Last month, Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) questioned Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Dept. of Transportation project funding during a House Infrastructure and Transportation Committee hearing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Why would I love to spend the next hour on that debate
00:07and get that information out there? I will point out that the petroleum industry has been subsidized
00:12for the better part of 120 years and continues to this day to have very, very significant subsidies.
00:18However, Mr. Buttigieg, Secretary, thank you so very much. I'm thinking back on the very first
00:25days of the Biden administration. Within a few months, the Infrastructure and Jobs Act became law.
00:35After four years where the previous president said we're going to do an infrastructure bill,
00:39never happened in the previous administration, but during your tenure it did. And thank you so
00:44very much for your very significant leadership in making it happen and also picking up a very,
00:51very important part of an American policy, and that is make it an America by American.
00:58And I know that you've worked hard on that throughout. It was one of the major parts
01:03of pieces of the legislation and it's going into place. However, all of that seemed to have been
01:10held in abeyance by a waiver to a 1983 law that waived the Buy America requirements
01:20for transportation. So the good news is you're well into solving that problem. A couple of months
01:28ago, actually about a year ago, several of us brought to your attention this waiver, general
01:34waiver of the Buy America requirements of the 1983 law. My understanding is that you have a proposed
01:41rule out to terminate that waiver, and I understand that the finalization may be in
01:51progress. Could you please bring us up to date on that? Thank you, yes, Congressman. We're very
01:56focused on making sure that we square the need for swift and efficient project delivery with
02:02our administration's commitment to make sure that when we use American taxpayer dollars, it's buying
02:07things that are using materials made in America. We recognize that that's a long game because we're
02:14building for gaps in our manufacturing base that won't be filled overnight. But we know that we
02:21have an opportunity here to build those industries through both the demand and the rules that we have.
02:28Right now, DOT and the operating administrations are working to provide guidance over the guidance
02:34that came out from OMB to help specify any answers to questions that project sponsors
02:40might have, knowing that there's a lot of complexity to this. To be clear, some waivers may be required,
02:46but they will be limited, targeted, and conditional, and only offered when we're confident that it's
02:52the right thing to do and still does right by our overall goals to build American capacity.
02:57I thank you for that. Those of us that have been on the Buy America train road for the better part
03:05of our careers are going to watch very closely about the breadth of those waivers and the length
03:11of them. Short-term waivers, perhaps necessary, but if they become long-term waivers, then we've
03:18accomplished nothing on the Buy America, Make it in America, and rebuilding our industry. I want to
03:23thank you and the president for putting in place an industrial policy for the United States.
03:29This is one piece of it. There are a couple of other elements out there I want to bring to your
03:33attention with regard to Buy America. Chairman DeFazio, when he was here, and Senator Cornyn and
03:40I and others brought to the attention of all of us that the Chinese China Railroad Construction
03:47Corporation and BYD were finding a way of bringing into the United States Chinese rolling stock from
03:57Chinese government-controlled companies. That seems to have been abated. I urge you to watch
04:04carefully. They're trying to get around that in many different ways. Finally, the application of
04:10all of this to airports. The waiver may apply to the airports. Watch carefully. The policy of the
04:16president was to make it in America, Buy America. You and I and others will work diligently to see
04:22that that happens. Thank you. Thank you. I have my commitment to work with you on that. Thank you.
04:30Yield back.