Secretary Buttigieg Remarks at Washougal, WA Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Award

Thanks very much, Senator Cantwell. You all know this, but you are represented by an absolute powerhouse in Washington - the other Washington - chairing the Commerce Committee; indeed two, because Senator Murray, who we were able to spend time with yesterday, has been such an important part of all the good things we've been able to do. But as Senator Cantwell said, she worked to create this railroad crossing elimination program. It’s the first time ever that we've had a dedicated fund specifically for the purpose of addressing these railroad crossings that are not only a community headache, but a danger in so many parts of the country. So, in terms of both her advocacy for this specific project and her leadership role in the creation of this program to begin with, not to mention the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law writ large, we are so thankful for her role and her leadership and her partnership. 

I want to recognize the Mayor and thank you for that warm welcome. I know exactly what it feels like to be a mayor knocking on the door of the U.S Department of Transportation trying to get funding for something important to your community. I have no idea what it feels like to come out of that with $40 million. 

[Laughter. Crosstalk.] 

To Mayor Stuebe, and your public works director and other colleagues, the tribal leaders who are here, the state representatives and senators who made sure the state is doing its part, WashDOT Director Millar who's also a national leader in the community of transportation professionals, and just everybody from the community who's here, we so appreciate the chance to be with you to celebrate this good news.  

We're thankful for the support that this work has had in the House, we were with Representative Kilmer yesterday, who did a lot to get this Bipartisan Infrastructure Law over the line.  

And I'm so appreciative of Representative Gluesenkamp-Perez who has worked hard to make sure that this project was on our radar and who is such a great partner in making sure we have the resources to continue to invest in America and joins me also I think in believing that this sort of thing absolutely ought to be cocktail party talk. Not everybody understands the glamour of transportation planning and improvement, but we do. She's a leader after my own heart. And I appreciate that she began by quoting Ruskin. I think it was also Ruskin who said, ‘There is no wealth but life.’ 

All we have is our time at the end of the day, and it matters - in a very deep sense - whether you spend any given minute of your time investing it in whatever brings most meaning to your life; being with your children, building your business, deepening your studies, practicing your faith, whatever matters to you - doing that rather than waiting behind a stuck crossing on your way back from Safeway to the south side of the tracks. That's why this matters so much.  

Not to mention, of course, the safety implications of that. I think this is a great place to feature the importance of that work. When you see the midst of nature and commerce on the banks of the Columbia River. When you see the tight-knit nature of this community in the sense of mutual support, it reinforces to me that philosophy the guides all of our work in this transportation bill, which is that the answers and the projects aren't going to emanate from Washington, but more of the funding should, and you're coming to us with great ideas, often directly from communities that we are, now more than ever, able to fund.  

I know that this is a great example because the issue of having a rail line cross the 32nd Street the way it's currently built, the data showed us that 15% of all crashes in Washougal happen on 32nd Street, including a terrible collision at that crossing in recent years. The gate there is down an average of two and a half hours a day, which doesn't just hold up people's crossing, that causes backups a quarter mile away.  The Congresswoman and Mayor were showing me how that affects State Road 14 which is so important both for supply chains and goods movement and for people to be able to get to their jobs here. We know that the way that that railroad just cuts the town in two is especially hard on the community immediately south of that intersection.  

I know that you all have been working on this for a long time. You came for federal support more than once, and I know that those past applications didn't quite make it, so I want to recognize the tenacity of this community sticking with this vision.  

It's exactly with a view toward getting visions like that into reality that President Biden worked so hard, with help from the elected leaders here, to make sure that that infrastructure law became a reality so that we can say yes to more deserving projects like this. 

That's why we're so glad to be here to formally celebrate the $40 million that are going to help reconstruct that 32nd Street underpass and make for a better life and a better routine all across this area. 

[Applause] 

This underpass will have dedicated, separated lanes for biking, driving, and walking. It's going to make the possibility of a collision - with a vehicle or a pedestrian - it’s going to cut that down to zero at that crossing.  

It's going to reduce crashes all along 32nd Street, it will mean people across Eastern Clark County get that time back in their day with less congestion on the road, and crucially, it's going to allow first-responders to get to where they need to be more quickly. 

It means residents from the Addy neighborhood can have better access to groceries, to schools, to services, to nature, everywhere they need to be.  

And we think it's going to contribute to a lot of economic development around this vitally important port and the town center. And of course, we're excited about the construction jobs that come with just building the underpass itself. 

And we know that the benefits of this project are going to be felt far from here. Senator Cantwell was explaining when we get this right, that means that supply chains across the country benefit. When you have freight trains that are able to travel at their normal speed rather than having to slow down for that intersection, that means more efficient movement of goods - that can benefit people as far away from here as my house in Michigan.  

This is not just about moving cheap goods from other countries to the U.S. It also means we're going to better be able to build and sell American-made goods across the country and around the world. 

So, when you think about the products from here from the manufacturing plants - where we're proud to say there are 800,000 new American manufacturing jobs just since President Biden took office – getting those famous Pendleton blankets around the world, that all comes back to making sure we have the right kind of infrastructure.  

I'm thrilled to say that this is part of a story that we're now able to tell across the country. I've been in South Carolina, in Orangeburg there, we were in Kentucky in Appalachia a few days ago, and Mukilteo - I hope I'm saying that right - where we started our journey here in the Pacific Northwest this week, we are rebuilding roads and reinforcing bridges and replacing ferries. We're marking over 35,000 infrastructure projects that have been identified getting more funding.  

First Lady Dr. Biden and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, they've been on the road highlighting new programs that people can join to get trained for these good-paying jobs, including in infrastructure, manufacturing, good jobs that are available whether you have a college degree or not, they require skill.  

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, my colleague Xavier Becerra, was on the road sharing news about how seniors on Medicare are now paying $35 a month instead of $400 a month for insulin.  

Gina Raimondo, our Secretary of Commerce, has been announcing investments to make high-speed internet as widely available as electricity, including over a billion dollars coming right here to Washington State.  

There's so much work going on and we are going to keep our foot on the accelerator.  

We are in the early years of a national project to properly invest in America. It's not going to happen with the stroke of a pen or any one action in Washington DC. It's going to happen with good federal policy meeting great local visions and as we do that, I think over the long run, this will come to be viewed as something akin to the New Deal. 

I like to call it the Big Deal, because I think it's a big deal to a community like Washougal and it's a big deal to the entire country, as we build these efforts, and these projects and these improvements that are going to shape life as the Congresswoman's quotation so aptly got us thinking about. 

When my twins, who are about to turn two years-old, are thinking about what their kids and their grandkids are going to be doing, they will be depending on the infrastructure that we are building and laying in place right here in this moment.  

That gives us all a lot to be proud of. So thanks for the chance to celebrate this with you and congratulations to this community. Thank you. 

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