we are going to start vote you very shortly, and senator cantwell will be a4a period. we want to make sure we get through all members and have an opportunity before the ethics it's going to be a little bit choppy from here on out and i apologize i won't be able to hear your further comments. but please know how much i appreciate what you have provided the committee today. this is a very important issue. i think we would recognize that and again i appreciate the level of cooperation that we've had. and i think a place where we have a compromise bill that i think will be helpful to the country. with that i will turn to senator gardiner, and he will be followed by senator franken. >> thank you, madam chair. and thank you ranking member cantwell for then today and thanks to the witnesses for your time. is in the house of representatives introduced h.r. six the domestic prosperity and global freedom act that we passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. one of the things that made that bill so successful was many of the students made today by the witnesses including conve

thank you, senator chair. >> thank you senator cantwell. i believe we need more time and senators have more questions, so we'll do another round. take a big sigh here. i'm interested, mr. bessac and ms. farmer, when we look at freight transportation systems and we look at the midwest and some of the challenges that we have with containers how would you address those challenges where we have that lack of containers to move our product? and other members of the panel if you would like to jump in on that as well. >> certainly. i'll go ahead and start, chairman fischer. i think that what you'll see is that we've proven in normal times that we have sufficient containers to be able to move the product that wants to move export. in fact, last year we moved 236,000 units of grain in a box back to the west coast. we work very closely with the ocean carriers and the trucking companies, and they are able to scale relatively quickly to be able to meet the demands. what bnsf has been very focused on is improving our velocity. because as you very well kn

. >> thank you senator cantwell w. that let's turn to the secretary for your -- can't well, with that let's turn to the secretary for your comments. >> good morning. thank you ranking member cantwell and members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the department of interior's fiscal 2016 budget request. joining me is deputy secretary mike connor who is certainly no stranger to the senate. i submit add detailed statement for the record that discuss as number of important investments we are proposing so i'll be relatively brief in these opening remarks. this is a forward-looking budget to grow our domestic energy portfolio, creating jobs here at home, to build climate resilience and revitalize our national parks as they approach their 100th anniversary. it invests in science to help us understand natural resources on a landscape level and to apply that understanding to better manage america's assets for the long term. importantly, the budget also helps fulfill our nation's commitments to a

senator cantwell. >> thanks for having this important hearing on movement of freight. when i think of this issue i think so you have many of washington state and all the products that come through on their way to asia. and we have a short period of time seen something like a doubling in the size of the ships over the last five years. so yes we have a lot more capacity. and we obviously have a rising middle class in asia. and they want higher -- they want more u.s. products so the question is what are we going to do to meet that demand as it relates to improving our infrastructure? so one of the things that's occurred is the recommendations of the freight mobility board which was chaired by mark downy. and i think ms. farmer, somebody from the railroad association at least participated in that. the question is how do we move forward on those recommendations? and would you support a dedicated funding source to freight so that we could raise the importance of why moving this product is so critical to our economy and infrastructure. and that tiger alone just isn't going to

[laughter] senator cantwell, you are up. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, thank you for your comments this morning. and for your focus on economic strategy moving forward. and for your emphasis on exports. my views are a little different from those that have been excess by my colleagues. we have a more integrated trade dependent economy in the pacific northwest. i want to get your views on a couple things that i believe are critical for this opportunity. that 95% of consumers live outside the united states, the doubling of the middle class around the gold -- globe in the next 15 hits great economic opportunity for the u.s.. one of the policies that we need to pursue to dig a manager that. things on our agenda -- i almost feel like our economic agenda should have the word exports on it. freight mobility, improving our freight infrastructure so we can get products to market quicker. one of the stumbling blocks that we are facing right now is the reauthorization of the export-import bank. if you could talk a little about what you think the importanc

