political narrative. >> she has shaped history, made history. she hasn't stopped making history, and regardless how fouf and rough the waters are, she's the best swimmer of all. >> from many, one. they couldn't possibly imagine how many we would be or how different we would be. but they knew that we had to be one. we have certain values and principles that we cannot abandon. >> and you're certain we're going to be okay? >> oh, yeah. we'll be okay. because i have confidence in the american people. >> it's dirty. it smells. it's crowded. it's always confusing. they are working with old tracks, old trains, infrastructure that's not in the 21st century. we're the richest country in the wor world. a democracy, america, and our infrastructure is not great. >> yeah, smells like piss. >> how reliable is the train for you? >> dear god. there is always something, like always. >> so when donald trump said

we're like living in a third world country when it comes to our infrastructure, do you agree with him? >> i don't disagree. it's a sad fact of our government, lawmakers across party lines don't agree, don't get along and as a result don't get much done. >> case in point, this year's state of the union address, which was delayed because of the government shutdown. washington's dysfunction was on full display.

>> madam speaker, the president of the united states. >> are we going to see a single 2020 democrat shake his hand? >> i don't think you will see a single democrat, period, shake his hand. >> the state of our union is strong. >> it is always interesting to watch. >> yeah. >> but in the starkly divided room there was an issue that had bipartisan support. >> both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of america's crumbling infrastructure. >> infrastructure. it's been to popular talking point for democrats and republicans for years. >> it will help save lives. >> let's rebuild our infrastructure. >> rebuilding america with green and modern infrastructure from sea to signing sea. >> so if all agree, why are our

bridges, roads and tunnels a crumbling mess? >> for one thing, untangling who is in charge of what is complicated. those some parts are privately owned, the rest is the responsibility of the government, both local and federal. and that's a problem because washington's currently stuck in a state of gridlock. while d.c. does next to nothing, catastrophes like these strike. >> the unthinkable happens. a bridge over the mississippi collapsed. >> a state of emergency has been declared in flint, michigan, after high levels of led were found in children's blood. >> 200,000 people wait anxiously after fleeing their homes in panic from the path of a broken dam spillway. >> we are focussing on how the federal government is funding fewer and fewer infrastructure projects, which brings us back to new york's pen station.

though work is underway to improve and expand the concourse tunnel, the rail tunnel between new york and new jersey is in desperate shape. it was completed in 1910. and while crews have been patching it for years, it really needs a major overhaul. approximately 200,000 passengers travel through this tunnel every day. if there is a catastrophic failure, the death toll could be significant. >> we're going from new jersey to new york. >> these engineers at amtrak are taking me on a guided tour of what's considered to be one of the most pressing infrastructure problems in the u.s. >> if you look up, you see all the ice? that's water. >> water leaks. >> so all that ice is coming down from the road? >> yeah.

that's kind of what happens when you have water infiltrating. >> how deep under the hudson does it go? >> 100 feet. >> during hurricane sandy, this whole thing was flooded out. manhattan was essentially cutoff from the rest of the continent in terms of rail travel. >> bring me back. >> in addition to the buckling concrete, the electric cables are failing and sometimes they even explode. >> contained in this wall here are two high voltage transmission cables. they're 12,000 volt transmission cables. >> if water gets into those transmission cables, you could be a blowout, and we did here. >> every single day multiple times a day, you're dealing with things that could potentially shutdown traffic into new york city. >> that's our job. >> does it piss anybody off that that's the way it is? >> i wouldn't say -- use that language. sometimes it's stressful for us to maintain this. >> i think frustration.

>> yeah, frustration. it is frustrating at times because you want to get in and do the right job and if you don't have the time or you don't have the funding, then you don't have the people backing you up, you know, that's the frustrating part. >> local officials have been fighting for some time over how to fix the problem. in 2010, new jersey governor chris cristie scrapped a multibillion dollar deal to build a new tunnel. a plan called the gateway program was announced in 2011. the project would not only repair the physical structure of the tunnel but build two more tracks to increase capacity. as you could imagine, it's expensive. >> president obama promised to split the $20 billion price tag for the gateway project 50/50 with new york and new jersey. but then in 2017, president trump refused to fund the program, essentially killing it. the flip-flopping federal commitment has kept the tunnel

