Ann C. Phillips Witness Testimony

Posture and Readiness of the Mobility Enterprise - TRANSCOM and MARAD

MARITIME ADMINISTRATOR
MARITIME ADMINISTRATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS & SUBCOMMITTEE ON SEAPOWER AND PROJECTION FORCES

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HEARING ON “POSTURE AND READINESS OF THE MOBILITY ENTERPRISE”

April 11, 2024

Good morning, Chairman Waltz, Chairman Kelly, Ranking Member Garamendi, Ranking Member Courtney, and Members of the Subcommittees. Thank you for your tremendous support for the Maritime Administration (MARAD), the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), and the U.S. maritime industry. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to testify today on the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget, and how this request will enable MARAD to continue to advance key priorities in support of our economic and national security.

Before I go further, allow me to express on behalf of the Department of Transportation (DOT) our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed. I also want to express thanks to the United States Coast Guard for spearheading the Federal response at the Port of Baltimore, and to all of our Federal partners –especially my DOT colleagues at MARAD and the Federal Highway Administration – as well as Maryland state and local officials for their ongoing response to the Baltimore bridge collapse.

Times like this highlight how important our maritime transportation system is to the Nation’s economic and national security. Events such as the collapse of the Key Bridge, COVID, attacks in the Red Sea, and recent weather disasters serve as notable reminders of the need for flexibility and redundancy to support the transportation segments of our supply chain. This latest tragedy will demonstrate once again our great resolve and ability to respond as a Nation.

FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST

MARAD’s mission is to foster, promote, and develop the maritime industry of the United States to meet the nation’s economic and security needs. The President’s FY 2025 Budget request of $859.7 million for MARAD will enable the agency to continue to strengthen our sealift enterprise by advancing recapitalization of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) and the vital commercial sealift programs that support U.S.-flagged vessels operating in the foreign trade.

The President’s request will also support investments in our ports and waterways to improve supply chain resiliency, expand our efforts to address climate change, and advance environmental justice for port communities. In FY 2025, $450 million provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to support the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) will be invested in new grants. The President’s budget requests an additional $80 million to support PIDP, which would bring the total amount of funding available in FY 2025 to $530 million and enable us to continue modernizing our ports to help reduce the costs of moving goods from ships to shelves and from American farmers and factories to destinations overseas.

In addition, the President’s request will enable MARAD to continue critical investments to address the urgent and long-standing challenges at the USMMA. Further, it will enable us to implement the many new authorities and responsibilities provided in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024 NDAA).

NATIONAL SECURITY

Providing sealift to meet the nation’s needs is a critical part of MARAD’s mission, and we have proudly met the challenges of managing the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) for 78 years. America’s strategic sealift provides the nation with the capability to rapidly project power globally by deploying Department of Defense (DOD) forces and moving cargoes worldwide during peacetime and wartime—including through contested environments—whenever activated by the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).

Ready Reserve Force (RRF)

The President’s FY 2025 Budget requests $974 million from DOD budgetary authority for MARAD to acquire, upgrade, and maintain vessels in the NDRF and RRF. These funds enable MARAD to maintain the fleet in a ready, reliable, and responsive condition, using a contracted workforce of commercial ship managers and a small cadre of shipboard caretaker crewmembers. Sustaining sufficient resources for maintenance and recapitalization will ensure MARAD’s ability to meet strategic sealift for the U.S. Armed Forces, and humanitarian support when called upon during national emergencies, as well as maintain MARAD’s NDRF fleet mooring sites.

MARAD’s RRF consists of sealift ships providing a mix of capabilities. RRF ships, along with a smaller number of Military Sealift Command vessels, provide sealift surge capability to deliver DOD equipment and supplies where needed during the initial stages of a response to a major contingency. Today, the RRF is a fleet of 48 vessels, with an average age of more than 45 years, maintained in a reduced operating status—ready to sail within five days of activation. The fleet will grow to 51 vessels after the planned transfer of additional surge sealift and prepositioning vessels from the Military Sealift Command is complete by the end of FY 2025.

I note that four RRF vessels are currently berthed at the Port of Baltimore. While the restriction of movement for these vessels is affected by the Key Bridge collapse, crew on two of the vessels are currently conducting regulatory or casualty repairs and neither of the remaining ships have been activated. One ship normally berthed in Baltimore will remain in Hampton Roads, VA, while crew is conducting required regulatory repairs until harbor clearance operations are completed.

As part of the Navy’s overall plan for sealift recapitalization, MARAD is responsible for maintaining the existing RRF ships through the recapitalization period, including dozens of ships that are now nearly 50 years old or even older. Continued focus on safety, material condition, and regulatory compliance has been difficult to sustain, and challenges have been compounded by equipment and parts delays, and the increased scope of the repairs we have had to undertake, including steelwork.

MARAD is working to advance the urgent recapitalization of the RRF with the limited authorities provided. MARAD is making use of the authority Congress provided to purchase vessels for RRF through a contracted Vessel Acquisition Manager (VAM). This innovative process allowed MARAD to efficiently purchase the first two ships in FY 2022. In Q2 FY 2023, the VAM completed purchase of three more extremely capable ships including one that is 10 and two that are 11 years old. These ships were purchased for approximately $90 million per ship. The reflagging process for these vessels is continuing along the stringent Alternate Compliance Program regulatory framework and the ships will be ready-for-tasking in Q3 2024.

MARAD continues to work with our VAM and has identified several potential ships for purchase and engaging owners of the best four additional ships for purchase to reach the Congressionally limited number of 9 used ships.

In the FY 2023 NDAA, MARAD was directed to develop a Roll-On/Roll-Off ship design for the construction of 10 new vessels for the NDRF. MARAD thanks Congress for appropriating $12 million in FY 2024 funds to complete the vessel designs.

Commercial Sealift

Our Government-owned sealift fleet is supported and leveraged by a fleet of privately owned, commercially operated U.S.-flag vessels in the Maritime Security Program (MSP) and the Tanker Security Program (TSP).

The FY 2025 Budget requests the full authorization level of $318 million for the MSP, which is the heart of sustainment sealift. In return for a stipend, MSP operators provide the DOD with assured access to their ships and their global networks of critical capabilities, including intermodal facilities at home and abroad used to unload and transport military cargoes to final destinations.

There are 60 commercially viable, militarily useful vessels enrolled in MSP. These vessels are active in international trade and are on-call to meet the nation’s need for sustained military sealift capacity. The MSP supports and sustains the merchant mariner base by providing employment for 2,400 highly trained, skilled U.S. merchant mariners who may also crew the U.S. Government-owned surge sealift fleet when activated. The MSP also supports more than 5,000 additional shore-side jobs in the maritime industry.

MARAD has fully implemented the TSP program, awarding ten operating agreements to four different U.S. companies between April 20, 2023, and December 17, 2023. One of the program participants voluntarily withdrew one of their vessels from the program after accepting a long-term-charter to the U.S. Government, making the vessel ineligible to participate in the TSP. MARAD is in the process of filling that vacancy and anticipates filling the slot this summer. The FY 2025 Budget request for the TSP program is $60 million, for up to 10 enrolled tanker vessels. The TSP will strengthen the U.S supply chain and improve the movement of liquid fuel products while creating good paying jobs. Moreover, these ships will ensure DOD has assured access to critically needed product tankers capable of loading, transporting, and storing on-station bulk petroleum refined products to support national economic security. We are preparing to deliver the requested report on Opportunities and Challenges to Grow the U.S.-Flag Tanker Fleet in International Trade to Congress soon.

MARAD is partnering with our stakeholders, both Federal and non-Federal, to work to identify strategies to help address the mariner shortage and ensure their readiness. As part of MARAD’s effort to meet a FY 2024 NDAA requirement to establish a Maritime Workforce Working Group, MARAD sent out a Request of Participation in our Maritime Workforce Working Group. This group kicked off on March 20, 2024, to help identify the number of licensed and unlicensed mariners, make recommendations to improve United States merchant mariner recruitment and retention, and evaluate potential gaps or surpluses of credentialed merchant mariners required to maintain and operate the RRF.

We also note that the existing U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) licensing system (Merchant Mariner Licensing and Documentation system) relies on dated 1980s technology with relatively no querying capability on the number and availability of mariners with various credentials essential to meet our economic and national security needs. We fully support the USCG’s ongoing efforts to modernize the system to enable efficient issuance of mariner credentials and provide enhanced querying capabilities.

Further, we must ensure that mariners’ working environments are safe—and that the maritime industry is a place where every mariner can succeed on the basis of their professionalism and skill. MARAD’s work to implement the Every Mariner Builds a Respectful Culture (EMBARC) program, which is discussed in more detail below, is helping advance long overdue culture change across the maritime industry to promote accountability for sexual harassment and sexual assault, and foster a culture of prevention, especially at sea.

MARAD is also focused on supporting our U.S.-flagged fleet through opportunities to carry cargo. As I said last year in testimony before the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, put simply, without cargoes, ships will leave the U.S. flag and our modest fleet will continue to dwindle to the point that the number of American vessels is simply too small to meet government shipper agency requirements whether military or civilian. We are working with the Biden-Harris Administration’s Made In America Office to help agencies understand cargo preference requirements. In addition, I have written to all Federal departments and agencies explaining how MARAD can help them ensure they meet their obligations under cargo preference laws and regulations. To date, 60 percent of these Federal agencies have responded, with some providing outstanding bills of lading. MARAD is currently preparing the annual report as required by the FY 2022 NDAA.

MARAD is also working diligently on revisions to cargo preference regulations as required by the FY 2023 NDAA. 

One of the current challenges with meeting cargo preference requirements is ensuring we have both enough vessels and the wide mix of vessel types to carry the many types of cargoes that the government impels. To help attract additional vessels to our flag, last year, the Biden-Harris Administration proposed that Congress eliminate the 3-year period that vessels entering the U.S. flag must currently wait before they are eligible to carry civilian agency preference cargoes. This would ensure that vessels that choose to sail under the U.S.-flag can carry preference cargoes as soon as they enter the flag and provide opportunity to diversify the types of vessels available to civilian agencies to carry cargoes. In return the vessels would be required to remain under U.S. flag for 3 years. This proposal became law as part of the FY 2024 NDAA but will only become effective January 1, 2030.

U.S. MERCHANT MARINE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
MARAD supports mariner training programs to produce highly skilled USCG credentialed officers for the U.S. merchant marine. Specifically, MARAD supports mariner education and training at USMMA, and it facilitates mariner education through the extensive support we provide to the six state maritime academies (SMA).

