"Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Member Day"

Committee on Public Works

2026-01-14

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Source: Congress.gov

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Transcript

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This.  Core.
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The Honorable Ben Cline
Thank you.
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The Honorable Jennifer Kiggans
The command on transportation infrastructure will now come to order.  I'd ask unanimous consent that the chairman be authorized to declare a recess at any time during today's hearing.  Without objection, that is so ordered.  As a reminder, if members wish to insert a document into the record, please also email it to documentsti at mail.house.gov.  I now recognize myself for the purpose of an opening statement.  Before delivering my statement, I do want to take a moment to honor   our colleague and friend, Congressman Doug LaMoffa.  For nearly a decade, Congressman LaMoffa served on this committee as a valued and very thoughtful member.  He made this committee a better place to serve.  He was a tireless advocate for rural Americans, and his voice will be missed as we continue our work to address the needs of our transportation infrastructure.   We continue to pray for his wife, his children, and family as they face this very unexpected tragedy.  If we can, I'd like to pause for just a moment of silence to honor our friend, Doug.  Thank you.   Moving on to today's business, I look forward to hearing members share their transportation infrastructure priorities for the second session of the 119th Congress.  The T&I Committee is coming off a very busy 2025.  Our work started with reconciliation, which included the historic investments in the Coast Guard and the $12.5 billion down payment to modernize our nation's air traffic control system.  The committee also passed on a bipartisan basis a pipeline safety reauthorization.   The FEMA Act of 2025, which reforms our approach to emergency management, and the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which was signed into law last month as part of the National Defense Authorization.  Finally, we closed out the year with the house passage of the Permit Act legislation that would greatly improve permitting under the Clean Water Act.
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The Honorable Jennifer Kiggans
Looking ahead to this year, we have multiple legislative priorities that the committee must reauthorize, including our surface transportation programs.   The committee has already been hard at work on the surface bill, which we plan to mark up early this year.  In addition to the year's surface bill, we also began work on the next Water Resources Development Act, or WERDA.  The portal for members' WERDA priorities was opened on Monday and is going to remain open throughout the rest of this month.  So I encourage members to work with their staff and get those priorities submitted.  Again, thank you all for being here today to testify.   on the transportation infrastructure needs of your districts, and I now recognize Rick for an opening statement.
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The Honorable Earl Carter
Thank you, Mr.  Chair.
First, welcome to the T&I Committee's 2026 Member Day hearing.
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Before I start, too, I want to take a moment to remember Doug.
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The Honorable Ed Case
I knew Doug as a fierce advocate for his constituents.
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You always did know where he stood on issues, and that earned him my respect and respect of the members of this committee.
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The Honorable Ed Case
We're going to miss his presence, his bipartisan efforts to help rural Americans,
and my condolences as well are with his family.
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This hearing is an important opportunity for our colleagues who aren't on the committee to advocate for the specific needs of their own districts and to share the priorities that are most pressing to their constituents.  Over 30 members from both sides of the aisle have signed up to speak before the committee today.
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The Honorable Marie Perez
As Chair Graves and I have often noted, the work of this committee transcends the red team versus blue team mentality that permeates much of Washington, D.C.
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The Honorable Earl Carter
We're here to solve problems and to create economic opportunities for every American, and the high level of participation from members from both parties is a testament to that shared mission.
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The Honorable Marie Perez
The enthusiasm of members seeking to testify today is not surprising.
Thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, sustained investments are rebuilding roads, bridges, rail, transit, and water systems in every corner of the country.
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These investments have resulted in the American Society of Civil Engineers raising the nation's overall infrastructure grade to, you ready for this, to a C, from a C minus four years ago.
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The Honorable Jared Moskowitz
As I noted in previous testimony, you get a C, like my son got a C minus in an engineering class and he wasn't able to advance.  So moving to a C is something else.
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The Honorable Earl Carter
No sector this time received a D minus for the first time since the first report card issued in 1998, but clearly there's a lot more work to do.
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The Honorable Marie Perez
And while the progress is encouraging, a C is not the final goal and we shouldn't be satisfied with it for our national infrastructure.
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The Honorable Ed Case
That's why the committee is committed to passing a bipartisan surface transportation bill that will continue to improve our infrastructure and transportation systems.

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