Secretary Anthony Foxx
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
National Press Club – Infrastructure Funding Panel
Washington, D.C.
September 9, 2015
Thank you, David. It is great to be here today with President Hoffa and Governor Barbour. And I want to thank all the members of the National Press Club for convening this discussion.
Friends, we have been lulled into sleep by the boldness and sacrifices of past generations. America is not exceptional just because of what previous generations did. We are exceptional because every generation picks up from where the last generation left off and carries it forward.
That generational ethic is under assault right now. Transportation is the one thing we all must do together. We can’t imagine it by ourselves. We can’t pay for it by ourselves. We can’t build it by ourselves. But look at what is done for us generation after generation.
Are we the same country that built the Erie Canal and Transcontinental Railroad? Are we the same country that built the Golden Gate Bridge, iconic train stations, and completed the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System? Are we same the country that led the way in moving freight and building mass transit?
The answer is “yes” – we are the same country. But if you were to ask me if we were holding up that legacy for your kids and my kids, the answer is “no.” As evidence of that, let’s just focus for a second on what counts for success in transportation right now. What yardstick are we using to measure success?
There are a ton of bills over in Congress that are in one way or another designed to bring the Highway Trust Fund back into solvency. Is that our goal – solvency of the Highway Trust Fund?
You could argue that back in 1956 making the Highway Trust Fund solvent was tantamount to addressing the nation’s transportation needs. Back then we were building a new system. But today has anybody in Congress or any commentators helped you to understand what plugging the hole in the Highway Trust Fund actually does in terms of filling potholes or fixing broken bridges or building the new projects that are needed for a growing country or even reducing traffic?
We are not thinking clearly about what the Highway Trust Fund is supposed to do. And that, my friends, is the greatest threat because it has so much to do with what we do now. This is about what do we want transportation to do for us in the 21st century?
The Highway Trust Fund is not an outcome. It is not a result. It is a tool. If your dishwasher is broken, you are not fixing the problem by finding the wrench. The wrench may help you but only if you focus on what’s wrong with the dishwasher.
The Highway Trust Fund is one of our wrenches, one of our tools, to address our transportation needs.
What do we want for the future? Do we want commutes tomorrow to be longer? Do we want roads to be in such disrepair that we can’t even keep up with maintenance? Do we want our bridges to fall into such a state of disrepair that they are impassable?
That is not how we got here. That is not how we are going to move this country forward.
So where are we right now? We’re on our 34th short-term funding extension. It’s gotten to a point where I feel like an auctioneer. Except instead of saying going once, going twice, I am now saying, going 33, going 34.
We saw the Senate pass a bipartisan bill before August recess. The House is anticipated to move a bill out of Committee this month.
Meanwhile, Americans want their transportation problems solved. I have been to quite a few community roundtables over the last couple of years – more than 100, in fact, all over the country. And the American people are talking about this. They’re tired of the traffic. They’re tired of the projects that keep getting promised and either get shelved or take forever to happen.
They’re talking about the cost of transportation, which for many families is the second biggest expense they have.
And as much as the American people want a better transportation system, they know the political system is failing them. It is not delivering them the benefits they need and want today.
That’s their reality. Then you come to Washington – and what’s the reality in Washington?
In Washington, it’s not a question of how much we need; it’s a question of how much money do we have. And then the talk goes into “offsets,” “pay-fors” and “pension smoothing.”
Well, guess what? The American people know we need a better transportation system. They know we need to pay for it. They want it. Let’s give it to them.
Now I want to be clear about this. When I say let’s give it to them I don’t just mean a solvent Highway Trust Fund. I mean, give them a better transportation system. Use the Highway Trust Fund as the tool it was intended to be to drive outcomes in America.
Let me give you an example. In many parts of the country people get stuck in traffic for an hour or more on a single trip.
A lot of commuters wake up every morning and know that if they get on the road even 10 or 15 minutes late, that means they’ll be spending an additional 60 minutes or 90 minutes inching along through rush-hour traffic. And when you add in the extra cost of fuel to the cost of lost time, it’s a lot. Americans are now paying a price of close to a thousand dollars annually to endure all these delays. Americans are now spending a total of close to 7 billion extra hours stuck in traffic.
Maybe one goal of a new transportation bill should be to reduce traffic.
Now I have asked our experts at DOT to do an analysis so we could understand how much we need to invest to reduce traffic and improve commuting times.
The GROW AMERICA Act, which we put forward, twice now, makes substantial investments beyond just making the Highway Trust Fund solvent. And in fact when we apply our traffic test to the GROW AMERICA Act, travel times actually go down.
What if we applied that test to investing just enough to make the Highway Trust Fund solvent? What would happen?
Travel times go up. So here we are spending months and months wrangling over extension after extension to get a status quo bill done. And it gets us longer commutes.
The DRIVE Act, a bill that passed the Senate just this summer, increases investment in the surface transportation system by 5 percent.
I’ve applauded this step by the Senate as a move towards progress. But if we can only achieve a modest increase in funding, we will still get more traffic.
I don’t know about you, but if I am going to pay more, I want to get more. If we are going to invest more in infrastructure and get the same crummy results, what’s the point? Let’s move the country forward.
I am really worried that we are spending more time trying to find the wrench and not actually fixing the dishwasher.
Our experts at DOT found that the absolute minimum level of investment to prevent traffic from getting worse was $400 billion over six years.
The bill we put forward, the GROW AMERICA Act, puts us $78 billion above that mark. The discussion is not even in that ballpark yet.
So Congress has a lot of work to do to get closer to the levels of funding we need to reduce traffic.
That is one of the reasons why we continue to urge Congress towards more funding growth.
But, you say, Mr. Secretary, you are being unrealistic – we can’t possibly afford what you’re talking about.
I have to smile at this. Unrealistic? It’s unrealistic to think our country can keep our transportation edge by running on fumes.
And if you’re looking at offsets, try factoring in the economic impact of a strong, long-term transportation bill.
We really don’t have time for this. The studies we have done as a department, including Beyond Traffic, outline a massive set of trends and choices we face over the next 30 years, including that we’re going to have 70 million more people competing for use of our roads, transit, & rail networks, putting even more pressure on an already constrained system.
Our economy depends on the efficient movement of freight. That is hanging in the balance.
Much of this growth will occur in megaregions in the South and West. This includes cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta that are already choking on congestion. But it also includes other fast-growing metros where it is indisputable that the infrastructure we have today won’t cut it.
Unless we change course, we are going to have longer travel times and more headaches. Instead of being an asset, our surface transportation system will be a drag on our economy and quality of life.
So as Congress returns this week after a long summer recess, I urge them to look at the needs of their constituents – to focus on results, and not just the tool to drive those results. Businesses want their freight moving faster. Families don’t want to be stuck on the way to school and work.
We should remember that the future is a choice, and transportation will always be about one generation working on behalf of the next. And I do believe we can pass a bill that allows us to carry this work forward. I still believe that.
Thank you all very much.
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