Graduates of USMMA are required to maintain their licenses for 6 years and to sail on commercial vessels or serve in other capacities—such as on active duty in U.S. uniformed services—for 5 years. USMMA is also the principal source of new officers for the U.S. Navy’s Strategic Sealift Officer (SSO) Program, which maintains a cadre of approximately 2,000 U.S. Naval Reserve Officers with the training and credentials to operate strategic sealift resources at times of national need.

Funding in the President’s FY 2025 Budget request will support academic operating expenses for approximately 975 cadets and 292 faculty and support staff, including expanded support for the extensive facility maintenance and repair needs of the Academy’s aging physical plant and for our work implementing the EMBARC program. The budget request also includes 21 new positions to support National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recommendations and address various efficiency and effectiveness initiatives.

MARAD established the EMBARC program in December 2021 to help prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment during the Sea Year program, to support survivors, strengthen a culture of accountability, and improve safety for all mariners. Vessel operators must enroll in the EMBARC program before USMMA cadets can train on that operator’s vessels.

Now, thanks to the FY 2023 NDAA, commercially operated vessels must comply with standards set by MARAD regarding the prevention of, and response to, sexual assault and harassment before they can train USMMA cadets. Further, the FY 2023 NDAA gave MARAD the authority to withhold payments from companies participating in the  MSP and TSP (as well as the Cable ship Security Program (CSP)) if they do not comply with the policies and requirements established by MARAD for the protection of cadets from sexual assault and sexual harassment. In addition, USMMA’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPR) is working to build midshipman awareness and eliminate obstacles to reporting sexual assault and violence. MARAD is working as quickly as possible to develop a proposed EMBARC rule pursuant to the authority provided by the FY 2023 NDAA. Additionally, the USMMA has established an Advisory Council, as required by 46 U.S.C. § 51323, tasked with providing actionable recommendations on improving the Academy. Importantly, the Council includes experts in sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention and response.

In addition, the FY 2023 NDAA required that ocean-going vessels include sexual assault and sexual harassment response policies in their Safety Management Systems (SMS)—which has been a central tenet of EMBARC. In short, the FY 2023 NDAA reinforced a long overdue change in shipboard culture that will promote fair and equitable treatment of all mariners, reinforce the serious nature of sexual harassment and sexual assault and its detriment to mission readiness, and contribute to a safer working environment. MARAD is conducting vessel both scheduled and unscheduled assessments at a rate greater than the 10 percent required under 46 U.S.C. § 51322, to ensure compliance with EMBARC standards.

Today, there are 21 commercial operators enrolled in EMBARC; together, they operate more than 180 vessels. All vessel operators that are required to carry USMMA cadets under 46 U.S.C. § 51307(b)—i.e., operators with vessels enrolled in the MSP, TSP, and the CSP—have enrolled in EMBARC.

The Biden-Harris Administration has long recognized the urgent need to rehabilitate and replace existing infrastructure and to significantly strengthen the ability of MARAD and USMMA to plan and manage capital investments and major maintenance efforts. Working closely with leaders and experts from the Department of Transportation (DOT), MARAD has implemented numerous measures to improve our ability to manage capital projects. Consistent with a recommendation from the National Academy of Public Administration, MARAD/USMMA created a new director position that is staffed with a Senior Executive to oversee all capital and maintenance projects at USMMA. MARAD and the DOT have also created new oversight bodies to ensure that investments of taxpayer funds are properly managed, and yield completed projects that address the Academy’s most urgent needs.

In early March, MARAD provided to the Committees on Appropriations and made public USMMA’s FY 2023 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The FY 2023 CIP explains significant changes made to active and out-year projects since USMMA’s last CIP report, which was provided in late 2022. These changes are based on demonstrated need, as well as the principles that guide our prioritization of capital and maintenance projects. Specifically, our highest priorities for capital and maintenance investments are supporting the safety, health, and well-being of cadets and supporting the Academy’s academic mission.

In addition to the USMMA awarding the campus-wide maintenance contract in December 2022, the USMMA is in the process of developing a deferred maintenance plan that will focus on high impact maintenance actions that are both wide-spread and that most-directly impact the safety and quality of life of cadets and staff. The priorities include campus HVAC systems, plumbing, roofing and repair of building facades. In November 2023, the Academy started work on developing a Facilities Master Plan which will identify its priorities under its Capital Improvement Program. This plan, which will cover the next several years and will affect the entire campus, is expected to be in effect by the end of the year.

Capital improvement funds requested in FY 2025 would enable us to initiate a barracks renovation program as well as renovations of Wiley and Delano Halls. Funding would also enable us to rehabilitate roads, sidewalks and parking lots.

The FY 2025 Budget request also includes $87 million to provide support to the six SMAs. This request includes funding for school ship maintenance and repair, Student Incentive Program (SIP), direct SMA support, fuel assistance, and NSMV pre-delivery and post-delivery support. MARAD has cooperative agreements in place with three SMAs, with Maine Maritime Academy being the latest as of January 31, 2024. The amount of $58.3 million has been obligated for eligible pier upgrades necessary to enable heavy weather mooring of the NSMVs.

Funding would also meet maintenance and repair costs to maintain the legacy school ships and continue our direct support to the SMAs.

There are currently four NSMVs under construction with one ship — the EMPIRE STATE — delivered last fall. The second ship—the PATRIOT STATE—has an anticipated delivery to Massachusetts Maritime Academy in July of this year.

The FY 2024 NDAA also increases the amount of Student Incentive Payments Program (SIP) from $32,000 to $64,000, providing additional financial support to cadets who enroll in the Strategic Sealift Midshipman program.

ECONOMIC, CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INVESTMENTS

The President’s FY 2025 budget requests $80 million for the PIDP program to provide grants to improve port infrastructure and facilities and to stimulate economic growth in and around ports while also improving safety, addressing climate change and environmental justice, and strengthening our supply chains. In addition to the funding requested in the budget, the BIL provides in advance appropriations for this program in FY 2025.

Last year, MARAD awarded $653 million in PIDP grants. This total included the second tranche of $450 million in funding provided by the BIL, approximately $212 million in FY 2023 appropriations, and funding returned from a prior PIDP round. The 2023 PIDP awards will fund 41 projects in 25 states and one territory. More than $100 million if the PIDP awards include port electrification components that improve air quality, while more than $202 million of the projects will advance offshore wind farm development. These efforts are helping to advance the important objectives of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the vital goal of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain covered Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

This year thanks again to the BIL and the funding provided in the FY 2024 appropriations measure, more than $570 million in funding is available for PIDP grants. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for this program is open and applications are due on May 10, 2024.

The FY 2025 Budget also requests $10 million for the United States Marine Highway Program. Marine highways support our maritime supply chains and enable more cost-effective transportation options for U.S. shippers and manufacturers. There is $5 million in FY 2024 funding available, and MARAD will begin accepting applications soon. Importantly, thanks to another change made in the FY 2023 NDAA, any eligible project along any of the 31 designated Marine Highway Routes—which encompass 41 states—is eligible to apply for funding.

The FY 2024 NDAA requires MARAD to complete a study that identifies opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing the effectiveness of marine highways and implement a pilot program from the results. The report should be finalized shortly.

In 2023, MARAD awarded nearly $12 million in marine highway projects. The funding awarded last year will support 8 projects across the nation—and nearly all the funding is supporting projects in disadvantaged communities or Federally designated community development zones.

The FY 2025 Budget also requests $20 million for MARAD’s Small Shipyards grants to support infrastructure improvements at qualified small U.S. shipyards to help improve their efficiency and ability to compete for domestic and international commercial ship construction and maintenance opportunities. Investing in shipbuilding supports job creation in a vital domestic industrial base. These grants can also be used to support the acquisition of equipment that reduces negative climate impacts and adapts technologies that reduce shipyard power consumption.

Within MARAD’s FY 2025 Budget request, $6 million will support the Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance (META) program. The META program fulfills a niche in the Federal government by being specifically designed to assist stakeholders with innovation that supports a safe and efficient U.S. maritime transportation sector. Approximately 75 percent of the FY 2025 funding will be focused on efforts related to decarbonization of the maritime transportation sector.

The FY 2025 Budget request for MARAD includes $3.7 million for the Federal Ship Financing Program (Title XI) to provide the salaries and overhead support to manage the loan portfolio, currently at $1.3 billion in outstanding loan guarantees. This program is designed to manage loans that help to promote the U.S. shipyard industry by providing additional opportunities for vessel construction and modernization, including repowering, that may otherwise be unavailable to ship owners.

In June 2022, MARAD designated vessels constructed or reconstructed for use to support offshore wind facilities as Vessels of National Interest. Since this designation, there has been a significant increase in interest in the Title XI Program to support offshore wind vessels. The program has applications for six projects under credit worthiness review, including four projects for Jones Act-qualified windfarm vessels.

The President’s FY 2025 Budget requests $6 million for MARAD’s Ship Disposal Program for support staff and overhead costs to continue to put primary emphasis on the disposal of the worst conditioned, non-retention vessels to mitigate environmental risks.

CONCLUSION

These programs represent MARAD’s priorities that are supported by the President’s Budget. We will continue to keep you apprised of the progress of our program activities and initiatives in these areas in the coming year.

Thank you for the opportunity to present and discuss the President’s Budget for MARAD. I appreciate the Subcommittee’s continuing support for maritime programs, and I look forward to any questions you and the members of the Subcommittee may have.

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Responses to Republican QFRs

Responses to Democratic QFRs

IIJA Investments (Wildlife Crossings)

The State of American Aviation and the Federal Aviation Administration

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL WHITAKER

ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
HEARING BEFORE THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION

THE STATE OF AMERICAN AVIATION AND THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Chairs Graves and Graves, Ranking Members Larsen and Cohen, and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today for the first time as the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to discuss the agency’s priorities and my initial observations within the agency.

The agency’s number one priority is safety. We must continuously be proactive, consistent, and deliberative executing our mission to maintain and build on the agency’s safety record. Since being sworn in as the FAA Administrator on October 25, 2023, I have worked to ensure that we remain solely focused on our mission. Upon joining the agency, I began a process of renewed focus on potential risks to the National Airspace System (NAS), initially targeting three specific areas: first, significant safety events, including close calls and runway incursions, and related safety events; second, air traffic controller workforce issues including fatigue and the workforce shortage; and third, continuous safety improvement.

Significant Safety Events

Close Calls, Runway Incursions, and Related Safety Events

My initial area of inquiry was around the close calls, runway incursions, and related safety events that occurred in 2023.
 
