Hearing

Good afternoon and welcome to this field hearing before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation.

This special panel was created by Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member Rahall of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to examine the current state of freight transportation in the United States and how improving freight transportation can strengthen the United States economy.

As I have said before, the purpose of this Panel is to provide recommendations to the Committee on ways to modernize the freight network and make the United States competitive in the 21st Century.  We have been working hard towards this goal, holding multiple hearings and roundtable discussions and visiting critical freight facilities in Southern California and the greater Memphis area.

We have traveled to New York City because this region is one of the most important trade gateways in the entire country.  There are many facilities in this area that are critical to the efficient movement of goods into, out of, and around the Nation.

The purpose of today’s hearing is to examine freight transportation challenges in urban areas, and how these issues resonate throughout the Nation’s freight system.

Freight transportation through urban areas is a complex endeavor and has a dramatic impact on the Nation’s freight system, for many reasons: congestion, ports and large freight facilities are often located in urban areas, density of the population, and the number of governmental entities present in urban regions.

We have an excellent panel of witnesses before us, today.  I am confident that they will be able to help us understand the unique freight transportation challenges facing urban areas and how those issues impact the rest of the Nation.  I thank them for being here, and I look forward to their testimony.