stuck in the swamp. so i want to know what senate minority leader chuck schumer has to say about all of this. after all, he's represented new yorkers for more than 20 years. >> why do you think this project needs federal funding? this is a tri-state project. >> the federal government has always funded rail. it's amtrak. the northeast corridor from boston to new york to philadelphia to baltimore to washington, d.c. is one of the most vital transportation rail lines and the federal government has always funded amtrak. it's national. >> how do you convince a congressman from iowa that they should invest in a project out here? >> they need mass transit in iowa, too. it's busses, but they need it. >> my bridge dot a d minus, i need the money more. >> there is enough money for both. if this tunnel should fail and

they would have to close the one tunnel under the hudson river, the economy in the northeast and in the country could go into recession. it's that serious. >> why? >> because we depend on transit. we depend on highways. we depend on roads. two out of every three people who travel in the northeast corridor no longer use planes. they use amtrak. >> my colleague went down there. they didn't let me because i was pregnant. he said it's crumbling. >> it is. >> it is literally crumbling. >> these tunnels are 100 years old. >> why is it not getting the funding it needs? >> donald trump. >> did trump try to make a trade? >> he did.

he wanted his wall for gateway. we said we're not trading. >> why not? that's not how this should work. this should be done, period. >> holding the american people hostage because of clashes between the legislative and executive branches is nothing new, but you can't blame all of washington's dysfunction on the president alone. it makes me wonder how did we get into this partisan swamp in the first place? for that story, we're headed back to washington. >> so the gridlock is a welcome thing for us lawmakers. >> for most people here, absolutely. ople here, absolutely not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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you hear it over and over again. congress needs to do something, anything, about our bridges, tunnels and roads. it seems easy, right? pass a law and get it done. >> do you remember the song? schoolhouse rock? >> i know that i'm a bill sitting here on capitol hill. >> i don't think it was i know that i'm -- he wasn't self-aware. ♪ i'm just a bill. >> that catchy song made the inner workings of government seem so simple, so reasonable.

♪ sitting here on capitol hill. >> but spoiler alert, most bills don't make it into law. in the last congress, more than 13,000 bills were introduced and fewer than 500 passed. it is not that schoolhouse rock got it all wrong, the legislative process has changed. for starters, deals aren't made here on capitol hill. they're often made in places just like this. >> what is your name? >> my name is angel. >> let me ask you a question. this is my first time here. they said this is the d.c. power spot where all the kind of rules and regulations and back -- you know, back room deals are made. is that true? >> i can't really answer. >> you can't reveal the details? >> all right. thanks, angel.

nice to meet you. the restaurant is a hot spot for wheeling and dealing. and those wheeler dealers are often lobbyists who help write bills. that is where i met up with meredith, a lobbyist. >> every year it seems like they keep saying this is the most do-nothing congress. >> the system is set up in a way, even from the beginning, that there are a thousand cuts here to kill a bill. it is very easy to do. the hard part is actually passing a bill. >> dumb question. is there like an inbox where you bring your bill? >> yes. you literally put it in on inbox on the house floor. it comes in, gets printed, gets given a number and a high staff person decides which committee this bill should be referred to. >> okay. so you introduce it, put it in the inbox, it goes to a committee. >> the number of bills that the committee ever acts on -- we're now getting very narrow very quickly. >> because they have to do hears on the bill? >> yes.

this is one of the frustrations of the rank and file members. they feel like, i have these great ideas. but if my chair of my committee isn't interested, it's going nowhere. >> and even if a bill does make it out of committee, party leaders can still refuse to schedule it for a vote. since the beginning of this year, mitch mcconnell has ignored about 100 bills the democratic counter parts have already passed, including one that seeks to close the gender pay gap and another that combats gun violence. mcconnell defended his position in may 2019 and was hardly apologetic. >> as long as i'm majority leader of the senate, i get to set the agenda. that's why i call myself the grim reaper. >> bill is a long-time democratic representative from new jersey.

