Tammy Duckworth Asks Trump FRA Nominee If He Will Ensure Funds Are Released 'Without Undue Delay'

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) spoke about $50 million in railroad grants.

Transcript

00:00Senator Duckworth. Thank you, Chairman Cruz. Gentlemen, the Chicago Hub Improvement Program,

00:06or CHIP, is a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation transformative project that will enhance rail

00:12service across the Midwest and across the nation. It will improve service in Minnesota, Wisconsin,

00:17Michigan, Indiana, and Missouri, not just in Illinois, which is why there is bipartisan support

00:22for it. CHIP is making critical investments in rail infrastructure and facilities that will

00:27upgrade connectivity, enhance accessibility, reduce travel times, improve safety, and support good

00:32paying jobs. Chicago is Amtrak's busiest station outside of the Northeast region, and more than

00:3950 percent of Amtrak's long-distance services travel through Chicago Union Station, and trains that

00:45begin or end in Chicago Union Station make up more than 90 percent of Amtrak's services outside the

00:50East and West Coast. In 2023, the FRA awarded Amtrak nearly $50 million from the Federal-State

00:56Partnership for Inter-City Passenger Rail to improve passenger rail efficiency at Chicago

01:01Union Station to benefit the national rail network. Mr. Fink, if you are confirmed, will

01:06you commit to working with Amtrak to ensure that all of those awarded funds get delivered

01:10to CHIP without undue delay? Thank you for the question, Senator. I enjoyed sitting and going

01:15over many of the issues we talked about around Chicago. I am not, right now, up to speed on that. I am going to,

01:22if confirmed, when I get down and hit the ground running and sit down and talk about these issues

01:27when I get to FRA, if confirmed, and we can get to the bottom of the issues that you came up with in the

01:32meetings I've had. If there are no issues, will you confirm that, will you ensure that all these

01:37awarded funds will get delivered without undue delay? If there's no issues, yes. All right, thank you.

01:41Furthermore, Mr. Fink, Chicago is a national hub for freight rail, in addition to passenger rail. One of,

01:48out of every four freight trains in the United States passes through Chicago. That is about 500 freight

01:54trains per day. If you're moving anything via rail from coast to coast, there's a good chance it will

01:59go through Chicago, which has more tracks radiating in more direction than any other city in North America.

02:04But bottlenecks in Chicago causes delay in the shipment of goods across the country. That is why

02:10freight rail companies, passenger rail companies like Amtrak, Metra, the state of Illinois, and the

02:15city of Chicago are partnering on the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency

02:20Program, or CREATE, project, which is unclogging the rail network for the nation by building crucial

02:27underpasses and overpasses and upgrading tracks, switches, and signals. The first Trump administration

02:32recognized the importance of CREATE to our nation's economy and national security, which is why

02:37President Trump, in his first term, awarded $132 million to the program. Mr. Fink, if you are

02:44confirmed, will you commit to giving full and fair grant consideration for applications for projects

02:49like CREATE? Thank you for the question, Senator. If confirmed, I will look and work towards making

02:57sure that these grants that are scored and for Chicago or other places are put out. That's one

03:04of my goals as FRA Administrator. There's a lot of grants. There's a lot of things that haven't

03:08gotten out. Let's get them out and let's get things built. Thank you. Will you also commit that you will

03:13not delay funding that has been awarded to projects like CREATE if there are no extenuating circumstances?

03:18Again, I'm not there yet. So when I get there, I'm going to sit down and hopefully I've heard a lot of

03:22these grants have been released in the last few weeks. Hopefully by the time I get there, those

03:27issues will be behind us and we will be working on sending out new programs if you authorize them

03:32for grants in the future. Will you commit to making yourself available to me to follow up on any of

03:37these questions? Absolutely. Thank you. And I now recognize Senator Markey. And I thank you.