Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Debuts 'Get America Building Again' Program

Forbes Breaking News

On Thursday, Department Of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the Trump administration's new 'Get America Building Again' program.

Transcript

00:00And now, it is my great pleasure. Please welcome me in joining and welcoming the 20th Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Sean Duffy.

00:10Hey, everybody. Great to see you all, so many of you here as we embark on what I think is

00:34going to be three and a half years of absolutely transforming the way we invest and deliver

00:42on infrastructure in America. Before I start, I just do want to give a special recognition

00:48and shout out to the Texas DOT. Many of us, if you watch the news, we've seen the tragedy

00:55of the flooding in Texas. And I know that everyone's hearts and prayers are with the families

01:00who lost loved ones. But from our perspective at DOT, it's not just the emotional side.

01:06We are going to partner with Texas DOT to make sure we do our part as they go through the rebuild

01:15in Texas. And by the way, as all of you from your states have issues like that, we promise

01:20and commit to partner with all of you as we deal with disasters that are unanticipated.

01:26Listen, this is an exciting time. This is an exciting day. One, this is the first time

01:31we're bringing everyone together. By the way, this is the first of many that we want to do.

01:35It might not be as big of a group. We might do smaller group settings. But we want to have

01:40a conversation. You're going to hear from Congress later. You're going to hear from us. We want

01:44to hear from you. It's the partnership that all of us have together that are going to make

01:48the success of the next three and a half years a reality. And I think this is unique in

01:53that you have, again, fully engaged Congress. You're all engaged. But what's unique is we

01:59have a president who actually cares about our department. He cares about building. It's

02:05great. Yeah.

02:06And I'll tell you, when he first, when he called me to give me the job, he was talking about product

02:18that goes into roads, how much it costs, what we have to do to improve it. He also told

02:23me that if he could pick one department, outside of being president, but one department, he would

02:30pick the Department of Transportation. Because he did build buildings as a real estate developer,

02:36he loves the building of roads and bridges. He truly cares about it. And by the way, that

02:41is a blessing. If we all do really well together, it is going to be a curse. If we don't do well

02:46together, because it's maybe going to cost me my job. But he does, he wants to build big,

02:52beautiful roads and bridges that connect the country, that move our products, that move

02:57our people. That's what he wants all of us to do together. And he wants to see real progress

03:05and real projects over the course of the next three and a half years. And so to have that kind

03:10of support from the top office is remarkable, and a great opportunity for all of us. Again,

03:16presidents care about a lot of things. And President Trump does care about a lot of things. But he

03:21does care about this. So that's critically important. If we look at what America's history is and

03:28infrastructure, we have been absolutely remarkable. We built the Panama Canal. We had rail from coast

03:36to coast to coast. We built that. We built the interstate highway system. We have a great history

03:42of delivering great projects without a ton of money and not a lot of time. And it seems like right now,

03:51we celebrate filling potholes in communities. And that's a political win. I filled your potholes.

03:56Let's all give ourselves a round of applause. We're better than that. We can do better than that.

04:03And I think if we look around our country, we have spent a lot of money. And I don't think we've

04:07delivered as well as we could have. We have our roads and bridges that are becoming too old

04:15and too dilapidated. It took us five years to build the Hoover Dam. Five years. Four years to build

04:26the Golden Gate Bridge. It took 16 years and $15 billion in California high-speed rail to not lay

04:35one track. Are you kidding me? That's the American legacy right now. We can spend a lot of money and

04:41take a lot of time and not build projects. The Second Avenue project, the subway system in New York,

04:46it's going to take four years and four billion dollars to build a mile of subway in New York.

04:52We have to do better and we can do better. The Francis Scott Key Bridge, we all saw that went down.

04:59We haven't started reconstruction on that project. We have to do better and we can do better. And part

05:05of that is going to be how well we all partner with the Congress as they do surface transportation

05:13reauthorizations as they go through that process. We are going to communicate with them. I know you will.

05:18And we'll communicate through you to them. And they're willing and able to partner with us,

05:22which I'm excited about. But what we want to do is collaborate with all of you on four key pillars.

