increases on chinese imports including electric vehicle batteries, computer chips and medical products. then tom mcclintock on u.s. military aid to israel, immigration and other congressional news of the day. in the 70th anniversary of brown versus the board of education. c-span's washington journal on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. including buckeye broadband.

buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> the chair of the national transportation safety board and other officials involved with the investigation and cleanup of baltimore's francis scott key bridge collapse were on capitol hill testifying in front of lawmakers. they outlined a timeline for reconstruction citing 2028 is the goal with a cost of $1.7 billion. the hearing runs about three hours. >> we will call the committee to order. i have to ask unanimous commitment -- consent that the chairman be authorized to declare recess at any time. so ordered.

please email documents. at this point i will recognize myself for the purposes of an opening statement. we are here to discuss the initial federal response to the march 26 early morning incident involving the cargo vessel into the francis scott key bridge in baltimore, maryland which resulted in the subsequent collapse of the bridge. i want to acknowledge the six workers who sadly perished. on behalf of the committee i want to express our condolences and our prayers to the families and loved ones. on to express our appreciation for the harbor pilot and transit authority and police officers who saved countless lives by closing the bridge prior to the incident and all of the first responders who were involved in that process. went to commend federal, state and local officials working that

night to clear the wreckage and debris and continuing that effort to reopen the shipping channels -- this committee continues to receive updates including those testifying here today. hours after the collapse president biden announced his intention for the federal government to pay for the initial cost of reconstructing the key bridge. the committee has received a letter officially requesting. i have personally spoken to governor moore about the request on a couple of occasions. on march 28 the state of maryland applied for the emergency relief program. within hours of receiving the application, the federal highway administration approve 60 million and quick release funding which it said represented 5% of the initial project cost.

this is intended to assist with eligible repair work which includes emergency repairs needed to restore essential travel to minimize damage and to protect the remaining facilities as well as the permanent repairs necessary to restore the highways to the previous condition. they will reimbursed the state for the first 270 days. after the initial 270 days, states are reimbursed at 80% to 90% rate depending on the classification of the program of which the program provides flexibility for reimbursement up to 90% in some cases. the federal highway administration informed the committee they had designated a portion of i 695 april 29 meeting that maryland's reimbursement rate will be

guaranteed up to 90%. all that is to say is that while the president's request has been received and is under consideration, congress has roughly six months to act but before any cost share changes might occur. despite the initial estimates reports indicate that the state of maryland estimates the bridge may cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion. it is important that we have a firm estimate before we take any estimate on the cost sharing. we must make sure the government actively works to recover any money that is owed. that can help offset the bridge funding or can be used for the companies who rely or work on the baltimore harbor to make them whole. for those who wish to go see for

themselves, the committee will continue to facilitate visits on a regular basis. need to make sure we are not getting ahead of the facts and let the ntsb and other agencies complete investigations and as we continue to learn more we will make sure that members of congress have all of the information available to them. i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. i did talk to the governor this morning about the hearing coming up and he is pretty optimistic about the litigation moving forward. i mentioned that briefly in my opening statement but it sounded very interesting and promising. i will turn now to ranking member larsen. >> i want to thank administration officials for joining us to discuss the francis scott key bridge

recovery effort. i want to share my thing but these with the families of the transportation workers who lost their lives while on the job maintaining this important piece of infrastructure. safety workers, traveling public and the workers adjacent to that infrastructure. significant global and shipping ramifications for roadway mobility in the mid-atlantic region. general graham i went to commend you and your team and leadership in your tireless efforts for the men and women under your command to safely remove debris and return the channel to the operations that currently exist under extremely challenging circumstances. the degree of difficulty became clear when i visited the site last month and i want to thank

the coast guard and the core and the state partners for guiding many members of congress in our various trips to witness the damage. i look forward to hearing the latest updates today on the status of cleanup in the port of baltimore operations. and -- from congress is the full cost becomes more concrete. we are grateful the coast guard always does what it needs to get the job done. the service must be made whole.

if not replenished the funding will affect planned maintenance once it is complete. these amounts were not sufficient to fund the response and now reprogramming the $20 million in unused funds to continue the work. this level of reprogramming is unprecedented -- getting the bridge out of the water that juggling will continue. communicate to congress what your needs are early and often and to do so in partnership with the legislative branch. the immediate response i look forward to hearing about the timeline to replace the bridge.

congress established the emergency relief program to provide for the reconstruction of highways and bridges in the event of a disaster. congress understood that it cannot be made to cover -- for the unseen emergency loss of a disaster -- marilyn transportation officials estimate it will cost up to one point $9 billion to replace the bridge. there are number of estimates and it is a broad range. while they provided $60 million in er funds to date. that is a fraction of the total need. traffic diversion has increased the vehicle crossings between fort mchenry and harper tunnels by 18% and truck drivers must 1025 miles to get to baltimore via alternate routes including communities that did not expect

it. this committee has a role to help rebuild the harbor efficiently. i want to welcome back committee chair congratulations on your reconfirmation. a thorough investigation of this catastrophe will help show how to prevent future issues, to save lives and protect critical infrastructure. i think the chair for calling this hearing today and i look forward to what you have to say. >> i ask unanimous consent of the witness is two full statement be included in the record. and that the hearing remain open

until such time as the witnesses have prevent dish provided answers. i also ask unanimous consent of the record remain open for 15 days allowing for additional comments and information to be included in the record of today's hearing and without objection that is so ordered. your written testimony has been included in the records to the committee and i ask that you try to limit your oral remarks to five minutes. with that you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you members of the committee. thank you for your kind words about the post got -- coast guard in your opening remarks. the container ship dolly struck and collapsed the francis scott key bridge. baltimore lost a landmark part of its skyline and they lost the

blockage of the crucial waterway. at the 51 day point, over 61 tons of steel and concrete have been removed. through limited access channel and 375 additional commercial and recreational vessels have used temporary access channels -- our report today is the unified command believes that the dali will be able to be re-floated and removed. countless steps have been completed without a single worker injury. these efforts were made possible through the effort of unified

command, rapid mobilization of personnel and resources, strong coordination and partnerships. the coast guard, army corps of engineers, maryland state police trooper, maryland transportation authority, maryland department of the environment and the owners and operators of the dali have leveraged each other's jurisdictions, authorities and capabilities to get to where we are today. the pup -- coast guard is proud to be part of this response. our women and men serve on the front lines -- inextricably linked to our maritime transportation system. from the early hours of the search and rescue response to restoring vessel traffic. the coast guard brought

authority to ensure the safety and stewardship of our waterways. we also successful partnerships and continuously operating and cordoning with state and local industry partners. one prime example is the fantastic work on the quick notification by the pilots to the mta dispatch which inevitably saved countless numbers of lives. unified command remained sharply focused. her highest level of marine casualty investigation to determine the incident's causal factors and supporting the elements of preventative recommendations. our investigation is in cooperation with the ntsb which

is taken the lead on the investigation and the coast guard investigation is moving concurrently and separately from the department of justice's criminal investigation. while we look forward to the results, it is evident looking more broadly that the size and complexity of ships has grown over the years placing greater demand on our marine transportation infrastructure that may not have kept place with the increased risks that these vessels posed. it is time for us to more broadly understand these risks. i will be convening a nationwide board of inquiry led by my assistant rear admiral wayne. the purpose will be to assess the efficacy of the coast guard's suite of risk management tools and to evaluate how effectively they have been used

to establish a holistic national level approach to develop risk profiles and to find ways to address vulnerabilities and to propose actions to reduce the risk of major incidents. this is a necessary step to bolster our resiliency into ensure the safe and secure flow of commerce on our waves. thank you for this opportunity and the enduring support of the postcard -- coast guard and i look forward to your questions. >> chairman grace, members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify before you to discuss the emergency response by the u.s. army corps of engineers to the collapse of the francis scott key bridge. please allow me to begin today by offering heartfelt condolences to the families of the six individuals lost in the tragedy.

our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them. soon after the tragic event occurred marilyn governor wes moore declared a state of emergency in the activated the emergency operations center. our state of the art survey vessels were deployed to support the initial rescue dive operations. the army corps joined a multiagency effort to form unified command. i have been in a good many disaster responses in this unified command team is one of the best i have ever seen. clearing the wreckage from the channel was the top priority. we needed three things to execute the mission, authority, funding and the right capacity. we use the authority for the baltimore harbor and channels

project. that channel was fully blocked by the wreckage of the key bridge. we used available funding for fy 23 and fy 24 for that project. the army corps has not used this emergency reprogramming authority at this scale for over 15 years. the third thing we needed was contracting capacity. the army corps entered a standard interagency agreement led by captain sal suarez and paul hankins, a true world-class professional. they had a number of contacting tools that give us access to superb salvaging companies.

i last worked with soup salvage in 2022 during the hurricane ian response in central florida. they have helped us pump the upper kissimmee river backwards saving over 12,000 home south of orlando -- they deliver outstanding results. with these elements in place we embarked on the complex task to determine how to clear the 15,000 tons of concrete, asphalt and steel. for context that is 200 statues of liberty of material. the army corps in collaboration with our partners developed ambitious but feasible timelines. the plan was to initially clear a 35 foot deep channel and to restore the full channel by the end of may. the knitted access channel was

open to one-way vehicle -- the limited access channel was open to one-way vehicle traffic. to open a full channel we first had to execute the most difficult task, removing the section of the bridge that had collapsed onto the bow of the dali. the team successfully used demolitions to cut the bridge away from the ship. this will facilitate the removal of the remaining wreckage from the river. we opened a full channel by the end of may. we are tremendously proud to be part of the stellar unified team that was mentioned earlier safely removing the bridge wreckage from the federal channel allowing the port of baltimore to resume use of the channel. thank you chairman grace, ranking member larsen and members of the committee.

>> thank you. you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you chairman graves, ranking member larsen and members of the committee. the collapse of the francis scott key bridge on march 26 was a tragic event for baltimore, maryland and the entire nation. we must not lose sight of the devastating impact this tragedy has had on the victims and their families. the victims of fathers, friends and members of the communities. we will always honor these individuals will working to strengthen our systems. i want to thank our administrators who work quickly to save lives. while i have been engaged in a number of bridge related incidents in my career i have never seen -- never seen

anything at this scale. it is a monumental task to clean up the site but as a peer today -- as i appear today, i have great confidence in our team to respond to calamity. the federal highway administration mobilized internally across multiple offices and externally with local, state and federal partners. president biden has been clear in the administration's commitment to reconstruct the bridge. undersecretary buttigieg's leadership and the hoa is actively coordinating with other departments and offices within the maryland department of transportation, the maryland state authority, u.s. coast guard, city of baltimore, u.s. army corps of engineers and others to mitigate supply chain impacts, managed traffic and reconstruct the bridge.

they're actively supporting the safety boards investigation of the collapse. they have been in collect -- in direct communication with mdot and is committed to supporting these efforts so that the bridge can be reconstructed as quickly and safely as possible. safely as possible. it's critical that we reconstruct the vital connection for people it is critical that we ensure the core doors open, operational and safe for the public. on march 28, within hours of receiving the request for funding assistance, fhwa announced the immediate availability and quick release emergency funds. these funds serve as a down payment toward initial costs, additional emergency relief funding will be made available

as work continues. the administration is asking congress to join it in demonstrating a commitment to recovery efforts by authorizing a 100% federal cost share the bridge consistent with catastrophic bridge collapses. fhwa continues to provide wide range and technical assistance to maryland d.o.t. providing procurement for debris removal to reconstruct the bridge quickly and safely. fhwa is also working to ensure that the new bridge will be dealt to current design standards in accordance with all applicable federal laws. on march 26, 2024, the day of the collapse fhwa met with transportation liaisons from the u.s. army corps of engineers, coast guard, fish and wildlife, national oceanic and atmospheric administration, the council on historic

preservation and epa to discuss emergency procedures and consideration to expedite the review and permitting process for future reconstruction. fhwa continues to meet with agencies to discuss permitting. thank you to the state and local and federal entities that continue to respond to this event. whether it is this scale and complexity or the comparably smaller incidents on 95 in philadelphia and 10 in los angeles i'm proud to lead an agency that is playing a part showing the country what can happen when the government and industry come together with a common goal. there are no democratic roads or republican bridges. transportation unites us. fhwa will continue to do everything we can to support the response and we will not rest until this event has created a new bridge. we will be happy to answer any questions. >> chair.

