I couldn’t help but notice there was the news out of one of these City Club affairs last week about a certain baseball team on the North Side that might move if they can’t get the improvements they want at their home ballpark.  I’ll try to top that today by announcing that when I get back to Washington later today, I will be immediately introducing legislation to force the Cubs to move to the Third District.  It be great to have both clubs in the district.  I am going to give Tom Ricketts two choices, either Archer and Pulaski, where Miami Bowl used to be, right next to the Orange Line, or 65th and Central in Bedford Park.  As a crazy Cubs fan, I am going to insist that Wrigley Field be brought brick-by-brick to the South Side.  

 

Seriously, I won’t be talking about electronic scoreboards today or announcing my run for governor.  I’ll save that for next time.  I would like to take a few moments to talk about transportation – so in a sense the topic still will be about moving. 

 

I’m now in my fifth term in Congress and sit as the state’s senior member on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.  It’s a position I am honored to hold.  I take great pride in doing what I can in Washington to not only help my district, but all of northeast Illinois on the transportation front.   

 

We sometimes forget just how lucky we are here. As a region, we are blessed to be the transportation hub of our nation. 

 

What would Chicago be without its transportation system? 

 

I am tempted to say Detroit, but that comparison hasn’t gone over well lately.  And, in fact it’s not true.  But we must make sure we remain that hub, so we must continue updating and upgrading our infrastructure.

 

One of the more important transportation issues I have been working on in Congress that has had an underrated, but significant impact on our area is CREATE.  My father, Bill Lipinski, can rightfully claim to be the father of CREATE.  So I have always considered CREATE my brother.  

 

Most of you have probably heard of CREATE and some of you know it very well.   So today I wanted to start by giving you an update on how CREATE is progressing and give you an assessment of where it is going.  

 

In 2005 I worked to secure the first $100 million of seed money for the program through SAFETEA-LU, the last real long-term highway and transit funding bill Congress passed. CREATE came together as a public-private partnership of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, Metra, Amtrak, and the nation’s freight railroads.  I cannot overstate how historic this partnership has been.  The region has been North America’s freight hub since the 19th Century.  But some of the infrastructure had not been updated about that time, partially on account of a strategic lack of cooperation among the railroads.  This meant that while it took two days to get freight from a west coast port to our region, it took two more days just to get it through here.  

 

Of the 70 projects identified in CREATE, 17 are complete. The total program, when it is said and done, is now estimated to cost $3.2 billion.  There has been about $1.2 billion in funding committed to date on those 70 projects, with the federal government providing about $450 million of that amount – the initial $100 million, $126 million through the High-Speed Rail Program, $110 million in federal TIGER grants, and $112 million from federal formula dollars and rail line relocation funds. The State of Illinois has contributed more than $400 million.  The railroads have committed in the low $200s million and have discussed committing more.  The City of Chicago has invested $15 million in CREATE so far. 

 

So it has been a successful team effort.  Up to this point, CREATE’s greatest emphasis has been on improving strategic freight corridors.  All of the rail corridor projects under CREATE have been completed or now have funding committed to them.  

 

But there is one set of projects that is lagging behind.   CREATE’s most lasting legacies from the point of view of everyone who drives on the region’s roads are the grade separations, that is, underpasses and overpasses for roads that intersect rail lines.  These will provide direct, observable benefits, from the trucks arriving on time to make deliveries to local businesses, to firefighters and paramedics not having to worry about blocked crossings when responding to emergencies, to the few extra hours working Moms and Dads get each year because won’t be stuck by a train on the commute home.  I hear more about these projects than any other issue in my district.  But they also are some of the most expensive parts of CREATE, each one costing roughly $50 million or more. 

 

Of the 25 grade separation projects in CREATE, just two of them are completed [– at Grand Avenue in Franklin Park and Belmont Road in Downers Grove].  Four are under construction, but the remaining 19 are inching through the planning process and only one of those has the funding to get through construction.  Twelve have no funding whatsoever.  This must be addressed moving forward, and I will do so with all the stakeholders involved.

 

But the biggest question for CREATE, and for all our transportation projects right now is, HOW ARE WE GOING TO MOVE FORWARD WITH MAKING THE INVESTMENTS OUR NATION NEEDS TO MAKE?  

 

The most important group in Washington focusing on that question now is the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation.  Of the 11 members named to this panel two weeks ago – 6 Republicans and 5 Democrats – I am the only member from the Midwest. 

 

Over the next six months, we will be developing a list of recommendations that we can present to the full committee for improving the movement of freight in our nation.  This is the first time the Transportation Committee has formed a special panel, and I give Chairman Bill Shuster a lot of credit for bringing this idea to the committee.  We have subcommittees that are siloed in their jurisdiction, one for roads and transit, one for rail, another for aviation, and two more that oversee ports and inland waterways.  I believe it is critical for us to adopt a big picture approach and review the challenges across the multiple modes of transportation.  Just one shipment of freight may be moved by two, three, or more modes.  It is easy to see this in a very impressive way down in Will County near Joliet where two rail/truck intermodal terminals make up the largest master-planned inland port in North America. 