he says some of the problems on capitol hill stem from a strategic decision in the mid-1990s to slash spending by cutting expert staffers. those staffers were never reinstated and pass quell says that hurt congress's ability to legislate. >> you're saying there used to be a bunch of experts that would inform committees and inform lawmakers. >> we need those people. >> who replaced those people? >> lobbyists. and that's all legal. when you don't have your own research or your own people to go out and find out what the numbers are, what the data is -- you want to know what you are doing. if you don't understand the nucleus or access of what is going on on any issue, you know what? you're worthless as a congressperson. >> so if there are fewer expert staffers on the hill and lobbyists are writing the bills

and leadership is controlling the legislative agenda, what exactly is congress doing? according to colorado republican kent buck, not much. >> so there is a political reality. you never get punished for doing nothing. you get punished because you did something, and there is a bunch of money that comes in. >> who punishes you? >> the voters because the special interest groups spend money to take you out. if you don't do anything, you won't hurt the special interest groups. if you do something to change the status quo, then the money comes in, the commercial comes in, the mailers come in, the opponent comes in and you lose your seat. >> so the gridlock is a welcome thing for most lawmakers? >> what about when both sides have already found that common ground like with infrastructure? the result is still gridlock. >> there is all sorts of topics and policies that are extremely controversial. but there is a lot of stuff that everybody agrees on. one of those things is infrastructure. you need to fix roads and bridges and tunnels, et cetera. >> you don't have enough time to agree because you are always disagrees. it's a built in thing.

>> this representative says members of congress are not judged by their ability to compromise or pass legislation but on something much swampier. >> there is very little time to read bills, to analyze legislation, to develop coalitions with fellow members because there is so much pressure to raise money. >> is this a partisan thing? >> both sides do it. >> and raising money isn't just for re-elections. it is also the key to gaining power within the parties. >> how do you get a committee chairmanship? >> you have to pay a certain amount of money. when we were in power, to be a chair of an a committee, ways and means, appropriations, rules, you had to raise $1.2 million for the republican party. a b committee i think it was $825,000. >> buck's numbers check out. for example, on the last congress, kevin brady, the

former chair of the house ways and means committee raised over $1.8 billion for house republicans. and top democrats on several of the most powerful congressional committees each gave their party at least $500,000 from their campaign and leadership pacs. >> what are the consequences of that? >> well, the consequences are you have to have a lot of friends in this town. the way you have friends in this town is to make sure you are voting the way they want you to vote. >> so you are not an independent thinker. >> not in this town. >> so who gets credit for this no-win game of follow the leader? turns out we can thank the so-called godfather of gridlock. >> that's a lot of blame for one person. >> well, he's a big person. persn doing a little growing of their own. ohhh. ahhgh. so imagine how we cheered when we found tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk.

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congress has long had abysmal approval ratings. a gallup poll from july found 76% of the people surveyed disapproved of the lob lawmakers are doing. it is not just our decrepit infrastructure to blame. >> believe it or not, the roots of that hostility can be found in something as mild and, let's

face it, as dry as cspan. >> we have been trying to figure out why congress is so dysfunctional. >> what is your take on that? >> well, congress is partisan in ways that it wasn't when c-span first started. but i think in 1978, 1979, a new breed of congressmen, which newt gingrich was a leader of, came in and they were technologists and they weren't satisfied with the status quo. >> according to c-span president, when republican newt gingrich came to the hill as a freshman in 1979, he quickly embraced the new tv service because it gave him the opportunity to bypass traditional news outlets. >> i have a very vivid recollection of one night when we were covering one of these

big congressional dinners and newt gingrich was not in the ballroom. he was standing behind the producers and directors watching them direct production. i engaged him briefly in conversation, but he was fascinated what he was seeing in the room. >> gingrich started delivering late night speeches attacking democratic opponents. >> radical democrats perfected the technique of not holding left wing accountable for their actions. >> people at home were thinking that newt and his cohorts were speaking to a full house and arguing in the face of democrats and calling them corrupt and nobody had the guts to come up and respond to them. >> right, right. that was the tactic. >> there was just one catch. gingrich and his republican colleagues were speaking to a

totally empty chamber. but the audience at home couldn't see it. >> so tip o'neill, the speaker of the house at that time. and he was watching night after night. >> so speaker o'neill at one point just had enough of it, picked up the phone as we understand it and told the technicians start panning the chamber. show that this is a farce. >> that it's to an empty chamber. >> mr. speaker? >> the battle between speaker tip o'neill and newt gingrich later erupted on the house floor. >> you deliberately stood on that well before an empty house and challenged these people, and you challenged their americanism. it's the lowest thing i have ever seen in my 32 years in congress. >> the c-span theatrics were all a part of newt's strategy to win.

