Transportation
Investing in transportation creates jobs and keeps our economy moving. Every $1 billion we spend on highways and road projects creates 47,000 jobs in our community. As a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I strongly support investing in transportation to relieve congestion, improve safety and spur economic growth in our communities. To that end, I am pleased that Congress passed an 18 month transportation bill that will invest in our roads, bridges, transit, and freight infrastructure. But I am continuing to push for a long-term, multi-year reauthorization that meets the needs our industries and economy face.
I am honored to have been selected by my colleagues to be the Ranking Member, the most senior Democratic member, of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, which oversees the Coast Guard and the maritime industry. The work of the Subcommittee is critical to jobs and the economy in Washington state and the Second District. Washington state is home to the country’s largest ferry system, some of our nation’s busiest ports and the most trade focused economy in the nation. Washington state’s maritime industries employ over 9,000 people and countless more depend on our maritime transportation system in their daily lives. As Ranking Member, I will work to create jobs in Northwest Washington by promoting and protecting the maritime industry.
Accomplishments
- Championed funding increases for Washington state’s ferry program in the recent transportation reauthorization through legislation that would foster investment in ferries, and letters of support of ferry funding to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
- Pushed for final passage of the recently enacted 18 month transportation bill.
- Appointed Ranking Member of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee for the Transportation and Infrastructure committee in the 112th Congress.
- Fought hard to pass a bill to strengthen our pipeline safety regulations after a deadly pipeline explosion occurred in Bellingham in 2002, and passed updates to strengthen the 2006 bill in 2006 and 2011.
- Supported federal transportation grant applications by Island Transit and Sound Transit to expand service.
- Co-sponsored legislation to make maritime training programs affordable for all students by allowing students at maritime training institutions to take out student loans and creating maritime training institution scholarships. The Maritime Workforce Development Act passed the House of Representatives.
- Supported small shipyards like Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes by championing grants to help increase productivity and create jobs.