>> thank you. good morning chairman, ranking member and members of the committee. with me today is the lead investigator on this accident, the acting director of marine safety and other dedicated ntsb staff. thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the ongoing investigation into the collapse of the francis scott key bridge. on behalf of the ntsb i offer heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who were lost in this tragedy and our deepest sympathies to those who were injured or otherwise impacted i the event. i also want to thank our numerous federal and state partners for their support on scene and throughout this investigation. yesterday we released the preliminary report showing that the dolly experienced four total power outages. luminary information indicates that the march 25 blackout were mechanically distinct from those that occurred on march

26. two were related to routine maintenance in port. two were unexpected tripping of circuit breakers on the accident voyage. on the 25th, a blackout occurred when a crewmember mistakenly closed an engine damper while he was working on the exhaust system in port. this effectively blocked the engine exhaust gas from traveling out of the vessel stack causing the engine to stall. vessel power was briefly restored but insufficient fuel pressure to the online generator caused the speed to decrease. the breaker opened and a second blackout occurred. while recovering from the second blackout, the crew switch to a different transformer instead of breakers. from those that had menus from several months. switching breakers is not unusual. it may have affected operations the next day on the accident

voyage. the configuration of the breakers remains under investigation. on the 26th when the ship was about .6 miles from the bridge, one high-voltage and one low- voltage breaker that were powering most of the vessel equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped. as a result, the vessel lost main propulsion. bridge equipment also lost power and the voyage data recorder lost system feeds. bridge audio continued to be recorded. the crew was able to briefly restore power to the vessel, but another blackout occurred when a different breaker tripped. at this point the ship was about .2 miles from the key bridge. the crew regained electrical power right before the dolly peer 17 but they were unable to restore propulsion.

the ship had an emergency generator which automatically started following the first blackout on the 26. however, the generator only powers systems like emergency lighting, navigation, radio equipment, alarms, and a steering pump that allowed for low speed limited writer movement. it does not power propulsion. without the propeller turning the writer was left ineffective. they were essentially drifting. we are still investigating the exact time the emergency generator started. going forward, this is a complex investigation. our investigators have been on scene consistently since the accident. in fact, they are on board the vessel as i testify today. it's unprecedented to be there that long. we will continue evaluating the design and operation of the power distribution system including breakers, examination of damage to the vessel will

continue when the ship is clear of debris and move to a facility. we are also working with maryland as they assess protection on other bridges and we are examining protection improvements that have been made following other bridge collapses resulting from marine vessel strikes that we have investigated in the past. lastly, there are a lot of questions regarding the fuel. our investigators found the ship was running on low sulfur marine gas oil at the time of the accident which it had been using since march 21. we directed an independent lab to test all fuel stored on the ship including the fuel that was seen burned at the time of the accident. test results did not identify any concerns related to the quality of the fuel. thank you again for the opportunity to testify. i look forward to answering your westerns. >> thank you. we will turn to questions.

i will let rick ask the first one. >> think you. i appreciate that. the first question is for the administrator. you said when you look at reconstruction of the bridge you look at current standards and system of law. does the current law allow in a circumstance like this a rebuild of a different kind of bridge in order to be eligible for federal or for the cost share? you can build one under current standards and that could be in violation with law under the circumstance that allows you to use. >> thank you for the question. i think what we are examining and working with maryland d.o.t. on, the original bridge was built in the 1970s. it's a trust bridge which was common at the time. today most of the bridges that

are being replaced our cable bridges. a different standard so we will want to hear from the ntsb on the final results of that investigation, but under the law what we want to do is replace the current standards. maryland d.o.t. will be allowed to do that. >> admiral, the court has expended significant resources in the recovery effort. there's no mechanism, the coast guard -- there is no mechanism for the coast guard to recoup that funding. they are not typically reimbursed for this kind of work. with a workforce shortage of about 10%, you are closing the downgrade stations with the coast guard not because of this

incident that what is happening with the coast guard. we passed the coast guard authorization that gets us to the 14 1/2 billion dollars for 25 and $15 billion for 26. we are not near the goal of $20 billion for 2030. so this appropriation for the key bridge, how is the coast guard thinking about being part of that to get some cost recovery. >> i don't want to get ahead on the plans. the way have articulated first of all we've been expending operating funds like for emergency responses and other things. we have been keeping close tabs on those. so far we have spent about $20 million of direct and indirect response. what we have seen in these events and others like it, we

do what we call burn readiness. we have to have other assets around the area work harder to cover for the aircraft people that are working these. we mobilized now. on average we have had about 200 individuals at the command post per day. that has gone down. we are mobilizing them from around the country. in fact, most of them are from outside baltimore right now. there's opportunity cost from the command that provide those individuals. i think what this exposes, you know as well, this is becoming more and more brittle as we fail to have the budget reaching that $20 billion a year the coast guard has articulated. reaching the $3 billion a year on improvement double what we actually receive in order to get the necessary capitalization.

this manifests in a whole bunch of different ways for asking for additional support for appropriations to the future. >> last week we appropriated $20 million including $1 million out of my district and from prior-year funds. do you have an estimate of how many more dollars you might need, and second, how are you thinking about supplemental appropriations or cost recovery ? >> ranking member larsen, thank you for that question. we certainly want to get ahead of the administration. right now we have been able to use the project funds as opening statement indicated. the dredging work that we plan to do this year will still need to be done. the emergency reprogramming, most of that money so where

does that money come from. this happens when it was a very favorable environment. we were able to go back to those funds. a good example of what some of that might be. a contractor might put a claim on a project or request for equitable adjustment. a few years later those claims have been adjudicated. if we did not have to pay that request we would un-obligate those funds. >> mr. chairman, if i can indulge for a moment i want to let the chair know. i will need to absorb that report and just the data point of the committee. the skagit river bridge collapsed in 2013.

that cost a total of $19 million . it took us two years to recover that. we should not be waiting. it will have to take place first. i will be dead by the time we get the money back from the ocean carrier. it is a data point for folks. >> mr. chairman, thank you for your testimony. i want to start by acknowledging the workers that lost their lives as a result of the collapse of the bridge. after the collapse president biden came out and said it was his, quote, intention that the

federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing the bridge. further he had directed his team to move heaven and earth to reopen the poor and the bridge as soon as possible. we have a series of questions here as we try to under canned -- understand the mechanics. if you would give me a yes or no response in the interest of time. while the bridge was located on i-695 prior to the collapse it was not considered part of the interstate. rather that was maryland highway. the bridge had never previously received federal funding, is that correct? i understand federal highways has received a request to designate the bridge as interstate. is that correct? >> yes. >> this will now be 90%. is that correct? >> yes. instead of 80. >> what we are talking about is adult of 10% for a bridge that previously never received any federal funding.

>> yes. >> in your testimony you mentioned authorizing 100% federal cost share would be consistent with past catastrophic bridge collapses. how many times has congress authorized a 100% federal share for a fully collapsed bridge? >> i think the reference point we are using is the i-35w collapse in minnesota. >> this is a reimbursement program. correct? >> that is correct. >> as i understand that you are financing process generally individual states that the program office as a process to make sure projects are ready to receive funding and work can be completed by the time. is that correct? >> it does not matter if the project is getting 80%, 80%, or even 100%. it is based on project progress or delivery. correct? >> yes. >> i just want to be clear that

nothing will move faster if this is 100% funded versus 90% whether the state contributes money or not. the process is still the same. correct? >> can i deviate from this for a second? >> go ahead. >> yes. however, this is the second- largest request we've ever received, $2.2 billion for katrina was the first one 1.7 to $1.9 billion. the 10% delta is about 172 $190 million for the state of maryland that is programming the multiyear and multi-dollar program. it may not be this project but may have impacts on other projects. >> in the time i have left let's talk about the regulatory regime we apply here. are we going to expect any kind of waivers or anything like that on any regulatory compliance measures that would be customary on any other construction project? >> sir, we would not waive that or any of the environmental

requirements but what we have done is coordinated with the agencies who issue permits. it's our intention because it previously existed in this relative footprint that it would be likely a categorical exclusion which would minimize. >> expand on categorical exclusion? >> when you go through you can either do a full environmental impact statement. we can get to a finding of no significant impact on environmental assessment, categorical exclusion is the more time-limited finding. we would use that as here because we are putting the bridge back in relatively the same spot. >> that is not necessarily, because you are using the construction would there be some associated studies. >> it is relatively in that

same footprint but will probably is different peers. that's why i can't say definitively. it is what we are working towards. >> it sounds like there will be a great ability of restoring traffic and commerce, everything associated with the bridge? >> i'm not sure flexibility is the right word. i think attention from sister agencies and understand the desire to move quickly. >> i'm all for that. i hope in the future other projects are given the same consideration. because time is money and i understand that is certainly the case here but there are a lot of other projects pending that have caused millions and regulatory compliance fees that have really been delayed as a result. thank you. i yells back.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. administrator bhatt, the department of transportation data shows that traffic crashes rose 29% in alternative routes in the weeks following the key bridge collapse. the same data shows that it now takes between two and four times longer for drivers to travel those alternative routes. that traffic means trucks are delayed in reaching their destinations, commuters are late getting to their jobs, or home to their families. there is more air pollution and wasted

fuel. how has the loss of the key bridge hurt traffic safety and reduced mobility for drivers in the baltimore region? >> thank you for the question. i think, we saw in philadelphia after 95, we have the bridge collapsed. there was all kinds of traffic moving through neighborhoods trying to find their way. i think a similar effect is happening in baltimore. usually when you have an impact where you remove a significant piece of infrastructure, traffic seems to level out after a while. that is not happening in baltimore to the same extent. i think it is just because of the criticality of the artery. it's part of the northeast corridor. it's important for maryland and baltimore but also the northeast corridor.

