safety before operations to mitigate fire and

smoke risk, it emerged -- improve emergency preparedness. we have verified that wmata has taken steps to address these actions and to its credit the general manager mr. wiedefeld has responded to our concerns. but the agency still has a difficult task at. beyond the need for critical investment in infrastructure, everyone of the employees must make a personal commitment to safety. at sga we are working with wmata and our colleagues to help restore metrorail safety and reliability. thank you. hear from mr.ld lorraine. i am chair of the transportation planning board for the national capital region. i also serve as a member of the alexandria city council.

the planning board is a federally designated planning organization for the national cap but oh -- capital organization. jurisdictions and over 5 million residents. i have submitted more detail customer -- testimony. how critical metro is to the region's mobility and prosperity . ,ts importance to this region and finally the effort underway to help metro improve its safety and be the world-class system the nations capital deserves. last year, metrorail provided 710,000 rail trips on an average workday. are locatedbs, within a half-mile radius of metrorail stations and bus stops. the 91 metrorail stations

are in 59 regional activity centers. 86% of this region's new office construction is occurring within one quarter mile of metrorail stations. metro helps to tie our multistate region together. it will also shape future transportation packages. already one in five metro riders -- mentor also serves a role in helping the region according -- special.te metro helps the federal government do business. of workforce represents 43% the workforce. 315 buildings with federal offices, not including dod are

within one mile of the rail stations. the federal government is recognized the importance to the -- itions with financial is very important that this federal funding program for metro be retained as it is critical to undertaking and completing needed safety repair work. magnum is thece most important capital in the world. our 19 annual visitors come from around the country and around the world and their impressions of the d.c. regions and the whole are shaped by their experience of the metro system. this region deserves their world class transit system. itn it opened 40 years ago quickly was a world-class system and we need to restore that. we acknowledge that metro is facing significant challenges.

improving the safety and reliability of washington metro is the number one priority. this issue has a full attention and commitment of the state and local government and we are pleased that the fta has been an active partner. this is being tackled on many fronts. fta is providing believe working with the state. has takenased that bold action. there is more work to be done. one important resource that is needed to address the safety and reliability challenges is beyond mr. wiedefeld is the need for funding reform. dedicatedt have a source of funding. of dedicatedt lack

funding has contributing to their maintenance shortfalls. that's why regional leaders are coordinating through the council of governments to explore how we can work together at the state and local level to provide long-term, predictable, sustainable dedicated funding to meet metro's needs and we look forward to continue and hopefully increase financial support from the federal government as well. i am confident that this region and the federal government can continue our partnership and rise up to address the challenges. working together we can make that trope a regional and national asset for years to come. thank you. >> thank you. we when i was into questions. my first question is for mr. wiedefeld mr. mr. wiedefeld. instance all the way up to last year have unfortunately had very similar findings in its come down to andoper training of wmata

inadequate emergency response. why didn't metro provide better training and staffing for emergency preparedness. at the raile you operations control center to make sure that this is a repeat itself? : i did replace the operations center in april. i have a new head there. a -- additional staff and have a much more robust training program. we have staffed up. we have a liaison 24/seven. we want the incidents that communication between emergency personnel and someone in the operations center.

the fta is monitoring activity her that proper procedures are being followed. we are doing basically we started spot testing of our controllers to make sure that they are part of our exercises and in effect with rocher balls at them during those exercises. balls at themrve during those exercises. question for ms. flowers, too. the committee's concern about 's safety.eld --wmata we want them to be as productive as possible with federal resources. my question is what is the fta trajano ensure that its

-- transit agency recipients are most efficiently using the limited resources that they are receiving and are you receiving contract by true competitive bid whenever that is appropriate? basis be able to monitor our over800 grantees. mr. graves: you contract out the work to monitor them? ms. flowers: yes. we perform triennial audits and enhance audits on areas like procurement and financial management.

mr. graves: when it comes to the work, whether that's maintenance work or other things, too, putting that out for competitive bid, do you ever encourage that? ms. flowers: at the grantee level they make decisions on their procurement, but we do ask them to be effective in the use of our funds. i know that ms. comstock mentioned for wmata that the option of looking at contracting out would be something that she would encourage. that our agencies that do contract out to try to ensure that they effectively use our funds. mr. graves: thank you. i have more questions but i'll turn to ms. norton for her opening questions. ms. norton: thank you very much, mr. chairman. ms. flowers, i want to thank all of you at f.t.a. for the new financial discipline you are apparently importing into metro.