. >> thank you senator cantwell. with that let's turn to the secretary for your comments. thank you and good morning. >> good morning, chairman murkowski, ranking member cantwell and the other members of the community. thank you for the opportunity to testify today. joining me deputy secretary mike connor whose certainly no strange torer to this chamber or the senate. i've submitted a detailed statement for the record. this is a forward looking budget that provided targeted investments to grow the portfolio. creating jobs at home, build climate resilience and revitalize the national parks as they approach their 100th anniversary. it invests in science to help understand national resources on a landscape level and to apply that to better manage america's assets long-term. it also helped fulfill nation's committees to native including helping improve education for indian children. way tonight to first talk investments in lands that make our nation proud. on the 50th anniversary, the budget proposes full funding of $900 million annually for lwcf programs. this is dollar for d

we'll go to senator cantwell then senator hoeven and senator king. >> thank you, madam chair. i will say i'm very impressed secretary jewell by the level of specificity you're giving to all our answers because we're covering a broad range of subjects. so i'm going to throw three other ones at you. first of all the columbia river treaty. hugely important to the pacific northwest. i don't know if mr. connell wants to take that or not. but what can we get from the department of interior about clarifying these interests so we can move forward on a proposal through the administration? i mean, obviously interior has to weigh in with the white house and this state department and we want to make sure that's happening so that we can elevate discussions with canada. secondly, we want to get your thoughts on working with the department of energy on the finalization of the manhattan project implementation. you mentioned obviously other park projects and their significance. we want to ensure the park service works closely with the local community in planning that park. so we want to see if

senator cantwell, you are up. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, thank you for your comments this morning and your focus on the economic strategy moving forward and for your emphasis on exports. my views are little different from some that event expressed by my colleagues but we have a more integrated trade dependency on the current in the pacific northwest so when future views on a couple of things that i believe are critical for this opportunity that 95% of consumers live outside of the united states, that the doubling of the middle class around the globe in the next 18 years is great economic opportunity for the u.s. and what are the policies that we need to pursue to take advantage of the. so things on our agenda, i almost feel like our economic agenda should just have the word export on the. freight mobility, improving our freight infrastructure so we get product to market quicker state export assistance program which is a key tool for small business to become exporters. one of the stumbling blocks we are facing right now is the rea

. >> thank you, senator cantwell. you're absolutely right. yakima is a great model of what we need to be doing from a strategic standpoint. the federal government working closely with the state and all the different constituencies in developing a plan of action to deal with the long-term imbalance between water supply and demand in the yakima basin. i think the bureau of reclamation helped fund a lot of the planning activity with respect to yakima's developing an overall strategy that when implemented, i think will benefit the environment, the tribes, as well as the large-scale agriculture that exists in the basin itself. as you highlight and added, it's a very expensive plan. i think overall it's $3 billion to $5 billion over a 30-year period. but over that time frame, hopefully -- and we know the state has stepped up to the plate very significantly in the yakima basin with over $100 million that it's appropriated to the effort. reclamation is increasingly incrementally investing more of its resources, in addition to, i think a couple of yea

and building partnerships and investing in our lands for future generation,k >> thank you, senator cantwellning. chairman murkowski, representative can'ttwell, thank you for letting me testify. joining me mike connor who certainly is no stranger to this chamber or the senate. i've submitted a detailed statement for the record that discusses a number of investments we're proposing so i'll be relatively brief in these opening remarks. this is a forward-looking budget that provides targeted investments to grow our domestic energy portfolio creating jobs at home, to build climate resilience and revitalize our national parks as an approach to their 100th anniversary and investing in science to help us understand natural resources on a resource level and to manage our assets for the long term and helps fulfill ow nation's commitments including a much-needed and historic to improve education for indian children. our investments in the lanns and historic places that make our nation proud and serve as economic engines. on the 00th anniversary of the fund act the budget proposes foul funding of $900

. >> senator cantwell, i think you're totally right that exports are key to our economic future. and that's why we're pursuing trade promotion authority. it's why we're negotiating the tpp. we're looking at where the markets are growing. we want american companies to have access to those markets, and that will be a way to create good middle class jobs in the united states. that's the only reason that we're focused so much on this trade issue. the export/import bank is a critical component of our export strategy. in a world where nobody had export subsidies, one could have a conversation about whether or not we should have one. but in a world where our competitors have export programs, and we might not, that's putting a burden on our exporters that's just not fair. if you're selling, you know, from washington state, i know aircraft are a big issue, if you're selling aircraft against companies that have export financing, because of programs like the export/import bank, and we don't, that's something that you can't make up for just by running a tighter operation. now, we have discus

