Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to join Senator Collins in support of the fiscal year 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. I want to join her in commending Chairman Cochran and Vice Chairwoman Mikulski for their great work, but I particularly want to commend Chairman Collins for her extraordinary work, her thoughtfulness, and her diligence. All those aspects are evidenced in this bill.

She has, once again, developed a balanced and thoughtful bill that includes priorities for Members on both sides of the aisle. This bill allows for our Nation to continue moving forward by investing in critical transportation and housing initiatives, and, suffice it to say, without her leadership, we would not be here today with a bill that not only merits our attention, but also merits our support.

This bill includes policies and funding that will grow our economy, improve the safety of our national transportation system, create jobs, and preserve affordable housing for our most vulnerable citizens.

Working within a tight allocation, this bill makes important contributions to the development and safety of our national transportation system. For example, the bill provides $16.4 billion to fully fund the needs of the Federal Aviation Administration, including $1 billion for NextGen modernization activities, which will bring our aviation system to a new level of performance and safety.

This funding level also fully accommodates the needs of contract towers and Essential Air Service, and provides for new safety staff and pay for air traffic controllers.

The very popular TIGER Program, which the Chairman mentioned, is funded at $525 million. That is a $25 million increase from last year. TIGER grants allow State and local governments to make transformative investments in their transportation infrastructure that traditional formula grant programs are not able to address.

The fiscal year 2016 grant competition just ended 2 weeks ago for TIGER grants, and the Department of Transportation reports that they have received over 600 grant applications, totaling nearly $100 billion in requests. This money is extraordinarily important to localities, and we have just barely increased it. Without the Chairman's leadership, however, I don't think that we would have made that increase. Again, I thank her.

There is high demand for this program that is evidenced by these applications. That goes to underscore a point that the Chairman has made about the need for even more significant investment in infrastructure.

This legislation also provides a boost to essential transit programs throughout the country, in order to sustain and expand their services.

This bill provides $2.3 billion for the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grant program to help meet growing demand across the country.

This bill also continues investment in the Washington Metrorail system, while holding the system accountable for improved financial management and ensuring that the FTA has the needed resources for strong safety oversight.

Indeed, the bill before us maintains a key focus on safety across all modes of transportation. For example, the bill fulfills the promises of the FAST Act through a $199 million investment in Positive Train Control grants in order to protect passengers and workers on commuter and interstate rail lines with the next generation of railroad safety technology.

The bill funds new research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the safety and cybersecurity of autonomous vehicles. As autonomous vehicles are integrated into the general driving population, there is the potential to save thousands of lives with this innovative technology. However, an appropriate safety framework must be in place to realize the benefits of this promising transportation revolution.

In addition, the bill continues ongoing crude-by-rail safety initiatives at both the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. These initiatives will work to ensure the safe transportation of crude oil and crude products across the country.

The bill also provides $85 million for rail grant programs that were recently-authorized by the FAST Act. These grants can be used for rail safety and state-of-good-repair projects, such as Positive Train Control implementation and grade-crossing improvements.

For Amtrak, the bill provides $1.4 billion. In response to the FAST Act, the THUD appropriations bill now allows the revenue generated on the Northeast Corridor to remain there. Again, this is consistent with the FAST Act.

This investment will fully fund the Northeast Corridor and the National Network, while putting Amtrak in a better position to address the $28 billion state-of-good-repair backlog.

I am also proud of what we were able to accomplish together for our Nation's housing programs. The bill preserves HUD's rental assistance programs, expands housing for youth and families experiencing homelessness, and increases lead-based paint remediation programs. These programs are vital to our Nation's safety net and also to the prosperity of local economies.

I wish to speak briefly about how this bill increases protections for children against lead-based paint hazards. The bill--and the Chairman has discussed this--directs HUD to align its blood lead level regulations with the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a significant change that will help young children.

If you just look at my home State of Rhode Island, 935 children will enter kindergarten this year exceeding the CDC standard for lead poisoning, but under the HUD standard, only 32 of those children would exceed the blood lead level standard. Now, when this regulation is implemented, there will be 900 children who not only are properly identified, but also, we hope, will have access to remediation in their homes, so that they will not be further affected by lead exposure.

To help mitigate the threat of lead in the home, the bill provides $25 million in new resources for public housing agencies to address lead-based paint hazards in public housing units in response to this new health standard. We are really trying to synchronize best practices with practical systems that will make a huge difference in the lives of children.

There is also $135 million for lead-hazard reduction grants, $25 million more than in 2016. This increased spending will support lead- based paint reductions in over 1,750 additional units.

The bill increases support for the training of maintenance staff at public housing agencies to ensure that lead-based paint hazards are identified and properly managed.

Finally, it encourages HUD to increase tenant awareness of lead-based paint hazards in the home to help ensure that families are able to address hazards before damage is done. These are immediate, cost- effective changes that will improve the lives of children living in low-income housing.

Preventing lead poisoning is an issue that I have long worked on. I am so pleased to see the steps and strides that we are taking in this bill.

The bill also provides funding for other critical HUD programs, including $40 million for new interventions targeting homeless youth, 6,000 new vouchers for homeless veterans through the HUD-VASH Program, housing and supportive care for 2,500 young people aging out of the foster care system, and services to help families and young people get jobs and increase their earnings.

Again, I thank Senator Collins for her tremendous work, her leadership, and her unstinting commitment to making sure that these resources are directed appropriately and properly.

We always wish that we could do more, but this bill provides a workable balance of resources for transportation and housing programs. The bill responds to the priorities of the Members of this Chamber. It makes wise investments that will benefit our Nation, not only in the present, but also in the future.

In that regard, I must once again return to the issue of lead exposure to children in their homes. This is something that has a lifetime effect on children. I do not have the expertise of the Presiding Officer when it comes to these issues, but childhood exposure can have incredible lifetime cognitive impacts on a child and can have huge costs to society. The steps that we are taking are going to help those lifetime costs be reduced.

I again thank the Chairman, Senator Collins. I appreciate her leadership, her willingness, and her extraordinary effort.

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