>> we stand and we fight and we will win because we are united

the u.s. chamber of commerce hosted an infrastructure conference in washington, d.c. with members of congress, biden administration officials and state and local leaders to discuss legislation by the ten year and how it applied to workforce training, manufacturing and the electrical grid. the event began with keynote remarks by the acting labor secretary. this is about four hours.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the director at united infrastructure. good morning. how is everyone doing this morning. fantastic. i know the rain just started, so a perfect reason to get everyone started inside. i love seeing a room starting to get filled up with infrastructure nerds like myself. welcome to infrastructure week 2024. very exciting. i am supremely honored. many of you have been with us

just twota years ago it's fantastic leading this wonderful coalition of organizations and associations and private sector companies so many of you are here in this room with us today thank you for your support and dedication and for your work on this important mission. i know many of you are thinking what are we still doing here. why are we still doing this and why do you force us to come here year after year. my answer is you are forced to be here with us for many more years to come so just to get situated because this year we are not just continuing our mission of celebrating the successes of amplifying the project is continuing to beat the drum for federal investment andd infrastructure we are also acknowledging a very critical milestone the halfway point. the last two and a half years the infrastructure steering

committee and partnership coalition of families have been beating the drums, pounding the pavement to make sure everyone knows of these investments and now we get to do the critical work of paving the next steps making sure we get to that net federal investment so to the partnership networks from the infrastructure partners and of course hmt be thank you for your hard work and for showing the rest of the country with the private sector should be doing in this space and of course to the steering committee afl-cio the society of civil engineers and the business roundtable thank you for the incredible reception and the association of manufacturers and the league of cities the value of the water campaign and of the incredible t for today's event the u.s. chamber of commerce look at this room, so thank you all. i also want to thank the

sponsor. [applause] we have a truly incredible program celebrating the tens of thousands and every single state and territory that have been funded and what's even more as the celebration we have today to focus on the investments from the private sector into the nation's workforce giving more people opportunities to build these critical projects in the next generation and beyond so thank you all for working with us to get that going as well. we are going to go through today maybe you've seen the briefing here so i know you are all very busy people if you need to step out please do that and come right back and join us we've got a wonderful program. so let's get to it. we are thankful for our partners

for hosting us today. i know she's very sad not to be with us but she wants to give some acknowledgment so it's my honor to the chamber of commerce ms. suzanne clarke. thank you so much, everyone. >> welcome everyone to the u.s. chamber of commerce. we are delighted to host you all today to discuss how we can unleash the potential of the nation's historic infrastructure. this is about finishing the job we started. many of us spend years or even decades working to get a robust theastructure bill across finish line and while we should all celebrate that achievement the bipartisan infrastructure bill simply laid the foundation for increasing our nation's competitiveness to truly seize the opportunities before us we must create a policy environment that makes it easier for businesses to invest into to build a better future.

to do that we have to doo a better job of setting priorities as a nation and acting smart and strategic to make it possible for example there are billions of dollars of federal investments ready to go to the bridges and railways and broadband but america's outdated processes holding back progress, opportunity and economic growth. when it takes an average of seven and a half years to get a permit for a new bridge or road longer than to build any project that is simply not strategic. i want to talk about an infrastructure challengey that hits harder to home and it's more than a challenge, it's a tragedy. we've been working with a federation partner and the aftermath of the horrific collapse. think of what the team and the

people of baltimore are dealing with, families that have lost loved ones. .. of commerce and daily life. we cannot let that happen in baltimore or anywhere else in this country where a project badly needs to get done. last year, the chamber launched our permit america to build campaign, uniting more than 350 coalition partners, calling on congress to enact meaningful, durable permitting forms. not long after that as part of the debt limit deal last june, congress enacted the first meaningful update for the

national act that helped pave the way to get more shovels in the ground. there's plenty left to do and the clock is ticking. it may be hard to believe that funding for the law is nearing expiration and as the next congress reauthorizes that, the best way for this legislation is to be able to point to impact. that means making it easier to invest, permit and build with speed and efficiency, and it means creating more policy certainty around the host of priorities that impact our nation's ability to drive the growth, innovation and prosperity we're capable of. from the reauthorizing the bipartisan infrastructure bill to developing a clear and comprehensive energy policy that supports american energy production and the energy transition. addressing the worker shortage crisis, securing our borders and modernizing immigration and

a trade agenda and more. look, we have a lot of work ahead of us, but i'm optimistic. we've demonstrated what's possible when leaders in business, labor and all levels of government come together around a shared national priority. and today is the continuation of that effort. together we can turn promises into projects and push for long-term investments that help make our nation's infrastructure the envy of the world. thank you for your dedication and commitment and i look forward to continuing to partner with you in this effort. with that, brian jones president of the america and

united for infrastructure. mary ellen? (applause) >> please welcome to the stage the president and ceo for accelerator for america. >> good morning, everybody, what a beautiful room of infrastructure practitioners, stakeholders, advocates. it's great to be with you, and i'm the president and ceo of

acceleraor for america, we united to run the infrastructure with all of you. it was founded by former los angeles mayor eric garcetti in 2017 and we worked every day in our mission to help find and develop solutions that combat economic insecurity and share scale, replicate those solutions across our network of cities and leaders everywhere in this country. the core of our work has always been infrastructure because we know infrastructure helps connect neighborhoods and people to new opportunity. infrastructure is about our country's competitiveness and at its core, about good jobs. that's why i'm excited to be on the stage today to introduce our keynote speaker. since we both have california roots, let's talk about julie

su. she took the rains in march of last year and under his leadership, the department puts together the center of everything they do, those who have been underestimated. acting secretary julie su ensures that these individuals who have sometimes been forced to take on whatever work they can get. no matter the hours or the conditions or the mistreatment that they now have new opportunity through that infrastructure law to work on projects that provide a family supporting wage and offer dignity and growth opportunity. the acting secretary and i also share a first generation american story. my father and his family came to this country after world war ii having nothing, but the growths on their back and a suitcase full of a few things. but when my grandfather game here in 1949 and went to work, he got to go to a great factory job with a family supporting

wage and a pension. the acting secretary's family came here a couple of decades later and she was worn in this country just as i was, but maybe not the same opportunity. and she ultimately became her parents' most ferocious advocate and translated for them and helped to make sure that they got what they needed as a family and formed who she is and the work she does today to make sure that people have the dignity at work and get the benefit and pay for that work. early in her career, su combatted sweatshop conditions, and she focused on improving conditions for those working in the garment industry. it helped to earn a genius grant. a genius in our midst this morning. and working for two california governors, and for those of you who know accelerator, we love

governors and our mayors so we're particularly thrilled with the initiative that she's had with the national league of cities, good jobs, great cities, helping our city leaders form initiatives around this amazing opportunity and we have an infrastructure and in fact, we'll hear that later with one of our mayors from san antonio. secretary su understands the importance of partnership. none of this happens alone, this is a team sport that we work in. and we're in the women's bureau, leveraging for equity to ensure that these jobs in infrastructure and the clean energy jobs for the energy reduction act are available for people of color, for women, people who have been historically underinvested and underestimated. without our skilled trades workers, our steel metal workers, our plumbers, our

painters, our transit experts and so many more none of these would be possible. with that in mind, it is my great honor to introduce the country's number one advocate for great jobs and workers, acting secretary, julie su. [applause]. ♪♪ >> good morning, everybody. mary ellen, thank you so much for that very introduction. it was so lovely to speak with you before coming out here with our shared immigrant stories, and the point that good jobs change lives and do so for generation. i'm pleased to talk about that and we're in a moment in which

we can make that happen for more people than we've done for a very, very long time in this country and i know the best ideas happen when business leaders, unions, mayors, other local officials and others come together in real partnership. and so, i real appreciate you, mary ellen, and your leadership in bringing together this group to talk about something that's so core to president biden's vision for america. which is infrastructure. but i want to acknowledge a few people before i start. the first are my friends who you will hear from in just a little bit. sean mcgarvey president of the building trades and greg reagan from the trance sayings department of the afl-cio. president biden is investing in america and the workers that sean and greg represent are building america. i also want to recognize san antonio mayor ron nuremberg, as