one of them, senator cantwell deserves a mention. even though she didn't vote for keystone, but worked with us to process amendments. we are grateful to her as well. and where we are as others have indicated, we are hoping common sense will prevail here and the president will sign this extraordinary jobs bill. >> when the president spoke during the state of the union address, he said the united states must aim higher than a single pipeline and i agree with him this is a great place to start. under his policies, domestic production has shut down on federal lands and increased everywhere else by 35%. and they have benefited by having more energy supply. it would go through western south and for those counties it would be a good shot in the arm. the property taxes the pipeline would bring in would fund schools and roads and bridges and give them the opportunity to transport the energy supplies they need in a safer manner and take care better. if the president says no to this bill what he is saying no to safety, no to the environment, no

cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms.cantwell: i rise to applaud the president's vow president's veto of legislation that would have rubber stamps the construction of the keystone pipeline. this involved a circumvention of federal review processes and would allow corporations not to have adhered to various safety and environmental standards that are important for the american people. so i'm glad the president is vetoing this legislation. the rules for citing cross-border pipeline are well-established, and time and time again trans-canada has shown that it doesn't want to play by the rules. so with this veto by the president of the united states, he is clearly saying, trans-canada must play by the rules. the president veto recognizes three important implications for congress: in the intervening and trying on -- to pass this existing pipeline process. first, this bill was premature because it authorized construction of the pipeline while legal and administrative processes were still ongoing in nebraska and south dakota and

senator cantwell, you are up. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr.y, thank you for your comments this morning and your focus on the economic strategy moving forward in for your emphasis on tax words. my views are of little different than some that have been expressed by my colleagues, but we had a more integrated trade economy in the northwest. wanted to get your views on a couple of things that i believe are critical for this opportunity, that 95% of consumers live outside of the united states, that the doubling of the middle class around the globe in the next 15 years has great economic opportunity for the u.s. and what are the policies that we need to pursue to take advantage of that. so things on our agenda -- i mean, i am a skillet our economic agenda should just have the word export on it. so freight mobility, improving our freight infrastructure so we can get product to market quicker state export assistant program which is a key tool for small businesses to become exporters. one of the stumbling blocks we face right now is the reauthorization

one of them senator can't well, also deserves a -- cantwell, also deserves a mention. even though she didn't vote for keystone, she worked constructively with us to process amendments. we are certainly grateful for her as well. so now where we are as others have indicated, we are hoping commonsense will prevail here and the president will sign this extraordinary jobs bill. >> when the president spoke during the state of the union address, he said the united states must aim higher than a single pipeline, i agree with him. but this is a great place to start. under his policies domestic production has shut down on federal land yet increased everywhere else by 35%. and that has led to more money in the pockets of hardworking americans and they benefited from having more domestic energy supply. the keystone pipeline would go through western south dakota. for those counties in western south dakota it would be a good shot in the arm. for many of those counties, the property taxes the pipeline will bring in would fund schools. it would fund their roads and bridges. it would gi

cantwell: thank you. i rise today to discuss the importance of the issue of net neutrality and the importance of it to our innovation economy. the internet is a $638 billion economic force and according to a mckenzie global institute it supports millions of jobs across our nation and setting the right policy for the internet is critical for the continuation of american job creation in an innovation economy. over the next 24 hours chairman tom wheeler is expected to announce strong net neutrality standards to support the growth of this innovation economy and according to news reports the f.c.c. will establish clear rules of the road to ensure no content is blocked and that the internet cannot be divided into fast and slow lanes. this announcement would set a clear framework for the innovation economy and millions of jobs that depend on it across our nation. it would make a game changing milestone for american innovators and consumers because a comprehensive plan would protect consumers while still allowing

cantwell: mr. the federal communication commission in a 3- 2 decision a landmark case that will go down as a way to protect an open internet economy. consumers all across america should applaud and i know they will be in the public health because -- pacific northwest because we will be protecting that aspect of our economy that has created thousands of jobs and millions of dollars for our economy. this decision known as net neutrality simply says that cable companies and telecom companies cannot artificially charge more on the internet by slowing down traffic or making a two-tier system in which some applications would be given access to faster service and others not just by on what they paid for. this is an important decision because it champions an open internet an open internet economy that has built so many new aspects of the way we communicate, the way we educate, the way we continue to transact business around the globe. in 2010 the internet economy accounted for 4.7% or approximately $68 bil