Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, last Friday the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the bipartisan 6-year highway bill proposal. If everything goes as expected, the House transportation committee will mark up its legislation this week. From what I understand, House leadership is committed to taking up this crucial legislation in the coming weeks.

As many of you know, passing a long-term transportation bill has been one of my goals as a Member of this body. In fact, since my time in the Nebraska unicameral, I have made transportation infrastructure funding a top priority. Two of my signature accomplishments in the unicameral led to increased investment for Nebraska's infrastructure and helped local communities move forward with starting and completing vital transportation projects.

This August I welcomed our U.S. Transportation Secretary, Anthony Foxx, to Lincoln, NE, where we convened a roundtable at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Transportation Research Center. We were joined by local transportation stakeholders representing railroad, highway construction, trucking, passenger automobiles, and the aviation industry. At this important meeting, as well as at my listening sessions this summer throughout the State, the message from Nebraskans was loud and clear: Our businesses, consumers, workers, and families want a long-term highway bill.

Throughout the process of developing this bill, I worked with local stakeholders in Nebraska, including our State department of roads, highway builders and project managers, and transportation and community leaders.

Infrastructure is a wise investment. It keeps our country competitive in today's global marketplace. The safety of our traveling public depends on robust and reliable transportation infrastructure. That is why we passed a bipartisan multiyear highway bill here in the Senate. The DRIVE Act provides States and communities with 6 years of certainty for that highway funding without raising taxes on middle-class families.

As an active member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, I am proud of the work we have accomplished together. Our bill enhances safety, proposes much needed regulatory reforms, and it increases investment in our Nation's infrastructure.

The DRIVE Act also includes significant reforms to accelerate highway project construction. The bill does so by advancing key provisions that ensure that local infrastructure projects in Nebraska and all across this country will move forward with a better and a more defined process from the very onset.

The meaningful changes that I championed will provide better coordination between the Federal Highway Administration and States by streamlining environmental permitting and reviews, as well as programmatic agreement templates when initiating new infrastructure projects.

Specifically, the bill will establish new procedures based on a template developed by the Secretary of the Department of Transportation. This will allow our States, in addition to the Federal Government, to determine which State or Federal agencies must be consulted prior to beginning that infrastructure project.

In addition, the bill provides technical assistance to States that want to assume responsibility for the reviews of categorical exclusion projects, which are a category of projects that don't have a significant impact on the environment, triggering a less arduous level of environmental review. Rather than wasting time and taxpayer dollars waiting on the Federal Government to provide an assessment, my provisions would help States provide their own categorical certification regarding the appropriate level of environmental review of certain projects.

Given Nebraska's challenges with starting and completing infrastructure projects, these elements of the DRIVE Act offer a major step forward for transportation projects in my State.

The DRIVE Act also includes major components of a bill that I introduced earlier this year called the TRUCK Safety Reform Act. The legislation offers serious regulatory reforms to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Additionally, the bill encourages stronger regulatory analysis, more transparency, and wider public participation in the regulatory process.

The bill also provides regulatory relief to agricultural producers in Nebraska, reforms research at the Department of Transportation to reduce duplication across the modal administrations, and addresses the challenges of the Compliance Safety and Accountability truck scoring program.

I am pleased that the DRIVE Act establishes a new freight program that will prioritize, increase efficiency, and lower the costs for moving freight imports and exports throughout our Nation. The DRIVE Act's freight program will designate a national freight system and provide guaranteed dollars to Nebraska to enhance freight movement throughout our State on our railways and highways. The freight program will also help America's transportation system continue to facilitate expanding U.S. trade flows. The freight program is crucial to our Nation's economic competitiveness, especially as international trade continues to increase.

The DRIVE Act further incorporates performance-based regulations into our Nation's transportation system. Performance-based measures will offer States more flexibility in meeting the goals of infrastructure-related regulations, something that I have strongly advocated as chairman of the surface transportation subcommittee.

In totality, I believe the Senate produced a thoughtful, comprehensive, and well-drafted highway bill. I greatly appreciate the House moving forward with a long-term highway bill, and I am eager to seek passage of this vital legislation so we can move to a joint conference committee.

I am also pleased to see that the House bill offers several critical provisions, including regulatory reform of the FMCSA and the CSA Program, hair testing for commercial drivers, a freight program, and streamlined permitting to initiate local highway projects at a faster pace. Ultimately, the House's legislative activity this week surrounding the highway bill is a strong step toward achieving a multiyear highway bill--one that will move our economy forward, create jobs, and strengthen safety on our roads, highways, and bridges all across America.

In the coming weeks I look forward to working with Chairman Inhofe, Chairman Thune, Senator Boxer, and Chairman Shuster to produce a reform-oriented compromise that enhances the efficiency, reliability, and safety of our Nation's transportation system.

Thank you, Madam President.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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