Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Opening remarks, as prepared, of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) from today’s hearing, entitled “America Builds: The State of the Nation’s Transportation System”:

I’d like to welcome everyone to the Transportation Committee’s first hearing of the 119th Congress. As I noted earlier during the Committee’s organizational meeting, we have a lot to accomplish over the next two years.

One of the Committee’s top priorities will be passing legislation to reauthorize our nation’s surface transportation programs. We will approach the creation of this legislation the same way we tackled the FAA reauthorization legislation and the Water Resources Development Act last Congress. This will be a collaborative process in which the Committee will solicit feedback from both Members and stakeholders.  We will consider all input, and Member priorities will drive what’s in the bill this committee produces.

But I want to be clear – that doesn’t mean that everyone will get everything they want. I look forward to again partnering with Ranking Member Larsen and working with Committee Members on both sides of the aisle as we undertake this process.

We’ve also set an aggressive hearing schedule to ensure that the Committee’s Members can gather information and examine all facets of infrastructure to inform the creation of our legislation.

Today’s hearing is the kick-off of these discussions. I hope our dialogue will provide a broad overview of the state of the nation’s transportation system, what’s working, where we should be directing investments to fund core infrastructure projects, and the benefits of streamlining processes to allow for faster project completion.

I thank our witnesses for joining us, and I look forward to hearing each of your perspectives on the state of infrastructure in this country.

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