To watch Chairman Capito’s questions, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in an EPW Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing on proposals to improve America’s transportation infrastructure.

During the subcommittee hearing, Chairman Capito opened with remarks outlining the need for the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill to provide states with needed flexibility, and how projects could be done more efficiently with permitting reform. Additionally, Chairman Capito asked for an update on efforts to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland.

HIGHLIGHTS:

FLEXIBILITY FOR STATES:

“My history here on Capitol Hill has been that transportation and infrastructure is something that we all have. We have our different needs, but we all have need for. So, I think flexibility, Senator Lummis, I think, asked the first question I was going to ask of Mr. Orn on the flexibilities that you get by having the formula funding. We're not going to build highways in West Virginia the same way that you build them in North Dakota, or Maryland, or other places. There's just different needs.”

PERMITTING REFORM:

“I think one of the things that is important as well, is permitting reform. I think if we can get bipartisan permitting reform, all of these dollars will go a lot faster, and a lot more efficiently than they have in the past.”

UPDATE ON FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BRIDGE:

Chairman Capito:

“Could you update me on the status of the reconstruction of the bridge and tell us the current cost estimate for that bridge?”

Samantha Biddle, Deputy Secretary, Maryland Department of Transportation:

“Of course, and thank you as well for your support and partnership as we navigated what was truly a catastrophic event that we are still working through. So, we're so immensely grateful for the federal support. This is a critical national freight and supply chain asset, and we pledge to remain transparent with this committee and providing updates, as well as in our efforts to seek reimbursement to the responsible party for that bridge collision. To date, the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild has been environmentally cleared, and we have a progressive design-build contractor in place, and pre-construction and demolition activities are currently underway. We appreciate the strong continued partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, as well as our progressive design-build contractor, Kiewit, and we do remain on track to deliver a new bridge as quickly and cost effectively as possible. However, due to the progressive design-build process that we're working through, we are currently still tracking the initial cost estimate from earlier on in the bridge rebuild process.”

Click HERE to watch Chairman Capito’s questions.

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