mary ellen said, our mayors are the ones getting things done on the front line. and san antonio is one of the great jobs city. i'll come back and talk about mayor ron in a moment, but san antonio is setting an example that is really demonstrating what is possible across the nation and of course, i want to thank the brilliant work that guided the biden-harris from historic job growth and infrastructure. and suzanne clark you heard from on the video has been great to work with as well as we think about how to build up the supply chains across the country and make sure the economic growth bradley benefits all. so, as you all know, since even before this group was together a decade ago, we've talked about the need for infrastructure investment and

president biden is delivering them. everywhere i go, i get to see really historic investments taking shape across the country like at pittsburgh international airport where we're investing $20 million to modernize the airport's terminal. at the same time, that work is using made in america steel, thousands of prevailing union jobs and it will generate 2.5 billion dollars in economic activity. now, that's a theme of something that i'm going to talk about which is how the investments are not just for workers, not just good for businesses that work on them, but power our economic growth. i also got to visit the site of and the people who are creating america's first interstate high speed rail. this is going to connect the empire with los angeles and also built by union workers. and probably like many of my fellow west coasters who spent

a lot of time on the i-15, we welcome a high speed rail line between those two cities. and toured atlanta's builtline improving transportation and creating more green space as well as affordable housing and rejecting neighborhoods, divided by infrastructure in the past so we have a moment to think about infrastructure and the way that it connects rather than divides. so what i'm going to focus on though is a question that people often ask me, which is are we going to have the work force for this work? of course, the answer to that is yes. if we make sure that these investments create good jobs and if we focus on connecting the people who have been left out of opportunities for too long to those jobs. so this brings me to another kind of infrastructure. i think of our work force system as infrastructure, too. it's the roads and bridges that connect good people to the jobs that they need and employers to

what they want and need. just like our physical infrastructure. our work force infrastructure has got some cracks. it's got some potholes. it hasn't been built to reach every community the way that it needs to. and that includes workers and employers. and we say to that, not this time. not on our watch. in president biden's america we're building a work force infrastructure as strong as our physical infrastructure and we're making sure that it's going to reach all communities. and to do it, we need high road training partnerships. what do i mean by that? >> high road training partnerships start with the jobs, with the destination. we can't build effective infrastructure if we don't know where we're going. just like too many training programs in the past have focused on skills that might be needed for jobs that might materialize, not anymore. in the language of economists, high road training partnerships

connects the demand for labor with the supply. they involve management and labor sitting down together to plan, to design training that's tied to actual jobs, jobs that not only support a family, but uplifted entire communities. for too long, the focus has been on the skilled efficiency of workers rather than the quality of jobs, not this time. and the panel that comes up after me is going to talk about more about-- and have a lot of experience about how to build things the right way. and high road turns traditional on its head starting with the good jobs and making sure that jobs with sustaining wages and workers have a voice. jobs where workers can be in a union and jobs where every worker goes home safe at the end of the day and jobs where families can get what some of what the presidents call breathing room at the core of our entire infrastructure. these partnerships prioritize communities that have been left

behind. i'm talking about women, black workers, latino workers, asian workers, people involved in the justice system and young people who are not connected either to school or the work force at this moment. at a time when our economy is growing and projects are breaking ground across the country we have an opportunity to make sure that we build bridges to communities that have not been reached by them for too long and the high road training partnerships are those bridges. these programs include registered apprenticeships which we often describe as the super highways of this work force infrastructure. and training programs aren't just one off. they're part of an interconnected system that we invest in for projects of today, but also will exist for the projects of tomorrow. and i always say this, but i think it's worth repeating that training shouldn't end in a job search. it should end in a good job. i was recently in milwaukee

meeting with apprenticeships, and i asked how it felt to be in the program? one of the young men said, i feel secure. for the first time in my life i feel secure and that sense of security is what high road training partnerships can provide across our country and provide for employers, struggling with the challenge of finding their needs. and not just employers and neighbors, but organizations like community-based organizations that provide other services and the state and local level. putting out dollars and opportunities can invent incentivize, and for things

that get in the way of training programs and jobs. not because people don't work, or don't have the skills, but the infrastructure has not been there for too long. one example of this is the city of san antonio. earlier this year, my city co-led the equity summit focused on making child care more affordable. through the summit we found nearly 60% of workers with san antonio cannot afford child care in any given week. now, the city is working on a budget proposal that's going to help those families with child care needs. leadership matters and mayor ron's leadership is making a really big difference. we've kicked off an effort called the line initiative and this is about creating the infrastructure that allows women to get into good infrastructure jobs. to get it done, we're partnering with mary ellen and

accelerator america and implementing it on the ground with mayor nuremberg. and supporting workers with jobs that creates this well-being that we're talking about isn't enough incentive, let me share another statistic, a study that we did in the department of labor found if this country invested in child care and in families supporting policies like paid leave the way other comparable economies do, in the world, it would allow about five million more women to come into the work force and generate 775 billion worth of economic activity a year. again, when we do things the right way, it's good fork for working people and that you represent in the infrastructure world and good for our economy and our country. doing the right way, as president biden knows and as i know, when we do right by working people, makes our economy stronger and it makes america stronger.

we're also working to create better connections with our educational institutions who are a good part of the roads and bridges and that's investing in a pre-apprenticeship program for community colleges. earlier this year i went to the community college of allegheny county, and parker, never imagined he would get to do a job for his hands and also get a college degree. now he's getting to do both of those things, at his local community college with classes that connect to the job that he's doing in his local community to help build up his community. and these are jobs that are advanced manufacturing and include energy. and all of that is part of the infrastructure that we're talking about now and we think of community colleges as on ramps to this infrastructure and we recognize that four-year degrees are not the only or the best path for people to get to

the future and to get to the destination that they want. to meet this moment of historic infrastructure investments, the moments people in this room have been pushing for for some time. we have to make sure they get the infrastructure that they need. we know with high road training partnerships that will happen. they're asking for many of the partnerships across the country and many of you know about them and even been a part of that. and we have a map the training partnerships and where they are across the country and those training programs are connected to the investments that are being made in president biden's investing in america agenda. and since we created that map a year ago, we've added thousands more dots on the maps which shows that we're not only doing what we say, we're also scaling them in a way that we need to do and everybody represented in this room needs to help us get

to that point. please join us on the high road and there's a frame work, preparing an infrastructure work force to support you in this work and i urge you to look at it and it's a component of what i've talked about and each member of the partnership, whether you're a business, a nonprofit, an educational institution and a union or a government entity can play their role in helping to build these kinds of partnerships. i'm going to close and we care about the investments actually create opportunity and intergenerational opportunity for people in this country to talk about a woman named rose evans in ohio. rose was struggling to provide for her kids when she started an apprenticeship program and became a sheet metal worker with the union. and her daughter diamond saw what it meant for the family and she enrolled in a pre-apprentice program with the department of labor with my friend president mcgarvey of

the building trades. today mom rose is working on her second infrastructure project funded by president biden's investment in america, and this is in kokomo, indiana and today she's working side by side with her daughter diamond on the project. and we create intergenerational change for women, for people of color, for all communities to enjoy the prosperity that we're building in this country in this moment. so, let's do this right. let's do this together. let's seize this moment to build a 21st century infrastructure that's both physical and work force, and an opportunity in every single community and i'm so excited to do this work with you. the department of labor stands with you, we have your back and thank you for the leadership that you're doing. thank you so much. >> (applause) >> please welcome to the stage the america works for infrastructure panel.

