I welcome in Panel I the Honorable Thomas Carper, Governor of Delaware on behalf of the National Governor's Association; Mr. Charles Thompson, Secretary of Wisconsin's Department of Transportation and Chairman of the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials' (AASHTO) Standing Committee on the Environment; The Honorable Brian Mills, Commissioner of Cass County, Missouri and Chairman of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Mr. Jerry Alb, Director of Environmental Services, Washington State Department of Transportation.
In Panel II, I would also like to welcome, Mr. Tim Stowe, Chairman of the American Consulting Engineers Council; Mr. Roy Kienitz, Executive Director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project; Mr. Brian Holmes, Executive Secretary for the Connecticut Road Builders Association and member of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association; and finally Mr. Mitch Leslie, President of the Montana Contractors' Association on behalf of the Associated General Contractors.
Over the years as a local and state official, I received complaints regarding the amount of time it took to undertake and complete large construction projects. As the years went on, it got worse. Part of my response to my constituents was to inform them that federally-required environmental considerations and regulations accounted for exhaustive review throughout the construction process. Frankly, that didn't give them a lot of comfort. Anyone in this room who has had to sit in traffic day after day because of construction can appreciate the general lack of sympathy for the reasons why a project takes so long. They just want it done.
To be sure, environmental review is good public policy. Wetland impact, historical and archaeological evaluation, testing for hazardous substances, etc. must all be given proper review prior to our moving forward on highway or bridge construction projects. Nevertheless, I believe that there are more efficient ways to ensure adequate and timely delivery of these types of construction projects, while still carefully assessing environmental concerns.
With my background as Governor, I bring a unique perspective on this issue. I witnessed first-hand the frustration of many of the various state agencies because they were required to complete a myriad of federally-required tasks on whatever project they initiated. Congress, too, recognized this frustration, prompting several of our Senate colleagues -- members of this Committee I might add -- to come up with a program to initiate environmental streamlining provisions in TEA-2 1 that they felt would improve the situation and achieve quicker project delivery.
This new program is embodied in Section 1309 of TEA-21. As my colleagues know, Section 1309 of TEA-2 1 calls for the establishment of a coordinated review process for the Department of Transportation to work with other Federal agencies to ensure that transportation projects are advanced according to cooperatively determined time-frames. This is accomplished by using concurrent rather than sequential reviews, and allowing States to include State-specific environmental reviews in the coordinated process.
With the passage of TEA-2 1 approaching its one year anniversary, I believe it is important to hear from our customers in regard to their observations on whether the that the Administration has listened to the will of Congress under Section 1309 and to get their insight on improving environmental streamlining as was intended in Section 1309.
On May 20th, we will be holding another Subcommittee hearing to ascertain the Administration's implementation plans with respect to Section 1309. The Administration will present the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) guidance paper titled,
"TEA-21 Planning and Environmental Provisions: Options for Discussion" as it relates to Section 1309. Many of today's witnesses have already commented on this guidance paper and will do so again this morning. Therefore, it is my wish - and I'm giving plenty of notice - that the Administration react to the comments and testimony of today's witnesses in time for the May 20th hearing.
If you look at the chart behind me, it is obvious we have a formidable task. In Ohio they have called the process, "So you Want a Highway? Here's the Eight Year Hitch." In Wisconsin they have called the process, "A Long & Winding Road."
My hope is that as a result of these hearings, we can measurably improve the process of environmental review as envisioned in Section 1309 and shorten the time it takes to bring a project to completion. It would be nice if 2 or 3 years from now we could say "So you Want a Highway? Here's the 5 year Hitch."
Thank you.