Focus on these events began in March of last year when Acting Administrator Billy Nolen convened more than 200 leaders from across the aviation industry to examine ways to prevent future occurrences. That summit resulted in a variety of concrete actions and a commitment from the FAA and the aviation community to collaborate on the goal of reaching zero significant close calls.

Following the summit, the FAA moved swiftly, taking several actions to enhance flight safety and reduce incursions by providing more controller training and supervision as well providing pilot and operator outreach and training. In 2023, the FAA held over 100 runway safety meetings at airports with control towers to identify and address airport-specific risks. Also, the FAA tasked the Investigative Technologies Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to recommend new technologies, such as cockpit alerting systems, to reduce runway safety events. I expect the ARC to submit an interim recommendation report later this year.

Additionally, the FAA named an independent National Airspace Safety Review Team to examine ways to enhance safety and reliability in the nation’s air traffic system. The team
examined the FAA’s internal safety processes, staffing levels, practices, facilities and equipment, and how the agency’s air traffic budget is funded. I received the independent report on November 15, 2023. Two days later, I took immediate action on their recommendations including several that provide resources to assist air traffic controllers, such as deploying tower simulator training systems in 95 facilities by December 2025. On January 29, the agency installed the first system at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

These technology investments will continue to be an effective mechanism to enhance aviation safety, in particular, runway safety. We are committed to continue to develop, test, and deploy technologies to improve surface surveillance and situational awareness for controllers, flight crews, and ground personnel through a variety of means, including surface lighting, visual and aural alerts, and enhanced displays. Over the last several years, the FAA has researched and issued standards for both Runway Incursion Warning Systems (RIWS) and Vehicle Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) emitters to help combat Vehicle/ Pedestrian Deviations (VPDs). RIWS and vehicle ADS-B transmitters are available for installation on airport and airline-owned ground vehicles that regularly operate in the movement area. These technologies enhance situational awareness for surface operators and Air Traffic Controllers. The FAA has been actively encouraging airports to voluntarily equip their vehicles and grants are available through the FAA Office of Airports. As a result, there are now over 2,100 vehicles equipped with ADS-B transmitters and over 1,000 vehicles equipped with a RIWS.

Moreover, the FAA continues to focus on airport infrastructure improvements to address airfield geometry issues, a significant contributing factor for many runway incursions. The Runway Incursion Mitigation (RIM) Program is at the forefront of industry and FAA partnerships in mitigating airport locations with a history of runway incursions. To date, this work has achieved a 70 percent overall reduction at more than 100 locations. Because of their high safety impact, the FAA prioritizes funding RIM projects through its competitive grant programs. We appreciate the funding Congress has provided through the Airport Improvement Program, Supplemental Discretionary Grant Program, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to achieve these critical safety improvements.

The FAA also continues to evaluate runway safety areas (RSAs) and works with airport operators to improve RSAs that do not meet federal standards. RSAs enhance the safety of aircraft that undershoot, overrun, or veer off a runway. The FAA previously assessed all RSAs serving air carrier runways at the nation’s commercial airports and is now focused on
determining the RSA status of general aviation airports. The FAA also continues to work closely with industry and other Federal agencies to address and reduce the risks associated with wildlife hazards.

Since the beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2023, the FAA has awarded 57 grants for runway safety projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and 154 runway safety projects under the Airport Improvement Program, totaling more than $1 billion. These projects will install airfield lighting, signage, and markings, as well as reconfigure and construct new taxiways to enhance safety on the airfield.

Overall, our data shows a recent downward trend in the rate of runway incursions. We are optimistic that our recent and ongoing work and collaboration with industry will lead to continued safety improvements. But to drive the number of runway incursions to zero, we must continue to focus on and invest in this priority.

Controller Workforce

The safety of the United States aviation system is due in large part to our skilled and dedicated air traffic controllers. To maintain our safety record, the agency must accelerate the pace of recruiting, training, and hiring to meet increasing volume and safely integrate new entrants in the NAS.

The President’s FY 2024 budget request includes funding for the hiring and training of 1,800 controllers, an increase of 300 controllers as compared to the hiring level for FY 2023. This funding also supports the continued training of the 1,500 controllers hired in FY 2023. We have 2,716 trainees making their way through the system right now, and nearly 1,600 of these trainees are partially certified to work an air traffic control position, adding capacity to support operations. The budget request will allow the FAA to continue progress toward attaining the necessary Certified Professional Controller staffing levels to meet current traffic demands, which have returned to, and in some markets exceeded, pre-pandemic levels.

To increase this pipeline of new controllers, we are working with colleges and universities in the Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) to expand their curriculums so that AT-CTI schools can offer training that is equivalent to the FAA Academy. Once implemented, graduates of the FAA-approved AT-CTI programs will still need to pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment exam, be selected for employment by the FAA, and meet medical and security requirements. If hired as trainees, these graduates will be able to move directly to on-the-job training at the start of their employment instead of attending the FAA Air Traffic Controller Academy before being assigned to a facility as required today.

Similarly, we have launched several other initiatives to increase controller hiring:

• Initiating a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers from the military and private industry.
• Filling every seat at the FAA Academy and increasing our classroom capacity.
• Finishing the deployment of upgraded tower simulation systems (software and hardware) in 95 facilities by December 2025. As I mentioned earlier, the FAA deployed the first upgraded system in Austin last month. These tower simulation systems will help address staffing shortages by reducing time to certification by 27 percent for new hires and 21 percent for Certified Professional Controllers in Training.

Increasing our controller ranks will help mitigate risks associated with controller fatigue resulting from shifting schedules and excessive overtime. During my first three months at the agency, I met with air traffic controllers in Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. to get their perspective on issues facing the workforce. Controller fatigue came up repeatedly, which is why the agency established a panel of fatigue experts to study the issue. The panel will examine how the latest science on sleep needs and fatigue considerations could be applied to controller work requirements and scheduling. We look forward to receiving their report in the coming weeks.

Continuous Safety Improvement

As we learned from the tragic accidents of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019, we must continuously improve and reexamine processes and accepted procedures that support our safety mission by continuing to gather and use data to detect risks, simulate outcomes, optimize the agency’s safety decision-making, challenge our organizational structures and assumptions, and introduce more transparency in how we do business.

My commitment to continuous improvement begins by looking internally within the FAA and is reflected in a number of actions we have taken over the last three months, including the following:

• To further strengthen our safety culture and the connection between the Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service (AOV) and the ATO, and consistent with the Safety Review Team recommendations, I realigned the AOV Executive Director to report to both the Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety and directly to me. AOV is responsible for directing independent, risk-based, data-driven safety oversight of air navigation services provided by the Air Traffic Organization. Direct, candid feedback is crucial to aviation safety, and that is why I have provided a direct line from the person who independently assesses the safety of air navigation services to the Administrator.
• I chartered the Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). This ARC is comprised of members of the aviation and medical communities. It is intended to provide a forum for discussion among such communities and provide recommendations to the FAA that break down the barriers that prevent pilots and air traffic controllers from reporting and seeking care for mental health issues. The same disclosure issues exist for pilots and air traffic controllers and can impact safety. I expect the ARC to submit its report to me this spring.
• We proposed requiring certificated repair stations located outside the United States whose employees perform safety-sensitive maintenance functions on certain air carrier aircraft to obtain and implement a drug and alcohol testing program. These programs would align with the FAA and Department of Transportation (DOT)’s drug and alcohol standards.
• I am exploring how the agency can better collect and utilize safety data. We are assessing tools, techniques, and processes that will better identify and mitigate risk in the NAS.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 and Boeing Production Problems

On January 5, the left mid-cabin door plug blew out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. The next day, on January 6, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive grounding all 737-9 MAX aircraft with the door plug configuration.

We then approved a thorough inspection and maintenance process that was performed on each of the grounded aircraft before returning to service. Our findings during inspections of those aircraft showed that the quality system issues at Boeing were unacceptable and require further scrutiny. That is why we are increasing oversight activities including:

• Capping expanded production of new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to ensure accountability and full compliance with required quality control procedures.
• Launching an investigation scrutinizing Boeing’s compliance with manufacturing requirements. The FAA will consider the full extent of its enforcement authority to ensure the company is held accountable for any non-compliance.
• Aggressively expanding oversight of new aircraft with increased floor presence at all Boeing facilities.
• Closely monitoring data to identify and mitigate significant safety trends and risks in the system.
• Launching an analysis of potential safety-focused reforms around quality control and delegation.

As we increase our oversight of Boeing, we also look forward to the results of the Boeing Safety Culture Review report, which will inform the agency regarding future action. Required by the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act, the review panel included representatives from NASA, the FAA, labor unions, independent engineering experts, air carriers, manufacturers with delegated authority, legal experts, and others. The panel has been reviewing thousands of documents, interviewed more than 250 Boeing employees, managers, and executives, Boeing supplier employees, and FAA employees and visited several Boeing sites as well as Spirit AeroSystems’ (a subcontractor for Boeing) facility in Wichita.

Let me stress: we will follow the data and take appropriate and necessary action. The safety of the flying public will continue to inform our decision-making. We will continue to implement the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act as recent events underscore the importance of continuously looking for ways to improve and refine safety oversight activities.

Additionally, the FAA has been working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to support their investigation of the incident. We will take further safety actions based on the findings, as necessary.

National Outreach Program for Diversity and Inclusion

Before I close, I would like to address inaccurate reporting related to the FAA’s National Outreach Program for Diversity and Inclusion. Congress enacted equal employment opportunity laws years ago, and we comply with them. Let me be clear—all FAA employees contribute to our safety mission. The FAA employs tens of thousands of people for a wide range of positions, from administrative roles, like a clerical assistant, to oversight and execution of critical safety functions, like an air traffic controller. Like many large employers, the agency seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that of course vary by position. These policies go back over several bipartisan administrations. Any statements to the contrary are misleading. The FAA must follow the law in its hiring practices. It does and will continue to do so as long as I am honored to lead the agency.

Closing Observations

In the three months since I have been back at the FAA, I have reaffirmed that our employees are our most important asset. I have met with the FAA employees who work daily to carry out the agency’s mission. I saw first-hand their professionalism and commitment, and I hold them in the highest regard.