♪♪ >> welcome, everyone, it's an honor to be with you today and my colleague. i want to give a special thanks to the department and the staring committee for putting on this really great event. and our panelists today are power players in this space. power players who have examined local work force development programs and led and

coordinated with unions across members and fought for crucial investments into our infrastructure work force. we have mayor ron nuremberg, and the president of the building trades union and greg reagan president of the tcd. thank you for being with us. so today's conversation will focus on expanding and diversifying the infrastructure work force which we know is quite a challenge and yet delivering on the challenge is much harder than would suggest. in the first round of questions, i'd like to start with you, shon. i know you graduated from a construction registered apprenticeship program. i'm an academic and we all believe in the power of apprenticeship program, and what's stopping from making it more available and who is not playing ball and what are you doing to diversify them.

how can we do better? >> well, we've been working for probably almost the last three decades to diversify the facilities and union, and we put together with the community partners, national, local, i think urban league, youth build and naacp scores of local community organizations, what we call apprenticeship readiness program. what they are, pre-apprenticeship programs to prepare people to enter the apprenticeship programs in our trades because the training is rigorous and they need to step up in some cases to get them ready. in the programs we target women, incarcerated, and teaching in president systems in six states, when they come

out they're ready to get into registered apprenticeship programs. our graduates are 80% people of color, 20% women. we have tremendous opportunity looking forward with the amount of work coming out, excess of four trillion dollars which in, you know, construction speak, the regular construction industry did about 1.3 trillion a year. without this federal legislation that we now have, you know, jobs going out as far as we can see and we look at the opportunity, the only thing that we can compare it to is the end of world war ii when the g.i.'s were coming home after fighting tyranny across the world and building families in the middle class in this country. and that's how gigantic the opportunity is so the

recruitment piece of it is huge for us. we're heavily invested. 225 programs going in excess, large and small, the pipeline to get into the apprenticeship program. we have 1600 training centers in the united states. if we were can k through 12 district, the third largest after university of california five times the size of ohio state only one institution in the world trains more in the system than we do that's the united states military. and we have expanding capacity. we've invested and reinvested, we spend our own money, it's not the government's money, in excess of $2 billion a year to build the infrastructure, create the curriculum and train

the teachers and greatly expand that and more and more of this work gets deployed it's going to create more and more people through that pipeline to get into registered apprenticeships and one more note, we unveiled an academic study to see how we were on diversity and we have a ways to go, but the good news is, you know, everybody's got competition. the chamber knows all about that. our commission is the open shop center who considers themselves bigger than us, we've taken into the registered system, people of color and more women than other competition. we've ramped it up and look for opportunities to move them to the middle class through our training. >> and so, just to push a little bit more, it sounds like this is fabulous and you guys are making huge strides on

apprenticeship. what do we need to do in order to increase and apprenticeship more general in the united states? >> i personally that our system is a good one, co-managed between the employers and the unions. they run these programs, the board of trustees and make the decisions on the extend turs and investments and ours are going on a hundred years now. there are lots of industries currently worried where they're going to get the work force they need. unfortunately, you know, if you look at the history of wall street back in the '70s started looking at quarterly reports and a lot of internal training that was going on across industries in the united states was jettisoned to try to save money for, you know, to please wall street investors, but they

can get together as a third party operation. and there are some of them popping up. secretary su, secretary walsh did a good job pushing this apprenticeship program into long-term filling those jobs openings and prepare them through apprenticeship readiness program or in particular through a registered program so they have people taught the skill sets that they not only need gainfully employed, but through health care and through any other in the united states. >> it's finding ways to get the employers to come to the table, as well as the unions or other organizations on the workers side. terrific. >> great. we've heard so much about a cleaner, more modern transportation system. what are some of the challenges to train workers in new knowledge and skills? what are the most promising ways to actually address those challenges?

>> well, i do think that you look at the model, so much historically in our grant programs, whether it being in the f.d.a., the federal transit, and has been on capital expenses. new buses and trains, now routes and lines, and i think the way that this administration has started to change at that dynamic, for example, with the low and no emissions bus program, they required that 5% of the funds that the applicants receive towards job training, including the maintenance of electric vehicles, quite a bit different than say, a diesel vehicle. making sure we have the operators trained up so once these are deployed they're ready to go. it's ready to go right into service and that's something that i think that that idea that we need to be investing in the people and work force in addition to just the stuff. stuff is important. we want to see more of that, but the fact that we have real

money, as sean alluded to now, in areas not just roads and bridges which are important, for public transit and passenger rail and entry into the places like central and other places like this. this is exciting, but if we build that stuff and do not have the work force to be ready to operate them, it doesn't do good. when you look at the ambitious timelines, bee need to be recruiting and training those workers now and we have the know-how to do it and we have the work for the unions who represent the workers in freight and passenger rail already, can be effective partners in that and we need to start at this point and not, you know, four years from now, or two years from now. >> so, okay, so it sounds as if you know what to do. are there workers who are signing-- are there people lining up? we here we've got a very low

unemployment rate in this country and we hear about their challenges finding workers in certain industries and for certain occupations. is there had a lack of demand for these kinds of programs? >> there's a lot of demand for workers. we're facing a crisis, and a huge portion of the work force will retire in the next five years and we do not have that pipeline. part of the problem, if i'm being honest though, the employers are not being the best advocates for, you know, the best advertisers for their own industry. i think we're going to make some i am. pro with the new transit worker protections that went into place just a few weeks ago, because you know, previously what people read about if you're thinking about a job in transit you'd read the local newspaper about another bus driver that got beat up. that's not a good one for your industry. if we start to address those problems or for example, in the rail industry, people are going

to remember east palestine or the-- they're not thinking about the railroad retirement benefits, good salaries and career jobs, people have been proud to be railroaders and we need to change that morale and the narrative to help entice more people in and i know that, you know, we have some ideas about how we can create a pipeline similar to what the building trades do with apprenticeship programs because we now have multiple entities that are operating in these areas, whether it be brightline, amtrak, class two or three railroads, they're going to need the same types of workers so we should figure out a way to use a multi-employer, multi-union training program to try to move this work force forward and create this pipeline. >> that sounds complicated. we should find a way, who will do that work?

who will make that happen? >> i've had conversations with amtrak and steven in particular, they're willing to invest in this and talked to folks at brightline, they're willing to invest in it. and we have the model there. and a model how to make this work. it takes the money and just takes the focus on it and those are the two things that are standing in the way. >> okay, all right. where there's a will there's a way so i'm counting on you. >> speaking of will and way. let's talk about san antonio. let's talk about san antonio. >> so you have the ready to work program i hope you'll describe that for the audience. >> sure. >> and i'd love to hear also about some of the challenges you've encountered and what you're doing to address them. >> sure, first i'd like to reflect on the fact that the last time i was in this room there's an inside joke here in washington for years, for local leaders that our favorite week was infrastructure week and i was here about six years ago

balk talking how we needed an infrastructure bill. and i wanted to take the time to applaud and to get us the infrastructure law that makes it possible. in san antonio we recognize a couple of things, one is that for anyone who spent more than a couple of minutes talking about public policy we've been acknowledging a skills gap which is only growing. we do not have the workers with education and skills necessary to fill the jobs created today. the other issue less notable for some, but something that we thought a lot about and trying to address, the income segregation and poverty in america. so flash forward to the height of the pandemic when we saw the food bank lines nearly double overnight because within one week, this event had really shaken us to our core.

we recognized the fact that millions of american families, tens of thousands of san antonio families were one event away, one last job, one event away from a catastrophe. we didn't have an unemployment problem, we had -- so many trying to make ends meet. we're in the ready to work program address both things. in the height of the pandemic, we took part of the sales tax towards training. recognize what jobs are being created and what we can do with providers to make sure that they're training for the skill sets so participants can fill the jobs. making sure that bring the san antonio families who are unemployed or underemployed to

fill jobs, health care jobs, trades, et cetera, and we're doing a pretty good job. within a year and a half of the program launched we now have 7,000 folks enrolled. almost 1,000 people who have already graduated from their various training programs and into new jobs and i would like to just mention that we're targeting the folks who need this the most, the average participant in san antonio who enters the ready to work pipeline in their household was making $15,000 a year. that was the household income for the participant. in the work force, but again, under the poverty line. couldn't afford rent, food, et cetera. when they leave this program, the average participant is now making $44,000 a year, has a transportable credential, and now is employed in one of the high gain career, mobility, manufacturer, whether that's health care industry, increasingly whether that's a skilled trade. we have partnerships with

providers and we have partnerships with the employers, we connect the two with job placement and removing barriers to make sure that they can stay in the program. and our hope aspirationally that we can change the trajectory and break the cycle of poverty. >> that sounds fabulous, has it all gone according to plan? >> no. so i will tell you one of the big lessons learned is that job training takes time and it's difficult work. the reality is that every single one of those 7,000 participants, and we hope going to be a lot more as the program moves forward, has an individual story. every person has barriers that would eventually cause them to choose whether or not they want to stay in the program or go and work a job. so, we have to marry the participant up with jobs

