During Wednesday’s Senate Environment Committee hearing, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) questioned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about project rollout timelines.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you very much.
00:10I wanted to just talk about the concept of time is money in this process.
00:18I come from Ohio and have only been in the Senate for ten weeks, and I've viewed the
00:27federal government from afar, and things seem to take so much longer.
00:32I will give you an example, this is not directly related to the Department of Transportation,
00:38but broadband.
00:40Passed a bill in Congress 2021 about rural broadband, still nothing has been built.
00:48We passed a law in the state of Ohio to do rural broadband with state money.
00:53We built it in two years.
00:56All by basically saying, this is what we want.
00:59You bid on it, you deliver it, you do it in a time frame.
01:03In preparation for this conversation this morning, I was looking, how long does it take
01:07to get a new exit on a highway?
01:09Five to 15 years, but if you look at it, it's usually towards 15 years.
01:13How long does it take to build a new bridge?
01:14Seven to 20 years typically is closer to 20 than it is seven.
01:22What is it that you're doing to institutionalize, to look at how we can deliver this faster,
01:30and how can we help you?
01:31First of all, Senator, thank you for the question, and welcome to the Senate.
01:35Congratulations.
01:37I think.
01:38Congratulations.
01:39There you go.
01:40So far, with these delightful colleagues, it's been wonderful.
01:43You make an incredibly important point, and I think Senator Whitehouse made the point
01:47that in China, other places in the world, they build their infrastructure so much faster.
01:53We have decades of laws and rules and regulations that make it really complicated to build,
02:00and so what we've done right now at the department is, there's requirements that are put on funding
02:06that is sent in the bill that we have to actually do, but I've asked, let's take out all the
02:12other requirements that we're putting on from the department so we can build projects faster.
02:17I think we are going to work on NEPA reform in this administration.
02:23I know that all of the body, bipartisan, wants to work on regulation reform as well.
02:31Again, we can protect the environment and move projects faster.
02:36We're not doing it smartly, and so I think it's going to be a whole of government.
02:39We all, I think, are recognizing what sounded like a good idea at the beginning has now
02:43becoming a weight around our neck as we try to build infrastructure, and so I would look
02:49forward to working with you on what we're going to do at the department, what you all
02:52can do in the Senate, and if we do that, again, instead of taking 10, 20 years, we could take
02:58three to five years to build out these projects.
03:02So I'm going to ask you about being intentional about it.
03:06Is there anybody's job inside the department to figure out how we're going to go faster?
03:12So what's important for the department is to streamline the process for the states,
03:19right, to take off as much of the weight as possible so they can build faster and spend
03:24more time turning dirt and less time doing paperwork.
03:27And so we are at the department doing that part.
03:30But there's some requirements that the Congress has put on us that we include in these agreements
03:35that states have to comply with.
03:38But offering more flexibility to states who have, I think, a more vested interest in moving
03:43these projects faster, I think, is a key part of this as well.
03:46And I think Texas has been a great example of delegating authority to Texas and seeing
03:51them move more quickly on projects.
03:54We have the rules and regulations in place to protect people, to protect the environment,
04:02to make the process more accountable.
04:07The delays end up costing the taxpayers more, not less, because of inflation and other consequences
04:14of the delays.
04:16But as a competitive item for this nation, I just take three things that happened in
04:22the last four years.
04:24Rural broadband, charging stations, the CHIPS Act, how long it takes money to get out the
04:30door for the construction to go while China is innovating a nuclear power plant.
04:37Go through the list of how long it is taking us as a nation to literally get government
04:44money out the door to build the things we say we need to compete and defend ourselves
04:49for economic and national security.
04:51It takes longer and longer.
04:53And I would argue that these rules and regulations are at the expense of Americans, that their
05:01health, for example.
05:02If we know that there is a traffic issue that's a safety issue and we take years to get it
05:07accomplished, people are dying, people's lives.
05:10It's not good for the environment.
05:12All of these things add up.
05:13I just share that and urge you to help us.
05:16I look forward to working with you.
05:18Time is money.
05:19We saw with inflation over the last four years that these projects have become so much
05:24more expensive because they didn't move more quickly.
05:28And I would just, if I could take one moment and just the cost of a whole project, upwards
05:36of 40% of the cost is, you know, complying with the rules and regulations.
05:43We're not building bridges.
05:45We're actually giving this to consultants, money to consultants.
05:49As we try to go through the regulatory process, and I think if the American people knew that,
05:53they'd be outraged.
05:54They want, they want their bridge.
05:56Put the money in.
05:57By the way, if we streamline that process, it's not 40%, it's maybe 15%.
06:01That means we build more bridges.
06:02We build more roads.
06:03You get more projects.
06:04And Americans are happier, which is what we want.
06:06Happy America.
06:07Yeah.
06:08Less regulation.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Every time you have a compliance officer, an attorney, that's one less construction
06:13worker, engineer you're employing.
06:15A hundred percent.
06:16Thank you, Madam Chair.
06:17Okay.