quiet as it's kept, metro's or wmata's financial record keeping mirrors or has mirrored the much more widely understood and known issues of safety. particularly financial accountability, a system that was in disarray. that directly affects safety, of course. whereas most of the money that wmata is getting is for safety. if you look behind some of the criticism wmata has received, we are told that $783 million of federal transit funding for wmata is going unspent. so everyone assumes that wmata has -- is sitting on money and that wmata is really ineffective

by not spending money it already has. how could it want more money? but if you look behind these numbers, ms. flowers, you find that $300 million of it is obligated for safety projects and for new cars, and the remaining amount is waiting reimbursement through f.t.a. according to the information we have been given from f.t.a., in order to bring itself into the compliance that's sorely needed, and again i thank you for the discipline that apparently is working, wmata has flied with all 45 recommendations of f.t.a., submitted the required 65 corrective action plans. is working with f.t.a. on a testing and validation plan, has

closed five of the required testing and validation items, and submitted 11 f.t.a. for review the remaining four will be done later date and will be submitted on time. ms. flowers, a recent inspector general report of f.t.a. criticized f.t.a. for not having consistent policies when it in fact undertakes a very serious matter which is to withhold federal funds which in this case means that the three jurisdictions get to pay. this report was entitled "f.t.a. monitor grantees' corrective actions for laxed policy and guidance to oversee grantees with restricted access to

federal funds." and it found, for example, with respect to wmata -- and here i'm quoting -- that wmata was required to mail hard copies of the invoice packages to a contractor in north carolina to review which is more time and resource-intensive than other processes. so my question, given the need for every penny wmata can get, my question to you is -- can you specifically identify at what point wmata will be able to return to normal restrictions and procedures for accessing federal funds that congress has

appropriated to it rather than drawing down funds by hand which can take anywhere from 10 days to two weeks for the money to get to wmata for safety and for other matters? ms. flowers: we were there yesterday to work on a colleague, we call it a snapshot plan, to try to expedite the issues that you're talking about. we also put into our regional office additional employees to ensure that we can address the issues of trying to expedite the drawdowns of wmata. i understand -- ms. norton: what is left to be done so we can understand what is outstanding? ms. flowers: we are in the final steps of the verification

process. ms. norton: do you expect in a few months? do you expect by the end of the year? when do you expect wmata will be able to access its funds in the normal fashion rather than by hand? ms. flowers: in this last step, if we see that the documentation is verified, we should be able to i think have a targeted lifting of restricted drawdown in certain areas. in there are some of the older stuff that i believe will still be there but we can work with them in terms of addressing targeted and focused areas to lift that drawdown. ms. norton: but you don't have a time frame on when you might be able to accomplish -- the burden is now on you. they've done what you asked them to do. the reason i'm pressing you on this question is if they had done all they had to do then the burden shifts to f.t.a. than to say by when do you think wmata

will be accountable enough so that the drawdowns will no a that the drawdowns will no longer -- these hand drawdowns will no longer be necessary. ms. flowers: we are verifying that documentation and i will expect in the next few weeks we will have completed this step. in ms. norton: thank you very much, ms. flowers. mrs. comstock: i recognize chairman shuster for five minutes. mr. shuster: i thank the witnesses to testify before this important issue. i think congressman delaney's question was spot on. i think that one of the things he said is absolutely paramount in all this, if you want to attract the dollars to a corporation, an organization of any kind you have to first demonstrate that you deploy those dollars efficiently to get things done, and i think that's something that before this committee or this congress says we'll give more money to metro, we got to see it demonstrated

and i don't think it's been done over the last several years or couple decades that they have deployed those dollars in the most efficient way. and i think that requires a cultural change at the agency which i think the new c.e.o., mr. wiedefeld, set the standard. he said some tough things he needed to and needs to take tough actions. my question to managing the employees -- and i think if you're going to shake up a culture at an organization -- and i spent 20 years of my life in business and had the unfortunate circumstance to have to terminate people. when i thought about this question it brought me back to one of the first hearings i had in this room 15 years ago with the e.p.a. associate administrator for h.r., the previous congress passed a law that said the federal employees must follow the guidelines congress sets in legislation. so my question to the e.p.a.