navigators. from the very start, assessing their skill sets and whatever remedial training they might need. we need to address the barriers that get in the way, child care, and making sure they stay in the job, stay in the training program and eventually work with the job-- the employers who place that person into a job and make sure that they're successful. the city of san antonio is not the provider, we're not the employer in most cases, we're not the training provider. we are the broker. and so, it's an intense amount of work to make sure that that person remains in the pipeline and is ultimately able to land the job. and what we've learned is, number one, we've got to continue to remind the folks in our community that it does take time, it's hard work and everybody has an individual set of circumstances and we've got to work with them all and also

encounter add challenges within employers. every single sector works differently. in some cases we need to work with employers who are then the providers of the training. some of those skillsets on a particular line in a manufacturing facility, for instance, are proprietary. and we have to have the opportunity for employers to train themselves. our lessons have been many. number one, making sure we set the proper aspirational expectations and keep people focused we're not just changing lives, but working individually with folks and not above the life skills happening on the ground. that's terrific. i do a lot of work in education and training and basically you get what you pay for. when you put the time and investment in, you get more return on the other end.

i'm going to shift gears in time remaining, so many public dollars. so we have an opportunity to reflect what works and reform what doesn't. and yet, with the clock quietly, or maybe not so quietly ticking. i'd love to close with challenging ideas for the future. sean, back to you, during your time as president there, you've created the strategy programs. what are the opportunities you see for the program not only for infrastructure programs, but also tax credits. >> we've discovered, probably 15 years ago, that we were invested in companies or in projects, actually, where the labor strategy for that project was not to use us, and it certainly didn't make sense to us that we were an owner and didn't have the opportunity to

build it so we formed a capital strategies group and its primary mission was to get a handle on our almost 900 billion dollars worth of investments that we have. to see where they're at. and we started out looking at consultants and making sure we negotiated both for better fees, et cetera, we looked at managers and individuals. and because this money is invested across wall street, invested in commercial real estate. low and modern income housing and making sure that if people were aware if they want today do business with us, ie, certain strings that were attached and one of the things was if you want to use union labor to build it. that's created lots of great relationships for us, believe it or not. we've formed a national labor

management committee with the american economic-- i'm sorry, the american investment council, right. the equity guys and most players in the business are good players, they want to do the right thing, but unfortunately, there are some bad players out there. so we sit with groups like that and talk-- particularly talk a lot about pipelines and what do you want out of our investment. triple, bottom line not only building infrastructure, but a good neighbor where the infrastructure is being built and the people on the geography where it's built and have the opportunity not to work at the picture that's complete, but actually in the construction. ...

they go on with us to the next project so we create that cycle of stimulus cycle. the scale of investment, the scale of work that's coming, i mean, we've never seen anything like it. there's nothing to compare to come to describe it. i mean, we use to get excited when somebody would be talking about a $300 million project, a check in a project. talking ten and $20 billion projects in chip space, small modular reactor, offshore wind and all the programs that tax credit programs coming through the -- deadline which for the first time in the tax code that says you're going to take avenge of these tax credits and programs there's an excel the rent. want to take 5%, no strings

attached, , you get 5% but if oe to get 30% tax credit on your investment, you're going to have to meet certain labor standards to do that. and again that helps create that good jobs and not race to the bottom which the president has been focused on building the economy from the bottom out and the middle up. so there's tax credit programs. there are people quite honestly that it never heard of that are knocking on my door every day and saying how it would build a relationship with you? we want to take avenge of these programs but we want to make sure what would make this capital investment we have the human capital, with the skill sets that are required at the time required, place a required to build and you are really only people that have the infrastructure on the training side to partner with us and we get to that. >> terrific. greg, labor standards as repairing and committee benefits greens are major priority for the biden administration.

what have you learned and what have you learned across the country? what you think of the idea of moving projects quickly with improved labor standards? are these mutually exclusive ideas or can we develop? >> we can absolutely do both. we're proving that right now. i think we have an opportunity right now to establish a new way of handling especially private entrance into the transportation infrastructure area. we are seeing it with brightline is one example but we also have some new micro transit entrance. trying to supplement operations that the country and they are coming to us. i think a large part because of the way the biden administration talks about the importance of unions, the way the people emphasized how this is going to be a priority but brightline approached us. some of these other copies are approaching us, talk we partner with you? that was really effective partnership and number of different areas where we have delivered together the company

and the union's have delivered a substantial investment in the federal government to help build these modern green better infrastructure projects. the more we can show that model partnership, more we can show we don't need to be at odds, we can supplement each other's efforts and form effective partnerships, the more that that can become the norm, at that sort going to focus on. medical and is going to want to do it the way we done in these projects but a guarantee would as a matter if it's president biden or if it's president trump or if it's president, you know, mike pence, whoever it is, winter making decisions about decision about grant applications and figuring out which projects are worthy of money, when we have partner and corporate interests on the same page with labor and corporate on the same page and we're going in together, makes that decision a heck of a lot easier. i don't care who the decision maker is. then he be the biggest fans of labor, than they hate us the most, but if we're making the decision easy for them by having

effective partnerships and having those relationships, they are going make the easier call. one of the saga to be controversial, they get beat up on in the press. that's the type of sustained efforts on helping to really build upon over the next few years. >> do you have a particular example across the country? >> yes. so yes, actually brightline is the best one because we focus on we haven't m.o.u. on operations, there's a pla for the construction. we're talking about labor agreements at the station themselves so that the people who are working in the concession areas and all that will also be union workers. we are looking at having a wall-to-wall soup to nuts union operation that will deliver modern high school rail for the first time in this country. that's an example of private company that prison operator in florida that was nonunion and all privately financed. window is money available and the want to invest, get some of

the infrastructure money, they recognize there was value in bringing us into the fold. there are going to be other really good options in the transit space weather scope is what to do this the right way, when you want to make sure, sure, we have the small autonomous bus and that is going to feed more people into a transit system but we want to have laborers support so roommate sure it's making by the existing union workforce. we're going to make sure there are opportunities, growth opportunities for dispatching these jobs the people can advance their careers. it's not going to be one of these things where a private company comes in and undercuts the existing wages and working conditions by 40% in, as a way to cut cost. those are some examples were looking at right now. >> perfect. mayor, love to close with you, whether cities, counties, but foreign governments, what with congress and the next administration to to better help localities? do you need more money for

workforce programs, more technical assistance, all of the above? >> i think secretary su and sector walls before her laid a good groundwork for this. the answer is yes to all of the above but i do want to emphasize what great and sean both said. we need employers buy-in on these programs. in san antonio we have employers come scores reporters signed a ready work pledge. that's an agreement to share that information but what kind of jobs are being created so we can make sure we are preparing the right can workforce pick in addition we have employers buy-in to providers of training and we also have employers buy-in to be the hirers of our participants are . we already have about 535 employers who were fired and ready to work participants out in this program. it's not a theater for a particular business but it is providing a well-rounded workforce for our city. what we have found over the course of the last year and

half, and ensure this is true in your community as well, is we are not going to achieve our goals for workforce to be able to fill those job vacancies that so many industries have if we don't focus on the barriers. one specific barrier in particular, that is the need for child care. we need an investment in childcare across every single community. we are as secretary su said, that a number of our folks have no access and many of them can't afford it we know it's a barrier for women in particular but households in general. we are doing assessments, one a need for child care but also the capacity and we need investment and when he partnership. the other issue is would like to train folks in childcare. right now the labor standards, the way to stand for child care workers are not to the level where a child care worker could actually make ends meet if that was the sole source of income. so we need to improve the labor standards and wage standards at

every level for child care workers in this country. and then of course absolutely, we did investments in workforce. investment in infrastructure are great but if they are not coupled with an expectation to create a workforce, we're not doing much good. each of these investments even these capital programs are jobs programs at the end of the day. >> well, i want to thank all of you for protesting in today's panel. this brings us to close of the session, and so i just very much look forward to the rest of the program and thank you all for joining us this morning. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪[inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome deputy secretary at the u.s. department of commerce. ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] >> well, hello, everyone. i am really pleased to join you all for infrastructure which are at the u.s. chamber of commerce. biden-harris administration and department of commerce as an sure many of you know have been focused on guaranteeing that we have the sturdy economic

