Hearing of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Sam Graves, Hearing on Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America: Highway and Transit Stakeholders' Perspectives

Hearing

I would like to welcome everyone to today's hearing.

This hearing will focus on how we can build a 21st Century infrastructure.

The Committee is holding a host of hearings to gather ideas on what Congress can do to help achieve that goal.

Today, we will hear ideas from our highways and transit stakeholders.

Gathering input from our stakeholders is essential to the process we use to develop federal surface transportation policy.

It was valuable in our efforts to pass the FAST Act, the first long term highway bill in a decade, and we will continue to need your assistance with future legislation.

Even with the additional resources we provided in FAST, the Nation's surface transportation system still needs additional investments.

Enacting a long-term solution for the Highway Trust Fund is a critical component to ensuring that we can address those needs in the future.

Since passage of the FAST Act, building consensus on a solution to fund surface transportation programs has been a central priority of mine and of this Committee.

Providing federal funding certainty for our non-federal partners is vital to planning and building infrastructure for the 21stCentury.

This is a bipartisan issue and I look forward to working constructively with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, as well as our stakeholders, to ensure we achieve this goal.

A modern infrastructure means a strong America -- an America that competes globally, supports local and regional economic development, and creates jobs.

Thank you to all our witnesses here today.

We look forward to hearing your perspectives.

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