Notably, I began my tenure as FAA Administrator shortly before the busiest time of the year for air travel, and 2023 was also the busiest year for air travel ever. I saw firsthand the steadfast professionalism of our controllers as I visited various FAA facilities during the holiday season. They worked around the clock so that passengers were safe from takeoff to touchdown, and it is because of them that travel during the holiday season was notably smooth. From Sunday, December 17, 2023, to Monday, January 1, 2024, the cancellation rate was just 0.8 percent despite a record number of passengers flying during the busy holiday season. The cancellation rate during that same period in 2022 was 8.2 percent. Taking a broader view, in 2023, there were 16.3 million flights and a cancellation rate below 1.2 percent, the lowest rate in a decade.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve as Administrator of the FAA, and I am confident in the FAA’s ability to address the challenges ahead. I also want to express the Administration’s support for the enactment of a long-term FAA reauthorization bill and commend the bipartisan efforts in the House to complete this important work. I look forward to working with Congress as it considers the Administration’s recently submitted views and finalizes the FAA reauthorization bill.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Fueling America’s Economy: Legislation to Improve Safety and Expand U.S. Pipeline Infrastructure

Written Statement of Tristan Brown Deputy Administrator
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Hearing on Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2023

January 18, 2024

Introduction

Chairman Duncan, Ranking Member DeGette, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) pipeline safety program. I appreciate this subcommittee’s support for strengthening pipeline safety across our country.

Safety is the top priority for DOT and PHMSA. Specifically, PHMSA is responsible for overseeing the safe transport of hazardous materials—through pipelines and also via other modes of transportation—including planes, trains, trucks, and vessels. PHMSA oversees the safe design, operation, and maintenance of the Nation’s nearly 3.3 million miles of oil, gas, and other hazardous materials pipeline and storage facilities, including for hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and other emerging fuels. Additionally, PHMSA’s oversight of hazardous materials via other modes includes nearly 1 in 10 goods that are transported in the U.S., everything from nuclear waste to lithium-ion batteries, to explosives used in excavation, mining, and energy production. PHMSA also chairs the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Dangerous Goods Panel, the international standards making body that sets the global framework for the safe and efficient transport of these materials across borders and around the world.

Under Secretary Buttigieg’s leadership, PHMSA has been focused on executing bipartisan congressional mandates in the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2020 (PIPES Act of 2020), implementing historic infrastructure investments from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, strengthening our safety mission, and ensuring that the U.S. has the safest, most efficient and competitive transportation system in the world.

From the standpoint of the volume of work before us as an agency, the challenges in carrying out our safety mission have never been greater. We oversee an aging infrastructure that requires robust maintenance, and, when needed, replacement. Most of the cross-country pipeline infrastructure was built shortly after World War II—meaning many pipelines are over 80 years old—and there are even a few gas distribution segments that were installed during the Civil War era, more than 150 years ago.

PHMSA has been integral to the whole-of-government approach to mitigating unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions—an essential component of operating the safest, most efficient and economically competitive transportation and energy system of the 21st century.

Nearly two-thirds of the energy we consume in the U.S. is transported via pipeline. Over the past few decades, growth in energy production in the United States has increased to record levels.

Concurrently, U.S. transportation of these products has necessarily increased, and exports of energy have—according to the Energy Information Administration—also reached record levels. This has placed new and heightened demands on our pipeline and refined products storage infrastructure, as well as export facilities, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, which PHMSA also regulates.

The bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020 significantly strengthened PHMSA’s jurisdiction related to the minimization of methane emissions across all of our regulated entities in an effort to improve public safety and protect our environment. Our efforts on this front build on previous congressional mandates from 2011 which resulted in PHMSA completing three major legacy pipeline safety rulemakings, each of which was more than a decade in the making, including new regulations on 400,000 miles of “gas gathering” pipelines—significantly increased by the fracking boom that began in the 2000s but remained unregulated at the Federal level until completion of updated regulations in 2022. Since the enactment of the PIPES Act of 2020, Congress has added new incentives for infrastructure aimed at decarbonizing energy and industrial sectors while improving safety. Both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act include significant incentives for the build-out of the hydrogen and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) sectors. To address risks associated with the expansion of hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure, both safety and environmental, PHMSA has focused on strengthening its regulations of these materials and expanding its safety research in these areas. On the other side of the agency, which focuses on hazardous materials transportation via other modes of transportation, the agency has focused on improving safety in the transportation of hydrogen and other cryogenic materials—via truck, train, plane, and vessel—which is seeing new technology development and investments from nearly every sector of the economy.

Also, since the enactment of the PIPES Act of 2020, PHMSA has awarded funding for its first- ever infrastructure grant program, via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) Grant Program provides $1 billion spread over five years to improve the safety of high-risk, leak-prone, legacy natural gas distribution infrastructure with a specific emphasis on benefiting disadvantaged rural and urban communities, among other considerations. Eligible entities are municipality- or community- owned utilities, and funds are available to these entities seeking assistance in repairing, rehabilitating, or replacing high-risk, leak-prone natural gas distribution infrastructure. Funds may also be used to acquire equipment to assist in identifying and reducing natural gas distribution pipeline incidents and fatalities. This grant funding is helping communities of all sizes make their infrastructure safer, creating good jobs, reducing heat-trapping methane from the atmosphere, and reducing the risks of fatality and serious injury for residents and businesses. For example, last year in your district, Mr. Chairman, we announced more than $5 million for the Laurens Commission of Public Works to replace nearly 8 miles of natural gas main lines and more than 700 steel service lines. Similar projects were also funded through this program in and around Congressmen Pence’s, Latta’s, and Palmer’s districts. In the coming weeks, we are planning to announce another $400 million for projects like these—to modernize high risk, legacy natural gas distribution pipes—improving safety, saving consumers money, creating jobs, and reducing heat-trapping methane emissions.

Rulemaking

Our regulatory agenda over the past several years has been exceptionally full – due to the need for improved safety and oversight and this Administration’s commitment to modernizing our nation’s pipeline infrastructure. PHMSA has closed out years-long, and in some cases decade- long, efforts on final rules that respond to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations and congressional mandates, as well as publishing important new proposed rulemakings from the 2020 PIPES Act.

Notably, in April of 2022, PHMSA published the long-awaited final rule addressing NTSB recommendations and congressional mandates following the 2010 San Bruno, CA and Marshall, MI pipeline failures to require rupture detection and rupture-mitigation valve installation for many gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines, including to address a build out of new hydrogen and carbon dioxide lines. Among other important provisions, this rule requires the installation of remote-control or automatic-shutoff valves, or equivalent technology, that can close within 30 minutes of an operator being notified of a potential rupture—saving lives and reducing methane emissions.

In response to Congress’ very stringent timeline for issuing a final rule for Coastal Ecological Unusually Sensitive Areas (90 days), PHMSA issued an Interim Final Rule to include additional coastal waters, the Great Lakes, and coastal beaches within the definition of an “unusually sensitive area” for the purposes of resilience and risk reduction through hazardous liquid pipeline integrity management—strengthening protections for these treasured natural environments.

PHMSA subsequently held a Liquid Pipeline Advisory Committee meeting on the rulemaking and emerged from that meeting with recommendations to help finalize this rule while addressing stakeholder concerns.

PHMSA has published proposed rules on two priority rulemakings that look to address important PIPES Act of 2020 mandates and emerging safety issues. These rules address leak detection and leak repair and the safety of gas distribution pipelines (as directed in the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act). PHMSA continues to work on updates to the LNG facilities regulations, idle pipelines, and strengthening safety requirements for pipelines transporting carbon dioxide as well as many others.

For gas pipeline leak detection and repair, PHMSA’s proposed rule seeks to enhance public safety and lower methane emissions and other air pollution by significantly improving the detection and repair of leaks from new and existing natural gas distribution, gas transmission, and gas gathering pipelines. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) updates decades-old, Federal leak detection and repair standards in favor of new requirements that add an additional layer of safety by deploying commercially available, advanced technologies to find and fix gas leaks that previously may have gone unrepaired in perpetuity. This rule would ensure that leaks—each of which involve a loss of pipeline integrity—are discovered and repaired before they can degrade into more serious ruptures. This rule also encourages innovation in technologies that help keep natural gas in our pipes instead of leaking into the atmosphere, which can be unsafe, costly for consumers, and harm our environment. As you are aware, PHMSA is required by statute to hold advisory committee meetings on our proposed rules to solicit recommendations to ensure our rulemakings are reasonable, feasible, cost-effective, and practicable. These advisory committee meetings help derive consensus around highly technical regulatory policies. PHMSA held a Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC) meeting on the leak detection and repair proposed rulemaking in November of 2023, and has a second meeting on the proposed rule scheduled in March 2024. PHMSA will consider and address all Committee recommendations in finalizing the rulemaking. As required by Congress, PHMSA continues to update the Federal pipeline safety regulations (PSRs) to reflect new and revised voluntary consensus standards developed and adopted by standards-setting bodies (e.g., PHMSA’s periodic standards update rulemakings) that would be an improvement to existing regulations. We understand how important updating and aligning standards can be to ensure the PSR include up- to-date standards that reflect current best practices and technologies—and to serve as a higher bar, from which the regulated community can continue to improve.

Finally, PHMSA published an NPRM in October 2020 for Class Location Change Requirements. The PIPES Act of 2020 required PHMSA to hold an advisory committee meeting on the NPRM for this proposed rule. PHMSA planned to address this proposed rule in conjunction with the leak detection and repair proposed rule at the November 2023 GPAC meeting; however, due to the very technical nature of the Committee and the public interest in the leak detection and repair rule, additional time was needed to address each of the proposed rules completely. As noted above, PHMSA has scheduled a continuation meeting for both proposed rules in March 2024— the earliest available date for committee members.

It is important to point out that rulemaking is designed to be an iterative process that encourages maximum participation by all stakeholders and rigorous analysis in support of decision making. This process helps ensure the promulgation of comprehensive rules that protect the public and the environment and meet our statutory requirement for rules with benefits that are commensurate with their costs. PHMSA routinely holds public meetings and workshops and conducts significant outreach in advance of rulemakings, using the information gathered to establish a rulemaking record and to strive to craft the most effective rules possible. Such collaboration, well in advance of the rulemaking process, allows PHMSA to identify concerns and potential solutions and to allocate its limited resources where they are needed most. In the past, these comprehensive efforts have also helped avoid expending additional resources on legal challenges.

In addition to congressionally mandated rules, many of PHMSA’s rulemakings underway address important recommendations from the NTSB, resulting from safety issues identified during investigations in the aftermath of some tragic accidents. PHMSA’s rules also address recommendations from the GAO, the DOT Inspector General (DOT IG), and the agency’s own safety findings. When PHMSA proceeds with such rulemakings identified by independent sources, it must make sure that its regulations account for known safety issues, technological feasibility, and cost-effectiveness.

Increased litigation

With all the good work that is being done to advance pipeline safety by the promulgation of new rules, PHMSA also faces a new normal in terms of increased challenges to its rulemakings. This results in longer development timelines and diversion of personnel resources to respond to legal challenges—which could otherwise be utilized to advance the myriad congressional directives and regulatory priorities of the agency and stakeholders.

