Secretary Anthony R. Foxx

Economic Development Administration National Conference

Washington, DC  • April 7, 2016

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you, everyone, it’s great to be with you all today.

Jay, thank you so much for the introduction.  And to Secretary Pritzker and the Department of Commerce, thank you so much for convening this today.

Our American infrastructure has a great tradition and a proud legacy in this country.

When we think of the great states and cities throughout the country, we don’t just think about the friends and family who may live there, or the famous restaurants and museums we hope to visit.  We also think about the great projects that bring many of us there. 

I know if I were to mention the Golden Gate Bridge, the great city of San Francisco comes to mind. Or the Brooklyn Bridge, images of New York City come into view. Or even the overseas highways connecting the Florida Keys over the turquoise waters of the Florida gulf.

Our transportation and infrastructure matter more than many may realize at first view.

But in fact, it’s one of the key drivers to our economy.

To give you an example, just looking at our ports alone, $1.7 trillion worth of U.S. goods moved through them in 2014.

Or even this fact, Scott Davis, the former CEO of UPS told me—“5 minutes saved or lost in shipping packages can mean a difference of 100 Million dollars.”

However, we’re at a transportation and infrastructure deficit. Our systems are taxed.

In the Department’s recent Beyond Traffic report we found that we’re going to have 70 million more people in our country over the next 30 years.

These new people are going to want to move around like the rest of us.

It’s not just our private users, but our freight systems will be taxed as well.

We are expecting 45 percent growth in overall freight volume.  We’ll see truck freight increase by 65 percent.

Fortunately, Congress has passed a new bill called FAST Act to close part of this deficit, but we are still left with a massive gap to fill.

And we don’t have the luxury of being single-minded in trying to fill this gap; we need to take an all-of-the-above approach.

We have to encourage more public-private partnerships—or P3s as we like to call them.

A little under two years ago, President Obama made a pretty bold move, which was to charge us—DOT—to create something called the Build America Transportation Investment Center—also known as BATIC.

The President’s charge was to do several things at once.

First, to lay out best practices that can be utilized by both the public sector and the private sector, whether that is on legislation or on contracts.

Second, provide technical assistance.

And third, to make sure that folks know about the tools that we have available.

We’ve also pulled in outside expertise, with Andrew Right—who is here today—and is leading the effort.

BATIC lives and breathes three simple words:  Expand, Innovate, and Deliver.

Since BATIC’s formation, DOT has closed more than $8 billion in financing for 18 projects with $21 billion in total project costs.  About half of those were P3 projects.

If we look north, to the state of Pennsylvania, the work that BATIC has done is already visible.

Pennsylvania was faced with the challenge of replacing over 4000 structurally deficient bridges with their “Rapid Bridge Replacement project”. 

Aside from the enormous task of having to replace thousands of bridges, administratively, each bridge would require their own environmental review. So the state sought to establish an innovative P3 that would bundle the replacement of 558 small bridges together, and allow its private partner to streamline the environmental review process by submitting them together. 

BATIC supported the streamlined review and the state was able to take a comprehensive look at the 558 small bridges rather than having to submit a new report 558 times for each bridge. This saved what could’ve been decades of time.

However, as we were building out BATIC, we saw that we needed more authorities to deepen our ability to problem solve and get more private capital invested in America’s infrastructure. So we put forth the Grow America Act, which pushed the idea of institutionalizing BATIC. And Congress heard us.

In the FAST Act, Congress created the National Surface Transportation and Innovative Finance Bureau.

By Congress creating the Innovative Finance Bureau—or Bureau for short—the work of BATIC will endure. The Bureau will continue in BATIC’s efforts of improving coordination across DOT, as well promoting the awareness of financial products, like TIFIA and RIFF, that are available to assist P3s. 

But I want to make another point here—I won’t leave this Administration without making sure the Bureau is fully established.

I plan to make sure it’s physical offices within DOT’s headquarter are stood up.

I will make sure that we are able to bring aboard an executive director with the qualifications and vision to make the Bureau all that it can be.

And we will make sure in the way that it is structured, the Bureau is out there supporting P3s with great vigor.

So, what does all of this mean? It means a number of things. That America is open for business. That we’re looking to work with innovators. That we want private capital investing in, and building, America and closing our infrastructure deficit.

At the Department of Transportation we are uniquely positioned to help these types of projects move forward.

For instance, a little over a year ago, I was at an event for the opening of the 95 Express Lanes in Virginia, and I got to meet with many of the leaders who were instrumental in getting that project completed from the time it was proposed in the early 2000s.

The Express Lanes project had substantial public funding. But it also benefited from having significant private sector investments leveraged through our TIFIA program and Private Activity Bonds.

This engagement from the private sector not only helped the project succeed – it has supported tens of thousands of jobs. It has helped thousands of commuters avoid traffic and save time.

And this is just one of many projects that we’ve assisted.

And there others in the pipeline as I speak to you here today.

My point is this: P3s can deliver real and tangible benefits to the public.

In my world of transportation it makes sense to work together. No one builds a road, bridge, or train by themselves or just for themselves. These are things we do together.

It’s important to everyone.

And it’s in these partnerships that we can move our nation’s infrastructure and transportation forward.

Thank you.

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