foundation that we need to build prosperity that will last not just for a few months or a few years, but for generations. that's more than just our traditional infrastructure, our roads, bridges electrical grid et cetera. et cetera. it also includes a technology that will support smart cities come smart communities and includes a technological infrastructure that will allow us to outcompete our adversaries. nowhere is that work more critical than the revitalization of american manufacturing through the landmark chips and science act. semiconductors are the lifeblood of our technology from controlling the machinery that we used in our manufacturing facilities to keeping our fighter jets in the air come to something as simple as running and the plant in our home. and the capabilities extended technology of the future like ai and quantum computing. but to envision our path forward on chips, we have to take a step

back and understand where we are starting from. right now we are deeply reliant on other countries for our chips, but it wasn't always like that. in 1990, many of us remember 1990, the u.s. made 37% of the world's chips. today, we make just 12%. a tiny fraction of the world's legacy chips, and that of the leading edge chips that we need to about a most advanced systems. the covid-19 pandemic shined a light on the vulnerabilities in the sector when our chips supply chains broke down leaving dangerous shortages, putting american businesses and consumers at risk. that two things became clear in the wake of all this. first, this was a monumental risk for all of us in this country. and second, we couldn't let it happen again. the president and vice president know that america is going to

compete and reaffirm our leadership on the world stage we have to make these once in a generation investment in our technology and manufacturing. because this isn't just about our economic security. it's about our national security. that's why president biden passed the chips and science act, major part of his investing in america agenda. investing more than $50 billion to build new semiconductor factories, and skill of the supported manufacturing ecosystems that are necessary to help them grow. investing in r&d centers, and training workers to ensure america remains the leader in this critical industry. now make no mistake, this a targeted industrial strategy. the chips and science act is our innovative solution to challenge that if left unaddressed will send shockwaves through our economy for decades to come. we are beginning to see transformative results. in march we announced limiting memorandum of terms with intel

corporation to put up to $8.5 billion and proposed funding to strengthen u.s. domestic supply chain resilience, and reestablish american leadership in the semiconductor manufacturing. though it hasn't been a green field lab lab like this and u.s. for more than three decades. with the perot's investment in intel's projects across the country, where securing access to leading edge chips and the benefits to our technologies, economy, national security, will also be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. we're leveraging up vast amounts of the sector investment. and this multibillion-dollar preliminary agreement stands alongside similar preliminary agreements with other leading companies like global foundries, tsmc, samsung and micro. they mark some of the largest investments ever announced in your semiconductor manufacturer.

best of all, because of the proposed target chips investments in these companies, we anticipate that america will produce roughly 20% of the world's leading edge chips by the end of the decade. by investing in chips manufacturing writer in america, where providing new economic opportunity to american workers and their communities, bolstering america's technological leadership, and showing up our national security, rebuilding our infrastructure. this is president biden's invest in america agenda in action. we're committed to continuing this work, complement the efforts of so many others right here in this room, and working with all of you across the country to build a stronger, more secure country. thank thank you so much. it's been good to be with you. [applause] >> please welcome building resides in america's electrical grid panel.

-- resilience. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning, everybody. i was a very supposed to wait for the entered in. i am lynda tran, called a partner at epicworks advisors but most of you know me from my previous role of a senior advisor to secretary pete buttigieg and director of public engagement for the department of transportation. i am very pleased to be on the stage today but i'm going to start with the good news/bad news. this is was can be a good news/bad news conversation. we've had the added bad news that unfortunately mayor clinton lucas was unable to judge because he battling a little bit

of covid but the good news is you now have an all-star panel of women were here to drop some knowledge on you all. so the conversation today is on grid resilience. the good news piece of that is that obviously this that the administration has invested the stork resources into all of the climate resilience programs that this lovely page of going to talk about here and and in . the bad news is, our grid might not be quite ready for. i'm really excited to introduce the ladies beside you. so to my immediate right here we have maria robinson who is the director of the great department office for the u.s. department of energy. and with abigail campbell thinker sinker is ahead of climate infrastructure policy at siemens which is development of something around infrastructure these days. join me in welcoming them up. [applause] >> w, maria. you have a tough job picky might be the only person i know as a record of an office who has a

multiple set at phds and has been a state representative and is coming into this with the technical knowledge that you have. i would ask you to talk us through all the bit about the grid to climate offices for absolutely and figures which are having us here today. i love nothing more than talking about investing in our electrical grid. the great department office is actually a brand-new office. we were just sent in august 2022 so i started so i started the office with two people, and with since go to about 140 with the mission of not getting $22 billion out the door in order to invest in our electric grid. that's both the long pole, and was for transmission as well as the small distribution you actually see that connects to your house. our goal is to enhance our existing grid as will the building out new and were to meet all the new demand went on the grid in part because of the great investments being made by the biden administration. >> it to look like?

what is the grid department office. >> as we have what i call pillage of policy wonks and all budget engineering nerds come together to make really good decisions and a lot of it is focused on working really closely with industry. as mentioned i was a state representative in previous lifetime under work for trade association immediately before the. so for me it's so important we are going after talking to people who are going to utilize these mechanisms that we have, whether it's the direct funding and having conversations and if our program seem really good in our building that is impenetrable that itself was a d.c., that's only go so far chromatograph and have this conversation we're actually able to recruit a number of folks in industry, letter great folks who work at the state level who are tasked with the company a lot of this work to make sure with some of the smartest minds who are very realistic say no, , actualy were going running this problem can figure out how we treat the

language in our actual rfp moving photo cards with a wide variety of folks who are helping us to get out as well as dedicate a long-term public servants who are helping us navigate how we cut to the redtape of bureaucracy a pretty. >> thank you so much. abby, want to say by saying congressional office of folks in the know about brightline west and all the exciting things happening there. but sitting your phone industry perspective and all of the things that are part of your portfolio and you look at the grid, what keeps you up at night? >> so thanks come to build on the comments were incredibly excited can write? new teams have come into the department or we've seen this huge influx of federal funding and modernization of the code and states during really innovative public-private partnerships and a lot of facilities being announced. it's an incredibly exciting time, and that we've been looking for for quite a while in use. with the bank said what keeps us us is how we achieve to come

right? we talk about all this opportunity for ev chargers which would make an from legislation provide an opportunity localized in the u.s. or will to talk about solar again opportunity to localized manufacturing in the u.s. a lot of our peers and customers are doing the same thing. it's not just our infrastructure we're building but also are concerned about what with colleagues in the department of energy and partners and communities to get how to get the power needed for all of these new facilities come online. new data centers come for these really strong u.s. parts of our economy. i think for us it's incredibly excited because we know the technology is there. we know there's a real immediacy in terms of hardware and software and visual tools that can bring everything together in rapid pace but i think what we do right now to make sure we are building because all the saints of our event announced, power needs immediately to support them. >> you've done a great job i think as a company, i can say out loud to this group, with a working the administration as

the administration, my former home, has rolled out all of these programs the what if i could you confirm a private sector perspective about how to work with the administration of better? >> it's the same thing can well we were actually, we worked together when you were in d.c. in the trade association so i think what we see now is it's a great range of experience in terms of individuals that have been a part of it is your academia or we have this great new entrants in manufacture and startups. we think for us the important thing is likely due to share our expertise expertise but what we do to also be very open to listen. we understand again there's this once in the life generation right now but no one come to can go it alone. so no one's administration can complete everything. a lot of different multiple pieces that are going to be a part of all of this. we understand that these last couple of years have really feed

multiple use opportunity. maximizing everyday and really trying to make sure we are bringing such expertise but also an open you to the conversation, a different side of the puzzle registered or we hear from your perspective, we talked about some the challenges a little bit, boldly about for us. what are the solutions? what's exciting? what are you working on? >> we are all pretty smug with some of the challenges when folks asking what keep the appointment i say i don't sleep, in part because the challenges are so great. this is a first time in a long time the electric interesting growth so they're not necessarily prepared when doing long-term planning, you know, the investors would put into the grid and into the parsis of which talk about them on the 33, 50 year timescale and some were there's influx of new manufacturing, of data centers, of and i picked this has happened so quickly so as to get what we do both in the short term and some of these