PHMSA has also seen a dramatic increase in interest in its rulemakings pertaining to energy resources. By way of example, PHMSA’s LNG by Rail Suspension NPRM, issued in November 2021, received nearly 10,000 comments—including multiple coordinated letter-writing campaigns by environmental advocacy organizations, dueling letters signed by coalitions of more than 30 State Attorneys General, as well as many members of the House of Representatives on both sides of the aisle. Meanwhile, our leak detection and repair NPRM received over 35,000 comments from industry stakeholders and trade groups, environmental groups, State Attorneys General, members of Congress, and the public.

Specifically, PHMSA has finalized five significant pipeline safety rulemakings since the beginning of the current Administration in 2021, each of which has been the subject of judicial and/or administrative challenges. PHMSA currently faces pending litigation brought by pipeline industry trade groups on the Gas Gathering Final Rule, the Coastal USAs Interim Final Rule, and the 2022 Safety of Gas Transmission Pipelines Final Rule from various stakeholder groups and governments.

PHMSA rulemaking resources are consequently spread thin. The same subject matter experts, attorneys, and economists who develop new PHMSA rules, who coordinate and respond to public comments to proposed rules and discussions during our mandatory advisory committee meetings, and who develop implementing guidance to assist stakeholders in understanding and complying with new requirements are also the same personnel who must help develop the briefs and arguments to respond to legal challenges after issuance. In furtherance of its rulemaking efforts and in accordance with the PIPES Act of 2020, PHMSA has hired additional employees to help finalize outstanding rulemakings and fulfill congressional mandates. In addition, the 2024 President’s Budget requests a total of $123.7 million for Pipeline Safety operations, which would fully fund PHMSA’s rulemaking efforts and other critical pipeline safety work.

Enforcement and Compliance

While the number of PHMSA’s enforcement cases have remained relatively steady, continued diligence of PHMSA staff to hold responsible parties accountable has resulted in the agency setting records for our civil penalties in 2021, 2022, and 2023. In 2023, PHMSA issued over

$12.5 million in proposed civil penalties against operators who violated safety regulations. This figure is the highest yearly amount in proposed penalties in PHMSA’s history. Additionally, recognizing that timely enforcement is important to increase deterrence and shorten the time unsafe conditions are allowed to persist, PHMSA has substantially expedited its enforcement processes. From 2019 to 2023, for those enforcement cases involving civil penalties or proposed compliance actions, PHMSA reduced its average time to initiate and fully close an enforcement case by approximately 40%.

Additionally, as a mandate of the PIPES Act of 2020, PHMSA was required to conduct an inspection of implementation of the Act’s self-executing mandate requiring operators to update their inspection and maintenance plans to address the elimination of hazardous leaks and minimizing releases of natural gas (including intentional venting during normal operations) from their pipeline facilities. In 2022 and 2023, PHMSA conducted 380 inspections of operators plans, covering 803 pipeline inspection systems, 39 federally inspected gas distribution systems, 37 federally inspected LNG units, and 178 federally inspected underground natural gas storage facilities, to ensure they addressed the congressional directive to assess the need to replace or remediate pipeline facilities that are known to leak based on their material, design, or past operating and maintenance history. In addition to the number of PHMSA-specific inspections, PHMSA’s state partners conducted an additional 4,724 inspections. This is the first time PHMSA completed inspections of each operator that it regulates within a calendar year—and was a tremendous undertaking by our dedicated field personnel across the country and our state partners.

Of increasing interest to the agency is the safety and performance of pipes manufactured outside of the U.S. Many larger operators deploy their own inspectors when utilizing foreign-made pipe in their domestic projects—in order to ensure maximum safety and performance. However, when those U.S. companies find non-spec pipe (pipe not meeting Federal or industry standards), they may simply refuse to purchase it—which may result in another pipeline construction company ultimately purchasing or utilizing the same non-spec piping. On the hazardous materials side of our agency, PHMSA deploys inspectors across the globe to ensure products that are moving hazardous materials in the U.S. are inspected by U.S. inspectors—and non-spec products are appropriately identified and kept out of U.S. markets. PHMSA is conducting analysis to better understand if non-spec, foreign-made pipes are being utilized in the U.S.

Research and Innovation

While PHMSA continues to advance pipeline safety by strengthening its regulations and enhancing its inspector training, inspections, and enforcement programs, many of the root causes of incidents are best addressed through research and technological innovation.

PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety Research Program works with academia, the regulated community, private research consortiums and federal partners to sponsor research and development (R&D) projects focused on providing near-term solutions for pipeline transportation infrastructure issues that will improve safety, reduce environmental impact, and enhance reliability. On October 31 and November 1, 2023, PHMSA held a Pipeline Safety R&D Forum. PHMSA periodically holds this forum to help generate a national research agenda that identifies technical challenges and fosters solutions to improve pipeline safety and protect the environment. The forum included five working groups focusing on carbon dioxide, hydrogen, leak detection/monitoring, threat prevention, and anomaly detection and repair. The forum identified research gap topics in these areas which PHMSA is currently reviewing to help inform the 2024 R&D projects solicitation announcement. The forum discussions regarding both carbon dioxide and hydrogen drew extended interest as more projects are being proposed for CCUS and hydrogen blending of natural gas pipelines. Both of these research areas are necessary and timely as we look towards transportation of gaseous carbon dioxide and varying hydrogen blending of natural gas pipelines, both of which may involve additional rulemaking efforts at PHMSA. Additionally, based on PHMSA’s review of data and trends, there is a continued need to fund research activities intended to mitigate and evaluate threats to prevent damage to our Nation’s infrastructure. The most present risks center around geohazard monitoring, data integration, and corrosion control.

Hydrogen/Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

In FY 2023, PHMSA awarded approximately $4 million in research investments on hydrogen projects. Specifically, under the Core Program, PHMSA awarded two projects: 1) to Investigate Damage Mechanisms for Hydrogen and Hydrogen/Natural Gas Blends to Determine Inspection Intervals for In-Line Inspection Tools, and 2) to Investigate the Integrity Impacts of Hydrogen Gas on Composite/Multi-Layered Pipe. In addition, PHMSA entered into an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) to “Establish the Technical Basis for Enabling Safe and Reliable Underground Hydrogen Storage Operations.” PHMSA currently has twelve active hydrogen projects from FYs 2021, 2022, and 2023 awards, totaling approximately $11 million in research investments. These projects will research how to safely transport and store hydrogen and hydrogen blends by repurposing existing infrastructure used for natural gas transport and underground storage, improving hydrogen leak detection, and characterizing hydrogen specific pipeline integrity threats.

PHMSA also collaborates with the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management to establish partnerships on R&D and safety associated with the transport of carbon dioxide via pipelines. Currently, PHMSA has four active projects to better determine impact areas for the safe operation of carbon dioxide pipelines to include potential impact radius for carbon dioxide, innovative leak detection methods, and material testing and qualification for repurposing pipelines and underground storage facilities for carbon dioxide transport and storage. The results of these may help inform a current rulemaking related to carbon dioxide pipelines.

PHMSA’s funding for its Pipeline Safety-related R&D program is shared between pipeline and LNG research initiatives. For 2023, PHMSA was provided $12.5 million for Pipeline Safety, and the 2024 President’s Budget requests a total of $15 million for these important research activities.

Liquefied Natural Gas

Global fluctuations in natural gas supplies and its availability continue to spark investments in LNG. Currently, there are eight LNG export terminals with a total LNG production capacity of approximately 14 billion standard cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in the United States. There are also 17 new facilities expected to be built within the next five years and seven more currently seeking federal approval, according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission¹ (FERC; the agency which oversees approval and siting of these facilities). As the demand is expected to continue to increase, PHMSA continues to fund LNG safety-related research projects; with eleven completed/closed and five currently active projects, all totaling $5.7 million.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 provided up to $8.4 million to PHMSA for the creation of a national Center of Excellence for LNG Safety (the Center), as authorized in Section 111 of the PIPES Act of 2020. The Center aims to position the United States as the leader and foremost expert in LNG operations—including safety and environmental performance. PHMSA has proceeded with establishing a Center which will enhance U.S. LNG operations and safety education and oversight and may result in LNG regulatory improvements. It will also serve as a repository of information and facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to enhance safety and environmental performance through research. For the last few months, PHMSA has been working to engage other relevant federal agencies with the goal of establishing a center that spans agency jurisdictions to address the most pressing issues and to have a larger impact. We have thus far received broad interest from other relevant agencies.

Funding for State Pipeline Safety Programs

Since 1970, when a national, uniform standard of pipeline safety regulations was published, states have had the authority, through PHMSA, to regulate the safety of intrastate pipelines. Under the authority of Sections 60105 and 60106 of Title 49 U.S. Code (49 U.S.C.) for state pipeline safety program certifications, states have been allowed to assume safety authority for the inspection and enforcement of intrastate pipelines. PHMSA sets the minimum Federal regulations for pipeline safety, which the participating states then adopt into their state code and enforce. States are allowed, under 49 U.S.C Section 60104(c), to adopt more stringent safety standards than the minimum standards PHMSA sets. This allows states to codify and enforce regulations that deal with specific, regional (or local) risks that might not be feasible or cost- beneficial to regulate at the Federal level. Many states have established safety regulations that are more stringent than the Federal regulations.

PHMSA relies on this extremely important partnership to accomplish its safety mission. New pipeline safety regulations and newly regulated infrastructure (such as additional gas gathering lines) continue to require state pipeline safety programs to increase staff in order to handle the additional infrastructure oversight responsibilities. These state pipeline safety programs employ approximately 444 inspectors who are responsible for inspecting over 85 percent of the Nation’s pipeline infrastructure through certification with PHMSA.

Federal law allows PHMSA to pay not more than 80 percent of the total cost of the personnel, equipment, and activities reasonably required by the state agency for the conduct of its pipeline safety program during a given calendar year. However, for fiscal years 2021 to 2023 State Base Grant federal funding covered less than 70 percent of the actual total state program costs. The actual federal funding was 63 percent of the state program’s total costs for fiscal year 2022. The 2023 federal funding is estimated to be only 56 percent of the total state program costs—due, in part, to the increasing workload placed on states because of the increase in regulated pipelines and expansion of pipeline safety regulations. The 2024 President’s Budget requests an additional $21.50 million for State Pipeline Safety Grants to increase the reimbursement rate to states to 80 percent of their pipeline safety program cost, the maximum authorized level, in order to address this need and more robustly support States’ vital role in implementing many of the new regulations previously discussed.