there are trucks and vehicles moving through neighborhoods that would normally not be on. that is why it is so critically important that we move as quickly as possible. >> administrator bhatt, it is clear that we need to restore commerce to the port of baltimore and rebuilt the bridge. to improve safety and mobility. the full maryland delegation has proposed legislation to provide 100% federal share of the cost of the new bridge. i wholeheartedly support this legislation. what affect with the 100% federal share have on efforts to rebuild the bridge quickly? >> thank you for the question. i have spent a lot of time running state duties in my career. i've been on the private side. this job works on bridges across the globe. i would just say with the

benefit of the 100% share, it just removes an element of uncertainty. right now i think maryland, i have to commend maryland d.o.t. they have been consummate professionals through the process. right now, what they are contemplating is an er shortage that we have told them about that we have $3.7 billion in unmet and the federal highway administration has about $870 million available for nationwide er efforts. we believe we will have the funding there for you and then there's the uncertainty of the 90% versus the 100% and 80% uncertainty. as you are planning out these multiyear multibillion-dollar construction programs, not knowing whether or not that $170 million is going to be there, does it impact things right now in this moment? no. they will move forward but as they are projecting out and

trying to build the construction program, it is an element of uncertainty that can be helpful. just to clarify on the 100%, obviously any insurance payments as the ranking member had mentioned would be reapplied. i can pretty much with certainty guarantee this will not be 100% federally funded eventually because we will recoup the insurance payments as possible and it will go back and to the er funds but as the ranking member mentioned we don't want to wait through the litigation and ntsb investigations and insurance. >> thank you. i yelled back. >> thank you, mr. chairman for putting this together. . last week the army corps notified congressional offices that they would be utilizing the emergency programming authority

to re-program approximately $33 million for operation and maintenance for recovery '-- cost for the key bridge. nearly $1 million was reappropriated from florida. and projects in florida without any request or input from the state or the people. while the recovery effort in baltimore is important, this reprogramming of the funds represents the blatant disregard for florida and desperately needed improvements to the water resources and infrastructure. general graham, these program funds were deemed to be in excess, why did the core let these funds let -- sit for years and not use them for

projects in florida. will they reimburse the south atlantic division for these funds. >> congressman webster, thank you for these question. the example i used earlier of the funds that we had set aside for when a contractor put a claim, that was from jacksonville. it was from the jacksonville harbor. in this case that money is no longer needed for the jacksonville harbor project. those funds in particular that we had set them aside for a need and that meat did not materialize, we will not seek recoupment for those. we did do this work, this emergency reprogramming work very rapidly. as i stated in my opening statement, we have not used

this authority at the scale for 15 years. we were a little clunky at it in terms of notification to you and your staff. i will use jacksonville district as an example, if there are some of those funds that they do find a need for, we will figure out a way to make sure that projects continue. to your first comment on some of those old funds that have been sitting out there for a while, why haven't we cleaned up the books sooner? sir, you are absolutely right. we should have. >> you know better than most that the gulf states fight against the national contingency plan unified command structure response throughout the deep horizon oil spill. the national institute commander report included the states effort resulted in the political and social nullification of the oil spill. the oil spill response for the doctrine and structuring

governance. it appears from these reports that meetings with maryland state officials and members staff, plus a number of staff member trips to the wreck site, that maryland embrace the national incident command structure and has worked well within that structure. is the national incident command structure still an effective coordinating federal interagency and state and local and federal interactions during the incidents such as the dolly? >> congressman, i cannot agree more with your statement. as the chief of staff on the deepwater horizon spill and now being somebody who has been witness to the terrific work of the unified effort in this one. it has been a very very different in terms of

cooperation and collaboration. underpinning that is the absolute necessity and benefit of the incident command system under the national incident management system framework that has served this response incredibly well is the doctrine of the u.s.. any agency entity, army corps, state can come together with a common lexicon, a common way of planning to come together and make this work. i would also like to highlight a real difference that has made a difference. and that is that elected leadership and the operational leadership has been connected in a very constructive way. from governor moore to mayor scott to members of congress from the maryland delegation, they have taken it upon themselves to get regular updates and a great interest in the progress of the response. they have handled for the unified command a lot of the

public affairs and external communications in a very constructive way. they have actually provided the trade space for the operational response to continue on without pressure, without being rushed. it's been very constructive. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> thank you, chairman graves and ranking member larsen for holding this hearing on the federal response of the francis scott key bridge collapse in maryland. i further extend my condolences to the families of the six individuals that lost their lives during the collapse. i think our esteemed witnesses for appearing today especially administrator bhatt who was in memphis on monday . i appreciate you coming to see the urgent need to replace it across the mississippi river. of course as you well know a

national treasure to have transportation across the country. we had a problem last year with the 40 bridge and the i-55 bridge could have the same problem . it is projected to occur and has been predicted for about 20 years. it will occur more likely sooner than later. as you all look at the damages to the key bridge which were caused partially i think because it was not built to withstand that large of a boat, the peers may be could have been buttressed and made it more stable. is that correct? mr. bhatt, can you answer ? >> thank you.

it was good to spend some time looking at the bridge. i think one of the things we are waiting for, and it was great to see the preliminary report for the ntsb, but we will be working closely with the ntsb just to figure out exactly what types of protection might be needed for bridges and what might -- what could have been possible. i do not want to step into the ntsb realm. >> i'm sorry. please. >> thank you, sir. for the key bridge we are obviously looking, there were two dolphins on the east side and two on the west side. they are rather small and the vessels bypassed the dolphins. what ended up striking the peer -- pier is the starboard side of the bow that hit the column. the pier protection around the column itself is timber, concrete, a little bit of steel. it is very close to the pier

itself. other structures that we are looking at have pier protection that comes out farther. the vessel cannot get to the column. other dolphins are much larger so we are looking at other structures across the united states to see good models. the key here is you have a bridge that was opened in 1997. over time, it's not the bridge that is getting larger. atop the waterway getting larger. it's the vessels that are getting larger. not just with width but height . it's important that they are looking from a risk assessment standpoint but is now going through, what is the vessel traffic? how are -- how is the infrastructure protected?

>> with the bridges built after 1977 that were built in a fashion that they would have been was able to withstand such an impact? >> that's an important question we are subject to see going vessels in the great lakes region. i think what this region has done is driven home that need to look at many of the bridges which we will do and rely on the ntsb recommendations. again, there was a lot of force. i have heard different analogies of the force. the equivalent of a rocket ship taking off. we just want to be careful in consideration of how we protect

and build bridges in the 21st century as we deal with these new potential threats. >> thank you. i would like to urge you as i did in memphis, that we need to look at preventative measures so we do not have another francis scott key bridge disaster. earthquakes can cause that. there's no place in the united states more vulnerable than the there were standards. it is deficient and needs to be replaced. i hope you will look at bridges at the ones that might be susceptible. i hate to give god the responsibility, but the disasters caused by others events. thank you for coming. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

i will offer my condolences to the family and it underscores the circumstance how potentially horrific and almost unimaginable what might be seen as mundane work and that being in a critical moment. it's unimaginable if you can imagine that 3:00 a.m. falling in the water and steel and concrete crashing. the francis scott key bridge was a facility that never received any federal funding prior to the collapse, right?>> yes her. >> how much -- >> i would have to double check.

>> under the current plan the bridge would get 100% share. so the federal government would pay 100% of that and while you say this is consistent with bridge collapsed emergencies in the past, and i think you are referring to the i-35 collapse, it was not a toll bridge. it was part of the interstate system. so my questions center around payment for this. i think we can all agree that we probably and should not wait for the insurance companies and litigators to work it out, but maryland had insurance on the bridge, didn't they? >> i am aware of one policy that maryland has four 350 million. >> so that should by all rights be action to go toward paying for a portion, whatever portion of the bridge reconstruction it would pay for.

>> absolutely. i have yet to go through and have our lawyers figure out what is in there. a portion of that 350 million would apply. >> so i guess when you say consistent with past emergencies , you say the really fun is 3.7 behind. at the federal level, i wonder if you think it is fair that the american taxpayer should not only pay to reconstruct the bridge, but pay tolls after which to use the infrastructure they just paid for in their taxes. you will set a new precedent. is that what we are going to set, or is there a plan to recoup the cost of reconstruction of the bridge, and i think according to the figures, upwards of $2 billion per bridge that originally cost

60.3. is there a plan to recoup that and send it back into the disaster relief fund or the highway fund that continually needs massive infusions just to stay afloat. what is the plan? >> very important questions and i appreciate your interest. let me try to quickly go through that. this was a maryland state facility and has been designated part of the interstate system. they used the tolls -- whatever they were using them for. now that it is federalized, as part of the interstate system you have to use those for title 23 eligible funding. weather's maintenance of the existing bridge or other title 23 highway purposes, so the

taxpayer will be benefiting from those. in terms of the precedents, if it was a pre-existing toll facility, they can do that going forward, but it would be using title 23 eligible expenditures on those. >> i understand the title 23 expenditures, but you are asking taxpayers from across the country to pay for it, and if you're from washington state, you will never travel across that bridge, but you will pay for its. as long as we are setting precedent, i would be appropriate to consider, reimbursing the emergency fund or the transportation fund for the entire country before all the money goes right back to the state that's going to be receiving it where the bridge resides which can be said was not prepared to withstand the traffic impact that it had.

meanwhile, it's right there. it's not like this was a surprise and this could happen. with that in mind, with the time that i've expended, i hope you would consider a plan to reimburse the taxpayer under horrific debt right now who cannot afford their groceries or gas bills or daycare for the cost of this bridge for which one state has been receiving all the money for its entire existence and will receive all the money from the tolls for the rest of its existence. and with that, i yield. >> thank you. witnesses, the support organizations that you

contacted with are doing extraordinary work and we thank you for that. the issue before this committee was laid out by the chairman in his opening remarks. i would suggest we have an opportunity to clarify the responsibilities, some of which we heard from the previous member a moment ago. a couple of things. first of all, president biden is correct. we will put up the full cost of reconstruction, however, that legislation should be written in such a way that the federal government will be reimbursed for any money received in the liability. the 350 million that the state of maryland had as an

insurance policy on the bridge as well as whatever other payment may come from lawsuits against the shipping company and the owner of the ship. this should be the work of this committee is to carefully structure the legislation so that the federal government putting up 100% at the outset would be fully reimbursed by any revenues. my colleague raises an interesting point about tolls. we should consider that and how it fits in and keep in mind the entire interstate system where tolls are collected in various places across the united states. those are things out there. there's one other issue i want to encourage this committee to deal with. in addition to recovering whatever money might be available from lawsuits. and that is the limit of

liability act of 1851. it seems as though perhaps that precedes the law in arizona, which dealt with a different issue. the limited liability act has to change. i would urge the committee to take up this issue. i intend to present at the appropriate time a piece of legislation to do so so the owners of these vessels would be held responsible for the cost of their mistakes. and right now that limited liability would hold that the owner of the ship would be limited to some $40 million, even though the ship is worth 90 million or more and the damage somewhere around 2 billion, not including cost of

recovery issues and the expenses that the coast guard and army corps of engineers are now incurring. my point is to raises policy issue and i think the chairman pointed out that we don't need to do much for the next couple of months, but this year we have to ask legislation to clarify the ability of the federal government to receive any funds that are available that are out there. and also this committee should, since it is our jurisdictional area, deal with that 1851 law that limits liability of the shipowner to any accident and problem that they may cause. now, i don't know if this is an

appropriate question for the general and vice admiral, but you can answer if you like. but if you would comment on the issue of how we might structure legislation to recover whatever damages may be in the future from insurance or lawsuits. >> i'm happy to share my time. under the existing law as it states, any insurance monies that are recouped for any er event do go back into the fund. so the ranking member mentions $19 million skagen at river bridge. and it went back in. but you said 10 years after the incident.

whether it's or post- investigation legal activity but as you point out there are questions about how much liability for the shipowner is out there. >> that should be addressed to the coast guard who might want to comment on that. >> thank you mr. chairman. and thank you for your testimony. there is resentment among my colleagues in the american public the sentiment is frustrating. if you zoom out, a singapore

vessel destroys an historic bridge, kills six construction workers and is trying to avoid liability for the incident. is it safe for foreign flag vessels to operate in u.s. waterways. are under bridges safe, was this a result of foul play or negligence? what can we do to prevent this from ever happening again, and who will pay for this. and i appreciate you coming to answer questions. my first question is for the admiral. i know this is a great team effort. but i'm told that the coast guard has done a great job leading the way in the unified response of baltimore. so want to thank you for your commitment and all the hard work that you and the coast guard have done. as you know better than most,

the gulf states fought against the national contingency plan throughout deepwater horizon oil spill a few years ago in the gulf of mexico. the national incident commander's report concluded that gulf states -- the gulf states effort resulted in the political and social nullification of the oil spill response doctor and and structured governance. it appears that maryland embraced the national incident command structure and the response has worked well within that structure. is the national incident command structure still an effective and efficient mechanism for coordinating federal interagency and state and local interactions during incidents like this collision?