longer-term issues for us more structurally handle some of the concerns. abigail mentioned in particular some of the software solutions. when you think about electric grid you don't necessarily think about software but that's a phenomenal solution for us, whether it's at this thing called dynamic line reading break and use look at more of the grid during particular peak hours and you thought you otherwise would. it helps the engineers belittled us small c conservative about whether they want to the point more power in times when nobody has the air-conditioning on orbit has the heat on if you're up north. those are things we can look at in the short-term, and his great technologies whether it's advanced -- the wires, , right, have little metal piece called a conductor that goes through them and they made some real scientific advancements over the past 30, 40 years to make them lighter, stronger, better conductors that go in as well is

trying to prevent wildfires which is the thing to keep the upper night the most right now. a lot of folks in utility space are anxious about that. some of our funding, right, we committed $7 billion last year just out of my office alone goes towards that wildfire prevention. for every dollar were putting and were going to get so much value if it means we don't have to worry about the grid to going down. that stuff it's all of us here in infrastructure we've really excited but it's sometimes a harder sell outside of the folks are really thinking ahead and looking ahead. we've got a big mission ahead of us will be also quite a few good tools in our toolbox. >> said here on the stage part that is why we have the voices we do is because i think we're all online as abby said we can't go it alone. i would love for both of you, starting with abby, to talk about the kinds of collaborations that have to happen the road for us to address great resilience. start with, abby. >> so i think starting with the department of energy, incredible

partnerships we've seen there. i know obviously the team you are leaving has grown over time to really support these opportunities and what is been great i think in a lot of these areas will be no with the challenges are, we as an industry have an opportunity and responsibility to educate where the technology is there with the -- to build on the comments, distantly digital tools, right? how can we sure there is still committee engagement, environmental safeguards and timelines that are kept you are using a digital tool. how can we take some of these paper processes and digitalized them were used to live the same outcome in terms of community ownership to ensure that proper review but there's a clarity in the tonic. so i think for us spending a lot of time to share but we see and what we see coming in the future of what is being piloted right now, , the department has that understanding. the other thing has been helpful

is we have to see this opportunity to invest in u.s. and to bring technology here. and so with the inflation reduction act there so much indentation work that is had to happen. it's been great to also work with the department of energy and other departments to work through what that looks like. we've a lot of lessons learned from previous legislations can even a lot of great feedback from state and local officials of what has worked in the past and what hasn't. and understand all the sink out to be brought to the table. so i think for us what is been really great is to understand it's a tremendous amount of opportunity. a lot of challenges but have got constant feedback loop. so having really strong technical advisors or individual recruited into the purpose of different levels of expertise in transit on-site experience or on-site, you know, capital finance. and so really kind of build this community to understand how, that's in the most, make sure

were open, transparent so we can do a part make sure these pros and programs with a sense of possible. >> when you ugly at the national picture here, but also its patchwork. >> it is definitely a patchwork. i just want to emphasize, i think what we're most excited about is seeing companies like siemens and others creating these partnerships that otherwise would not happen. even for folks who one of our programs, great present and enter jason partnership called grippers oversubscribed by eight, ten times over there but we heard from the folks who may be didn't get an award from it is they had developed a new partnership working with her state regulator, what with the technology companies and found a way to get without us in putting any funding towards it. so that's the really exciting part that by the vatican having a little bit of this carrot here it's foreseeable and to think of a bit more creatively and otherwise would. i still hear from regulators in particular and state legislators

that they're always configure how did the push industries, all regulated industries in their own state, which is a little different from maybe the other folks we've heard of here working with either commerce or the department of transportation. and so they are like such an important component of the conversation because he can't get cost recovery of some of these investments and your regulator is not willing to pay that the extra marginal cost in order to have paul's second was the intuitive miles per hour winds instead of 100 mile-per-hour winds but the department of energy can kick in with just that marginal cost, i can make a huge difference. what we find in this industry in particular is once summoned as a pilot anybody else follows. no one ever wants to go first, somebody wants to go second. we're hoping it became seed allots a trip a lot of those types of possible help create more certainty in the long term for this interest which i think is important is setting up this

is not just a one-time infusion of funds but how do we create a more sustainable long-term investment in grid resilience year-over-year. >> i can't be on the stage and the escalation of equity. so would look at the national map and we look at the patchwork and the regional, state, humidity level differences, how are you both thinking about manufacturing, diplomat, et cetera, in a way that advancing equity? i i will start with you, abby. >> it's a long conversation, how do you ensure we are reflective if you look at policies five, seven years ago that we are seeing as really innovative. there are lessons learned in terms of who was all at the table, how we were actually ensuring that the was its robust communications dream. this idea of are you doing better today than last year and a nursing there's a threat that goes across all the project level work? what's was been great in te policies, and develop the

comments that was just shared, is at there's so many distinct pockets whether it be through chips, ira, and so it's also trying to work with partners to navigate. so i think that with the incentives and opportunities that have been built in we have definitely seen in flex and interest in energy committees, governments, that that we can get funding. i get a lot of lessons learned from states of what is going to work for them and how they can actually move these projects for and the certainty they need. i think the of the part of it is against that ecosystem because it's still a process. to have collaborative partners and local and state and federal offices that can help you navigate because sometimes equity challenge we still have is not anybody has the resources to understand how you move through each program of what might all be available. some of the working groups, you've done these as well, again

focus they continue to move forward and to be a place for them to the everywhere focus on is how do we ensure that we are helping folks navigate the process because that is still something that is i think to be built out. >> yeah, my colleagues at the office of clean energy demonstration for the rural and remote program, your child by the secretary to make as simple of a forum as human possible that is still legally acceptable by our lawyers at the department of energy. like, what we do that looks most like a google form to allow someone's rural and remote communities to build up access to some of the funding? we continue to see this as a prolific challenge, so the kind of projects that i love, so last year we gave an award out to pacific general electric is working with a number of tribes, the tribes of warm springs out in oregon, and part of their pitch to us was making sure some

of the infrastructure was old when owned by a try. they developed with the tribes can ultimately the tribes will owner. those of the projects we really excited about where you're helping some of these disadvantaged communities. also all our programs, sure you've got asked an early days as the week what exactly is day 40 and what is at me for all of our -- justice40. for us we had the committee benefit plans. and take you it comes to transmission, right, we historically put a lot of energy infrastructure in this event committees and still do with the aftermath of the long-term parts of folks are hesitant to have new types of energy infrastructure, even transmission which is not on same level of putting a pole plant. we're to get new ways. we have a funding mechanism that allows for direct economic development in cities and towns that are going to host a transmission line. that's exciting that you can see some of it direct benefit to the folks are making the decision

now will actually see a park or playground for sensitive water treatment plant pop up and make sure they understand that they are seeing some of that direct impact in their own municipality. >> there's a lot of agreement happening on this stage. and now i'm going to ask you more about areas of disagreement. obviously there are a lot of historic resources that are being pumped into programs come into communities, into the grid. abby, from your perspective you all are trying to drive innovation as quickly as possible so we get to netcenter. you might want to talk about brightline and the two emission train set your workout, but what do you see as the major impediments driving the innovation and booking for quickly? >> yes, i think again at the sickening repetitive we have this great foundation right now, right? we basically a decades with the policy and funding that will happen in a couple of years.

that has already bred this whole new ecosystem as innovators and new firms and new technologies that were maybe a few years behind where the are today because of that. so the really excites us in terms of who can we partner with come pick we help bring along. i know our financial services team is actually looking to see who the next generation of innovators and manufacturers are. similarly, we have a lot of individuals and maybe don't have the team that a company like cemented does that is managing real estate, managing fleets and if folks may not be aware but we have called the net zero x 2030 which is a very large goal. household vehicles, a lot of buildings, manufacturing companies, we have a whole team to navigate that. as we can look through that it's also understanding the permitting process, not to bring it there.