Control Room Management and Cyber Security

Not only is the industry facing expansion in the number of regulated pipeline miles and changes in product demand, both industry and regulators are working to address the increasing number of cyberattacks. PHMSA, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and DOE have a shared responsibility in ensuring coordinated, consistent, and effective activities that improve pipeline transportation security. PHMSA’s safety oversight of pipeline control rooms forms a nexus with TSA’s cybersecurity oversight over pipeline systems, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s) role as the national coordinator for the security and resilience of critical infrastructure, and DOE’s role as the Sector Risk Management Agency for the energy sector. The 2021 cyber-attack on Colonial Pipeline demonstrated how critical it is for a whole-of-government approach to safeguarding our Nation’s critical infrastructure—as well as collaboration with the private sector when it comes to planning and communications.

PHMSA is leveraging its authorities to inspect and enforce three components of pipeline operations including pipeline control room regulations, integrity management requirements, and emergency response plan regulations by incorporating cybersecurity questions in inspections that focus on considering cyber risks and having emergency response plans in place that consider the threat of cyberattacks as well as envision measures to mitigate impacts to operations. PHMSA has also engaged with CISA and TSA on cybersecurity exercises for pipeline operators and will continue to emphasize cybersecurity by design in pipeline infrastructure improvements and investments.

PHMSA is increasing cybersecurity training opportunities for its staff, as well as the staff of its state and Federal partners. By expanding the knowledge base of inspectors, we are better positioned to identify risks during routine control room inspections and coordinate when needed with colleagues in TSA.

OIG audits, GAO audits, and NTSB recommendations

PHMSA’s compliance and inspection program, underwent a 2022 DOT Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit to review PHMSA’s implementation of its Integrated Inspection Program.

Throughout the audit, the PHMSA team provided detailed overviews and walkthroughs of its Integrated Inspection Program, including, but not limited to planning, training, inspection conduct, and governing policies. PHMSA even organized and facilitated the OIG’s participation in several ongoing integrated inspections, and, at PHMSA’s invitation, OIG personnel attended the Office of Pipeline Safety’s annual inspection planning meeting in October 2022. The OIG provided helpful feedback and we consider the audit to have been beneficial to PHMSA’s continual improvement. PHMSA learned valuable lessons and received three OIG recommendations. We continue to have a constructive working relationship with the OIG, and the audit helped us to continue to move toward our common goal of advancing pipeline safety.

The PIPES Act of 2016 included a provision for GAO to submit a report on PHMSA’s gas transmission integrity management program following publication of the Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines final rule, including analysis of:

• stakeholder perspectives regarding ways to enhance pipeline facility safety, prevent inadvertent releases from pipeline facilities, and mitigate any adverse consequences of such inadvertent releases, including changes to the definition of high consequence area, or expanding integrity management beyond high consequence areas;
• the types of benefits, including safety benefits, and estimated costs of the legacy class location regulations;
• the impact that pipeline facility features have on safety and the risk analysis of a particular pipeline facility;
• challenges affecting federal or state regulators in the oversight of gas transmission pipeline facilities and how the challenges are being addressed; and
• any challenges affecting the natural gas industry in complying with PHMSA’s programs, and how the challenges are being addressed.

In 2023, GAO and PHMSA met several times to review PHMSA’s integrity management program and recent changes to the Federal PSRs stemming from PIPES Act 2016 mandates. PHMSA looks forward to GAO’s report and findings related to the important topics addressed in the 2016 Act aimed at enhancing pipeline facility safety. PHMSA continues to work with NTSB to address recommendations that have been made following natural gas and hazardous liquid accidents. We collaborate with NTSB often, including opportunities for cross-training of our respective staff. Currently, PHMSA has 19 NTSB recommendations that are open, and we continue to work to resolve these recommendations—some of which are constrained by resources and some by statute—such as the congressional prohibition on applying the Automatic/Remote Shut Off Valve Rule to existing pipelines.

We’ll continue to engage with NTSB as a partner in advancing safety. All of these efforts are important because continual improvement is a key principle of safety management systems and high-reliability organizations, and one we embrace for both the agency and the industries we regulate.

Transparency, Equity, Environmental Justice, and Outreach to Disadvantaged Communities

To implement the President’s executive orders on equity (EO 13985 and EO 14091) and environmental justice (EO 14008 and EO 14096), as well as to help address historic inequities in the transportation system, PHMSA’s Office of Pipeline Safety has expanded its efforts to make pipeline safety incident and enforcement data (which was also the subject of a GAO report that lauded PHMSA’s transparency) easily accessible to the public. PHMSA, like the rest of the Federal Government, has been concerned with environmental justice and equity issues as a dimension of its historical safety mission for decades. Recently, PHMSA created and published on its website a publicly available interactive mapping tool that allows users to view the location of pipeline incidents, as well as a geographic overlay of underserved communities.

As part of PHMSA’s ongoing equity efforts, PHMSA engages our state and federal partners, as well as stakeholders, to share our findings and encourage them to engage in dialogues with pipeline operators to ensure maintenance and operational safety measures do not leave disadvantaged communities behind. These communities are identified through U.S. Census and internal DOT/PHMSA data focused on transportation-disadvantaged communities that have experienced excavation damages, and other pipeline incidents and accidents.

PHMSA has also expanded its public outreach and education on pipeline awareness and safety as well as community-based excavation damage prevention initiatives to disadvantaged and socioeconomically challenged geographic areas. PHMSA has held or participated in several public meetings regarding the safety impacts of natural gas and carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline infrastructure. Specifically, in May of 2023, PHMSA held a first of its kind public meeting on CO2 pipeline safety where we took the meeting closer to people potentially impacted by proposed projects. While the meeting was held in Iowa, the virtual attendance spanned the entire nation with approximately 1,100 people in attendance. PHMSA continues to provide public forums that give communities a voice in pipeline safety advocacy and provides an opportunity for PHMSA to engage directly with those most effected by the infrastructure we oversee.

Additionally, PHMSA’s historical grant activity for pipeline safety transportation has been a boon for both rural and urban disadvantaged communities. PHMSA’s Technical Assistance Grants (TAG) program provides funding to local communities and groups of individuals (not including for-profit entities) for technical assistance relating to pipeline safety. The TAG funding may also be used to help promote public participation in official proceedings. In 2023, PHMSA awarded over $2 million in TAG funding to communities across the country. These awards directly fund improvements in local pipeline emergency response capabilities and safe digging programs, development of pipeline safety information resources, implementation of pipeline emergency response training best practices for events related to excavation damage, and community and pipeline awareness campaigns.

As mentioned previously, PHMSA’s NGDISM Grant Program funds are benefitting disadvantaged communities in both rural and urban areas because the program is focused on improving the operation of distribution infrastructure, the pipelines closest to everyday consumers. In 2022, the first year of the NGDISM Grant Program, PHMSA received 179 applications totaling $1.2 billion for the $200 million in available award funding. Following this exceptional first round, in 2023, PHMSA received 184 applications totaling over $1.7 billion.

Because of the extraordinary demand for this program, PHMSA decided to make $400 million available for the 2023 funding awards in an effort to accelerate the deployment of the funding and reduce the paperwork burden for applicants that would be resubmitting applications for fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Ultimately, these projects will advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, which enables the United States to leverage all available tools to reduce methane emissions while protecting public health, promoting U.S. innovation in new technologies, lowering energy costs for families by reducing inefficiency and waste, and supporting good-paying jobs for thousands of skilled workers across the country.

Increased Engagement with the Public

PHMSA is committed to enhancing all stakeholder engagement and has increased the number of public meetings and information briefings it hosts—holding three public meetings and information briefings in 2023, as well as the week-long November GPAC meeting that was open to public participation. Personally, I have visited community members and victims, on-site, where pipeline facilities have failed (e.g., Marshall, MI; Bellingham, WA; Satartia, MS; and Freeport, TX).

PHMSA has also increased its engagement with public interest groups like the Pipeline Safety Trust, pipeline worker labor unions, and environmental groups, as well as relevant trade associations actively participating in conferences and meetings to hold a two-way dialogue on important pipeline safety issues, emphasizing that pipeline safety is a shared responsibility.

In 2022, PHMSA partnered with the DOE in a series of Community Engagement Workshops on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage and continues to serve as a resource regarding pipelines to DOE and the public. PHMSA has also supported requests from individuals and groups to participate in meetings to discuss CO2 pipeline projects, to listen to concerns on safety, environmental justice, environmental impacts, and emergency response preparedness, as well as met with representatives at the state legislature level to inform our oversight and safety efforts.

In 2023, PHMSA’s Community Liaisons participated in nearly 195 public meetings, events, and conferences to educate our stakeholders on pipeline safety and damage prevention initiatives and to address questions about the Federal pipeline safety regulations or concerns about pipeline- related matters. Of the 195 event, 56 events were held in disadvantaged and underserved communities and 16 were engagements with individual landowners and local community representatives. PHMSA continues to promote the ‘Call 811 Program’ through participation in events as well as through social media and digital campaigns encouraging safe digging practices.

Efficiencies in Oversight, Taxpayer Stewardship, and Focus on Employees

Over the last five years, liquid pipeline incidents have fallen by 21% while pipeline mileage and barrels delivered have increased by more than 27%. Additionally, from 2020 to 2022, the number of PHMSA safety regulated miles for gas distribution, gas transmission, hazardous

liquids, and carbon dioxide pipeline systems increased by 36,000 miles, and a much larger number of gas gathering lines are newly regulated. As previously noted, and to put it simply, our oversight responsibilities continue to grow both in terms of the types of facilities we regulate as well as the number of facilities we regulate. PHMSA has increasing responsibility for LNG facilities, underground natural gas storage, as well as natural gas gathering lines. PHMSA’s budget, excluding the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s gas distribution grant program, does not grow at a rate commensurate with its responsibilities. Consequently, PHMSA has had to continuously operate relatively leaner as compared to our expanded universe of regulated facilities. To this end, PHMSA has utilized advisory bulletins, public meetings, research solicitations, and increased collaboration with co-regulators such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, the U.S. Coast Guard, and our state partners through collaboration with the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives to meet the increasing regulatory demands.

Although PHMSA is facing fierce hiring competition from the private sector and other Federal agencies (e.g., FERC, NTSB) who are also competing with the same limited talent pools, hiring times at PHMSA have been reduced by 25 percent. PHMSA continues to explore ways to continue to improve the agency’s hiring and recruitment to make it both more efficient and effective in recruiting and retaining talented applicants. PHMSA has hired a new HR Director, and the team is fully utilizing all approved recruitment and retention incentives and all other hiring flexibilities which has allowed PHMSA to increase hiring and we’ll continue to do so in 2024. Specifically, special salary rates were approved in 2023 and PHMSA continues to implement programs to take advantage of all available hiring flexibilities.

