On Tuesday, Sec. of Transportation Pete Buttigieg answered questions from House members on relief in the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Again, the Q&A portion of this hearing, let me remind everybody, strict adherence to the five-minute rule.
00:07 It should be noted that sometime in the next hour and ten or fifteen minutes, we'll have votes called.
00:13 We will make a game-time decision at that time about whether we break for votes and come back.
00:20 The Secretary's been very generous with his time,
00:23 and we'll have to kind of sort out where we are in the rounds before we determine that,
00:28 and some of that will be influenced by how many members are expecting to return for potentially a second round of questions.
00:35 So I'll recognize myself first, and not surprisingly, we're going to talk a little bit about the Baltimore Bridge.
00:41 Mr. Secretary, a couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to sit down with my friend, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland,
00:47 to express my support to Maryland in its recovery efforts after the Baltimore Bridge collapse.
00:54 Chairman Cole and I and other members of this subcommittee and others will get to see those efforts firsthand this coming Thursday when we take a trip there.
01:04 I want to take this opportunity to send my condolences, and I speak on behalf of this entire subcommittee,
01:11 in expressing our condolences to the families of the workers who perished in the line of duty,
01:17 and convey my sincere appreciation to the first responders who kept this event from being a bigger tragedy,
01:22 and to the men and women who are working night and day to clear the wreckage and reopen the Port of Baltimore.
01:28 I understand the goal is to restore full service to the port by the end of May.
01:33 I was pleased to see that more temporary channels have opened recently and ahead of schedule to allow bigger ships to leave and enter the port.
01:40 Along those lines, Mr. Secretary, give us an update on the status of the full reopening of the port,
01:46 what the impact on the economy and supply chain has been, and what your department has done to help the truckers,
01:53 the shippers, and other industries affected by its closure.
01:57 Thank you, Chairman.
02:00 Thank you, and thank you for your and this committee's attention to that situation,
02:04 and certainly was glad to hear that you and other members of the subcommittee will be visiting,
02:09 will participate in that visit as well as Governor Moore hosts you.
02:12 The Port of Baltimore is essential to the regional economy, and it plays an important role in the national supply chain as well,
02:18 especially given its specialization in the transit of vehicles.
02:23 And then the bridge itself, which provides such a vital connection for people and goods.
02:30 Obviously, missing that has a substantial impact.
02:33 There are about 30,000 vehicles crossing that bridge on a daily basis.
02:37 We got to work right away as soon as we got those calls in the middle of the night
02:42 and have been working with Maryland throughout to try to help them get back to normal.
02:46 That's included the immediate availability of $60 million in quick-release emergency relief funds for the Maryland DOT.
02:54 We view that as a down payment on what we know will be the substantial cost of building a new bridge.
03:00 With regard to the opening of the channel, I can tell you that while that limited access deep draft channel was open,
03:08 that allowed for 19 total transit, 10 outbound ships -- some vessels were effectively stuck there because of the wreckage --
03:15 as well as nine inbound and made it possible for more of the workers in that port to be able to do what they do best.
03:22 The Army Corps of Engineers is projecting that they are on track, as I understand it,
03:28 for that May opening timeline of the full channel.
03:32 And that really is necessary, even that 38-foot channel is not enough to accommodate the largest vessels
03:37 and get the port and the workers who count on it back to normal.
03:41 Briefly, I would just also note that through our port infrastructure development program,
03:45 we were able to make funds available for paving of a cargo lay-down area at a facility called Trade Point,
03:51 which is one of the few parts of the port that is outside and not inside of the channel that was obstructed by the wreckage of the bridge.
03:58 My understanding is that that is already now helping to move some cargo.
04:02 And I would note that we continue to be in regular contact, both on the supply chain side,
04:08 through our new multimodal freight office and our maritime administration,
04:12 and then on the bridge rebuilding side through our federal highway administration,
04:15 and have conveyed our department's echo of the President's commitment that Baltimore and Maryland will have everything that they need on the federal side.
04:24 We'll have some other questions that we'll submit for the record on the Baltimore Bridge,
04:29 and I'm sure they will follow our visit up there on Thursday.
04:32 Real quickly, in my last minute, the Fiscal '24 Appropriations Act included $12 million to start the recapitalization of the National Defense Reserve fleet,
04:42 which is a project designed to help us in the Navy meet specifications and build that design of an American shipyard.
04:52 Can you give us an update on the status of this project and the timeline to get a contract awarded in these remaining 45 seconds?
05:00 I'll do my best to be brief, and knowing that you'll have our Marriott administrator before you soon,
05:05 I'll just note that we take great pride in helping to fulfill that important defense mission with the ready reserve fleet
05:11 and are working to recapitalize it using the resources that were provided,
05:16 while candidly noting that it has been a challenge to recapitalize the vessels as quickly as they are going out of date.
05:23 But my understanding is that we are on track to proceed with that,
05:27 and we'll be happy to invite the Maritime Administrator to provide a more fulsome update when there's the opportunity later today.
05:33 Thank you. Mr. Quigley.
05:34 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:35 I want to associate myself with the remarks the chairman made about the tragedy in.