so again, i think we've seen a lot of really good areas where there's existing authority across local, state, and federal, to figure out how we could get this project up. again it's been 90 facilities that a been just from ira on the battery soldier when second vignette the yet the chips facilities in data centers. there's all about alongside rural hospitals and schools that can't go off-line, or sustainability goals. i think for us it will keep this up is again how do you help people navigate the process and to drive but has that entry inopportune and where furthering it is much as possible but also how do we look at the process to understand again what could be foundational still in place where stakeholders have trust in the process, there's a viable safeguards, unity engagement, committed ownership and access to benefits in the projects but also certainty.

because not everybody has that ability to navigate and interconnection in the same time want as many others. and so there's an equity component today. there's also certainty to it. how will be also get to our 23 goals it were not able to deploy as quick as possible? how do we get an national infrastructure of charging stations up as quick as possible? of course real conversations also happen with amazing to make sure the grid is resilient of a level as well as safety. that is conversation we still continue and that produced the foundation work we do develop trust in the process and ensure anybody has an open seat at the table. >> thank you. permitting? you going to collect through audi fishing pole and pull back from the wheat of the get little too far in. what i will say is i know more about nepa and environmental permitting that it was just part of this job, which is different but else that maybe a little

painful for myself. so what we are starting to really realize is that every single thing we are doing as an administrative chance of getting funding at the door is major federal action on that requires nepa, and within nepa there's a bright of other environmental assessments necessary, right? we could talk all day about endangered species act section seven which have to do for every single dollar that goes out the door from the federal government. i think folks are coming to apply were really thoughtful, which are copies of done this before, like siemens, right, know what to convince us into. a lot of folks are coming to the table have no idea. >> talk timeline. >> we're talking at least two years, absolute bare minimum. so like we actually out of our office at the department of energy just put out a new role for transmission where we like, after the physical response will act it we really went and we dug

through every last little piece of legislation and found something in the energy policy after 2005 where we found at the department of energy can courtney all the federal permits for transmission. it puts it on a to your timeline. and the president has backs up authority to issue the permit. we went to the process of a full rulemaking to be able to do that and not the folks into the process with us we will be the one sicko talk to fish and wildlife in the army corps of engineers and the bureau of indian affairs anybody else under the sun and hope you get all those permits, which is in and of itself like a full-time job for a lot of folks in the private sector. so we need to find more of those tools where we can have either one agency, so it so much easier for folks to go through one door. we are not changing anything about the process produced electrical get all those permits, still have to have on information, but the board we can streamline that i think the better off were going to be in terms of working with the private sector. being honest about those

processes and how much time it is going to take. it doesn't matter how small of an area of land particularly to chance like a monarch butterflies going to fly by and, therefore, you have to do some endangered species act related work. the more we can spell that out for folks in the early days and make sure they are aware of what some of this commitment are, it sets the stage a little bit better for conversations for the done road as we are doing negotiations with folks who are actually getting these awards. >> permitting. permitting everyday all-day. >> everyday all-day and we're still helpful that this of the going on over on the hill. we hear rumors everyday, but i think it's one area where we can all agree that there's certainly room for some improvement. >> abbey, give us a peek under the hood. what does it take to build these innovative products that are going to be impacting grid presented? what sort of things are you building? >> yeah, so i think for us there's a few different things

that are of interest. i i spoke a little about our digital tools. i think we're very excited about how we can use digital twin or simulation technology help model the grid, help understand to these and fight militancy but also understand the high foundational pieces and how the process works. so what can we do with these technologies that are in existence right now and then use to great success with large manufacturers? hide would take that and move it into this world to expedite a? i think also on the digital side what have we done, we do a lot of his large and for such a project. what are some the best case examples which also are digital tools that emphasize or build a model and text or of the feasibly emblematic of the process. weevil get that from one area that is innovative that it needs to be furthered, i think you think really interested in is

when you look across a great understanding that have a lot of technology that are foundational as it relates to substation equipment that is been innovative to make it more of come smaller call different ways to continue to reinvent the toolbox. the other thing we're looking at is what technologies can also give back to the grid. so what is the role as families, what can we do together bidirectional charges back to the grid, right? proud to be a part of the first bidirectional charge the how does that work? give us all a bit more assessment of what that means. >> yeah, so i think for us we look at these charging stations, obviously the bbc that provides a feeling benefit for individuals that are going to work over traveling across the country or commerce that is moving. we also do a lot of the times any as individuals are going to charging at home, right? when we look at these new models

of vehicles that are coming out, there's a huge opportunity to provide that ownership of the grid to the family. basically put battery storage in somebody's garage. so have charged be able to be pulled back to the grid in a time, at this opportunity where we had so many the street of assets on the grid right now and they're not always available or accessible to the grid. or operate or others. that's also a tool will look at is his hacker would provide the access. the idea of how can we if are continuing to build into the grid and invest in the grid to again make sure as utilities are resilient and reliable but what are we doing for tools take at the residential level course so many of these home features or chargers or residential solar that could be used in more innovative also more efficient ways. >> what are you doing in tribal areas, areas that might not be so easy to plug in. >> us know, i think that's a

great question. that is what also we have worked quite a lot with you to understand i think principally a couple of questions, right, how do you finance what these projects look like the governance structure? it's been a lot of lessons learned and also a lot of feedback for us. so we're still in a lot of early-stage conversations but i will say this is been a positive conversation but positive relationship but julie has been a good connector there. i think were still try to work through some of those larger projects. but to your point sometimes it's the community or others with a looking and we have great projects, like when a california which i command also serves as a resiliency plan because we've seen in terms of impacts in california and natural disasters and fires, they've also been tested so been able to serve notches their committee but also in to serve in rest into

mentoring areas as well. having an open ear of what we not know and it we come to navigate these projects in a different way. >> maria, we went to jump in? >> yeah, not that, i'm not adding anything that he don't think folks already know, but the amount of infrastructure necessary to see the future were like if anybody is charged at home means every substation which is those very ugly things in heaven that have enormous bushings come out that have the route corley thing atop, i think the beautiful. >> i handful of people in the film noticed them. >> what's behind this gate this as this is high-voltage? who knew? it's in a breeze neighborhood. either i can either which make those in almost a bigger to handle all of these folder on your house or easy charge on your house and that's what your chili come back and says no, we can't do this year even though we did for your neighbor because their voltage for either we need to adopt new tools like siemens has to make them a little bit

smaller. if it had to make microchips. i think we should as a public be able to get make some a substations a little bit smaller, also do with some of the environmental issues and work with disadvantaged communities but also they're not that great to look at some people are not super excited when you come renda said that you want to do a replacement and make it even bigger than it currently is. so all of that infrastructure actually have to be upgraded to meet the moment. what's hard for folks to understand, right, i don't know about you, i upgrade my phone of to use saliva, my laptop or the five years. i would like to cover such most of it has been upgraded for 75 years. it's an entire lifetime. some of these polls, you see those ugly double post because of cycling is holding the first one up, and that's because that of the polls been there since 1930. so these are all things that we are come folks are not ready to pay for it and it is going to be a little expensive to make sure we can get to this next level but is making sure we are

replacing with high-level technology. the utility industry has invested $26 $26 billion in maintaining the grid last year and a lot of that is for life. f i replace my car i probably am not going to place it like for like. i think that it's important to make sure we are pushing the industry a little bit harder to adopt some of these new technologies to meet the moments the same way we do with a lot of other industry. >> you make me think of a very specific question, everything is that the bushes, so secretary pete always uses either somethings we should trumpet to the will and somethings we should just do and not talk about. this is a very technical conversation and as you just pointed out, maria, a lot of infrastructure is behind bushes and people don't even know it's there. how much of this work should be trumpeted and say why, and how much of it should be just done? >> that's a good question. yeah, i always joke, right, there are two things in an in

the empty space that are really hard to get politician behind. one of it is great infrastructure and the other is energy efficiency and both of it is because you can't take a picture. >> and both of them are in your office. >> and it's a lot harder than going to a cool wind farm enjoy taking pictures and get a hard hat on, right? you can get politician behind that but it's harder to do the things you don't see and that needs to happen quietly. all these conversations happen at the tactical level where you feel like you need six engine ie to greece and allowed agree to be able to engage in the conversation. that's one of those areas where we had to figure out how to talk about in a way that helps people understand how their benefiting directly. is this going to reduce the costs on your electricity bill? how is this going to create jobs? a number of projects with going out are we these big transmission lines. what does that mean? 300 jobs for the ibew in southern utah.