We are grateful for the congressional authorities given in the PIPES Act of 2020 to improve efforts to attract and retain a talented pool of professionals. As noted, PHMSA has undertaken new recruitment and retention efforts—in coordination with the Office of Personnel Management—including, developing new tuition reimbursement efforts and utilizing new online recruitment methods. PHMSA is also utilizing the Department of Defense’s Operation Warfighter (OWF) program that matches qualified wounded, ill, and injured service members with federal internships for veterans to gain valuable work experience during their recovery and rehabilitation—and create a pathway from the military to permanent employment. PHMSA has kept up with the PIPES Act of 2020 hiring mandates—both for inspectors as well as for regulatory personnel, that have helped lead the agency to some of its most productive years ever in terms of both finalizing regulations as well as enforcement actions and a reduction trend in hazardous materials and pipeline incidents.

PHMSA has also utilized technologies like iPads and inspection recording applications to eliminate paperwork for inspectors—which has resulted in more efficient use of inspectors’ time and increased the accuracy and standardization of inspections. Furthermore, on an agency-wide basis, PHMSA has reduced or eliminated its use of nearly two dozen disparate software systems in favor of less costly, integrated systems. PHMSA is utilizing the cost savings of this nature to continue investing in more long-term, cost-saving programs.

Looking Forward: Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2023

PHMSA is aware of congressional efforts to complete a reauthorization of its pipeline safety program. PHMSA has followed with interest of the efforts of both the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, particularly the Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2023.

As has been mentioned several times throughout this testimony, the anticipated expansion of pipeline infrastructure to transport CO2 has made PHMSA’s update of current CO2 pipeline regulations a top priority for the agency. PHMSA anticipates issuing a Carbon Dioxide and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety NPRM early this year. The proposed rule aims to cover operational and maintenance safety issues relevant to all phases (e.g., supercritical, gaseous, etc.) of CO2 transportation via pipeline—and to address each of the issues identified by PHMSA in its investigation and enforcement activities involving the 2020 pipeline failure in Satartia, MS.

A topic of congressional interest during the March 8, 2023, House T&I subcommittee hearing titled “Pipeline Safety: Reviewing Implementation of the PIPES Act of 2020 and Examining Future Safety Needs,” was implementation of the Pipeline Safety Enhancement Program (PSEP) authorized by the PIPES Act of 2020. The program directed PHMSA to evaluate innovative technologies and operational practices that may provide more robust protection of public safety and the environment than the existing Federal PSRs. The PSEP was authorized through December 2023; however, there were no applicants for the programs. At the T&I subcommittee hearing, industry representatives testified that the application requirements were so stringent that they were disincentivized from applying. While PHMSA followed congressional direction in the PIPES Act of 2020 in utilizing the review process of the existing special permit (waiver) program, I testified in March 2023 that PHMSA was amenable to working with interested operators to alleviate some of the application requirements while ensuring that an equivalent level of public and environmental safety was being maintained by any new technologies or operational practices being implemented on in-service, or active, pipelines.

Finally, another provision of the draft Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2023 is the implementation of a voluntary information-sharing system (VIS) comprised of PHMSA, other federal and state agencies, the regulated industry (i.e., pipeline and facility owners and operators), and general public safety or environmental advocacy organizations. The VIS concept is one that is used successfully in other industries, particularly in the aviation field. PHMSA has worked for years on developing a VIS concept for the pipeline sector since the initial congressional mandate in the PIPES Act of 2016 to study the feasibility of such a system. PHMSA looks forward to Congress’ guidance on implementing a program that seeks to encourage collaborative efforts to improve information sharing with the purpose of improving gas transmission, hazardous liquid, and carbon dioxide pipeline facility integrity and safety.

Conclusion: Continued Exceptional American Leadership in Pipeline Safety

In closing, I would like to thank you again for the opportunity to engage with you on the critical issues facing PHMSA and, in turn, facing a major component of the largest, most sophisticated energy transportation system in the world. Each of the areas I outlined above are areas in which

the rest of the world looks to America for leadership: leadership in the marketplace of products for which we are the most efficient in the world; leadership for establishing safety rules—that countries around the world have told me they often adopt “in whole” —to improve their own pipeline safety and environmental protection and harm mitigation; leadership in the rule of law when it comes to disputes and compliance; leadership in research, innovation, and new technologies to improve safety and environmental performance that are sold domestically and exported around the world; leadership in transparency and engagement with affected communities, which other countries also look to as a new standard; and leadership in efficiencies, for all the work that we do.

This work is the result of our collaboration with the committees that authorize our agency and fund our agency but the kudos for all of the achievement of our agency go to the more than 600 full-time federal employees and nearly 200 contractors that make up what I believe is the most unsung agency in the Federal Government.

Congress has charged us with tremendous responsibilities—from ensuring the safe transportation of some of the most valuable goods that move in commerce, like satellites and spacecraft, as well as some of the most essential goods like fertilizer used on our farms, which can be transported by pipeline. As we take on ever greater oversight responsibilities with oversight of the build-out of carbon dioxide and hydrogen pipelines and other energy products of the future, PHMSA must either continue to grow our resources, or continue to reassess multiple and increasing priorities with the same amount of resources.

We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to improve pipeline and hazardous materials safety and to reduce associated environmental impacts.

Thank you again for inviting me here today. I look forward to your questions.

Oversight and Examination of Railroad Grade Crossing Elimination and Safety

Written Statement of Amit Bose, Administrator
Federal Railroad Administration

U.S. Department of Transportation
Before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

U.S. House of Representatives
“Oversight and Examination of Railroad Grade
Crossing Elimination and Safety”

January 18, 2024

Chairman Graves, Ranking Member Larsen, Chairman Nehls, Ranking Member Payne, and members of the subcommittee – thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your support for improving safety at highway-rail grade crossings.

Safety is core to the mission of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). We accomplish that mission with the work of our safety professionals, partnerships with stakeholders, and investments in projects.

Safety professionals cover every discipline of railroad operations and represent a majority of FRA’s workforce. For example, across the United States, FRA grade crossing safety inspectors inspect grade crossings; perform critical outreach work to educate the public; and work with railroads, state departments of transportation, and communities to ensure compliance with FRA safety regulations. As part of its commitment to safety, FRA has nearly doubled its Grade Crossing and Trespasser Outreach Division to 48 staff in the past two years.

FRA partners with railroads, States, and local government to promote grade crossing safety. That work is data driven. For example, when communities in Birmingham, AL; Hammond, IN; and Houston, TX reported high numbers of blocked crossings to FRA’s Public Blocked Crossing Incident Reporter, FRA engaged with those cities to show that a combination of technology, changes to railroad operations, and public outreach to pedestrians and drivers can reduce the impacts of blocked crossings. FRA ensures that railroads comply with safety regulations, enforce their own operating rules, and take seriously their responsibility to local communities. In addition, FRA partners with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and others to ensure the safety of people and goods at our Nation’s highway-rail grade crossings.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) presents an historic opportunity for the Biden-Harris Administration to invest in rail safety and mobility projects to better the lives of Americans who live near or travel along America’s rail lines. Congress demonstrated its commitment to grade crossing safety and bolstering our nation’s rail network when it passed the BIL, creating several new rail investment programs and reauthorizing others. In particular, the Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) Grant Program provides funding to enhance the health and safety of communities, eliminate highway-rail and pathway-rail grade crossings that are frequently blocked by trains, reduce the impacts that freight movement and railroad operations may have on communities, and improve the mobility of people and goods. Additionally, highway-rail crossing improvement projects are eligible for funding under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Grant Program.

This funding answers a real need. In 2022, there were more than 2,200 highway-rail crossing collisions in the United States. FRA received 30,749 blocked crossing reports submitted to FRA’s public complaint portal identifying 22,473 blocked highway-rail grade crossing events. In 2022, the top 5 states by number of blocked crossing reports submitted were in order: Texas with 6,508 (21%), Ohio 3,575 (12%); Illinois 2,952 (10%); Indiana 2,533 (8%); and Tennessee 1,483 (5%).

Unsurprisingly, the BIL rail programs to date have received widespread demand. For example, FRA released the first RCE Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in June 2022, and it was oversubscribed more than 4 to 1, with 153 eligible applications submitted from 41 States, requesting more than $2.3 billion in funds. FRA has invested in regionally focused outreach teams to provide grant-related technical assistance to potential applicants to help meet this demand efficiently when we make available future BIL funds provided under Advance Appropriations and funded under the annual authorization amounts.

In June 2023, FRA announced the first selections under the RCE Grant Program with 63 projects in 32 States receiving more than $570 million. These awards address more than 400 at-grade crossings nationwide, improve safety, eliminate grade crossings through grade separations and closures, improve existing at-grade crossings, and enhance mobility of people and goods, benefiting railroads and communities.

For example, FRA awarded the West Belt Improvement Project in the City of Houston. Houston’s East End is one of many communities across the country that FRA has worked closely with to address grade crossing safety. I personally visited Houston in August 2022 to launch a focused grade crossing inspection and returned six months later to share the outcomes. FRA, Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and the City of Houston partnered to identify crossings, for which the railroads issued strict orders to avoid blocking, resulting in nearly a 40% reduction in reports of blocked crossings in Houston. In June 2023, I announced the award of an RCE grant to the City of Houston to construct four underpasses and close four at-grade crossings to eliminate seven existing at-grade crossings.

Other cities are pursuing comprehensive grade crossing safety efforts. The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program serves as an example of a public-private partnership in Chicago; it includes 25 new roadway overpasses or underpasses and six new rail overpasses or underpasses. Additionally, FRA and the U.S. Department of Transportation have awarded nearly $45 million in Florida to Brightline Trains, LLC; Florida Department of Transportation; Broward MPO; and cities along the route for projects specifically related to trespassers and grade crossing safety.

The dedicated funding of the RCE Grant Program and the other programs under the BIL is one of many ways President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will make a difference in people’s daily lives by improving safety and convenience and creating good-paying jobs to rebuild our Nation’s infrastructure.

Thank you again for having me here today and for your continued support. I look forward to answering your questions.

Oversight of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Modal Perspectives

U.S. House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways & Transit
“Oversight of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Modal Perspectives”

Testimony of FTA Administrator Nuria I. Fernandez

Wednesday, December 13, 2023, 10:00 AM

Good morning, Chairman Crawford and Ranking Member Holmes Norton. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Federal Transit Administration has been hard at work delivering the first two years of the largest investment in public transportation in American history, making available nearly $40 billion to transit operators in communities nationwide.

