House T&I committee hearing to examine infrastructure needs

The House Transportation and Infrastructure committee will have its first hearing of the 116th Congress at 9:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 7. The hearing is titled, “The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Investing in Our Nation’s Infrastructure Cannot Wait.”

House T&I Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the nation faces a $1 trillion surface transportation investment gap over the next 10 years.

“When I took over as chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I promised that I would work to build bipartisan agreement for commonsense solutions to address the major issues facing our aging 20th century infrastructure,” DeFazio said in a news release. “It is only fitting that the first full committee hearing will examine the current state of our roads, bridges, transit systems, ports and airports, and what will happen if we do not immediately begin to address the massive backlog of critical needs.”

Witnesses for the hearing include:

• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
• Ray LaHood, former U.S. DOT secretary.
• Richard Anderson, president of Amtrak.
• Eric K. Fanning, president of Aerospace Industries Association.
• Angela Lee, director of Charlotte Water.
• Rich McArdle, president of UPS Freight.
• Kristin Meira, executive director of Pacific Northwest Waterways Association.
• Larry Willis, president of Transportation Trades Department.

A live webcast of the hearing can be viewed here.