okay, that is something i think folks can get behind and put little bit more of the human face on some of these infrastructure pieces. i like your state you tuc out everyday doing some sort of project, whether you are cheering them are cursing them along to it, you don't necessarily see some of the other infrastructure recapping. it's a great point. we had forget how we talk about it so it's a little bit more accessible to the everyday person. >> what do you think? >> i completely agree. actually i think, again, there's this dichotomy with energy. you expect when you charge a vehicle or you feel your vehicle or turn your lights on that it's there. there's immediate intrinsic connection but not the sort of understanding of all the things that come along with it. with that being said, i think again to build on the point, this is an exciting time with individuals that are brought to the energy conversation for different reasons.

don't want at the 1950s, 19 said his technology that is protecting them and your family, individuals who are just cost reasons, the amount of money a family spends as a big part is going to be on their home bill. then a lot of individuals that feel a connection to these technologies will always have them and her home. when we talk about this distributive to but that different face of technology it's the next system you have. it is the sorceress if you could put on home. there's all these different features that people do have any meets the eye connection to enter home that are also moving forward in a rapid pace that with electrification that there is an opportunity i think to also reimagine what we think but also a company like ours will always think those creative boxes are super glamorous and amazing and central but deathly appreciate the point it's hard to translate something that is miles away or something that just seems like like a vert system of wires and boxes. >> i got my dad to put in heat

pump because it was quieter. that was like the number one conversation we had. you will not hear the really annoying sound of the motor bino said you better. he's like fine, do whatever you want to do. i think it's figure out where we are meeting people at an funny how it works for them individually. >> they are just about to pull the crotch area, the hook and gravis allstate but i'm an organized at heart and engia room full of have sector leaders, funders, elected leaders and infrastructure is. so in 15 seconds here what would your call to action because what is your when asked? >> i mean, i think to be a good government affairs advocate it would be always wanting to partners we don't know what we don't know whether it's innovation coming along the line at the also the idea of what we do to ecosystem approach, was its reform piece of best examples are be put in place to these projects moving quicker. >> call abby after period closes at. >> we need to invest in a grid

in order to have the economic development that america needs. we had to do this year over year. this can't just be a one-time only thing and we're willing to work creatively to figure how to do. so called our office. were very open to ideas. >> thank you so much. thank you, ladies. thanks for the conversation. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning. i'm matt sonnesyn, vice president for infrastructure, energy and environment at business roundtable. we're excited to be joining to all this morning. let me start first by thinking the u.s. chamber of commerce. what a great facility to be hosting this event, and what

great supporters for many years the event for infrastructure. thank you, chamber of commerce today. business roundtable is an association of more than 200 chief executives of america's leading companies. they represent every sector of the u.s. economy. our ceos lead u.s.-based economies -- u.s.-based companies that support one in four american jobs, and almost a quarter of u.s. gdp. and we have been proud support infrastructure week and be a part of this event now for nearly ten years. that's also what i'm really excited to introduce our next speaker, the new leader of business roundtables ceo infrastructure committee. it's the ceo of fedex, a little company. can you have you think of a company that does more to demonstrate the value of

transportation infrastructure every day? something like 15 million deliveries every day that fedex makes. if you've never seen the operation at one of the airport hubs, i really recommend it. it's an incredible experience. it certainly knocked my socks off watching plane after clint come in. the logistics of unloading, resorting of us in the package and envelope, reloading thin and getting them out for the sunrises. it's absolutely amazing, the falling of it, the precision of a to know where every single package and pamphlet in that process is. there's really one no -- thoroughly know when more dependable than fedex to get in for the long on time. and their employees regulate report it's one of the best places to work, so it's no surprise that fedex has been among fortunes top 20 most admired companies in the world for 24 years straight.

their ceo is equally impressive. he served in multiple leadership roles in the company for more than 30 years. most recently as president and chief operating officer before becoming ceo in 2022. raj subramaniam international leadership experience, his keen visit and sites, a focus on have contributed to the success of fedex and provide a blueprint as the company is revolutionizing transportation and logistics industry. he is clearly spearheading the global transformation of the company which includes revitalizing their operating strategy, profitably growing for e-commerce business, and harnessing the power of global supply chain data to drive the companies digital agenda. so now as chair of business roundtables ceo infrastructure

committee, he's leading his peer ceos as we work together with the u.s. government and of the partners to modernize and strengthen america's infrastructure. please join me in welcoming to the stage the ceo of fedex, raj subramaniam. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all today. i'm glad i could experience a little bit of springtime here in washington before the humidity really sets in. but like i say in memphis, that's just another day. i am raj subramaniam, president's ear fedex and chair of the business roundtable infrastructure committee. and the business roundtable is

an association of more than 200 ceos of america's leading companies representing every sector of used economy and supporting one in four american jobs. as the chair of the committee i bring my perspective as a user of infrastructure. i'm sure many of you are familiar with fedex and what we do as the world's largest transportation come. i wanted sauce data to tell you something my surprise you. it's not magic that enables fedex to deliver to every u.s. zip code and 220 countries and territories around the world. it's infrastructure. reliable infrastructure helps critical supply chains move. infrastructure enabled fedex to

generate $8.7 billion of indirect economic impact in communities across the u.s. in our previous fiscal year. infrastructure helps members compass support and one quarter of the u.s. gdp. world-class infrastructure weather roads and bridges, airports, pipes and wastewater systems, pipelines and power lines or high-speed internet access enables us to thrive economically and supports vibrant, connected communities. in fact, research life brt shows that every dollar spent on infrastructure yields an early four dollars in economic growth, for 20 is making infrastructure investment that pays serious long-term dividends. from my perspective representing the business community, safe roads, water airports and maritime ports and better rail infrastructure are essential for

efficient movement of people and goods. it's easy to take these complex system for granted when things seem to be working well. unfortunately, we have seen what happens when the physical infrastructure fails us. the recent collapse of baltimore's francis scott key bridge reminded us how much american commerce depends upon safe, modern infrastructure, and about the everyday heroism of the infrastructure workers. ports, whether at the end of runways or waterways, the gateways for critical components for u.s. manufacturing, and other cargo that support lies in the livelihoods we need bridges and roads around them upgraded as capacity expands. and increasingly, we are dependent on strong energy infrastructure to unlock the full potential of a modern

economy. initiative such as electrification been building a lot of momentum for businesses like fedex, but also for individual consumers. reliable electricity infrastructure is key to enable these chips. the digital economy needs energy as well, and over the last few years we've seen the use of digital tools and development of new capabilities going at exponential rate with no indication of slowing down. that access been a pioneer in using data and technology to transform an industry. we've been making our own investments to meet this new reality, but there will need to be broader support. as businesses rely more and more on this rise of digital and technology, ai and data centers, they will require reliable power and an electric grid that can handle the increase in demand.

.. we must break down some of the biggest barriers nicole. the infrastructure committee there are issues i want to charge us on. first, lack of funding to support the existing structure

today" infrastructure of tomorrow clean the benefits of life requires predictable funding structure and kind the next understand firsthand how the success of our business but also the product boundary to cry we have prioritize our own $1.5 billion investment modernized her as well as $209 airport infrastructure. projects like youth are critical for economic success.

we must improve sluggish permitting process can take as long as a decade or more. simply unacceptable process that is simple and operates on a reliable timeline. more work remains to be done, is not a roadblock at the pace we need. policymakers across the aisle must work to address additional supply chain challenges. benefits for years to come both in terms of funding and permitting what it's about

finishing this job we started. so we have to put in the work. we need to improve our permitting system. government and industry must work together to find sustainable funding solution especially for highway system. there's no shortage of ideas on how to make that happen. what can we agree is there is to be funding will cost them a resilient and dave. i look forward to leading the charge within the business roundtable and all those involved making infrastructure work for all americans.

thank you for working hard to solve these challenges and everyone involved which i know will continue to send not that. [applause] >> thank you often. stepping to the briefing center over here. we'll get going just a little bit of feel free and we will be back for the second half of the

prog