and this political scientist said it worked. not just on the floor, but with the public as well. >> newt believed the only way to overcome democrats' advantage was to get americans so disgusted with politics and washington that at some point appropriately, they would say throw them all out and bring the other guys in. >> all of the dysfunction we see in congress, this congressional dysfunction comes down to one word, newt. >> if there is a catalyst to tribalism, there is no doubt in my mind having seen it up close and been immersed in this over a lot of decades that newt was the catalyst. >> that's a lot of blame for one person. >> well, he's a big person. >> in a widely distributed memo from his political action committee, gingrich pro posed a long list of negative words republicans could use against democrats. >> our new speaker, the gentleman from georgia, newt

gingrich. >> as speaker of the house, he shut down the government twice. oh, and remember the problems caused by eliminating expert staffers? well, that was newt's idea. >> what newt did was to try and centralize the policymaking process through the speaker's office and also give great traction to those who raised more money than others. it was more about whether you are going to be loyal to the team and i'm the captain and i'm the one making the decisions. >> we asked the former speaker for comment. his office declined, citing his contract with fox. but as far as orenstein is concerned, the time line from newt to now can be called the path to polarity. >> it is only as it began to develop in the '70s and crystallizing in the last ten years that polarization. >> i can work with you even though we have different viewpoints. you are evil and you are trying to destroy your way of life. >> you are evil and you're trying to destroy our way of

life? >> yep. >> this level of extremism is dangerous. >> if we don't move away from this kind of triable identity, then the entire constitutional system is going to fail us. political tribalism isn't going anywhere any time soon. and while politicians bicker, the potholes just get bigger. >> roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say worse. the infrastructure is going way down. could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ this inot this john smith smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith, who met with humana to create a personalized care plan. at humana, we have more ways to care for your health, and we find one that works just for you. no matter what your name is.

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here are the top stories. president trump hopes china has a humane response to protests in hong kong. he said it could affect a trade deal if president xi responded violently to demonstrators. police thwart two suspected mass shootings in ohio. he implied he was going to be a shooter at a local jewish community center. the other was a 25-year-old man in a daytona beach, florida. now back to "american swamp."

capitol hill seems more divided than ever. but what does that mean for you? i'm heading to ohio to take a look at the reality on the ground. the bridge connects cincinnati, ohio, to covington, kentucky and these two states have been squabbling about how to pay for this bridge for years. even though funding for this infrastructure problem has the full support of the president, the congress has been reluctant to commit to the $2.6 billion price tag for a new bridge. it's a hot topic in these parts, especially right here at 55 krc, a local talk radio station. >> we're talking how to pay for it, is it a problem if you are a commuter that drives on it every day. we have a huge one here that has

national implications. >> there is no shortage of people that call in to the morning show to complain about this bridge. it is falling apart, and it has no emergency shoulder. a fender bender away from carmagedeon. >> mark, thanks for calling today. >> thanks. just wanted to let you know, i started at quarter after 7:00 this morning, and i just now got to work, if that tells you anything about the morning commute. >> hour and 15 minutes. >> mark, what do you attribute that to? >> really, the bridge is the single point of failure. >> it is a choke point is what you are saying? >> it is a choke point. >> can i ask you something real quick? this person said, i'll tell you this much, it is insane we had the senate majority leader, the speaker and president obama

eager to spend on infrastructure stimulus and still nothing was done. what is your take on that? >> i'm in the same boat. if anybody came out here and looked at the situation, i don't see how they couldn't make it number one. >> we both know baner went across that bridge several times on his way to get out of town to get back to d.c., right? >> i don't know. i think he probably took a private jet. >> this isn't just about inconvenience. so many people's livelihoods depend on crossing this bridge, like this trucker. >> how long have you been doing this? >> right at 20 years. >> 20 years. >> how many miles have you driven? >> probably two and a half million. >> two and a half million miles. roads getting better or worse? >> i'd say getting worse. the infrastructure has gone way down. >> of all the millions of miles of road he's traveled, dudley says the worst is right here on

this bridge. >> it's losing concrete from the upper deck to the about lower deck. and the bottlenecking, that's one of the biggest issues. >> and you're driving a truck like this on there. this must clog things up, too. >> yes, it does. >> what does traffic mean for y'all. when you get slowed down -- >> less money. >> less money. >> less revenue. if i'm riding 20 miles an hour, i'm making $10. >> is that true? >> yes, sir. >> talk to me about it. i don't see any shoulders here. you can't pull over if you want to. >> if you break down, you're doomed. about ten years ago i was coming back to pepsi in cincinnati, and a gravel truck turned over an 75. >> oh, wow. >> i sat there for seven and a half hours. >> what i have heard in washington is that it just comes down to they don't have anywhere close to the amount of money

