so again, i welcome my colleagues here today, look forward to hearing from them and also from mister wiedefeld and ms. flowers on this issue so thank you very much and i yield back. >> ranking member defazio. >> thank you mister chairman. well, it's sad that we are here today under these circumstances. there are certainly matching management issues and i'll get into that in a moment but let's get to the bottom line. congress has neglected to make sufficient investments in infrastructure. everywhere in the country, cities are struggling between pressure to build out more transit and new options and that's certainly going on here inwhat is arguably , potentially the most congested traffic region in the united states of america and then maintaining their legacy system and congress hasn't been willing to be an equal partner. $84 billion backlog nationally to bring transit up to a state here. yes, the fast act will give us more money, that's good but with the amount of money there, we're never going to get a state of repair, never. we're just treading water. and right now, dot says the average annu