administrator was, how many people in the last year out of 17,000, at the time, i believe it was, did you have to fire? it took me a couple whispers back and forth to say one person. terminating people is hard. people that don't do the job, they're doing stuff that's unsafe, they're negligent, they're illegal, you need to terminate them. mr. wiedefeld, i know you're coming up with a contract soon -- if a mechanic was illegal or unsafe, try to work with them, but sometimes unfortunately you have to terminate. do you have the tools available to say to the people that aren't doing the job, we got to let you go, or are they locked in and protected like so many of these government agencies are that you can't do anything about it? and my example to the e.p.a. is perfect. 17,000 people.

they terminated one person. that doesn't make sense. mr. wiedefeld: if i could i'd come at two levels. there's the management side and front line employees which gets to your second issue. in terms of the management, about three weeks ago i sent a letter out to roughly 650 at-will managers. those aren't necessarily people that sit at the desk. they are front line supervisors and superintendents. i sent a letter to them explaining what my priorities are and my management style and what not. but more importantly had them sign a piece of paper that recognized they were at will so i am not sure they understood that. shortly after that i had a meeting with all 650 of them. first time in my understanding of the history of the agency they did that. accountability is probably the most important thing they have to do besides safety and customer service. shortly after that i did terminate a number of managers recently and have currently a review of the entire

organization in terms of where there's redundancies or positions haven't been dealt with. so i'll continue to manage that. that's on the overall management side where we have clear capabilities. on the front line side, i do have the ability to let people go. we do have processes for that. it depends on the type of discussion. for instance, if a station manager doesn't right, you can terminate someone on that. to basically any major incident. i can terminate immediately. that does not mean they don't have the right degrees and we go through a whole process of that. that's set up in the contract, as you mentioned. that eventually can get to an arbiter where we'll pick an arbiter, the union will pick an arbiter and we'll pick another one and we'll go through that process which is a normal process. no, do i have the ability to do that and we do do that on a regular basis. both on labor and management.

mr. shuster: well, thank you. once again, i appreciate hearing that from you. again, we got to make sure that safety is paramount. people that ride this, whether they're from the area or other parts of the united states or the world, they deserve to have a safe system and if there's somebody that's working for the metro that isn't, then we need to make sure that safety is paramount and we can't tolerate people that aren't doing their job. so, again, i appreciate it and, again, wish you well so far. have been impressed with your management style so far so thank you for being here today. mrs. comstock: and i now recognize ranking member defazio for five minutes. mr. defazio: thank you, madam chair. ms. flowers, i know you're briefly on the job. in map-21 we gave new regulatory authority to f.t.a. over transit safety and yet some critical aspects of that rule are still lingering somewhere.

i don't know if they are down at the trolls at o.m.b. or where they are. but what's your expected timeline to get all those done? ms. flowers: are you asking about fast act and map-21 mr. defazio: there's things left over from map-21 where we gave you the new regulatory authority to implement rules, f implemented that? ms. flowers: we have several other rules that are in the process right now. we have the public safety program rule that is going to do the review now at d.o.t. so expect that to be -- final rule by midsummer. the national public transportation safety plan, this comment period ended on april 5, and f.t.a. expects to issue that

in early fall. we have the public safety transportation agency safety plan, and that is also going to be out in early fall. and we also have the safety certification training plan which we expect to come out in midsummer. mr. defazio: ok, thank you. if you can make sure they continue through the process. you know, you mentioned the same thing i did in my opening statement or one of the things about the backlog and deferred maintenance. and a lot of it lies with the major legacy system and this is a legacy system at this point though we have older legacy systems and as i pointed out it's really not an adequate amount of funds. so you had a chance and begun to look at wmata and there is a lot

of focus on that. do you think this problem could be more widespread given the deficiency in funding and cumulative backlog for state of good repair? ms. flowers: yes, sir. you mentioned there was an $84 billion backlog on a national level. our estimates that it's about $86 billion growing at $2.5 billion a year. as you indicated, wmata is one of those systems, the legacy systems probably make up about 40% of that backlog. and so although the administration has asked for additional funding for infrastructure we haven't seen that funding has come and it does create and issue and it makes a challenge for all transit agencies to look at their priorities and you see

that challenge here in d.c. with wmata where they have to make a decision about what they can do with their available funding. mr. defazio: thank you. so when your inspector worked for -- you're standing up in essentially your first ms. flowers: we have a focus right now on wmata and we have 13 f.t.e.'s that are basically focused on that area. we have done technical assistance in other areas where we have found other problems but we have been given additional authority but not the funding to basically address that authority. mr. defazio: so you have 13 inspectors total. ms. flowers: 13 staff.