they need to put in the roads and bridges and the trains et cetera. >> that's because it goes up to $700 hamburgers and $3,000 toilets. >> first of all, i would love to sit on a $3,000 toilet. >> have you ever driven a politician around in this truck? >> never. >> what about mitch mcconnell? >> no. they would have a better outlook on it if they had a clue what was going on maybe if they spent a day or two days in a truck. >> all they got to do is drive across that bridge with you? >> that's right. any time they want to get in there. >> it is not just a local problem. the bridge is part of interstate 75 and feel of failing is justified. mark, a regional transportation advocate, says it is one of the busiest freight corridors in the nation. he's working to get leaders to

agree on a new bridge. >> explain to me the significance to the u.s. economy. >> connects michigan and miami. connects ohio to kentucky. con nexts michigan to miami. huge freight corridor. $450 billion worth of goods go across every year. >> $450 billion? >> so more than a billion a day. is there any way to quantify what the log jam does for that number? >> just under a billion is wasted every year when it comes to time and fuel, people caught in the traffic. >> a billion dollars. >> president obama came and stood right below it. >> behind us stands the bridge. >> and president trump was in womening ton and he talked about it. >> and replacing the bridge in cincinnati. you like that? >> this is part of the greater

problem faced with infrastructure in the country. the whole point is that it's the poster child of what's wrong with infrastructure in this country. when the last transportation bill was debated on the floor of the senate, the visual they add was this bridge. >> it's a choke point. >> much of america's old infrastructure projects are literally from another century. in 1956 president eisenhower signed a highway act which constructed a 41,000 highway network of roads connecting the country. these days it is less about building the big things and more about maintaining old pipes and pothole roads. we want to know how washington decides what to pay for and what to let crumble. >> we're headed to see one congressman who thinks he knows how washington can pay for this bridge. and a lot of others. >> what's at stake? >> what's at stake is catastrophe. e. oh delicious. or delicious... or fun.

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let's invest in our crumbling infrastructure. >> it is critical to our economy and to our quality of life. >> fix the damn roads. >> politicians at every level of government know their constituents care about fixing the damn roads. it's tangible. it's relatable and it will get you home faster. >> jacob and i are at the first house transportation and infrastructure committee hearing of the year. >> everybody knows what the problem is. america is one big pothole. >> transportation advocates and local politicians like los angeles mayor are testifying about the need for the federal government to play a bigger role in funding. >> and that's why it's so critical the federal government be that place to come to and partner with. >> we spoke to the chairman of this hearing, peter defaz you,

hoping for a bipartisan win on this issue for quite some time. >> so, mr. chairman, president trump, i think, won a lot of people over by talking about america's infrastructure, airports, roads and bridges by describing them like we were living in a third world nation. is he right? >> i had a colleague say, you know, that's very insulting. i said, you don't know how bad things are. he said, no, no. you're insulting third world countries. we have been the envy of the world to now we're like the joke of the world, the united states with its crumbling eisenhower era infrastructure. >> congress has spent less and less on infrastructure. the republican-led congress banned ear marks, money lawmakers would slip into bills to pay for infrastructure back home. >> it is not just the ban to blame for the funding problems. congress hasn't raised the gas

tax since 1993. >> and ever since then there has been risk of urgency. obama pulled the plug because he was scared to death we were going to talk about a gas tax. >> let me stop you. sorry. president obama was scared of raising taxes, so he pulled the plug and that's part of the reason that infrastructure isn't better today? >> absolutely. >> how crucial is the gas tax? >> it is the way that we could provide money short-term. what i would like to do is a tiny increment. i capped it at one-and-a-half cents a year. who is going to lose the election over that? >> that's it? >> that's it. we could bond $500 billion. >> $500 billion. >> over the next 13 years. >> what's at stake? >> what's at stake is catastrophe. if the tunnels under the hudson fail, it will cost the economy $100 million a day in lost productivity. chaos.

people are tired of it and they want to see action. >> raising the gas tax triggers fear on both sides of the aisle. even it protects the bridge in cincinnati. this republican has been representing cincinnati for more than two decades. >> what is your perception of the bridge? >> well, it needs to be replaced. it is probably our most critical infrastructure need. but the local communities have to come together. that means the state of kentucky, the state of ohio and other local folks involved have to come to an agreement on a specialty funding. that's been the key issue. >> if it's critical, why doesn't the federal pay for it? >> this is one bridge and a very important bridge to anybody in our community, including ourself, but there are competing projects all across the country and the federal government doesn't have enough resources to pay for all of that. >> increase the gas tax. it hasn't happened since 1993. what do you think about it?