>> i have to acknowledge the leadership of the army corps of engineers, and those who are the state incident commanders. it is a fantastic leadership team. it is absolutely a fundamental principle by which this incident response has been successful. it's part of u.s. doctrine under the national incident management system and how we respond to hurricanes and oil spills and other incidents like this. i think we have a great deal of practice in the u.s. since the deepwater horizon. this particular incident had a very tight connection between the operational commanders, who were running this and elected leaders, who all shared the same objectives. the elected leaders took the time and effort.

the governor and members of congress, to keep up to date on what was going on and provide trade space. >> thank you. i would like to address to mr. bhatt. what is the plan to replace the bridge, my constituents are not willing to pay for this and in my view the company or country responsible for the incident should be footing the bill, not the u.s. taxpayer. the u.s. will pay for this and it better come out of funds that we've already allocated. president biden and the speaker pelosi authorized trillions for the infrastructure and that should include bridges. the last thing i want to do is spend another 1 to 2 billion on a new bridge. so talk to me about what you see is a pathway forward. >> in terms of the rebuild path

, marilyn d.o.t. will issue their rfp and select a preferred team and they're looking at construction completion in 2028. in terms of the payment, as i've stated, there's a preliminary estimate of 4.7 billion. there's an insurance payment we are working through to see what level would be applicable in any funds recovered through insurance will go back into the er fund. we just don't have a path to get there in terms of what is eligible.>> okay. i yield back. >> thank you for holding this important hearing

>> i want to offer my condolences to the six construction workers in this bridge collapsed and i would like to commend the quick work of police officers who made sure that traffic was stopped and no other people were on the bridge to could have been killed as a result of this collapse. i also would like to recognize the collaboration between state and federal officials and agencies to address this situation. i want to get at this issue of perhaps there being some people in the country who are not inside the state of maryland who resent having to pay for

this bridge reconstruction. can you tell us how this bridge collapsed impacts interstate commerce? >> i think that what is so critically important for the transportation system is you can drive from new york to los angeles across a system that is uniform and set two standards and i think what we've learned is that the highway system is tied into the busiest port so neighborhoods are being impacted and this is not just an issue

for maryland. it's for the northeast corridor and the national economy. >> it is having an impact on prices for consumer goods. is that correct? >> that's something that we've been closely looking at many of the goods that move through there. there is a lot of coal and automobiles and farm equipment. a lot of that traffic has been diverted. , but there's a lot of movement of goods from ships that have been diverted back to maryland and it's adding costs for those vehicles to be finished at plants nearby. >> thank you. when is it projected, assuming that funding is in place, that the bridge can be rebuilt and reopened?>> thank you. the

projected schedule right now is a progressive design build team to be selected this summer and construction begin next year and run through 2028.>> thank you. so it would be 2029 before the bridge would reopen for traffic?>> 2028 or 2029. we will figure out the schedule as we go.>> with respect to the causation of a cargo vessel losing power and causing this vessel to drift into the bridge , are there concerns -- does the fact that there seems to be no redundancy in terms of the basic power of the vessel,

there's no redundancy. it's cut off and there's no secondary situation that would kick in? am i correct on that? and if i am, what are the implications moving forward? >> there is redundancy. they switched circuit breakers after the power outages and with respect to the emergency generator, it would not allow for regaining propulsion. focuses on the critical portions of the vessel, which would be radio communication, lighting. if you had any kind of -- if you wanted to regain propulsion through any kind of emergency generator, it would take a six- story generator on a vessel to

do that. there is redundancy in cruise ships but the dali is not unlike other vessels. it is determining for us what happened with the electrical system on the accident voyage. what happened in those blackouts , which is why we've been working closely with hyundais who manufactures the equipment to try to replicate some of the electrical problems that were seen that day and continue to look and test each of the components.>> thank you. i yield back. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to wish condolences to those that were lost in the

bridge collapsed. last week i had the opportunity to go out to the bridge and the lieutenant who is behind you, absolutely remarkable. your district commander she and her team did a great job. just an incredibly thorough briefing and gave comfort that things were under control and i appreciate the efforts underway. administrator, i will make sure i understand something. you said that what is being done

is consistent with what has been done in other bridges in the past. is that accurate? >> i'm trying to think of what i said.>> you said consistent with his store bridge disasters. but there's not another bridge where it was designated as part of the interstate system?>> we only learned it was not part of the interstate system in light of this event. >> that is an anomaly. >> yes. >> secondly, you talked about the use of categorical exclusions and alternative arrangements. in the past minneapolis bridge, the i-35 bridge, the one in washington state, similar things have been done. can you site where there has been environmental damage or destruction from that approach as opposed going through the

regular nipa. >> citing environmental damage by the expedited approach?>> i cannot. general, he recall after katrina, levees were built doing alternative arrangements. do member destruction that was caused by alternative arrangements? >> i think it worked out really well. my message to you is right now the average road project takes around seven years and the white house is just released new rules on nipa. attempting to be in line with the fiscal responsibility act that would shorten it. but the message is, this should not be the exception. environmental damages haven't resulted from alternative

arrangements. i don't know what the trafficked impact is that this bridge. we have a bridge at home that's the fourth worst traffic problem in america. i-10 from california to florida. the fourth worst traffic in america. we taken seven years to nero a new bridge alignment down to 32 alignments. you cannot make this up. we have urgency there. i fully support -- fully support federal funding. let's get it built and done as quickly as possible. i've been in touch with the governor of maryland. but this is a major anomaly. we have a toll any responsible party. i think we need to make sure we hold the responsible party accountable. we had the bright field incident

and crashed into the river walk. it was run by chinese and flagged in library. can you think of any similar incidents with jones act vessels that occurred like this? >> not from deep draft vessels like this. >> are you aware of anything? so one thing i want to point out for the record, jones act vessels, u.s. flag, we go through annual inspections a night and day difference. lastly it will not be built exactly like it was. you have a different configurations, is that correct?

>> yes, sir. >> this is going to be a different bridge effectively providing alternative arrangements or categorical exclusions. i yield back. >> i offer my sympathy to the families of those who were lost. these people represent the invisible folks on the sidelines who provide safety and security to that infrastructure. and the harbor workers and police officers who made the situation must much less terrible than it already was. i would ask the chairwoman and administrator bhatt about one of the things pointed out. it seems like it did not have a reliable system to protect appears from the crash.

is there an existing program with funding that could be used to retrofit bridges to make sure they don't have the same problem? >> thank you for that question. we've recommended in 1988 that the coast guard and federal highways evaluate the adequacy of pure protection over navigable waterways. at the time the coast guard said they didn't have the authority to take action one thing i will say is the federal government states that bridge owners need to evaluate current structures and

make sure if you have navigable waterways that you are doing a risk analysis to ensure safety and to ensure there is adequate pier protection. we are looking at pier protection and the dolphins and the protection around the piers themselves. and to see how others have been improved over time. in the situation you have a bridge that began operations in 1977. if it was built today, i would be built differently. that has to be taken into consideration. i am very encouraged by what the admiral announced their board of inquiry looking at ports across the u.s. to make sure there's adequate protection and i assume that will include structures like bridges.

>> administrator bhatt, would you like to comment? >> thank you. we are working closely with the ntsb and i respect their thoughts and guidance. we've already reached out to the partners in the d.o.t. after -- to figure out what they had. we already have a preliminary list and its deep draft vessels and examining all the threat and doing a cost-benefit analysis of what protections are quickly deployable and how do we get these bridges protected and update design standards given the ever- changing nature of vessels going underneath them. >> is that available with any

kind of funding or can be used to retrofit some of these bridges if they don't meet these requirements that you are talking about?>> yes. in the bipartisan infrastructure law there was 12.5 billion allocated to discretionary grant funding and seismic protection and retrofitting is possible. this is something we will look into as we work with state partners who are applying for those funds. >> did you find any problems with the program to work toward retrofitting in a situation like this to make it more difficult, we let us know so if we need to make changes, we can address those?>> yes, ma'am. >> thank you. i yield back.

>> the gentleman from north carolina.>> thank you mr. chairman i want to extend my condolences to all those who were injured in this tragic happening. general graham, last week the army corps announced it would appropriate dollars toward the efforts of baltimore harbor. it is our understanding they were appropriated in 2020 or earlier. and have determined to be more than what is needed for the authorized projects. is that an accurate portrayal? >> that is accurate. >> so this is created a bit of confusion among members and even the committee. back home, for example, we have the wilmington district has seen several projects whose funds

have been repurposed, morehead city harmer had hundreds of thousands of dollars redirected from maintenance accounts. can you provide the committee with the amount of reprogrammed dollars and a list of the projects you reprogram those from and which districts those funds are in?>> absolutely. and then, how much money is sitting out there that is in an account appropriated in 2020 or earlier that has been left unused. . i would like to know that. and following up, does the army corps plan to use [ inaudible ] authority or is there a limit

to the number of times they can use that authority? >> probably we will have to use emergency reprogramming authority. as i said, we've not used that authority at this scale for 15 years and we understand that congress put specific amounts of money on specific projects that you intend to be used for those projects. as stated earlier, most of these funds were the result of we held on to federal claims with contractors. to your statement on our accounting procedures, did they need to be looked at so old funds are not out there? absolutely we are committed to

that. >> following up, given that these are going to be reprogrammed, just -- what is your plan? and if so, what would that time line be? >> the district had no uses for these so as such we do not plan to return them. if they come up with and say we do need some of these, we will make sure that those projects can be delivered.>> every district has a disaster of some kind and i suspect that all of those army corps districts, have flexibility to tap into funding that was allocated specific projects within the jurisdiction, which is why i asked that question. with that, i think that

exhausts my line of questioning. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chair. i recently made a visit to the francis scott key bridge incident with a number of my colleagues. the coast guard has a responsibility to respond have it out side impact this incident comes at a time where there are strained resources. what is the operational strain on the coast guard's responding to the bridge collapsed and how can congress help and what is the impact on the workforce? >> we've activated reservists

to staff the command post. refused cutters and small boat's and there is an immediate area impact. what we know is for unplanned incidents like this that we mobilize lot very quickly, there are readiness impacts that happen well beyond the initial site. i think going into what is likely to be a severe hurricane season, i think the main thing here, we have to have continued financial appropriation support from congress. we spent about $20 million so far. we know that the readiness is brittle. there is a cutter on scene that

is 62 years old. and this is repeated again and again. >> thank you. the u.s. vessels are subject to higher standards and scrutiny. this is why believe it's unacceptable that we rely on vessels to carry over 90% of our international cargo. there's a small minority of colleagues that believe that the jones act should be repealed. i am not one of them. how would your job of ensuring safety in u.s. waters be made more difficult if u.s. vessels,

failing in coastal waterways were supplanted by foreign ships with foreign mariners? >> your question is related to safety and the implications of safety. the jones act has been with us for 100 years. it's foundational to help maritime commerce flows. and the coast guard has worked hard to provide a level of safety from foreign flag vessels through established standards. what i can say is the jones act is crucial for maritime security elements in terms of the industrial shipbuilding capability and that others rely on in terms of public vessels as well. we don't want to jeopardize

that maritime security element. >> is a common practice for american mariners working on u.s. flagships to work on board a vessel for 2 to 3 months at a time sailing often remain at sea for longer. i understand they've been on board for more than eight months. should we be concerned with the prevalence of flags of convenience vessels, which operate with lower standards operating in and around critical u.s. infrastructures? >> we're still evaluating and we will look at any kind of federal regulations

