During Thursday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) questioned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about rural infrastructure modernization.
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00:00Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for being here.
00:06I apologize for running back and forth.
00:09It's so busy here and visiting with people in the hall.
00:12One of the people that I was visiting with is a mutual friend, Ambassador Mark Green.
00:18He reminded me that he was so proud of you as being our Secretary of Transportation now,
00:24and yet your real claim to fame in his part of the country was being a world champion lumberjack.
00:31So you're just a renaissance guy.
00:32Very kind of him to mention.
00:34He was a wonderful congressman, a great ambassador.
00:39He's just a wonderful person.
00:41Let me just, and you don't have to respond to this,
00:44but I also want to express my thoughts also about how important the essential air service is
00:53and the contract towers.
00:55I know you know that coming from the part of the country that you represented.
01:00Also, I know that you understand that the most recent census revealed that more than half
01:05of the counties across the nation saw a population decline.
01:09In Arkansas, 53 of our 75 counties experienced the same, about 53 percent nationwide.
01:15While rural America's population is declining, its infrastructure remains just as vital
01:21in our interconnected communities.
01:25As urban and suburban projects are often given priority and rural bases are shrinking,
01:31how can we ensure that rural infrastructure gets the necessary support that it needs?
01:37Well, I think it's that you have to pay attention to it.
01:40You have to understand it.
01:41And it's having people from rural America fight for it.
01:44I think that's critical.
01:46And I come from rural America.
01:47on the discretionary grants, and there's tools and help that's offered to smaller communities
01:56to try to access additional resources.
01:58But it goes to the point that this has become so complicated.
02:01What we're working on, and hopefully we can do it, is how can we make this process simpler
02:06so you just can't be a big institution that can apply and access competitive money.
02:13It's accessible for smaller communities where resources truly are just as needed.
02:22And I'm glad you bring that up.
02:24That was really my next question.
02:26We see this a lot in USDA grants and things.
02:29We're in a situation now where these, you know, the ability to apply is so complex, so complicated.
02:39You're talking about spending thousands of dollars for grant writers.
02:42And, again, the bigger communities can do that.
02:46That's simply something that we've got to concentrate on across government,
02:52particularly, I think, with transportation, USDA, those kind of grants,
02:56because it does make it very, very difficult for our smaller communities,
03:00really for anybody, in order to access those grants.
03:04And that's not a cost driver.
03:07That's a cost saver.
03:09And I don't mean to offend anybody, but I do think if you look with the expansion of high-speed Internet
03:14and after and during COVID, you saw a lot of people who want to move to rural America.
03:19They actually like it.
03:20It's a beautiful place.
03:21And so maybe we're going to see those numbers change.
03:23But with that, you need the infrastructure to go along with it.
03:28And, again, I think it's been interesting to see how people have gone back to the rural part of this country.
03:35There's been a lot of bipartisan support in Congress to modernize how we plan, build,
03:45and maintain infrastructure with emerging technologies,
03:48from advanced digital construction management systems to automated inspection tools like drones, remote sensing.
03:56These innovations can help address workforce shortages, improve project delivery times,
04:04and enhance safety across our transportation network.
04:06How do you envision the department accelerating the adoption of digital technologies across all modes of transportation?
04:13I think that we are sometimes we're thought of as hard hats and light-reflecting vests.
04:21I think we're in the most innovative space in government, whether it is autonomous vehicles and drones and these EVITOLs,
04:29also with the technology that can be deployed in construction.
04:32So I am in favor of exploring all options that can reduce our costs, increase safety.
04:41And so if you have ideas on things that I should be looking at, I'm happy to do that.
04:45But I do think we are at the cusp of a technological revolution in regard to the way that people move
04:52in the way that our products move in this country, which is, and again, I mean, we have to get it right.
04:58You can't go too fast with some of this stuff, but you can't go too slow either.
05:02And so getting the right pace on the rules and regulations is going to be critical for the department
05:07over the course of the next three and a half years.
05:09Very good. Thank you. Appreciate you.