Remarks from Washington, DC | Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Pete, you ready to go? Thanks, sir. Everybody set? Great. Everybody ready? Good morning, everybody. President Biden pledged to use the power of the presidency to help everyday Americans, to bring people together, and to rebuild our country. For decades, we have talked about infrastructure week. President Biden worked across the aisle to actually get it done. Promises made, promises kept. As you know from our announcements lately, every week is going to be infrastructure week. And this time, we'll actually be building stuff. President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our crumbling infrastructure and invest in major projects that keep our economy working. In just the last 128 days, we have hit the ground running. Nearly $100 billion have been pushed out. Nearly $50 billion in notices are coming our way. We're making progress on ports, on airports, on clean energy and investments. This is the largest-ever investment in broadband, rail, transit, clean energy, water, just to name a few. There are 375 projects in this bill, 125 of them are new. But I'm particularly excited about the announcement today, and I'm thrilled to be standing here with my partner, Secretary Pete Buttigieg. To talk about the infra, the mega, and the rural projects. $2.9 billion of investments to actually build big projects in the country. Making it easier, simpler, faster, and better for the people of America. I'm thrilled to be here, and now I want to introduce to you Secretary Pete Buttigieg. First, I want to thank Mayor Landrieu and his team, our partners in delivery, for the work that they're doing across the different dimensions of this infrastructure law, including, of course, transportation. And I want to thank the National Park Service for hosting us here today and making sure this is a success. We've been traveling the country this year to see the pressing infrastructure needs that we've been hearing about, talking about, worrying about for decades. And through those decades of underinvestment, there's been a lot to see in terms of the need around this country. We've been hearing from people describing how poor infrastructure has affected their lives. We've seen ports, bridges, and tunnels that the country relies on that are part of the lifeblood of our economy, but that are depending on technology that's more than a century old. The Hudson River Tunnels, the best technology of 1910, clearly in need of an upgrade. We talked to truckers and small business owners in rural areas from Arizona to Alabama about the cost to livelihoods and families when local bridges are closed. In Syracuse, we saw where a Black community had been divided by the old construction of a highway and met leaders who were working with optimism and vision to establish new connections. And we've also seen how Americans are united around that urgent need to make these improvements. Because of President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law, we are now able to answer that call with a historic investment. In recent weeks, we've launched the effort to fix an estimated 15,000 bridges around the country. We've put forward the largest ever investment in our port infrastructure development program to move goods more quickly and smoothly. And now we're taking another major step that is going to improve everyday life in America. With a $2.9 billion commitment to communities across three programs, Infra, a megaprojects program, and the Rural Surface Transportation Program. So together, Mega, Infra, and Rural, representing $2.9 billion for transportation infrastructure projects like transit, rail, highways, freight, and a lot of bridges. And we've done something new this time, which is one combined application for three marquee intermodal programs with a shared set of criteria. And the reason we're doing that is to make the process more simple and straightforward to apply for and to navigate. In the same way that a common application for college spares you having to fill out a zip code seven different times on seven different pieces of paperwork, we can use a smoother, smarter process to reduce the burden and make this process fairer, especially for smaller communities. And of course, give our department a more holistic view of the needs across the many programs. For people in rural communities, this is $300 million for a new program, this Rural Surface Transportation Program, for areas too often overlooked despite their major infrastructure needs. That's rural highway, bridge, and tunnel projects that increase access to markets, improve freight movement, or make travel safer. And it allows for promising innovative transportation systems like on-demand transit. For larger projects, we've got the new program appropriately called MEGA, which will receive a million dollars for major projects of national or regional significance. Projects that are often too large or complex for other funding streams. This is where we can build the cathedrals of our transportation infrastructure in this country. Whether it's existing infrastructure that needs major modernization or new projects that are going to make a difference for a whole region. And then for communities of any size, large and small, and for the benefit of our supply chains, $1.64 million for the INFRA program. Now that program already exists, but thanks to the President's bipartisan infrastructure law, we have nearly a 50% increase in available funds, which is important because every single year we get far more applications than we can support. With the funding that we did have last year, we were able to do things like support a new inland container port with direct