Garrett Graves Asks Buttigieg About 'Regulatory Agenda' Leading To Higher Costs For Construction

last year

At a House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Garrett Graves (R-LA) questioned Sec. Pete Buttigieg about inflation.

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Transcript

00:00The gentlewoman yields back. Mr. Graves is recognized for five minutes for

00:05questioning. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. It's

00:08nice to see you again. I want to raise three things with you. Number one, an

00:13issue you and I have talked about both at hearings and otherwise, just concerns

00:17about the impact of the IIJA when considering things like inflation,

00:23supply chain, and construction costs. As a matter of fact, analysis by Federal

00:28Highway Administration shows that from when the Biden administration came in

00:31till now, we've seen about a 69% increase in cost of construction, and at

00:36home, that is on the lower end of what we've seen. We've seen projects come

00:41in substantially higher. I think when you add in the regulatory agenda of the

00:44administration, you're seeing delays, and as you know, the burn rate of the IIJA

00:51dollars is not really appropriate. It's not as fast as I know you'd like to see

00:55it, it's not as fast as I'd like to see it, and I think the regulatory agenda by

00:59heaping all of these new regulations, particularly in environmental space, is

01:02slowing things down. So I want to read a quote from our former Democrat governor

01:06who just left office in January. He said, we're slated to receive at six billion

01:11dollars from that act, meaning the IIJA, over five years for traditional

01:15infrastructure-related service transportation, and that's going to be

01:18very helpful, but we also have to manage expectations. Of that six billion, five

01:23billion we were going to get anyway, so the additional funding is about two

01:26hundred million dollars a year. Again, that's very helpful, but there are a lot

01:30of people think that the six billion dollars is on top of the base funding.

01:33It's not, and in exchange for the two hundred million, we're going to get each

01:38year, our match obligations going to be going up by about fifty million, and so

01:42so again, the governor of Louisiana, former governor of Louisiana, is saying two

01:46hundred million a year. You have an inflation rate, again, adding 69% in there.

01:52You do the math, that means that Louisiana is actually getting behind, not

01:55getting ahead in terms of the legislation, which I know is not an

01:58objective that you or I would like to see. Secondly, I've raised with you a

02:02number of times the criteria that we have concerns with, where you came in

02:07and unilaterally, without statutory action, said that in all of your grants

02:12you're going to consider climate change, racial equity, environmental justice, and

02:17enhancing union opportunities. Criteria that I have concerns with because of the

02:20lack of metrics or specificity, and so translating that into impacts on the

02:26state that I represent, Louisiana, according to analysis by Politico, we are

02:31one of the fifth worst states per capita, one of the fifth worst states per capita

02:37in terms of receiving funding under the legislation. Concerning because a bridge

02:42program that former Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney and I wrote is in there

02:46that we thought was actually going to help our state. Concerning because some

02:49of the PROTACT Act programs that we also were involved in drafting is in

02:54there. Louisiana got zero, zero out of that one, which is designed for

02:58adaptation and resiliency. So very, very concerned about what I tell people in

03:03Louisiana when folks look at IIJA and expecting it to be positive, whenever the

03:07inflation rate results in it actually not being helpful. The regulations are

03:11making it difficult to actually execute, which I know aren't all your issue, other

03:16agencies giving you environmental obligations. And then at the end of the

03:21day, when our home state is one of the fifth worst performers in the country in

03:26terms of a per capita receipt, it's very, very concerning. Then the last thing, if

03:32in the 90 seconds I'm giving you, if you could just give us a little bit of

03:36advice on your thoughts on how we address this growing deficiency in the

03:39Highway Trust Fund with the user fee being a static 1993 figure. I'll do my

03:47best to cover that in a short amount of time. I'll start with a point of

03:50agreement, which is I think the environment we have with cost

03:53escalation just increases the pressure to get projects delivered quickly, get

03:57grant agreements signed quickly, and really improve on the pace that I should

04:01note is the pace that we inherited, where it's just considered typical to take a

04:04year or two. Now sometimes the project isn't ready to go, but we want to help

04:07them get ready to go. I do think that suggesting that the cost escalation can

04:13be attributed to the administration's measures flies in the face of the data

04:16showing commensurate cost escalations in every developed economy in this sector,

04:20although maybe we could unpack that to see at a more granular level how it's

04:24affecting a particular region. I certainly want to work with project

04:27sponsors in Louisiana to build on the successes that have happened with

04:31Lake Charles, I-10, Lake Calcasieu, the natural gas distribution infrastructure,

04:36$10 million that came to your district, and the areas where they have been,

04:40ferries and other areas where Louisiana has been successful. We want every state

04:44to succeed as much as possible in getting those projects done that might

04:48not have happened otherwise. I won't claim to have a magic solution on the

04:53Highway Trust Fund, but I join you in being concerned about it. I think by the

04:57time of the 2026 vote on a future, or potential vote on a future reauthorization,

05:03that question will really come to a head, and Congress will need to decide whether

05:07the user pays principle is the future, or whether to continue turning to other

05:12sources of funding to fund our roads. Before I yield back, I just want to

05:16commend you. I saw your three-mile time on the race that you did recently. It

05:20looks like you're running is getting a good bit better, and just want to

05:22congratulate you. Appreciate you. I was huffing and puffing there, but we made it.

05:26Gentleman yields back.

Garrett Graves Asks Buttigieg About 'Regulatory Agenda' Leading To Higher Costs For Construction

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