>> it's one of the things being considered. that tends to be a tax that hits people at lower income levels harder than anybody, so it's not something that i think is quite likely to happen any time in the near future. we can talk about it, but i don't think it's going to happen. >> he said the federal government has so far come up with $53 million for the bridge. around 2% of the cost of a new bridge. he expects additional money to come from a highway bill passed by congress in 2015. but before any more federal funding kicks in, local governments must agree on how to pay for their share of the cost. >> what do you say to your constituents, to the truckdrivers that drive across this thing every day that say we need to get it done right now? >> that's something you're absolutely right. >> and that is the maddening cycle of congress. next to nothing gets done, even though everyone agrees our

infrastructure is crumbling. >> but while we were reporting on this story, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. on april 30th, democratic leaders emerged from a closed door meeting with the president and announced a $2 trillion infrastructure agreement. >> it's clear that both the white house and all of us want to get something done on infrastructure in a big and bold way. and there was good will in this meeting. >> the news seemed promising, but there were red flags. >> thank you very much. >> for starters, not one congressional republican publically backed the idea. and there was no word on where the money would come from. still, for a few weeks, the impossible seemed possible. >> but on may 22nd, less than two hours before a follow-up white house meeting on the infrastructure deal, nancy pelosi accused president trump of obstructing the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election.

>> we believe that no one is above the law and clearly the president of the united states and we believe that the president of the united states is engaged in a cover-up, in a cover-up. >> by the time the democrats got to the white house, the infrastructure deal was dead on arrival. democratic senator tom carper of delaware is the ranking member of the environment and public works committee. he had a front row seat for the drama that unfolded. >> so just describe the whole meeting. tell us where you were sitting, what the president did. >> the president finally came in, went into the room ten minutes after the meeting was supposed to start. he stood at the end of table and said nancy said bad things about me. if you guys want to continue to investigate, go right ahead, but we won't be working on infrastructure investigation as long as these investigations are going forward. >> the meeting lasted all of three minutes. the president immediately held a supposedly imprompt due press conference, although the no collusion sign on the podium suggested otherwise.

>> i told senator schumer, speaker pelosi i want to do infrastructure. i want to do it more than you want to do it. i ed be really good at it. but you can't do it under these circumstances. so get these phony investigations over with. >> a few weeks later, we asked speaker pelosi if she had any regrets about the times of her comments. >> looking back, was it a good idea in that comment right before you walked in to accuse the president of a criminal cover-up before you were trying to get a deal done with the american public. >> we are not giving up on infrastructure and i say almost every day that the president is involved in a criminal cover-up. he just chose to pick it up that day, so there is nothing new about anything i said about the president that time. i think the president just didn't want to pay for it. >> we caught up with republican senator chuck grassley for his take on the partisan impasse. >> so often we hear so many of

your colleagues pointing a finger at impeachment in particular saying this is why things aren't getting done. democrats are obsessed with impeaching the president. >> investigating him. >> i think it's obvious.preside. >> i think it's obvious. >> but infrastructure is something that even president obama could not get done. why infrastructure in particular has sometimemied both parties for so long? >> it's a bigger issue than it's ever within throughout the history. mostly highways and transportation. it's much broader than that now. it's metropolitan infrastructure. it's broad band and raising a trillion dollars is a problem. >> while leaders in washington diter on an infrastructure deal, we found one city that's actually getting it done. >> what are we looking at? >> so this is going to be the future station. what's up with your... partner?