 

But there is more to the movement of freight in the region besides roads and rails.  When it comes to moving air freight, O’Hare Airport and, in my district, Midway Airport represent the nation’s second busiest gateway for international air cargo in terms of value, representing 12 percent of the value of all international air cargo in the United States.  And as someone who grew up less than a mile from Midway, I can tell you how important Midway is to the Southwest Side.  That’s why I’ve been fighting to keep the Midway tower open overnight in the face of FAA staffing cuts of air traffic controllers. 

 

Last year, Congress passed the FAA Reform and Modernization Act of 2013 after 23 temporary extensions. The legislation invests $63 billion in our nation’s aviation system through the 2015 fiscal year and provides much needed certainty for airport construction projects.  Equally as important, the bill works to advance the transition from ground-based radar navigation to satellite-based navigation, NextGen, which will significantly increase efficiency and reduce noise and emissions at air hubs like O’Hare and Midway.  On the Aviation Subcommittee I have been pushing to keep that on track from the government side as well as by working to get the needed equipment on airplanes.  

 

We also have our inland waterway system.  Last fall I toured the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and visited with the operators and employees on the barges.  Most people in the region would be amazed at the contributions they make to the economy and how many businesses rely on them.  But many locks and dams around the country are as much as 80 years old.  The vast majority of these locks are operating well beyond their intended lifespan and experiencing an alarming increase in scheduled and emergency closures as a result.  We need to invest in them, but we first need to prioritize which projects need to be done first.  This spring, I introduced bipartisan legislation to enact a long-term, comprehensive inland waterway system modernization plan.  I am hopeful that we will be able to get important pieces of this legislation added to the Water Resources Development Act – a.k.a WRDA – re-authorization which the Senate is about to take up and the House Transportation Committee is scheduled to consider this spring.  While the work of the Freight Panel will not be done when we initially take up this bill, the way things move in Washington, I believe that WRDA is likely the first major piece of legislation that could be impacted by the panel’s work.  

 

The biggest piece of legislation that the Freight Panel will influence is the successor to MAP-21, the current federal highway and transit policy and funding bill that was passed last summer.  When the Panel completes its recommendations in October of this year, we will be less than one year from the day that MAP-21 expires; the timing will be perfect as we start work on the re-authorization.  

Passage of MAP-21 last year was a mixed blessing.  After three years of short-term extensions of the last bill, MAP-21 did give state transportation planners some predictability and certainty needed for moving beyond short-term projects. 

 

But it was far from perfect and was completed after a very difficult process.  Early on, I had to fight against a House bill that would have hurt our region.  For example, I joined with local colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help defeat a misguided Republican proposal that would have put $450 million for the CTA, Metra, and Pace at risk by ending guaranteed funding for mass transit. 

And while MAP-21 preserved the Projects of National and Regional Significance program, it did nothing to fund it.  In fact, on the day the House passed MAP-21, we passed an appropriations bill that failed to spend any money for the program.  This “mega-project” program is designed to give large chunks of money to projects that are very big in cost – which made it the source of the first $100 million for CREATE.  If we can get it re-authorized AND funded it could provide future funding for other large and important projects in the region besides CREATE, such as the Illiana Expressway, O’Hare Western Access, and in my district the Central Avenue Bypass.  We have been able to get by funding bigger projects with stopgap spending through the TIGER program, but we clearly need to have a sustained source of funding through the Highway Trust Fund to make sure these large, important projects get done. 

 

But the biggest problem with MAP-21 was its failure to address a long-term solution to the decline in the highway trust fund.  The federal gas tax is no longer providing enough money to keep spending at a constant level.  The sooner that serious discussions about funding start, the better.  We have to put all options on the table right now for providing the funds needed for transportation investment.  I have some hope from the fact that a number of states have started to take a lead.  For example, Michigan is debating raising fees on vehicle registrations, Pennsylvania has considered raising the gas tax on wholesalers, and Wisconsin has explored raising more money for transportation by adopting a vehicle registration fee based on miles driven per year.  Virginia eliminated its gas tax and replaced it with a broader sales tax; not what I’d like to see, but a Republican governor saw fit to raise taxes to fund transportation.

 

Right now, one proposal that Rep. Peter DeFazio is promoting is to index the gas tax, which is 18.4 cents and hasn’t been raised for 20 years.  If we index the gas tax to the consumer price index it would bring in about $50 billion over 10 years, and if we tie it to the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Cost Construction Index it would yield $150 billion over the same period.  The resulting revenue could then be used to back the issuance bonds that would be paid off in 10 years.  We have never done this at the federal level but we need to think differently to find a solution that works politically.  I also believe that we need to be more open to public-private partnerships, but they are not going to substitute for public spending.  

