"America Builds: Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Rail Assistance"
House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads
2025-05-06
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Source: Congress.gov
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Without objection, show that ordered. I ask unanimous consent that the members not on the subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee in today's hearing and ask questions. Without objection, show that ordered. As a reminder, if members wish to insert a document in the record, please also email it to documentsti at mail.house.gov. I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement for five minutes. Most of us are familiar with the unfortunate and unnecessary reputation of our country for building and repairing infrastructure. It takes too long, costs too much. Many of what we would today call mega projects, like the original Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Triborough Bridge New York took just a few years to build. Hoover Dam was completed in just five years. While delays to large projects garner all of the media attention, many of the same laws, processes, and red tape that they add in years to project completion in time and cost also plague New York. smaller projects initiated by both freight and passenger services centers carriers. Recognizing the importance of a safe, efficient, and reliable freight and passenger rail transportation system, Congress has authorized several programs to assist those carriers who, owing to their own size and market segments, lack the resources of larger operators to invest substantial funds
and their infrastructure needs. These include programs like CRISI, which serves as a vital source of funding to assist short line railroads to rehabilitate and expand infrastructure necessary for the mission to provide first and last mile freight service. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of these programs is the purpose of today's hearing and a goal of the committee's work to a reauthorized Department of Transportation surface transportation programs. Additionally, federal infrastructure funding should support core programs and construction of infrastructure. The Trump administration has inherited a backlog of more than 3,000 unobligated DOT grants. The responsibility of the administration took the time to review these grants to ensure that the best use of taxpayer dollars today The department announced it approved more than 1,800 grants totaling $3 billion. I look forward to working with the administration to reduce the Biden backlog in a timely manner and ensure that federal grants are focused on improving critical infrastructure. Again, I look forward to learning the views of today's witnesses. I now recognize Rookie Member Titus for five minutes for an opening remark. You're recognized. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this hearing.
Through the bipartisan infrastructure law, this committee made some historic investments in passenger rail, and we're seeing the impact of that all across the country. Certainly, we're seeing it in Las Vegas. Thanks to a $3 billion grant from the federal state partnership for inner city passenger rail, Brightline West has broken ground on a new high speed train between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I've been working to bring high speed rail to the southwest for many years and I'm excited, excuse me, that it's becoming a reality. I'm also proud that this project is creating good paying union jobs. Rail union workers are building Brightline West and they're gonna play a role in operating and maintaining it once it's in service. In fact, it's been estimated that the project will create 35,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs and that's nothing to sneeze at. While Brightline West is a success story, I know it's not the only model we need to support as we work to improve inner city passenger rail. We've got to remember that there's not a passenger rail system in the world, in the whole world, that operates without some government investment in capital projects. I believe we need to provide robust funding for Amtrak and competitive grants in the next transportation authorization bill. We don't want to lose all the progress that we've made over the past five years, and that's what will happen if we don't invest. Amtrak services are found in red and blue districts, and I'm glad to see that some of my Republican colleagues voted in favor of amendments to protect Amtrak funding for the Northeast corridor and for the North Carolina rail system during last week's markup of this committee.
There are many communities across the U.S. that will benefit from sustained federal rail investments. The Federal Rail Administration has identified 69 corridors and 44 states as ready for additional investment. These are in many of our districts with proposed lines, extensions to existing routes, or improvements to the rail service in 49 districts on this committee alone, 49 in this committee alone. In addition to helping expand passenger rail service, federal rail grants also make our rail network safer.
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