Senator Scott thank you Mr chairman thank you to the witnesses for being with us today thank you for the uh committee members here with us as well one of the challenges I see on this uh conversation that we're having today is to realize that local problems need local Solutions it's really hard for folks in Washington DC to understand the transit needs of folks in Charleston South Carolina Somerville South Carolina Columbus Ohio or Chicago Illinois the most effective thing that we can do is make sure that the resourcing goes without all the red tape and challenges that comes from Washington DC getting that done seems to be too close to Peter walking on the water nearly a miraculous occurrence manifestation has to happen for us to just do the simple thing I've spent half my career in politics on the local level understanding and appreciating transit systems infra infrastructure projects and would have Tak to get those things done when I was first when I first became a senator the one thing I did was I decided that as a kid who grew up in the single parent houseold admired in poverty who understood the transit needs of the poorest Americans trying to get to the job I wanted to make sure that I was sensitive to the current state of Americans trying to get to work so I decided I'd go back to the old bus routes and and get on those bus routes and spend time talking to people waiting on the bus to come come remember talking to a grandmother who worked at Walmart who wanted to spend more time with her grandkids on the weekends but she would spend 80 to 90 minutes early in the morning waiting on the bus 7 hours at work and 80 or 90 minutes to get back home 3 hours to work a 7h hour shift for slightly more than minimum wage to provide the resources necessary to help our grandkids have a better life and a better opportunity to experience and enjoy the American dream having the conversations with folks who are struggling to make ends meet thinking about how challenging it is as a local official to understand and then to decide the right Transit routes so that the folks who need public transportation have access to the right routes at the right times to get to the right job you just can't do do that from Washington the one thing Washington has done poorly is to put on more onerous burdens on local government and state government because somehow 535 people in Washington seem to know everything about local needs and yet we seem to know nothing about getting the job done as an example my friends on the left are always looking for a new green steel they call it the new green deal but in the end it steals opportunity and Innovation creativity and resources from local folks to make good decisions about what they need but it's not just Transit it's actually the infrastructure needs that are delayed time and time again I was thinking about this recently and it takes about seven years seven years for a project to turn the shovel on a new highway program I think about Highway 17 and this expansion in Mount Pleasant in South Carolina a number of years ago the frustration I felt as the chairman of the county waiting for all the red tape to be cut so that we could simply turn shovel on a project had that had been approved for years and I sent some some notes to my friends back on County Council just to make sure that I was right about the seven-year process it could take the two years for the planning and the programming just to meet Federal thresholds so that projects can start and then after you do that it can take up to three years whether it's nepo or other environmental challenges throw the green new steel on top of all of that and you recognize that this owner's burden to start a road project takes seven years yeah now here here's the challenging part when you get the price of a highway prodct project let's say those days was several hundred million $ 700 million it's not anticipated that seven years later somehow someway miraculously that same road project is g to cost the same amount of money seven years later that's what we call in South Carolina ridiculous hogwash it just doesn't work that way but none of that is anticipated in the actual price that people pay waiting and waiting and waiting for the federal government to just do their jobs and get out the way but then after you get through the environmental review and compliance which three years later then you go to the preliminary and final design up to two more years on this process and at the same time all of this is happening currently under the Biden administrations everybody wants to celebrate the jja and the IRA the most ridiculously named Bill and maybe American history the inflation reduction act that actually increases inflation and the chips and science act what happens well the cost of construction explodes to the highest level ever it costs more money to do the same thing than it has ever cost three or four years later and so when you take a seven-year delay on a road you take all the impact studies that it takes we're not smart enough to do them all at the exact same time we're going to waiting for the first two years before we start the environmental impact studies before we start the this if this was a business we would just fire everybody that's what I would do that's what I did when I was a business if you can't if it takes you seven years to get something started I want a new I want someone else in charge Americans want someone else in charge because the $2 billion problem that they have in Maryland to rebuild a road that's go a bridge that's going to take four years is ridiculous unnecessary all you need is common sense and people ready to go to work and unfortunately every time well-intentioned politicians make the decision that we know better than the local community it costs jobs it costs prices because they explode I gotta tell you 13 years on the local level is a really good education on what not to do let's not burden local government with the green new steel that $7.5 billion dollar in green funding that results in only eight EV charging stations that takes all those dollars away from being able to have real progress on real roads for real people to get to the their jobs Mr chairman I'm glad we're having the hearing today but I got to tell you most Americans would say skip the hearing block r at the money and let a brother go to work that's what they would say uh thank you Senator Scott