there's probably only five inspectors and two inspectors. mr. defazio: so we have five inspectors and two investigators for the federal transit authority to oversee all of the transit agencies in the united states of america, is that correct? ms. flowers: that's correct. mr. defazio: that's interesting. i wonder how long it would take to spend 10 minutes at each one? how many years? i hope that congress will soon allocate additional funds for the allocations we put on your agency. thank you, madam chair. jr. thank you. i now recognize mr. mica for five minutes. mr. mica: thank you. i can tell you where to look at some of those dollars. in map-21 we were supposed to consolidate or eliminate 50 to 60 programs when we questioned an oversight. how many people had left? it was nobody. so there are plenty of people

and plenty of resources suggest you might find the secretary to you look at the important oversight and responsibility for the transit system, ms. flowers. ms. flowers, with some fanfare, the secretary has announced -- what's the name of the position that's going to be created? ms. flowers: senior advisor. mr. mica: a senior advisor and that's just for wmata, correct? a ms. flowers: correct. you mr. mica: i don't want this to be window dressing. it will probably be some technical people to know what's going on. but in order to make that effective mr. chairman or madam chairman, i want you to report to the committee quarterly, ok. and i'll ask the staff for a quarterly report. maybe we can have them in three months, end of september and then another at the end of the year and then see what you find and give it back to us. i will get back here to make people's life responsible and accountable but we need accountability out of you too.

it can't be window dressing. it has to be real. some of the people say we don't give them enough money to wmata. mr. wiedefeld, 60% of capital funds come from the federal government. it's one of the highest in the nation. the closest is the chairman's operation septic gets 39% of its money, philadelphia operations. that's correct, about that percentage, right, mr. wiedefeld? in our march 18 hearing, we got to have money. we got to have money. we had $783 million the week before in federal funds sitting

at wmata. checked it. do you have -- and the year before we had $485 million in 2015 sitting there, not used by wmata. some of that money has constraints on it, sir. is there anything that needs to be changed so that that money can be used to make the improvements for safety that are necessary? do you have enough flexibility in that? i need to know that because we're doing appropriations. mr. wiedefeld: yes, we have the flexibility. mr. mica: but the money was there. the money was there. ok. when you testified on the 18th, 60% of the arcing had been taken care of. where are we today? mr. wiedefeld: we basically have a program -- mr. mica: what percentage? mr. wiedefeld: i don't have the estimation. mr. mica: 70%? have we made progress? mr. wiedefeld: we have made progress. mr. mica: what's left, 10%, 20%?

mr. wiedefeld: we have arcing. we have insulators. mr. mica: i know went there. i went down to ntsb. i saw the coding. i saw some in water. what percentage is done? get that back to the committee. that's where we're having problems right now. that's not rocket science. how much is done in-house and how much is contracted? mr. wiedefeld: we're using contractors to run it. mr. mica: most of your repairs you could probably get done best by contract rather than in-house, right? mr. wiedefeld: it's a combination of both. mr. mica: ok. ok. but, again, we have to address the immediate problems, arcing. are there any other major issues? signalization.

i heard you're doing some ties and things like that. what would you say are the next safety -- next things? mr. wiedefeld: the ties, the power cables, the running rails. mr. mica: would you submit a list of prioritization and what percentage do you think you can do in-house and outhouse -- not outhouse but outside? ok. finally, on that hearing you had to face me on that hearing. sometimes i have a tough demeanor. i said you need to fire people. i saw the tape. it's part of my italian background. i get a little emotional. sir, you fired people, you fired about 20, i heard? mr. wiedefeld: yes, sir. mr. mica: ok. i am going to create a new award. you're going to get the first one. this is a certificate of appreciation. i'll probably make these into gold, into silver and bronze. you're going to get a silver because you actually responded si