and so that's why we have nepa. that's why the process of nepa has been the backbone of what i think is strong and appropriate policy in this country. so weighing into it, our commitment is to get the e.i.s. out, make sure it's done fairly, make sure it's based on science and then from there, we'll make the best determination we can. senator barrasso: finally, mr. secretary, last year when you testified before the committee on the department's budget, i asked you to take steps to ensure the b.l.m. field offices like the one in kasper, have sufficient resources to -- casper, have sufficient resources to clear the sizeable backlog. i'm encouraged by the progress that the department has made on this. also encouraged the attention you and the dep suit secretary from sage grass to cooperation among the agencies you oversee. so i look forward to continuing to work with you and your staff to resolve the lingering concerns with the department's proposed action for the moose wilson road in the grand teton national park and i

and so that is why we have nepa, those are the process of nepa has been the backbone of what i think is strong and appropriate policy in the country. so our commitment is to get the eis out and make sure it is done fairly. make sure it is done based on science and then from there, we the best determination we can. >> and finally, mr. secretary, lester when you testified before the committee on the department budget, asked her to take steps to ensure that the blm field office was like the one in casper had sufficient resources to process the new oil and gas permit applications and clear the sizable backlog. i am t encouraged by the progre the department has made on the issue. also encouraged by the attention you and deputy secretary bernhardt have paid to this and other issues with cooperation among agencies you all receive. i look forward to getting to work with you and your staff to resolve lingering concerns with the departments proposed action for the moose wilson road in the national park and i continue to urge you to listen to stakeholders across the west as we move forward with

throughout the federal departments and agencies from the justice department to the labor department nepa. i think sadly republican voters were played by this and by donald trump. i think a lot of starting to understand that look for answers and to question what happened to their party. that's a welcome development. think we need to real parties in two principal parties in our country will do better when we have principled conservatives. right now i don't think we have that. >> host: one more call from joel and idaho. we have about one minute left. >> hello. i think you should go to middle america and look at the poles of what elected donald trump. thank god we have a right view that you have somewhat denigrated i think you have to look really at the history of higher education which is liberal left-leaning which teaches the snowflakes to meltdown and really ignore the realities of what made our democracy great. thank you. >> host: that was joel. >> guest: thank you for your opinion on that. the american higher education system has been the envy of the developed world. many countries have

by taking care of our nepa, they in turn take care of our partners. if we can attract and retain th, tale that creates the magical starbucks experience in our stores. the company says it's working to make the same changes in its global workforce. shares fell a fraction to 58.47. >>> t calenda says it may be the first day of spring, butte winter wy weather is slamming the east closest. businesses are closed, commerce is at a virtual ndstandstill thousands of flights have been delayed, if not canceled. morgan brennan blamed the elements to explain how the the economy.aster could impact morgan? >> yes, it's been quite the weather situation here for us as we come into the spring season. wsis is, as is mentioned the fourth major srm to bear down here on the eastern united states, and that is beginning to have an economic and financial impact. case in point here,s in la guardia ampt. have you ever seen it so empty?f all the flight here from all of the carriers have been canceled from here since at least midday today. flightaware says we've seen more than 4,

comes from our brother system you don't seem to you know there was a tell you the littlest report of nepa by his excellence or president bashir to the heads of states it has been unanimously received and sudanese transition to good governance and the notion of the good results where unanimously commended by the african leaders and wondering nurse is another example i'm wondering this the what is the calculation behind all your denials you think most people around the world are just ignorant and you know i'm not saying that and i'm not denying saying that yes there are some departures from normal behaviors but sometimes you need them in order to prevent catastrophic actions you think if you go on repeating. these things time and time again the few people somewhere down the line will start to believe them or you wish to degrade the truth to such an extent that people don't know that they know not even of the truth but they also put in another ugly winter many were killed in sudanese want to streeter's month how many were injured i'm not talking about who or so were killed very few but you k

permitti -- nepa. we are making progress and a lot of the private sector of these private pension funds, they are actually quite anxious to help in the rebuilding of infrastructure. and it would help if we decreased the permitting process, again, without compromising any of the environmental concerns. that will decrease the risk profile and enable more private sector pension funds, for example, to come and help in the financing of public infrastructure. >> well, thank you very much for that. and, again, we are ready, willing and able for your department to send forward to us things we can be helpful in that permitting process to streamline to make it irz. if we have to pass legislation, that's something we all on this committee should be willing to underwake. one of the great places to starred when it comes to permitting and government regulation is the corps of engineers. i met with the conference of mayors yesterday and last week with aashto. i like to get a show of hand who's has a project they're w

that is why we have nepa. that is why the process has been the backbone of what is strong and appropriate policy in this country. waiting into it, our commitment is to get the eis out and measure it is unfairly, based on science. from there, we will make the best determination we can. sen. barrasso: finally mr. secretary,, last year when he testified before the committee on the budget, i ask you to take steps that the blm field offices have sufficient resources to process the new oil and gas permit application and clear the sizable backlog. i am encouraged by the progress the department has been on the issue. also encouraged by the attention you and deputy bernhardt have paid to this and other issues with cooperation among agencies you all receive. i look forward to continue to work with you and your staff to resolve the legally concerns with the department's proposed action for the wilson road in the national park. i continue to urge you to listen to stakeholders across the west as we look forward to your pro