>> that should not be of concern? >> we have to evaluate with this particular accident what was in place and whether it was adequate or not. >> beyond this incident, is there a concern? >> i would have to get back to you on that for the record.>> thank you. mr. chair, i yield back. >> the chair -- >> i want to associate myself with the comments of concern for the families and prayers and to thank the people that responded so well. ensuring

that our nation's infrastructure is secure and maintained is an important responsibility. it's also important to have uniform guidelines when local communities reach out for assistance to do road work, they know that local caused shares at 20%. recently u.s. 51 we had to close and it will be closed for quite some time because a sinkhole opened up and the local community will need to repair the road and there will be a cost connected with that work. however, i do not expect the community to redesignate the road to be considered part of the highway system. despite being located on 695, the key bridge was not part of

the inner the interstate highway system. the incident occurred in march and the bridge designation was not applied to be changed until april. are you aware of this change cost share requirement and is it normal or is it normal for a change to be designated after an incident? >> thank you for the question. this is the first time i'm aware of this. but can you explain, for the sake of the taxpayers and the people around this country who have issues, how a roadway has a designated change after work was identified because the constituents i represent would like to figure out how to do that.

we have uniform rules in place, and if we are going to change them, i need answers. >> apologies to the community that had the sinkhole. i'm sure that is an impactful event for the community. in this case this portion of 695 was part of the nhs. it was shielded since it was built in the 1970s. so for mapping purposes there were some standards that were a little bit different that when they applied to have a designated, we had to due process and that went from the 80/20 share 290/10 sure. that section was part of the

interstate so this was at the request of maryland to have it redesignated and we get those requests -- their parts of the interstate system that are shielded. an alabama a few years ago. >> you do that through administrative rule. it does not require an act of congress?>> they would need to come in and say these are the design exceptions whether it's curbs or other elements and our engineers would say, yes, this is why we would approve those exceptions. >> you have to understand the concerns of uniformity, and i -- i'm not arguing we shouldn't fix this as fast as possible. and as was mentioned by people questioning pop insurance will not pay off overnight. there will be arguments and we

need a fix quickly. other communities around the nation have issues that come up and not having a set standard to how we respond and how we get a response back to her own community makes it difficult when you do something that's not normal and we have to have answers. >> i recognize mr. garcia. >> thank you, madam chair, for hosting this hearing and thanks to all of the witnesses. i want to echo the sentiments of other members who are remembering the tragic loss of life of six workers, all of them immigrants from mexico and central america, seeking a

better life in this country and meeting a very tragic fate. as we rebuild the key bridge must also advocate for stronger workplace protections for all, including immigrant workers. this brings me to my first question. administrator bhatt, the construction workers were on the bridge at the time of the collision and one worker was able to rent to safety. if there had been more time when the ship lost the power was reported in the collision happened, is there a protocol in place for bridge worker evacuation in an event such as this collision, and if so, can you describe it?>> thank you, congressman, for your concern for the workers. all work stone -- all work

stones are dangerous places and we have rules in place for the state or city that is procuring the contract and the companies that are out there, i would defer to others. what i learned through our discussions is there was a police officer who was attempting to reach the work crew to evacuate them, given the proximity of the ship was unable to get there before the bridge was struck. >> to think the protocol is adequate?>> sir, i would need to think about that and consult with experts. this was an unprecedented event. i can would like to get back to.>> other bridge structures

have advanced warning systems and we will look at that as part of our investigation. from the time the dispatcher called the police and the bridge was ordered closed was 52 seconds. that was the time -- it's almost impossible to get in that situation to get a longer time. if you look at the time from the blackout to the bridge strike, it was four minutes. i appreciate your question because it was tragic what occurred and we want to prevent it from reoccurring and that's why we will look at advance warning systems as well.>> administrator bhatt, if you could get back to me, i appreciated. to admiral gautier, it is

unusual that a major malfunction like this could occur with no previous indication -- only six months prior. what are the requirements on foreign-owned vessels to report any malfunctions to the coast guard when operating at a u.s. port? >> the coast guard has a requirement for any vessel that suffers an issue to notify what we call a portable marine casualty and there are a variety of qualifications or circumstances by which you have to notify the coast guard of those casualties. >> lastly, to all of the panelists who would like to chime in, although the ntsb investigation is not giving recommendations, what is needed

from congress to improve worker safety? >> i will speak first. it's critically important for us to have the full results of the investigation before you move ahead with any sort of implementation based on those recommendations. coast guard is conducting an investigation in coordination with ntsb. if we find something in the near term we think is important and urgent enough to seek advisory on, we will do that. >> thank you. >> this could happen in any one of your districts. where you have navigable waterways, -- i keep reiterating this. if you own a bridge or another entity owns a bridge, look at the current structure and do a risk assessment. you can do it now. you don't have to wait until we

come to the conclusion of our investigation. make sure you ensure safety for what's going through now. >> the chair recognizes mr. westermann.>> thank you to the witnesses. my question would be for the coast guard and ntsb. everybody, just about, has offered their condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives, but if i were a family member, i would want more than condolences. i would have questions i wanted answered. and the question is why? from the information we received, the explanation is we had vulnerable infrastructure, we had a ship that lost power but there's a deeper question as to why, and what are we

going to do about that so we don't have a repeat incident. if the ship had eight tog escort, would it have hit the bridge after lost power? >> we are looking into that as part of the investigation. i cannot answer it right now. it is something we are delving into. >> the same for the coast guard. we don't know if there was sufficient time and would've made a difference or if it would've added to the casualties are not.>> i hope you look at other places where these large ships pass by vulnerable infrastructure without a tug. there was a ship in new orleans and all the ships down there now have tog escorts.

administrator bhatt, this will require years long effort and billions of dollars from the american taxpayer. meanwhile, those taxpayers have been waiting for over two years for fhwa did to repair a road in my district. it provides access to forest service concessionaire facilities and critical passage for emergency services in the area. it has been funded but is so tied up in red tape that my office cannot get a clear answer about when the washout will be filled. if they are unable to reconstruct the gravel road in less than two years and counting, why should we trust your agency with billions in funding for a project of this magnitude? >> i am happy to go back and

take a look and figure out exactly what is going on with that project and report back to.>> thank you. i guess this would be for the corps. there is an issue which is -- you may ask what this has to do that project. this administration used alternative arrangements to waive every nipa environmental service to a migrant camp and they did it in less than two weeks. they waived all the regulations. i wonder if the administration has the intent to use alternative arrangements to repair this bridge, which is obviously a very vital infrastructure? >> we are in coordination with

marilyn d.o.t. we are not going to waive nipa, but we are replacing a bridge in relatively the same footprint that existed before. look to they have the legal authority to use alternative arrangements to go beyond -- it's amazing to me that they would do it on a park service facility but also to a lot of smaller projects around the country they get tied up in the process when the administration

has the authority to do that. i yield back. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you to the witnesses for your work and responding to this critical emergency. the six human beings, the workers who lost their lives, as a result of this tragic incident. when the dali crashed into the francis scott key bridge in maryland, we thought agencies represented here today jump into action. the road that we build is long and requires coordination between our local, state and federal governments. the former mayor myself, i understand the critical cooperation is for efficiency and speedy results.

administrator bhatt, to my understanding, one of the ways the federal highway administration was by reclassifying the bridge as an intrastate. how will that help with speedy bridge repair? >> thank you for the question, congressman. we received a request from maryland d.o.t. shortly after the bridge disaster to reclassify. we went through the usual process we would do for any state d.o.t. that was asking to come in. the assumption was that it was part of the interstate, and it was on maps that way. the difference will be is not a part of the nhs, it is now officially part of the interstate goes from 20 to 9010. >> that is great.

another important action was the quick release of emergency relief program funds. a reimbursable program. they are standing with $60 million that was released in march. that is a sizable amount. how is that number decided? >> thank you, congressman. we have been in close contact with maryland d.o.t. from the early hours. specifically, i think this is great example of quick release funding being put to work. actually had a contractor who can mobilize very quickly. they had cranes in the area. while the army corps was most that focused on the channel, that $60 million is helping to clear wreckage simultaneously from the nonnavigable waterways. >> obviously, the cost will be significant above and beyond the initial amount. tells the world emergency relief program will plague an additional funding for bridge repair and other federal highway programs that will likely need to be utilized in this important work. >> as some of the questions

have come in, the first 170 days the emergency, you know, repair work is funded at 100, and longer-term permitted work is funded at 9010. traditionally through this program, the initial estimate is around 1.7 to one.$9 billion . that is the critical piece where maryland will have the certainty that that federal funding will be available so they can move forward with their procurement. >> that's great. >> lastly, it is my understanding with the primary roles of the federal highway administration currently is to also give technical assistance to the maryland department of transportation. is there anything you can share with us today regarding those conversations as the federal partners to maryland d.o.t.? >> thank you.

congressman, i want to recognize the federal highway staff that has been on start that site and in close coordination both in maryland and in headquarters. we are meeting with them on the emergency work, on getting the er funding on the procurement, on the elements of the bridge design that will be out there. it is a really strong partnership that exists. >> appreciate the work of yourself and all the other agencies represented today. it is critical we get the bridge rebuilt as soon as possible, not only for baltimore, and the state of maryland, but the entire economy of the united states of america. thank you for the work you've already done and the work you will do on this important project. thank you. i yield back. >> thank you. the gentleman yields back. >> thank you offer your testimony. this would be an accurate way to categorize you. you are in charge of collecting the checks for future projects. >> sorry. i am in charge of collecting

checks? >> money. you are in charge of getting the money for the project. >> yes. >> have you received any money from any insurer yet? >> no sir. >> which ensures have you thought money from? >> to be clear, the insurance policy we're talking about is the insurance policy for the maryland department of transportation. we are working with maryland d.o.t. to work through the elements of that. >> nothing for any insurance company, grace ocean private ltd? >> the department of justice is leading efforts around the united states to recover the funds. that is not a federal highway function. >> nothing, also, for you in terms of requesting anything from ensures of who chartered that vessel? >> the federal highway administration is the debris

removal and the nonnavigable waterway. and working with maryland d.o.t. to rebuild the bridge. we will take back any insurance funds and reimburse. >> what has the department of justice told you to that point of requesting money from any of those insurance or any other companies? >> sir, i would not be able to comment on department of justice efforts. i am not aware. >> they have not had contact with you about requesting monies? talking about your involvement in your conversation. >> specifically, sir, the only email i have received is from doj to preserve all of my emails for upcoming, and likely years long, litigation. >> why is it likely years long litigation? >> again, sir, i can only speak to my efforts around bridge

building and litigation that occurs when there is claims between a contractor and a state where they don't feel that the product meets. that could take years. so billions of dollars and international maritime law, i can only assume will be a fairly lengthy process. >> none of us are naove enough to say that insurance companies just readily come out and offer us large payouts for things that are insured. it would be naove to say that . it is not the state of the world. but in the midst of this catastrophe, have you seen anything or heard anything from doj about these insurance companies offering anything or trying to say that they do not have liability for this? >> sir, i would need to come back to you. i would have to

check with our chief counsel, general counsel, and d.o.t. and other agencies. but i am happy to come back on that question. >> i appreciate that. have you heard anything about whether they have already executed any type of business interruption insurance for the vessel not in use right now? >> sir, i am not aware of that. >> okay. a lot of these questions, again, i appreciate you listening to, you don't have the answers for the. madame chair woman, i would encourage this committee to get some of the other entities in here since we are talking significantly across both sides of the aisle about the funding for this bridge, the timing for the repairs of this bridge, things peripheral to that that we bring in, the insurance companies, for conversation, the shipping company for conversation about this as well. i would hope we do that maybe next week when we are in session.