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with the infrastructure deal stuck deep in the swamp, katie and ri committed to finding some light at the end of this tunnel. to look for hope we headed to an unlikely place, the l.a. freeway. we're driving under 5 miles per hour on an interstate highway. literally every member of congress should have to sit in los angeles bumper to bumper traffic as punishment for not passing infrastructure. then i think infrastructure would pass. >> i think that would be defined as cruel and unusual punishment. we're crawling along the 10 freeway west of downtown los angeles. the problem here isn't crumbling roads. it's that there are just too many cars. a fact that jacob and i are painfully aware of having both grown up here. >> i will say i'm somewhat optimistic, because l.a. is trying to expand the subways and the light rail. have you ever been on the train

in l.a.? >> i have not. >> they're getting it done. >> i don't think of trains in l.a. >> they're getting it done. i think when you see it for the first time, it will change your outlook on infrastructure. the l.a. metro system which includes the subway below ground and the light rail above has been around for years. but it hasn't made much of an impact on traffic. now l.a. metro is investing billions of dollars to expand and improve public transportation in time for the los angeles olympics in 2028. the mayor is leading the charge. this is will shire boulevard? >> it's literally on top of us. cars are going by. trucks are going by up there. >> the project includes extending one of the existing subway lines, the purple line, nine miles west which they think could cut the rush hour drive time in half. >> what are we looking at?

>> so this is going to be the future station. so you have to imagine people coming up and down into the station. and the tunnel coming through. >> to speed up the schedule, crews are boring tunnels and building stations at the same time. but that comes with a hefty price tag. the budget for the purple line project alone is estimated to be $9 billion. >> where is the boring machine right now? is it that way? >> on the other side. >> it's coming this way. >> when i was down under the hudson river looking at the gateway project, this is what they told me they are dying to have. >> and this is the only big project like this in america with federal and local funding. there's no way we could have done it on our own. >> the federal government has ponied up more than $2 billion and is promised even more. >> the reason? l.a. has skin in the game. local leaders promise to shoulder a hefty chunk of the cost, but that's not all.

los angeles voters also agreed to fund infrastructure projects all across the county. we were at a transportation hearing, and you were there, and you guys were advocating going to the voters saying we want to give you a tax. we want to propose a tax to fund infrastructure. >> this isn't a tax. this is an investment. this is 40 years and 787 million jobs. when we pulled it, the longer we said it lasted, the more people were willing to vote for it. that's the opposite of everything i've ever seen before. >> l.a. voters agreed to help fund not just the purple line extension. they voted to overhaul the entire l.a. metro system. >> you're saying that the residents of lank wanted to pay for this? >> absolutely. 71% of the residents of l.a. county to build not just this line but 15 rapid transit lines in a single city. that's never been done in american history in one place. people know this is not about

infrastructure. it's about quality of life. >> he says the key to draining the swamp is to first bridge the partisan divide. >> i went to the republican on our board of supervisors and we were partners in putting forward this measure before the voters. he got it. >> los angeles county with its 10.1 million residents stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue each year. >> how do you do this in a smaller place? >> that's a great point. there are certain big places that can afford to do this. here in los angeles, new york is trying to figure out what to do with the subway system. for most of america's small towns, for rural areas, if we don't have national leadership, this simply won't get done. >> when we were growing up here taking a train to the beach would have been science fiction. >> but now that's exactly what we're doing. thanks to this improved light rail which has been totally

funded with local money. >> which goes to show when there is a strong commitment by the powers that be and by the people, the swamp can be drained if even just a little. >> not only is this your first ride on the l.a. metro, it's teddy's. >> it is. >> you guys are experiencing together. when we were growing up here, this isn't exist. >> i moved out of los angeles because i was sick of sitting in traffic, part of the reason. i wanted a city where i could get around easily. >> and the city is on the verge of figuring out how to beat the traffic and they didn't have to wait for the federal government. >> the congress and the white house can work together with local governments to do something that the people need to fix infrastructure, and we didn't really find the solution. we've been on this journey so long that i had a baby. >> that's true. who will grow up knowing mas transit in l.a. the federal government put up some money, but this light rail line was paid for by the

citizens of l.a. >> it's not quite the happy ending. >> it's not the happy ending we were looking for, although, it is nice not to be sitting in all that traffic. i am being followed. there are threats on my life. i know we're in danger. i know we are. it's a riveting mystery that started in a place of glamour. >> it became a destination for frank sa gnat ra. >> and ended in a case of murder. the wealthy heir to this legendary hotel dead. >> he was my father. he is the only father i ever knew. >> now police said she was next. someone in the shadows gunning for her. >> my suspicions are growing and growing by the minute.