Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Madam Chair, I would like to begin by thanking the chairmen and ranking members of the full committee and the subcommittee for their work on this bipartisan bill.

I worked very hard to become a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee because I wanted very much to be part of a team that gets things done.

When I first joined the committee, many of my constituents back in Ventura County questioned whether the 114th Congress could get a surface transportation bill through the House.

The progress that we have made so far on the bill is a testament to the good work that Congress can do when we work together in a bipartisan way, through the committee process, to get things done for the American people. I am also very appreciative of the Rules Committee for making my amendment in order this evening.

Madam Chair, my amendment would fix a small problem with the new freight program and would allow small- and mid-sized communities an opportunity to compete for a slightly larger piece of the pie.

I agree with many of my colleagues that we absolutely must address capacity issues along long-haul routes and freight corridors. We must address the costly and time-consuming bottlenecks within congested metropolitan areas. We must also address the first- and last-mile connections to our ports, freight yards, and other job centers in our communities.

However, Madam Chair, I am concerned that the freight program created in this bill includes a minimum project threshold of $100 million. Let me repeat: $100 million is the minimum threshold. Many of us represent small- and mid-sized communities.

In my district of Ventura County, we have struggled over the past few years to address freight bottlenecks in our community, including along Rice Avenue, where we have seen far too many deadly accidents in recent years.

But as this bill is currently drafted, Ventura County and many other small- and mid-sized communities across the country won't be able to fully compete for the freight program. We just don't have the resources back home to compete with these large projects.

But that doesn't mean that we don't have freight bottlenecks. All that I am seeking is to ensure that small- and mid-sized communities like my county, Ventura County, can better compete.

Madam Chairman, my simple amendment would increase the small project set-aside from 10 percent to 20 percent of the available resources to allow more communities across the country to compete for these limited resources. The small project threshold is $5 million or more.

My amendment will still leave 80 percent of the money for larger projects. Increasing the small project set-aside will not guarantee funds for any specific project, but it will give many of our districts at least a fighting chance to compete for one-fifth of the funds under the new freight program.

Madam Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Madam Chair, I will close. I just would like to reiterate that my amendment will simply increase the small project set-aside, which will leave 80 percent of the limited funds in the program for large projects.

This is allowing the large projects to win. A small project may not win at all, but it is just giving us, the small- and mid-sized communities, an opportunity to compete.

Again, for many, many districts, $100 million is just an insurmountable sum, but we can and want to compete under the freight program for very important projects.

Again, I thank the chairman for all of his work on this important bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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