05:30We want to enhance safety, accelerate project delivery. We've got to go much faster. It's part of you.

05:37But we in Congress also have to do our part as well. We have to increase opportunity and we have to

05:44strengthen our partnerships. And that partnership strengthening happens today. And again, today is

05:48not the last day. Today is the first day of many smaller groups and many conversation and much more

05:54flow of information from you to us because you're you're on the ground.

05:58When I took over as the secretary, we had 3,200 announced projects and announcing projects is

06:08really fun. And you all get excited in your states and like we get projects and I got this road and I

06:12got this bridge. As you all know, the problem is it takes work to do the grant agreements.

06:17And so a lot of people have complained like we're stalling projects. We're we're not moving quickly.

06:23That's actually not true. Our mission is to build as quickly and as much as possible. So we're working

06:30through a historic backlog as fast as possible to make sure we can get money out the door to all of

06:37you to make sure these projects are moving and moving quickly. But what we have done is we've said,

06:43listen, the Congress is very specific when they gave us this money. They gave certain guard rules and

06:49rails that we have to follow. They didn't include requirements that we have DEI or green priorities,

06:56which I think those initiatives from the last administration are going to drive up the cost

07:01for all of you as you do the project. So what we're doing before we send out grant agreements and

07:06negotiate with all of you on what those should look like is we're pulling out the DEI in the green.

07:13And again, if your states want to do that, if you all want to make that happen with your money,

07:17that's great. But with our money, we want you to build as fast and we want to streamline the rules

07:23and regulations around what you do as much as possible. It's not just those prior requirements.

07:29We also have to look at how are we navigating NEPA, right? And other red tape and regulations that

07:37you have to comply with. So there's a role that we have at DOT. We are aggressively moving through

07:42what we can do with NEPA reform here. There's a role for Congress. And by the way, there's politics

07:48around this, right? I would tell you that it's interesting as I talk to both Democrats and

07:54Republicans in the House and the Senate, all of them, virtually all of them, are saying we need

08:01reform. Because whether you're a blue district or a blue state or a red district or a red state,

08:07all of them want more money, they want more infrastructure, and they want their projects

08:11to move more quickly. And so we're going to need their partnership to clear the deck on some of

08:16these laborious rules that make things more challenging and more difficult for us. So as

08:21we're doing NEPA, we've also reformed CAFE standards, not necessarily all in your backyard, but really

08:29important to what we're doing to try to simplify and make the process way easier for all of you

08:36to offer more deliverables. We're excited about the relationship that we have with all of you,

08:41but specifically with Texas. So we are trying to simplify and enhance our relationships with states

08:51so they can assume responsibility for environmental reviews under NEPA. So Texas has been leading the

08:57way. If you look at what we're going to do with Texas a little bit later today, I would encourage

09:01every state to take a look at that and engage in those kind of partnerships with us. Again, we

09:07think that many times the states can move faster than we can at DOT. And so if we can give you more

09:13authority with some of these dollars, all of us are going to be better off. And so we're committed to those

09:19kind of relationships and innovative thinking on how you can spend money better and deliver quicker for your

09:25communities. And so I guess in closing, I couldn't be more honored to have this position at DOT. I think what we do

09:37truly impacts the way people live their lives. How fast they get to work or from work. You know, what kind of

09:47congestion do they have? Are their planes delayed? Are they canceled? How people move? And we saw during COVID how

09:54products move depend on how well we execute and deliver on the money that the taxpayers have given us.

10:01And so we are truly in a space that impacts people's lives. And I think we can do a better job together. And I don't know that there's

10:09always, again, this flow of information from you. You're on the ground. You're the smartest people in this

10:15space. We need to take your ideas. So we need your partnership. And that's what this is about today is the

10:21partnership that we are going to build together and communicate back and forth from us to you and from

10:27you to us. And again, I want to thank you all for being here. I want to thank you for all your engagement. I

10:33couldn't be more excited about what we're going to do, how we're going to deliver and how we are going to

10:38engage and deliver the golden age of transportation to America with all of us working together and

10:47partnering together. And with that, thanks for being here. And I look forward to all the work we're going

10:50to do today and in the future. God bless you. And thank you so much.

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