Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, as the chairman of the committee is well aware, private sector engineering and design services can play an important role in the development and maintenance of our Nation's transportation infrastructure. By supplementing the capabilities of engineers at State DOTs, private sector engineering and design services enable State and local governments to deliver projects more efficiently and with long-term cost savings.

In order to make better use of these private sector resources, I have introduced an amendment which will provide incentives to States that make use of innovative engineering and design approaches by bringing in the expertise of private sector companies. This amendment is intended to streamline and improve the efficient delivery of highway and bridge projects and would not increase Federal spending. In the last Congress, working with Senators Boxer and Vitter, the committee included this identical provision in the highway authorization bill that was unanimously approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee.

The language has not been included in the bill we are debating today, and while I recognize that many hard decisions have had to be made in order to achieve a bipartisan consensus on this bill, I ask for Chairman Inhofe's commitment to work with us as the DRIVE Act progresses to conference.

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Mr. BOOZMAN. I thank the distinguished chairman for taking a moment to discuss this issue and I look forward to working with him on this bill.

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