it is ethical that we speak to you all about this, but it is also sensible that we speak to the private entities involved in this as well. i thank you for your testimony. i thank you for your time. i yield back. >> thank you. the gentleman yields back. >> thank you to the chairs for holding this hearing, and thank you to the witnesses for being here with us today. the tragic events that took place in the early morning hours of tuesday, march 26 were a tragedy not simply for baltimore or maryland, but for the nation. i join my colleagues in mourning the six lives lost in this catastrophic accident. while i have been hardened by -- heartened by the response by the baltimore community who has, at last count, already fund raised over $500,000 to support the families of the victims, it is the responsibility about the federal government and private sector to ensure something like this never happens again, which is at least in part why we are

here today. the biden administration, the state of maryland, the coast guard and u.s. army corps of engineers, among others have taken commendable initiatives and swift action in responding to this crisis. something that has been highlighted by the witnesses here today. i want to thank all of you for being here. i know your time is valuable, especially in the midst of an ongoing situation like this. my colleagues and i, we greatly appreciate your time and testimony. i think most of us on this committee understand that this matter is going to require expeditions bipartisan support here in congress, and we wish to mitigate, at best, the supply chain ripple effects. however, i believe it is worth noting that there are also some significant safety implications here, as well as even further that underscore this need for congressional support. with the

port no longer at full capacity , commercial trucks are being forced to take roads through residential areas that aren't equipped for that kind of traffic. chairwoman, and administrator, can either of you speak to the safety issues to other vehicles on the road, to pedestrians or to the residential roads infrastructure that has already emerged as a result of the bridge closure, or are at risk of emerging should access to the port remain limited? >> thank you, congresswoman. obviously, there is -- thank you for noting the traffic impacts. in the interest of time, i would highlight that hazmat traffic, you know, hazmat materials are not allowed in the tunnels through baltimore. that was one of the critical elements of the francis scott key bridge, to provide hazmat

material to move around. now they are rerouting to the north side of 675, and it goes through neighborhoods. it is sub optimal from the routing perspective. that is just one example. as you mentioned, there are trucks and other commercial vehicles working their way through residential areas now as well. >> this is an issue i would typically defer to federal highway just because we are focused on the investigation itself. thank you. >> thank you. like many of my colleagues, i have been particularly concerned about the regional implications on unemployment that the bridge collapse and reduction of port operations is having on the surrounding community. as the state of air maryland has estimated that 270,000 jobs will ultimately be impacted,

even so, i have been especially encouraged by the efforts, thus far, of the biden administration to support the plethora of temporarily displaced workers who have had their employment either directly or indirectly impacted since the events of march 26. for instance, the administration funneled an initial charge of $3.5 million to the region via its dislocated workers grant program back in april to support temporary cleanup and recovery employment opportunities for those who have lost their jobs due to the fsk bridge incident with more support funds on the way. admiral gautier and administrator bhatt, can you speak to the efforts of the u.s. coast guard and the army corps respectively about the ongoing efforts to restore services and access to the port given the widespread ramifications such efforts

would have on employment in the region? >> let me gophers. i want to do a shot into the army corps of engineers. commerce is flowing. the depth of the channel has been restored to 48 of 50 feet . it is more narrow than what it typically is, but it is sufficient for coast guard to put one lane vessel and escort controls to get traffic in and out. we have seen over 35 vessels that have transited, over 300 smaller barges and other things that have been able to transit in and out. what we're seeing is that the system is restoring itself to normal functions while we work together and unify command to make sure the full channel width and depth is restored. >> madam, working with the state of maryland, opening up as many alternate channels as they could. small craft. we got larger and larger craft. we were able to get a 35, now a 48 foot channel to get the

carriers moving. we remain committed to getting the full channel open by the end of this month. >> madame chair, that's my time. i yield back. >> thank you. i recognize for five minutes of questions. >> thank you, madame chair. i too want to offer my condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this disaster. want to thank our witnesses, not just for being here, but also for the tireless work you and your agencies have done in putting into the recovery efforts, and also the investigative matters you have undertaken as we look into this disaster even deeper. thank you. before i get to my questions about the topic at hand, administrator bhatt, i feel the need to follow up on a conversation we had in december when you were before this committee. you may recall that we discussed the cfi programs which have a combined $7.5 billion at their disposal to

build electric vehicle charging stations. as of the december, only one charging station has been bought in two years. i asked how many you expected those programs would bring online in 2024, and you promise to follow up with a "very specific number." but in march you sent the response that contained no specific number you noted that hundreds of millions of dollars are gone out the door to build 7500 ports. but there was no indication as to how many, if any, from those would be brought online this year. thus far in 2024, has been responsible for six charging stations with roughly $7.5 billion at its disposal. the doesn't appear to be any public information for those completed cfi chargers. i want to give you one more chance here. how many more cfi and nevi

charging stations do you expect to be brought online this year? >> thank you for the follow-up. we are working closely with our state d.o.t. partners and cities across the nation. were also working closely with the joint office set up between the department of energy and department of transportation. since that time, there been several states that have brought online nevi chargers. vermont, ohio, kentucky, utah is going to have their first. there are dozens. i will get you the specific number, but dozens that we are anticipating coming online just in the next couple of months. 35 of those states have their solicitations out. specifically on cfi, january 5 we rolled out $23 million in grants for cfi nationwide. those well, we are working with grant agreements now to get those built this year. >> again, how many do you think will be brought online this

year total? just a ballpark number. >> you know, probably in the hundreds to in the thousands range this year. >> again, want to differentiate between dfc chargers and the level two chargers that are replacing one's existing on the network. >> thank you for that. i want to make sure that we, as he goes out the balance of the year, we stay in touch on this particular topic. we've allocated $7.5 million, and as of just a few months ago, a month ago, we were at eight total charges. -- chargers. we want to make sure the money appropriated is spent wisely. touring attention to the key bridge, transit 10 -- administrator bhatt i want to talk about redesignation of the bridge as an interstate system. i share the sentiments we should get this bridge rebuilt quickly, but i believe we should also be mindful of new precedents reset and establish as we go through this whole

process. you mentioned part of in alabama highway was redesignated as part of the interstate system. how long did the process take from application to approval? >> this was -- sorry, i would have to get back to you on the exact dates, but probably -- actually, to be clear, i think that was changing the mainline of the interstate with the bypass. maybe not exactly apples to apples. >> maryland to's request degrees designate this as an interstate was made after the collapse, correct? >> yes. >> does your agency have the authority to retroactively designate damaged or destroyed infrastructure as a part of the interstate system? >> sir, i would have to clarify on our exact authority and the retroactive piece. i just know that we received a request after the incident, and we went through the typical process and designated it as

part of the interstate. >> is there any precedent for retroactively designating damaged or destroyed infrastructure as part of the interstate system? >> sir, i would have to come back to you on that. >> i would very much like to know if your agency was within its authority to retroactively designate this as an interstate as opposed to its former designation as a part of the state highway system. thank you. with that, madame chair, i yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you to all the witnesses. just a horrible event. ms. homendy, in 2007 near the district i represent in the bay area there was a similar incident with the san francisco bay bridge. the second busiest toll bridge after the george washington bridge in the united states. it is interstate 80. what happened there was, the center system in california

kept the bridge from being damaged, but it still had to be shut down so you and caltrans could go sure -- through and make sure it is safe. what do we do in cases like that with lessons learned? it is consistent with the other questions, irrespective of whether it is part of the federal highway system. making sure the state departments of transportation, that they know the best practices for their area. >> for our role as part of an investigation agency, we continue to share lessons learned as part of any investigation, including with state departments of transportation work certainly, we have conducted a number of investigations involving vessel strikes on bridges. we have shared those lessons learned and continue to do so. we continue to advocate even for recommendations that have been unacceptable.

the federal highway administration also has close contact with their state partners to continue to highlight safety issues and risk assessment as well. >> vice admiral, this happened very close to your admiral's regional home, beautiful treasure island. in that instance, they were required to have pilots come in. oakland is the fourth busiest port in the united states. a lot of traffic goes through. but again, we have lots of bridges. the bay bridge closest to it. a lot of the operations of that port work closely with the coast guard to make sure the management of the transportation system works, and it works properly in terms of the whole transportation system. in this case, a heavily traveled bridge. how does your department and the coast guard coordinate on

how to make sure the structures that are run by state transportation agencies, particularly if they are not part of the interstate, has the best information about the dangers of marine traffic, commercial marine traffic? >> thank you, congressman. i'm familiar with the incident you are referring to. for many years, i have had operations in the bay area. we are doing a marine board of investigation. we do an investigation, findings of fact, and then we recommend a take remedial actions based on that. i think what we're talking about here is a little bit different in terms of the system, as you have mentioned and. the coast guard does have a set of tools, risk management tools, that we get together with stakeholders at any given port to evaluate the totality of the risk if something changes, like if a channel becomes deeper or if a new bridge gets built, and so on. what comes to mind is the poor

and waterways of risk assessment. one was done in baltimore, but not since 2001. as a result of this incident, the coast guard is initiating a board of inquiry under my signature, which will look at how the coast guard does these assessments, how recent they are in the ports around the country, and to examine the top 10 ports for some lessons learned, including bridge feathering systems, navigation, and so on, together with stakeholders and we can draw some conclusions and move out with a refined toolkit to other ports around the country. >> ms. homendy, as part of the most recent report about human error on the bow, it reminds me about discussions on the aviation industry. there is a lot of pressure to move product and show a profit. are you concerned with the same thing? that we are not

providing enough oversight to people running the ships in the system and they are being overworked and missing things? will the people who are mechanics repairing the ship for people who are operating the chips? >> with respect to what occurred in port on march 26, there was routine maintenance going on on the vessel. it was not something that stood out to us. i mean, there is human error in everything we do, routine maintenance and were working on our cars in our garage sometimes we make mistakes. in this case, a damper was closed. an engine failed. you know, in these situations, the crew took action to get everything back up and running. on the next day they were on a different set of breakers and a different transformer. we look at that as part of the investigation, including any sort of human error that occurred on march 25 on march

26. >> i was not inferring blame on the crew, but the pressure on the company to make profits. thank you, madame chair. >> thank you. >> thank you, madame chair. i appreciate the panelists here today. i have been looking forward to the hearing on this topic here. we have a lot of rich history in this country, especially in recent years. expediting the reconstruction of this is critical. i am certain baltimore and the eastern seaboard as a would be an area of the country with an artist like that, especially interested in what is being done -- and anybody on the panel who wants to weigh in debt to truly expedite this process. when you read about it, when

you get information about it, it sounds like there is a lot of preliminaries that are, of course, necessary with the demolition of the old bridge and such, but were i get frustrated is the bogged down of studies and nipa and things of that nature with an already existing structure. this is not a pristine area. what is being done to make a concurrent effort to do that stuff and get categorical exclusions, but also at the same time, be moving forward as quickly as possible? some examples i have of successes, and california, now, there was the bay bridge, the '89 earthquake during the world series. you might remember, a jordan 50 foot chunk of that collapse. it was a very long when they put their minds to it.

on the other side of the coin, you have the replacement of the bay bridge of 24 years. in '89 when you decided there was a problem with the bridge, it wasn't completed until 2013. they started construction in 2002. that is an 11 year actual construction time, but a 24 year decision to actually get completion. the 1994 earthquake knocked down significant parts of the freeway in southern california. the initial estimates, i believe at the time, by caltrans or others was three years. that will put a giant crimp in movement and commerce in southern california. so this date, governor wilson, put out a for shortening the

timeline to 140 days. one of the people involved was a company called cc myers construction company. they got it done, not just a 140 days, but 66 days. a large incentive. there was a problem, i believe there was a fire in oakland. they got that done in 27 days with the bonus involved as well with the cc myers company. and fortunately, there out of business now. what have you done as far as incentives to actually speed up the process and not take six years of paralysis? but set aside bureaucracy and get it done in three, let's say? realistically. anybody on the panel. >> congressman, thank you for

your question and examples that you provided. i would just say that we share your desire to reopen the bridge as quickly as possible. i would say that federal highways worked with maryland for the debris removal in april so they were trading around for approval to get the debris out of the channel. we're working. they are going to issue their rfp later this month. if we get somebody to contract by august, which would be within five months of the incident, we will hopefully be able to get them to a categorical exclusion. they're looking at a four-year construction. the plan right now is for the bridge be reopened in 2028, which i don't know there's any other authority we can exert to get that done any faster. >> okay, thank you. currently the movement of goods and commerce is very important.