That is on top of our continued administration of critical emergency relief funds; all told, we have invested more than $63 billion in almost 9,000 projects since November of 2021. And our work is far from done.

In Arkansas, thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Jonesboro received nearly $2,000,000 to transition to hybrid diesel-electric buses.

For the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, a $600,000 Tribal Transit grant means more reliable trips on a new bus and van, expanding transit across a 4,200-square-mile reservation.

Trains, buses, ferries – and equipment to maintain and modernize them – are being Made in America at over a thousand companies nationwide.

FTA’s Capital Investment Grants program also continues building community-improving projects: from $240 million in Minneapolis-St. Paul to expand a successful transit network into historically-underserved communities, to $150 million in Pittsburgh, building high-capacity bus transit along one of the busiest corridors in the Steel City. Both will reduce traffic and emissions – and help thousands get to jobs, school and healthcare.

FTA is carefully following transit ridership trends nationwide. In the past two years, ridership has increased to about 77% of pre-COVID levels. As agencies better understand community needs, and adjust service to meet those needs, some agencies are actually seeing ridership above pre-pandemic levels.

Agencies large and small have redesigned bus routes, creating better service outside of traditional hours, providing equity of opportunity. To help that process, FTA funded 50 projects in 24 states to plan and adapt to these new patterns.

Communities, including some of our largest cities, do face fiscal challenges in transit operations. However, providing transportation for the people of our nation is not a responsibility we can simply decline. So, President Biden proposed expanded flexibility in how Federal transit funds can keep America moving.

In the minds of some, transit is important only in those big cities. Yes, urban areas are using increased transit investment to enhance regional economies. However, transit provides more than economic value to communities in urban, rural, and suburban communities across the country, and it also shows a moral commitment to leaving no American behind.

For every subway commuter, a veteran rides a paratransit van to a medical appointment at the VA hospital. For every college student heading to class, a small-town worker rides to job training – both take the bus toward a successful future. For every Millennial riding transit to his first job in the big city, a rural Baby Boomer has the freedom transit provides to grow old in her hometown.

In Mississippi, FTA funded transit covering 26 rural counties. A woman in Jackson told me about her husband, who was in the hospital. She had a doctor’s appointment, and he normally drove her. So, for the first time, she used on-demand transit. Her house is on a dirt road that doesn’t even have a name. The transit driver picked her up, took her to her doctor, and returned her home. She said she never thought she would be one of “those people” who needed the services we support.

Like millions of riders, she discovered transit when she needed it the most.

Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, many people are experiencing more freedom thanks to more service. We still have work to do. Decades of underinvestment created a $105 billion backlog in state of good repair that we are addressing.

Manufacturing transit vehicles must become more efficient and less expensive. Transitioning to a zero-emission future requires reskilling and increasing the transit workforce, centering equity to ensure that underrepresented populations are recruited, trained, and retained. FTA is working to meet those challenges, including through 34 projects using registered apprenticeships to train the workforce of the future in this year’s Low-No program alone.

We are also working to end assault against transit workers with every tool at our disposal. It is unacceptable to Secretary Buttigieg, and me, that any public servant should worry about whether they will return home safely from work. Among other measures, we will soon issue a General Directive on Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers to make sure agencies are acting to address this issue as soon as possible.

We know that for every dollar invested in American transit, five dollars of value is created. But, the impact of transit is shown not only on bottom lines. It is measured at the bottom step, when riders exit through open doors, into a wider world of opportunity.

Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, that world is closer than ever, as we build more American vehicles, train more American workers, and connect more Americans with their communities and the opportunities they offer.

I look forward to your questions today.

Thank you.

IIJA Investments in Habitat and Ecosystem Restoration, Pollinators, and Wildlife Crossings

Testimony of Brian Fouch
Associate Administrator,

Office of Federal Lands Highway
Federal Highway Administration,
U.S. Department of Transportation

Before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

December 6, 2023

Chairman Carper, Ranking Member Capito, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s investments in ecosystem restoration, pollinator-friendly roadside practices, and wildlife crossings. I am pleased to be here today with Director Williams.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law represents a once-in-a-generation investment in our Nation’s infrastructure, competitiveness, communities, and resilience to climate change. This historic legislation includes the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, a first-of-its-kind pilot program to make roads safer, prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions, and improve habitat connectivity. The program represents an unprecedented effort to make roads safer in local and rural communities while protecting wildlife as it creates a dedicated source of funding for wildlife crossing projects, which traditionally have had to compete with other infrastructure priorities for funding. At the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), we recognize the importance of wildlife crossings projects. Earlier this year, Secretary Buttigieg visited a wildlife crossing in New Mexico, where he announced details for the new Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. Earlier this week, FHWA was pleased to announce award selections for the first round of funding under this program—announcing $110 million in grants for 19 wildlife crossing projects in 17 States, including four Indian Tribes. FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt was in Arizona yesterday to announce the award of $24 million to the Arizona Department of Transportation for the Interstate 17 Munds Park to Kelly Canyon Wildlife Overpass Project. The project will reduce wildlife vehicle collisions along I-17 while increasing habitat connectivity for local species, particularly the elk. The Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program is a safety-focused program, with the goals of protecting motorists and wildlife by reducing the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions and, in carrying out that purpose, improving habitat connectivity for terrestrial and aquatic species.

SAFETY

Safety is FHWA’s number-one priority and FHWA is committed to achieving the Department’s goal of zero roadway deaths and serious injuries through the Safe System Approach as outlined in the National Roadway Safety Strategy. Each year in the United States, approximately 200 people are killed – and many more are injured – in more than one million collisions involving wildlife and vehicles. By reducing these collisions, the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program will improve the safety of our Nation’s roadways while protecting wildlife. Through this program, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides resources to address this important safety issue, making a total of $350 million available over five years. This investment will help make roads safer by preventing dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions that can result in injury or death to drivers and passengers and harm or mortality to animals. The projects funded by the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program will improve the overall safety of the traveling public and reduce the economic drain caused by wildlife-vehicle collisions (such as loss of income, medical costs, property damage, and decline in productivity and quality of life), while simultaneously supporting species survival and improving habitat connectivity.

HABITAT CONNECTIVITY

In addition to improving safety for motorists and wildlife, the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program aims to improve habitat connectivity for terrestrial and aquatic species. Roadways that cross wildlife habitats create a barrier for animals and, if they try to cross the roadways, can result in wildlife-vehicle collisions. The grant funding provided through the program will promote more wildlife crossings that are built both over and under roadways, providing more options for animals to cross busy roads without coming into conflict with traffic.

IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS

The FHWA is working tirelessly to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law so that we can deliver on the promise of this historic investment. Among the many Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs we have stood up in the past two years, FHWA is implementing the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program and improving wildlife crossing safety. In April 2023, the FHWA issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) making up to $111.85 million from Fiscal Year 2022 and 2023 funding available for this program. The Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program provides funding for construction and non-construction projects. All projects should seek to protect motorists and wildlife by reducing the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity for terrestrial and aquatic species. Eligible entities for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program include: State Departments of Transportation, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, units of local government, regional transportation authorities, special purpose districts or public authorities with a transportation function, Indian tribes, Federal Land Management Agencies, and a group of any of these entities.

In response to the first year NOFO, FHWA received 67 applications from applicants in 34 States requesting $549 million in Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program funds. This represents nearly five times the amount available in the first NOFO, and over one and a half times the amount available for the program over the life of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, demonstrating the overwhelming demand for funding of this nature. Yesterday, FHWA announced award selections for this first round of funding. Future NOFOs will provide funding for Fiscal Years 2024, 2025, and 2026. FHWA is incorporating feedback from Tribes and other participants in the development of the next NOFO, for Fiscal Year 2024, with the goal of issuing that NOFO as expeditiously as possible.

As required by statute, Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program projects will be administered by State Departments of Transportation, and by FHWA’s Office of Federal Lands Highway for Tribes and Federal Land Management Agencies. FHWA has a long history of supporting these stakeholders with project delivery through our Federal-aid Division Offices and Federal Lands Highway Division Offices. This experience makes FHWA well-positioned to administer this important program and FHWA looks forward to supporting recipients.

In addition to the new Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, wildlife crossings are eligible under several Federal highway programs, including the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) Program, Highway Safety Improvement Program, Federal Lands Transportation Program, Federal Lands Access Program, and Tribal Transportation Program, and FHWA has looked for opportunities to highlight these eligibilities, including specifically mentioning eligibility for wildlife crossing structures in the STBG program guidance.

Currently, the Office of Federal Lands Highway is delivering a dedicated wildlife overpass project in Idaho for the Idaho Transportation Department, using Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP) funds. FHWA’s Wyoming Division is supporting a wildlife crossings project for which the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant.

WORKING WITH STAKEHOLDERS

The FHWA has a longstanding practice of engaging with stakeholders across the country, and we have placed an even greater emphasis on these efforts since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. FHWA developed the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program NOFO after considering input from wildlife conservation groups, foundations, Tribal governments, and other relevant Federal, State, and local stakeholders. FHWA has worked closely and collaboratively with the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to tap its ecological and transportation expertise on wildlife needs and data collection. In the spirit of President Biden’s whole-of-government approach, we have mapped an approach where FHWA can, and will continue to, leverage the Service’s extensive knowledge on habitat connectivity and conservation while also ensuring the integrity of the competitive grant process, considering the Service is an eligible applicant.

FHWA is also working with these stakeholders to develop guidance, metrics, and best practices regarding wildlife crossings and habitat connectivity as required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. FHWA is committed to continuing its robust consultation with the transportation and wildlife conservation community to maximize the impact of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program and other activities established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

To allow for a better understanding of the program, FHWA hosted two informational webinars for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program NOFO providing information to assist applicants interested in applying—a public webinar and a webinar specifically for Tribes. In addition to standing up the new Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, FHWA has been working to make stakeholders aware of eligibility for wildlife crossings under other programs. FHWA will continue its focus on stakeholder engagement as we implement this program.

POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY PRACTICES ON ROADSIDES AND HIGHWAY RIGHTS- OF-WAY

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also established the Pollinator-Friendly Practices on Roadsides and Highway Rights-of-Way program, to provide grants to eligible entities for activities to benefit pollinators on roadsides and highway right-of-way, including the planting and seeding of native, locally-appropriate grasses and wildflowers. Congress provided funding for this new program in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. FHWA is working to implement this program as expeditiously as possible.

CONCLUSION

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

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