This afternoon, I appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development and Related Agencies. I thanked Congress for its work in passing a bipartisan surface transportation bill last December, which has done a lot to remove the cloud of uncertainty hanging over our transportation system for the better part of the last decade.

And I also invited them to join President Obama and this Department as we build on the FAST Act with an even more robust budget proposal that creates an American transportation system unrivaled in its ability to meet the challenges of the future.

For example, in Fiscal Year 2017 the President's plan includes $98 billion in transportation investments --a significant increase over FAST Act levels-- to support advances in safety, in repairing and replacing aging infrastructure, and in driving forward the innovative technologies that will help us move more safely and efficiently in the coming years. That is a robust investment.

The President’s budget also proposes a 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan. This plan not only increases spending on infrastructure; it also looks to spend the money smarter by pushing it to the local and regional levels --instead of the States-- where system integration is most needed and where projects can be built much faster.  With more and more Americans living in just 11 megaregions, the President recommends a series of innovative, new grant programs that advance a 21st Century regions approach with an average annual budget of $10 billion over the life of the plan.

Also included is nearly $20 billion for transit to address the needs of fast-growing communities and more than  $6 billion a year for high-performance passenger rail. Finally, the 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan includes funding to help us prepare for the future by providing nearly $4 billion over 10 years in research to support the integration of new transportation technologies, such as autonomous and connected vehicles. That is a robust investment.

The President’s budget also requests nearly $16 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, including $1 billion in investments to further implementation of our NextGen airspace management system.  This funding will enable the FAA to continue operations at the current funding level and maintain its focus on aviation safety. And that is a robust investment.

If the years of struggle to pass a long-term transportation bill tell us anything, they tell us that we need to rethink our strategy. The President’s budget proposal recognizes that neither the current patchwork funding approach nor the rigid and antiquated distribution of transportation dollars through a formula is going to put our Nation’s infrastructure in the best possible position for our kids and grandkids.

While the FAST Act is a big help, we are still playing catch-up from the years of tortured debate that the Act finally tabled. And the demographic and economic pressures are still coming at us as fast and as furious as ever.  Seventy million more people in the US by 2045. Freight volumes that will increase from 45 to 65 percent to accommodate that population growth as well as our need to grow the economy. And the ever-growing megaregions driven by an increasingly consolidated population.

The President's budget offers the pathway into the future that our transportation challenges demand. I hope Congress will give that pathway the consideration it warrants.