is there anybody, ms. homendy or others, a look at maybe providing a waiver for trucker hours? there will be at least two or three hour delays. is there anyway there could be flexibility for time of duty on that as well as the ability to use the tunnels that ordinarily trucks would not be allowed to do? >> that would be under us department of transportation. they can make waiver requests for truck weight. i'm not sure on the trucker hours. i will be happy to get back to you for service hours. >> please look into that. is locals are saying that would be helpful in order to complete, you wouldn't want to run out by two hours or something, what the delay would be. also, is there an issue of the tunnel being available to all types of trucking? could you have a waiver on

maybe hazardous materials having a certain time of day they could access it, for example? just looking for ways for flexibility. are those possible thoughts, you think? >> time has expired. >> thank you. and he answered that? >> quickly. >> happy to follow up with your office on those questions. >> thank you, madame chair. >> thank you. the gentleman yields back. >> thank you, madame chair, and thank you to convening this committee today. witnesses, thank you for your testimony and for working diligently to respond to the tragedy to the francis scott key bridge in march. i join my colleagues in his dressing sympathy to the families who lost loved ones, as well as the greater baltimore and maryland

community. coming from ohio, this is really important, we have the nation's second highest number of bridges. this is an important conversation for us. just last week we presented to county engineers and executives for $10 million to replace a decommissioned over 70-year-old bridge that is identified as critical infrastructure. i want to highlight something different. less than two months after this disaster struck in maryland, the majority on this committee was able to organize and hold a very timely and necessary hearing on the incident. this hearing today is a perfect example of the federal government fulfilling its role to support state and local efforts from disasters with federal dollars in resources when they are needed most. this partnership between governing bodies is what i hope to see more of.

you all can understand my disappointment when in the over a year since the trained roman devastated the community of east palestine and its way of life, the majority on the committee have not shown the same sense of urgency and has yet to have a hearing to discuss the this date of rail safety in ohio. what about the people of ohio and east palestine who have been begging us? this question is to the majority, will be begging us to do something on rail safety? even on the committee on transportation and infrastructure, subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials, the subcommittee would not hold a hearing to discuss the norfolk southern trained roman or the broader issue of rail safety, leaving democrats to hold a real safety roundtable without members of the majority present. while i don't represent east palestine geographically, i am the only ohio when on this committee. east palestine does not we have

a member of the united states house of representatives serving in congress. i have no problem speaking up for my neighbors to the east of the. since the derailment and east palestine, two additional trains have derailed in ohio alone, and many others across the country. the communities, local and state, are still burdened with contaminated local waterways across the nation. even more recently, on march 2 of this year, three trains crashed and derailed in eastern pennsylvania, leaving at least seven crewmembers ensure -- injured with estimated damage to be $2.5 million. emergency personnel responded to the scene found diesel fuel had spilled from one of the train cars, contaminant booms were deployed before the situation worsened. it was by luck that a derailment of those trades with numbers or anything like we saw in eastern ohio. it is very clear that the issue of train derailment is not

going away. turning a blind eye to the issue is clearly not the path the congress or this committee should take. americans across the political spectrum, including the former president, the biden-harris administration, all agree we must have common sense rail safety legislation to prevent future train derailment to keep our communities safe. i'm proud that ohio democrats and republicans came together to introduce a bipartisan rail act last year. now it is time for house republican majority to pass the will act to protect ohioans and communities across the country. the real act would implement effective measures to keep our communities safe, hold railroad corporations accountable, and ensure that no american living close to our 140,000 miles of railroad tracks have to worry about the threat of a toxic predrilled it in their backyard. finally, i would like to take a moment to recognize the administration, our state and local partners, the state of

ohio and public service who are continuously uplifting east palestine, even though this committee and the united states house of representatives has turned a blind eye and turned their backs on the people of ohio. i would also like to take a moment to recognize ms. homendy and thank her and the rest of the national transportation safety board for their investigation into the cause of the norfolk southern trained roman it, and their work in investigating other accidents across the country was, no doubt, less people then you need. you have continued to fill the gaps where congress has refused to act, holding hearings in town halls with residents and east palestine, providing preliminary information we could act upon, and giving us a sense that do care about them invented this community has refused to. i look forward to reviewing the board findings, and hopefully considering recommendations as we look to real safety in america.

thank you, again, for filling in the gap for this community. this committee has failed the people of east palestine. i yield back. >> thank you. ms. homendy, it was just mentioned about the derailment and east palestine. we have had other derailments that have made the news, but overall, would it not be accurate to say that trains, ultimately, they are more safe, probably the safest mode of transportation for goods and services to be transported? >> for transportation, over 40,000 people have died on our nation's roads. as far as transporting goods and people, rail is incredibly say. it doesn't mean a tragedy doesn't occur. that is where we come in and investigate. >> i think it would be dangerous if we started trying to steer activity away from

rail because of these events. how many people died that >> we would like more things to go on rail. >> how many people died in east palestine? >> no one died. >> i think it is important to note that. while it may have been an environmental hazard, i think it is important to recognize the actual numbers. administrator bhatt, my question has to do with the francis scott key bridge bridge , which has been the subject for this hearing. as i understand, there is about 15,000 jobs dependent upon the port, another 140,000 linked to the port. many of the individuals are worried they could lose their jobs because of no longer having access because of the collapse of the bridge. how long will it take to construct the new bridge? >> thank you, congressman, for the question. yes, the port,

and that is part of the critical efforts of the army corps and coast guard to get that port reopened, so those jobs can resume. i think the bridge itself, once the port reopens, is on a 2028 schedule. right now, it is a preliminary estimate to get that bridge back open. >> so a four-year estimate. what about the cost for the bridge? >> right now, the way the rfp is being structured, it will be a progressive design build. you go in and say this is the structure we need to build, and then the benefits of progressive design build is that they can bring in different elements. that is why the cost and schedule will update as the different elements come in. but right now, it is estimated up to one $.9 billion. >> have there been any environmental concerns or any other issues we might be able to

look to sign any waivers that might expedite the construction of the bridge? >> on the environmental side, through nipa, that is why we're likely to get to a categorical exclusion, because we are putting a bridge back one existed in the same footprint. we are working with permitting agencies to make sure we're not missing anything, but that is the plan. >> you served as the head of transportation for the state of colorado prior to this role. >> and delaware. >> in that role, what is your experience -- i know we had a new executive order put in place under this administration that requires project labor agreements for anything, i think it is above 35 million in cost. >> i would have to come back on the exact numbers. >> in your experience on both the state and federal level, do you require project labor

agreements approved the timeline of projects? >> sir, i would need to come back to you. >> what about the cost? >> again, sir, i don't want to speculate. i want to come back with specific data. are not trying to press on you. we had a great conversation before. but surely, you have enough years of experience to understand the distinction and difference between the costs of a project whether or not a project labor agreement is required. >> one project with the,, it was not a pla required, but we did do what i would call the first local hiring preference in denver where we replace the i-70 viaduct. the goal is similar to the administration, try to create good paying jobs and create a workforce for the future to ensure we are building the nation's infrastructure and building out.

>> the taxpayer will get more bang for their buck, more bridges and roads without a project labor agreement. again, i want to come back to you with the specific data. >> thank you. my time is expired. >> thank you. the gentleman yields back. >> thank you, madame chair. following up. i had the opportunity to visit the port of northbridge and new jersey. an important part of the gateway program to mark the 50% completion of the project. it is largely being built by labor. it is on time and on budget. i think my friends and labor for the incredible work to continue to develop to build our infrastructure. i want to thank all the witnesses today for their testimony and ongoing work regarding the francis scott key bridge collapse. i want to join my colleagues in recognizing the six workers who lost their lives during this tragic accident, immigrants were not just making the infrastructure stronger, but our nation stronger.

the families and communities they were part of. this is home to the largest port on the east coast, following the collapse of the key bridge, the port of new york and new jersey was ready to accommodate additional vessels to ensure our supply chain remained intact. this is thanks in large part to the port authority of new york and new jersey and their dedicated teams. the operators of the ports and the incredible men and women to keep our region moving. administrator bhatt, your testimony notes the federal highway administration will work to ensure the new bridges built to current design standards. can you describe how design standards have changed since the key bridge was built in 1977 and the challenges posed by increasingly larger vessels in the ports? >> thank you, congressman, for the question. i think, just you know, if you look at the bridge, it was a trusted bridge. they're very strong and made of steel. that was the prevailing design

at that time. when you look at many of the trusk bridges replaced today. they are being replaced by cable bridges for the most part. advantages and strengths. you can precast the concrete sections and bring them into place. i think that is probably the likely design that will come forward. with regard to design standards, obviously, there is vertical load and laterally load that we have to account for. i think specifically what the francis scott key bridge has brought forward and what we're going to work closely with the chair, and i echo her call to begin examining bridges is right now, what is the appropriate level of protection we need to design so we don't have another similar situation. >> taking into consideration the size of the vessels coming through our ports and channels given they have increased in size over, definitely since

1977. that would be part of the analysis, correct? >> absolutely, sir. >> appreciate that. the poor infrastructure development program provides grants to and supply chain needs. between 2019 and 2023, this program received $9 billion in applications, but only received $2.5 billion in appropriations over five years in the infrastructure investment and jobs act. mr. bhatt, should we be doing more to invest in landside infrastructure? >> thank you, representative. i was at a bunch of ports this week. i served on the port board in wilmington, delaware. i would say there is a critical need for infrastructure everywhere, including, you know, the one you mentioned. >> how would increasing appropriations to the port infrastructure development program potentially help prevent future tragedies? >> sir, i would want to consult with the folks to get you a specific answer to that question. >> okay. chair, i am that i understand

you can -- can you touch on what features may be on both new and existing bridges to better protect them from potential impact like what we saw in baltimore? >> this is what we are looking at is part of the investigation. where working with maryland to evaluate their other bridges. where looking at other areas in the united states where bridge owners have improved bridge infrastructure after a vessel strike. that includes any high defender systems, that is exactly what we're looking at. we don't have recommendations today on that. again, i would stress that states and bridge owners should be evaluating, especially with older bridges. what is coming through as far as their navigable waterways now? what is the risk, and how should they address that? >> quickly on follow-up, do you anticipate or have a sense of timing of when those recommendations might be made available given the timely

importance of making sure the existing of the structure throughout the country is up-to- date? >> we often issue urchins -- urgent safety recommendations, and we may in this case. in the meantime, including before we issue a final report, we are aiming for 18 months on a final report. but again, we may have updates to the investigation that we release, and we may issue urgent safety requisitions as well. >> this might make sense in this instance to be sure that people feel secure when they cross any of these types of bridges. i yield back. >> thank you, madame chair. thank you all for being here today. appreciate all of you and your hard work and dedication. vice admiral, we have town in my county named after you, but we pronounce it a little differently in mississippi. we will leave that to us.