 

The bottom line is that we need to raise more revenue; if we do not, no matter what anyone says about increasing our investment in transportation investment it will not happen.  

 

While many things in Washington haven’t changed this year, I have been impressed by the new Chairman of the Transportation Committee, Bill Shuster.  Bill is knowledgeable about the issues and he wants to get things done.  His father, Bud, served as Transportation Committee chairman in the ‘90s. We’ve already seen the good work that the sons of former members have done on that committee.  Now, for more than a year I had been telling Bill that when he becomes Chairman I want him to be like his father, who brought the committee together on a bipartisan basis and used the 75 votes on the committee to help get leadership to prioritize transportation issues.   

 

The committee got off to a good start this year with the first committee hearing bringing in business and labor to talk about the need for transportation infrastructure and raising the money for it.  So I do have hope for congressional transportation policy.  

 

While I have largely focused on freight movement, I want to briefly address one more issue regarding the movement of people.  Northeastern Illinois has great public transportation, but there are some areas that are underserved.  One is along Metra’s Heritage Corridor line that runs from Union Station, thru southwest Chicago, Willow Springs, Lemont, Romeoville, Lockport, and Joliet.

 

That’s why I’ve been working hard with many of the leaders who represent areas along the line to put pressure on CN – the owner of the line – to permit Metra to add service on the Heritage Corridor Line, which has just six trains each day, by far the smallest number of any Metra line.  Right now I am asking for just one additional train each way to serve a population that is already starved for commuter service and will see even higher demand as housing picks up.  Just last week, Pace announced that it would be running more shuttle buses along the Stevenson Expressway to help fill the mass transit gap in the southwest suburbs.  So far, CN has not been cooperative.  

 

I have been in talks with Metra Chairman Brad O’Halloran about Metra’s options including asking the Surface Transportation Board for mediation to resolve its differences with CN.  That is Metra’s first option, and there are more beyond that.  I am preparing to introduce legislation that would give commuter railroads more power to leverage freight railroads to allow greater access to their lines.  I know the freight railroads don’t like it and it is not the optimal way to solve this problem, but that’s how strongly I feel about these improvements on the Heritage Corridor Line and about the importance of public transportation in general.  We can never forget that we must find a proper balance in our transportation network between commuters and freight.    

 

As I mentioned earlier, our region has many strengths beyond transportation as we look to future economic development and jobs.   One is top-notch researchers, who hold the keys to economic growth in technologies we don’t even know exist yet.  We are hearing have heard more and more about efforts to make Chicago and the region a successful tech center, as we look to continue to move into the new economy.  As you all know, Mayor Emanuel has been a strong proponent of promoting the city of Chicago to high-tech employers.  I want to do in the last couple of minutes is to focus on how the research already going on here positions us to get there.  

 

We are not Silicon Valley and will likely not be in the foreseeable future. Neither are we, at this point, Boston. As Chair of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee of the Science, Space, & Technology Committee in the 111th Congress, I authored the most recent re-authorization bill for the National Science Foundation.  I have always been a strong advocate of making federal research investments pay off in the creation of new American jobs.  Our nation spends $133 billion a year for research, $61 billion if you don’t count defense research.  Not all research has a direct connection to jobs, and we need to continue to do basic research whose payoff cannot be seen.  

 

Our region has a great strength of hosting two of the best national labs and numerous top research universities.  While we have had some areas of success, especially with Northwestern and pharmaceutical research, I believe we can do much better.  But we can do a much better job at helping get research converted in new products and new jobs.  

 

How can the federal government help do that?  But bringing together national labs, universities, and private businesses to use the strengths of each to help solve vexing problems.  I am proud to have in my district Argonne, the country’s first national laboratory and one of the finest research facilities in the world.  I can tell you that after visiting Argonne twice in the last week, including once this morning, it is a very exciting time right now. 

 

Last November, Argonne was chosen to receive up to 120 million dollars over the next five years to develop an energy innovation hub devoted to developing new battery technology.  The goals are ambitious: Making battery storage capacity five times greater at a five-fold cost reduction within five years.  The research at Argonne is anticipated to reduce the cost of electric vehicles, making the stickers in the showroom more in line with their gas-powered competitors.  This project has the potential to create a Silicon Valley for battery research and manufacturing right in the Third District.  I certainly can see the communities surrounding Argonne getting a boost from new high-tech companies setting up shop so they can be as close to the action as possible.

 

I want to close by saying we have always been leaders and bold thinkers when it comes to transportation. We need to keep that spirit alive as we chart the future of our region. I embrace that challenge. I thank you for the opportunity today to share my vision and look forward to working with you to accomplish these goals.