ICYMI: Historic Hearing Featuring Five Cabinet Secretaries Discusses Efforts to Rebuild America’s Infrastructure
Sullivan Highlights Alaska Projects and Priorities, Outlines Need for Permitting Reform
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing titled, “Rebuilding Infrastructure in America: Administration Perspectives,” which featured five cabinet secretaries. Testimony included the Secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, and Energy – thought to be the most ever number of department heads to testify before a single Senate Committee.
Senator Sullivan, a vocal leader on efforts to rebuild our nation’s inadequate and aging infrastructure, chose to focus his questions on a number of Alaska related issues, including the recently approved Sterling Highway EIS and the need to reform our nation’s broken permitting process.
Sen. Sullivan Highlights Alaskan Priorities/Projects and Need for Permitting Reform to Cabinet Secretaries (click image or here to watch).
TRANSCRIPT OF SENATOR SULLIVAN’S QUESTIONING:
SENATOR SULLIVAN: I really appreciate the administration coming up here in full force with five cabinet secretaries on the principles of infrastructure. I think the Administration put out a very strong plan, worked with a lot of us on that. I will tell you, and I think you see it in this Committee and on the EPW Committee – in which I also serve – there’s a lot of interest and energy to move forward on a major infrastructure plan where we have bipartisan support. I think this hearing is demonstrating the Administration’s focus, so I want to thank all of you for doing that.
Secretary Acosta, I want to thank you again for your help on the issue of the H2B Visas and how we need to reform that system so that is truly for surge, working needs that are seasonal, not necessarily for other industries that might be more abusive of that.
And Secretary Perry, I was here earlier. I had to go preside for the last hour, but your comments about the opportunity with regard to the American Energy renaissance that’s taking place whether in Texas or Alaska, or really all over the country, is really just spot on. It’s an enormous opportunity for national security, energy security, job security, growing our economy. So I thank you for your leadership on that.
Let me ask you real quick as it relates to infrastructure – for you and Secretary Chao. You know there’s been a lot of focus on, unfortunately, on pipelines – energy pipelines, oil and gas pipelines – and how a certain small segment of our country wants to oppose them everywhere. There’s been studies, and I know you familiar with them. Are pipelines safer for example than railcars for moving oil or even LNG as we’re trying to do that? Aren’t they much safer in terms of the ability to move these kind of vital commodities that our country needs? Secretary Chao, Secretary Perry? Much safer, isn’t that correct?
SECRETARY CHAO: Yes.
SECRETARY PERRY: And the technology allows them to become safer and safer as we use our innovation and technology.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: So the last administration took eight years and finally disapproved the Keystone pipeline. [President Trump] came in and switched that. Mr. Chairman, I’d like for the record to submit an editorial by the Boston Globe. It was about – a very long editorial by the Boston Globe editorial page – how Massachusetts has in some kind of fit of righteousness wanted to disallow any pipelines coming across its state. So guess where they’re getting their gas from now? The Russians, as opposed to Americans. Not really good policy. I’d like to submit this to the record. It’s an editorial called “Our Russian ‘Pipeline’ and Its Ugly Toll.”
Madam Secretary, I’d like to talk to you a little more on the issue of permitting. As you know, you came up to Alaska last summer and essentially broke the logjam on the Sterling Highway EIS that was – we think that was the longest EIS in the works for the federal government in the history of the country. It only took 40 years – 40 years. Can you talk a little more about the importance of not only your agency but all the agencies here working together so we can get to this standard? As you know, I have a bill called the Rebuild America Now Act, which I’ve been working with the administration on. Permitting reform, streamlining so we can get the commonsense permitting – whether it’s pipelines, or roads, or ports, or harbors; as opposed to nightmare scenario like the one you helped resolve – thank you very much – on the Sterling Highway; a 40 year EIS that helps nobody, certainly didn’t help my state.
SECRETARY CHAO: Senator Sullivan, you are very kind to give me the credit, but your office and you deserve a great deal of the credit. We appreciated the opportunity to work with you to let loose that EIS on Sterling Highway. You pointed out the importance and we got to work. Secondly, on the issue of permitting. You’ve been a champion on permitting. Very commonsensical approaches to permitting. Streamlining the permitting process has all sorts of benefits. It can spring out more projects that will be available for the private sector to fund and finance, for example, and there are commonsensical ways in avoiding duplication, doing concurrent rather than sequential permitting, getting rid of duplicative permitting, allowing sister-agencies to talk with one another to share information. So most of these ideas you have outlined yourself, since you’ve been a champion of permitting. So we will continue to work with you on this.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Well I appreciate those comments Madam Secretary. I will just say, I think there’s a bipartisan opportunity here – both on the Commerce Committee and the EPW Committee – to move forward on issues that impact all of us. As you know, most of the labor unions – the building trades – are very supportive of the administration’s principles. They’ve backed the bill that I’ve sponsored here. We have a lot of cosponsors on that. So we want to work with you, particularly on this permitting issue, because it’s vital to the country and I think we have a bipartisan opportunity to move it. Having all five of you, and the President, and the rest of the Administration backing this I think is a really important statement on what most Americans want and what we need as a nation.
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