anyway, as you know, a few remaining united states shipbuilders are in my county, huntington. what can we do, what can be done to encourage the greater use of united states vessels to ensure ships coming through our ports are held to the highest mechanical standard? >> thanks, congressman. i think i might be named after somebody who grew up in that town. the coast guard works very hard to assure that with the number of foreign flag vessels in u.s. ports every single day, that we maintain an equivalent level of safety. we do this for the international maritime organization. there actually meeting this week on a number of issues of emerging technologies. we have done things like worked on the standards of training certification for all mariners,

u.s. and international. we want to do this in a way that does not disadvantage u.s. mariners so we can have the equivalent levels that global shipping and the global crews on vessels have to adhere to. >> thank you. additionally, do you think this incident could be a cause for recommending harbor tug escorted ships through larger channels? if so, do you think this incident could've been avoided? >> it may be, but we don't know yet . it is too early in the investigation to understand whether tugs would or would have not helped in this circumstance. although what i will say is that there are some areas in some ports around the u.s. that have tug escort requirements for a variety of reasons, and they're all different. for example, under the verrazzano bridge. for example, state of california for take vessels entering into the san francisco bay area. those determinations are typically made by harbor safety

committees with all stakeholders getting together to understand the totality of risk, not just the coast guard, and then agreeing on what tug requirements might be particular to that area of risk. >> very good. administrator bhatt, i noticed the d.o.t. fy 2025 appropriations budget request that there were no additional funds provided beyond the annual $100 million authorization in the emergency relief fund. given the backlog of requests and unmet needs, especially in mississippi, how do you anticipate filling the requests for all highway projects and this bridge? >> thank you, congressman, for that question. i know that the omb director was part of a tour of the site a few weeks ago. i don't want to get ahead of the administration, but i believe that, generally

speaking, the er backlog has been topped up through supplementals historically. i believe that may be part of the discussion. >> thank you. continuing with you, along with ensuring the process moves along quickly, how do you plan to coordinate with the state of maryland and other stakeholders to ensure the proper funds are obligated quickly? >> thank you, congressman. is absolutely top of mind. having worked in the private sector, i know projects delivered on time and on budget are always our target. we are moving with great speed working in close coordination with them to make sure they're hitting all the timelines. they have set an aggressive schedule as well. >> thank you. chair homendy, it has been reported the actions taken by the vessel the state police he took swift action to minimize

the casualties, in the future, how can we better improve the communication between vessels, people on the bridge, and emergency responders? >> that is part of our investigation. we will look at that. it was key when the pilots reached out to the dispatchers and the dispatchers called mdta police. it was a very quick notification to shut down operations on the bridge. everyone involved in that, it was a heroic effort, certainly. we will look at that as part of our investigation to determine what should be the standard going forward. >> thank you all again for being here today. madame chair, i yield back. >> thank you. the gentleman yields. >> thank you, madame chair. my colleagues today have indicated their support for the concept of federal monies being repaid through tolling on the bridge. i will associate myself with that concept and with interest

in that concept. i think, in general, tolling on critical infrastructure is an appropriate way to find it in the long run. i would encourage the relevant agencies and congress to consider that, not just for this bridge, but for all bridges going forward as a thick about how to responsibly fund critical infrastructure and address the backlog. vice admiral, i appreciate your testimony, and i appreciate also the unified response in baltimore that you have been part of. i am concerned, though, about the strain on the coast guard and whether that is going to further exacerbate the services , challenges and operating with a workforce deficit. there will be downstream effects on other coast guard missions and stations. if the service does not receive additional resources from

congress, what are the likely short and long-term consequences for operations in a place like? >> congressman, as you know, we surge resources to the product top priorities at the moment, whether a bridge collapse or hurricane response or search and rescue case. but to your point, more often we do that, and with insufficient budget, to make sure that we can do things like recapitalize our assets, and to close this urgent workforce gap we have in enlisted ranks. our ability to do that will be eroded over time. >> articulate the trade-off we might have to make. what should congress understand about trade- offs that have to happen if you are not resourced appropriately. >> take, for example, the near 10% enlisted workforce shortfall. if we do not have the resourcing , i'm sorry, the recruiting and retention capability within the coast guard in order to get that back up to normal, we will have to continue on doing the sorts of things we have done,

like not completely staffing certain stations around the country where there might be some redundancies. >> what does it mean for your missions? can you not do, for example, law enforcement for recreational boating? can you not do illegal fisheries? what are some of the missions that micah -- might get eroded? >> we will have to make tough choices to deliberately back off of doing certain things we would normally do, like some recreational boating, like some fisheries law enforcement, like some recreational navigation. >> i think it is important to be specific about the trade- offs. i want congress to understand that you can't get something for nothing. we have to fund the coast guard 's vital 11 missions. i know you are also conducting an atlantic coast access route

study to reduce the risk of marine casualties and reduce vessel traffic on the atlantic coast. how is the coast guard reevaluating the study in light of the baltimore accident? and how would you evaluate potential risk going forward? >> baltimore is a reminder of the consequences would have large vessels, and that you have a mishap, and then you have critical infrastructure, and then we have the results we have seen. what we are doing in terms of the port access route studies is exactly to prevent those sorts of circumstances as we know, there will be more fixed objects, wind turbines, windfarms, offshore starting in new england and working out other parts of the country. we need to have assurances that there are shipping lanes that will be free from the construction of offshore wind farms so that maritime transportation can continue at low risk to collisions. >> i yield back. >> thank you.

i recognize mr. williams for five minutes for questions. i apologize for skipping you earlier. >> that's all right. thank you, madame chair. think you all for being here and for your expert testimony. i've read through the accident reports, such as it is. i would like to follow up on some details of that just to try to understand it. maybe, madame chair woman, start with you. do we know, i'm sure we do, are we looking at the manufacturers of hr one -- 1 breakers, the transformer, the control system , all of those things that appear in the switchboard cabinets in your reports? you have the inspector taping though shot. have we identified the manufacturer of all of those components, including the subassemblies and things inside? >> we are currently working

with hyundai, you manufactured many of the components. they are party to the investigation and have come to baltimore to work with us to do testing on board the vessel. our engineers are on board the vessel today. >> i understand that hyundai would assemble the control system, the panel, if you will, like a panel shop would, but the individual components inside, whether that is a or sensors, actuators, whatever those things are, are we looking all the way down into the components, the whole supply chain that made up all those components? >> we are. >> when you represent the transformer, the integrated control and monitoring system, you are saying all of that comes from hyundai? >> not every single feature or center comes from hyundai, but

if we are looking at any sensors or pumps or any other component on the vessel, we will work with whoever that manufacturer is. >> is there an investigation into cybersecurity being evaluated for all these components? >> currently, we have no evidence at this time to suggest this was a cybersecurity threat. aware there is some work being done by the department of justice, but that is not within the ntsb purview. >> in a cyber security or a cyber attack, there's a lot of concern about embedded systems

embedded into what is called a real-time operating system or inside the control logic or the control elements. that would require an enormous amount of forensics to evaluate , and i would think -- which would require dismantling the whole switchboard and doing it component by component. does that kind of investigation underway? >> are investigators have over 400 years of experience and they know where the evidence takes them. as far as anything the department of justice or if is doing, it's not something i can speak to. >> in terms of 400 years of experience, it's the last five that are relevant in terms of cyber security. >> my point is -- >> i understand your point and i have significant expertise as

well. point of my question is as we've seen in embedded systems and very integrated components from a wide variety of vendors, understanding the entire supply chain and evaluating things all the way down to the operating system or even the bios and other features in the system, as i read through the accident report, it's not clear to me that anyone knows why the breakers tripped or why the transformer tripped and it seems like until we know the origin of the actual accident, all these things should be taken as at least possible. would you agree? >> this is a preliminary report. what we released yesterday was preliminary.

we are still conducting our investigation and we go over the evidence takes us. but that includes a forensics on the actual components that are there, which would require significant disassembly and evaluation? >> we will follow the evidence and anything security wise if we find anything, we will turn it over immediately. >> thank you very much. >> i recognize myself for 5 minutes. you been sitting here for a long time. and you've been thoroughly questioned. i want to wrap up with, is there anything and if you would like to highlight the respective agencies that would be helpful to this committee that you have not already covered? >> factual statement. i think this has been thoroughly questioned.

in terms -- i've been asked several questions about coast guard resourcing. and it bears repeating from our perspective. we are incredibly proud of the folks in the field who have responded. they have done an amazing job with counterparts to do this. we cannot guarantee that the coast guard can perform at that level whether that be a search and rescue case or a patrol in asia or patrolling for the potential for mass migration in the caribbean without substantial support from congress on the appropriations site. in terms of recapitalizing our aging assets and improving our procurement construction and improvement of support from congress, things that help the people in terms of training, that leads us to successful operations like this.

i appreciate the opportunity to convey that to you. >> thank you for that question and the opportunity to be here today. probably two points to wrap up with. we talked about the safety of the general public. i want to commend the teams on site from the coast guard's to the various agencies it has been and amazingly safe operation some of the riskiest diving operations you can have. water you cannot see to the end of your fingers. we were guiding them by sonar. steel sticking out and they did it safely. our commitment is to continue the safety record until the federal channel is completely cleared. there was a lot of discussion on the resiliency infrastructure. three weeks after the dali hit the bridge, barges broke way

on the ohio river to pittsburgh and bounced off of two of the -- and the infrastructure withstood those strikes because it was designed to withstand those strikes. we are trying to stretch taxpayer dollars as far as we can and looking at some of the gates on the structures to see if we can go to fiber reinforced polymers and one thing we are looking at is to see, well, if we do build them, will they withstand hard strikes as well as steel does. and i would like to make a shameless plug for research developing that we need to continue to advance the state of engineering. >> shameless plug and noted. >> thank you, madam chair.

i would end where i started, which is i've been around a number of these bridge disasters , and just the confidence i feel that this response, whether it is unified command or the army corps or coast guard of are highways, i feel like it has been an exemplary response in a message to send to the american people that when disaster strikes the government is there working in coordination with the private sector. i appreciate the questions around the funding of the bridge and your concern for fully funding it and open to looking at different methodologies the been brought forward. i would say from a federal highway perspective there are $3.7 billion, of unmet need across the country in red and blue states in the er program we want to follow the law and it doesn't matter, we will show

up and make sure funding is available for programs across the country. >> thank you. >> let me think this committee on a bipartisan basis. you led the effort to reauthorize the ntsb as part is faa reauthorization. you also led the way on fully funding the ntsb along with house appropriators for our request. we hope you will do the same for fy25. but the fy24 funding came in lower and we fully appreciate it because it's higher than we received now, but if you look at this investigation, we have 12 people in our office of marine safety. they need an additional five and that doesn't include the other modes that need people

and the supporting offices as well as dealing with unfunded mandates, lab equipment and training needs. 10.7 million that we got in an increase in fy24 translated into a little over five because we had to take on a 5.2% pay raise. well deserved, but we have to think about the impact on smaller agencies. we have about five and we have to figure out what 11 positions out of hundreds can we fund. for the office of marine safety itself, 12 people on their staffs, half of which are dedicated to this particular accident, and they have over 60 other cases. is those get pushed so they can focus on the next major one. any support you can provide for fy25 is appreciated. >> one more really quick

question. do have an updated time line for when full fair navigation channel will be reopened? >> our commitment is to have it opened by the end of the month and sooner if possible.>> thank you. i yield back. are there any further questions from any member of the committee has not been recognized? that concludes our hearing for today. i want to thank each of the witnesses for yo

>> the house is best five-year extension of funding for the faa by vote of 387-26. 19 republicans and seven democrats voted. current funding had been extended for one week until this friday but the bill now heads to president biden who plans to sign up deadline. on thursday the house judiciary committee meets to consider holding attorney general merrick garland in contempt of congress for failing to provide lawmakers with audio and video recordings from the special counsel

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