rail links or the Port of Savannah to move more goods more quickly and with less pollution. And a project to transform one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state of Nevada. And we can literally see the impact of the INFRA grant program with the Memorial Bridge behind us. Rehabilitated with the help of a 2016 INFRA grant after being slated to be closed because of its prior poor condition. And instead, as you see, it is a critical connection for tens of thousands of daily drivers. And you may even see the occasional Transportation Secretary huffing and puffing out there on his morning jog. So with today's funding announcement, we're able to bring that many more projects to that many more places where it's needed. And our team is committed to delivering on this in line with the President's vision of ensuring that these projects happen on time and on task and on budget, as Mayor Landrieu often likes to say. With that, I think we have a little bit of time for questions for either of us. Ben, are you going to quarterback? All right. So this money is set up so that we can make the awards this same calendar year. Now again, when it comes to the mega projects, these cathedrals, obviously a lot goes into that planning, engineering, construction. Some of the other projects we think can happen on a quicker timeline. When you look across INFRA and some of these rural opportunities, we think those can move in shorter order. And of course, throughout this year, in addition to the three notices of funding opportunity we've combined into one for today's announcement, you're going to be seeing dirt moving and people on the job on everything from infrastructure programs we're supporting through the RAISE effort to those electric vehicle chargers that we want to get out as quickly as possible. And I would just reiterate to remind you that 110 days in, we've pushed out over $100 billion of notices to the states across the entire infrastructure plan as well. I think these are good policies. They were good policies when they were proposed, and they're only more needed and urgent now. I don't know what legislative vehicle, what package, what combination, or what brand name is going to go with these ideas or ultimately deliver them. But they are an important part of how we're going to move forward as a country, and they do benefit our transportation infrastructure agenda too. And I'll just give you one example. If the president's proposals on child care, which the vast majority of the American people support, if they were to pass, that would make it easier to get more people into the workforce to actually build and develop these infrastructure projects. When I'm traveling the country saying, okay, what do you need in order to get people to be able to be part of that workforce we need, just in order to make sure this happens now that we funded it. One of the things we hear is that child care is an obstacle for a lot of workers, often women, to be able to get these good paying jobs that were created. So that's just one example of how these things are connected. We're going to keep pushing for them. We've got plenty on our plate right now just delivering this transportation funding. I'll say a word and then I think the mayor might be able to say a little bit about the administration-wide effort that he's guiding on behalf of the president. But I'll tell you as a department, we have an extraordinary team that has years of experience in terms of working through every detail of these applications to make sure the dollars are well spent and that the best ideas rise to the top. But frankly, we need to grow in order to be able to administer these funds. So part of what the law provides for are positions in order to responsibly handle those dollars. We're hiring right now, USAjobs.gov, great place to look for many of the positions that we are adding, even as we speak, in order to help us deliver on these programs. I don't know if you want to say anything about the big picture. Sure, sure. The secretary makes a great point. This bill is a once in a generation opportunity. But this country doesn't have or has not built the muscle memory to actually do this. And so one of the things we're actually doing right now is trying to build the team across the federal government. We're also working with governors and mayors, and we're also aware of the workforce development challenges that we have. As the secretary told you, one of the great things that the president has been trying to do is to create an opportunity for people to actually get to work. So yeah, we've got money to do it, but it's going to be a challenge over time to actually build the workforce to get it done. We're in the process of trying to make that happen. So I don't have any news to announce today on the FAA side. Obviously, that's a very important position, and it's going to call for top leadership. In terms of China, I'm very encouraged that the Chinese civil aviation authorities invited NTSB to participate and be on the ground there. And of course, FAA will stand ready to support NTSB any way that they can. Yeah, the mayor came to see us just a few days ago with Union Station on her mind. There's the H Street Bridge and a number of other projects that need attention right here in the local area. And so what we're doing is we're making clear some of the pots of funding, like the ones that we're announcing today, that they should consider applying for, where many of these visions would be eligible. Now, that bill, that's not written in terms of projects, right? It's written in terms of available funding. But there's no question in my mind that we will get a lot of compelling applications from right here in the DMV area.