Yesterday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, took part in a subcommittee hearing focused on enhancing America's transportation infrastructure. The session was held by the EPW Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee.
In her opening remarks, Chairman Capito emphasized the necessity for the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill to offer states greater flexibility and highlighted how projects could be expedited with permitting reform. She also requested an update on the reconstruction efforts for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland.
Addressing state flexibility, Chairman Capito stated: “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.”
On permitting reform, she added: “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.”
Regarding the Francis Scott Key Bridge update, Chairman Capito asked about its current status and cost estimates. Samantha Biddle from Maryland's Department of Transportation responded: “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 federal support... To date, the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild has been environmentally cleared... pre-construction and demolition activities are currently underway... However... we are currently still tracking the initial cost estimate from earlier on in the bridge rebuild process.”