but the vast act requirements only refer to nepa. the federal decision announced last august will address some of the permitting. the permitting processes we are talkinge about does not compromise all of our concerns about the environment at all. but it refers to sometimes very simple commonsensical ways in which we can improve the permitting process. for example, many permitting processes occur sequentially rather than concurrently. there is no reason why several processes cannot occur simultaneously t, but instead my of them occur sequentially. another example is when sister agencies within the same department, for example, the department of transportation cannot share their information with each other, they each go out for their own surveys sequentially so that lengthens the time it takes forhe permitting. there are other ways of reducing duplication some regulations or even tight ends ask for the same things. but they will ask for a different timeline so that the reporting requirement has to be done all over because they ask for

this built on the work congress did with safety lieu and map 21 to delegate the nepa authority to the states. my build usa infrastructure act includes several provisions. under my proposal, states would be given the purview over the design, permitting, and construction authorities that are currently under the federal highway administration. in your view, what do you see as the benefits of delegating these authorities to the state? i see them as being able to stretch current tax dollars so we can move forward with infrastructure projects. what is your view, madam secretary? >> as you said, there is the ability, but, first of all, state and local authorities know best what are the needs within the community. we want to be a partner to the states. number two, as you mentioned, they know best also how to leverage, how to work and partner with other sources of capital and revenues. >> right, so as we -- many of us tend to focus on where is new revenue to come from. one of my deepest concerns is how can we better spend the revenue, the taxpayer money we are already charged with spending in

nebraska is currently in the process of assuming nepa authority for transportation projects. can you provide me with an update? >> it has been a great pleasure to work with nebraska. you need to go back to the department of transportation and let them know we have really enjoyed working with them. we hope to sign a mlu very shortly. >> we do tend to benefit from consistent formula funding for infrastructure projects in the state. it seems unlikely that nebraska will benefit from some of the president's proposals when it comes to incentive programs or transformative projects. would it be correct to say that the president's infrastructure proposal incompete proposal intends to supplement current infrastructure funding programs instead of replacing them? >> you are absolutely right. the dollars that we are talking about are on top of what is in the budget ordinarily and on a formula basis. >> as i was looking through the proposal, 80% of the funding under the rural infrastructure program would be allocated to the governors. you mentioned that earlier to provide the states with f

again, the permitting process is not the nepa process necessarily. we don't want to compromise the environment at all. but how do we have a more common sense call approach to streamlining the permitting process so that redundant, duplicitous processes are somehow resolved? >> well, thank you. my time is short here. but let me just say how excited i am about having a large infrastructure project, that could not only solve california's water crisis, but really expand our ports, expand our highways, really expand goods movement as we create more jobs. we will continue to partner with you to find new revenues. obviously we'd like to see our numbers as high as we can. but also want to have the creativity to use our current financing systems, and streamline these projects. to take these projects not only taking ten years, but in some cases, including california water storage, it's not only multidecade, it's generational gaps in new water storage. so we're looking at those opportunities to expedite these projects and actually get them built not only in our

throughout the federal departments and agencies from the justice department to the labor department nepa i think sadly republican voters were played by this and by donald trump. i think a lot of starting to understand that look for answers and to question what happened to their party. that's a welcome development. think we need to real parties in two principal parties in our country will do better when we have principled conservatives. right now i don't think we have that. >> host: one more call from joel and idaho. we have about one minute left. >> hello. i think you should go to middle america and look at the poles of what elected donald trump. thank god we have a right view that you have somewhat denigrated i think you have to look really at the history of higher education which is liberal left-leaning which teaches the snowflakes to meltdown and really ignore the realities of what made our democracy great. thank you. >> host: that was joel. >> guest: thank you for your opinion on that. the american higher education system has been the envy of the developed world. many countries have

, issues that need to be resolved and the assets are thwarted by needless red tape coming from the nepa act. our forests in the west suffer badry and the people that suffer from the smoke and danger, the loss of wildlife and to do the forest companies require delay. you can see it illustrated, private lapped that has been recovered and federal lapped because we have to do another nepa because we should know, delayed, one, two, three years and you dope have the value of those trees left behind after a fire, therefore there isn't enough money to do the job. people, we must reform the neepave act so it works for the people. mr. speaker, i yield pack. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? without objection recognized. > something extraordinary will happen. she has been the embodiment of the american dream ap the importance of the things that happen here. she reminds us that we are a nation of imdeprabts and came to this country after world war ii nd welcomed by the statue of libertyy. in the midst of debates she minds us to have the b

communities like we have in alaska, what would you say are the big issues and what are the problems that nepa, the national historical preservation act? where do we need focus to get to deal with communities that have been left behind? unfortunately i have tens of thousands of my constituents who they never talk about 5g because they're still waiting for 2g. >> we have 13 members that cover a significant footprint in your state so we're very familiar with the challenges they face that your constituents face. alaska has some very unique challenges. but gwen e againly speaking with respect to rural challenges were we believe an infrastructure package could contain at least two, maybe three key elements. first is funding. second is permitting and third is tax incentives. there's going to be different tools in the toolkit depending on what the particular challenge is that's faced. i would suggest with respect to alaska in particular, fund saying big issue. there's just no way around it. fact is that these remote ville i ages are going to be tough to connect and build in and your build season is s