Shelley Moore Capito Grills Pete Buttigieg On Improving Safety Of Roadways

4 months ago

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) spoke about road-related fatalities.

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Transcript

00:00 Senator Capito. Thank you Mr. Chairman and ranking member Hyde-Smith. Nice to be

00:05 here. It's good to see you Mr. Secretary. In March 28th, with

00:11 Senator Lujan, we sent a letter to you regarding the NHTSA's advanced

00:16 impaired driving prevention technology rulemaking. Safety on the roads,

00:21 especially in the windy and mountainous roads of my state, scattered across West

00:25 Virginia, is a top priority for me as it is I'm sure for you. I'm eager to see

00:29 these promising technologies in new cars starting in 2026 as the IIJA has

00:34 required. I understand that the comments received have been robust and I hope

00:39 that this is a top priority for NHTSA as this action will save thousands of

00:43 lives and make roadways safer. The NTSB's comments note that NHTSA is over a

00:48 decade behind on these technologies and automakers note that adding these

00:53 measures could add to increased costs and consumer backlash. How are you

00:57 balancing these competing comments and do you anticipate that

01:01 such a wide swath of comments could delay the final rule before it's

01:05 finalized in 2026? Thank you for your attention to a very important safety

01:11 issue. Each year we estimate about a third of all roadway fatalities are

01:14 related to impaired driving, which is why NHTSA has been energetic in working to

01:23 comply with the rulemaking provided for in the infrastructure law. The comment

01:27 period closed on March 5th of this year. As you noted, the comments

01:32 were robust. Just to put some specificity to that, there were about 18,000

01:37 comments that were received. So NHTSA is reviewing those. Of course, that's both

01:43 the right thing to do and legally required of us. And we do need to make

01:46 sure that we balance all of the different concerns that are in play, but

01:51 do it in a way that at the end of the day meets our safety mission. So they

01:56 will continue to work through those comments and every intention and

02:01 expectation is of a prompt rulemaking here. Of course, we also need to make sure

02:04 there's good understanding of how the technologies will be put into play in

02:09 practice, knowing that it's one thing to have a technology available or

02:12 prototyped, another to mandate it across the U.S. So do you anticipate it being in

02:17 on time in 2026? I haven't received a definitive timeline for NHTSA, I think,

02:22 because they're still grappling with the substance of the comments that have

02:25 come in. But that'll certainly be our aim. Okay. Well, I'm gonna sound like Senator

02:30 Kennedy because I am a broken record on my issues as well, and this is one

02:33 federal decision. We put that in the IIJA, and one of the key components is

02:39 the two-year goal for completing the environmental review process. I've been

02:43 told that these provisions have been implemented. In March, my staff received a

02:47 list of the Federal Highway Administration of one federal decision

02:51 projects that are currently underway. There are eight projects on that list.

02:55 Hard to believe there's only eight, but there's eight on there. Of these, six are

02:59 listed as currently extended or delayed and are expected to have an extension or

03:03 a delay in the future. Two remaining projects had notices of intent issued

03:07 in February, and their schedules have not been posted on the dashboard. Almost all

03:12 of these projects have missed or are expecting to miss their two-year goal.

03:17 I find this very frustrating. The point of this is to move projects, not just to

03:24 get the projects done, but it saves money. You get more projects done if you can do

03:28 it in a timely fashion. Will you commit to making the relevant staff at the

03:32 department available to brief my staff on the challenges facing each of these

03:36 projects and what the agency is doing to address these? Yes, we'd be happy to

03:41 engage with you on that. I can assure you nobody's more impatient about getting

03:46 projects done. What do you attribute the delays to? Well, each project has, of

03:52 course, its own characteristics, but we can only certify that permitting has

03:56 been met if it's actually true. So, a lot of it is a back-and-forth with the state,

04:01 but I've directed our team to accept a kind of moral, if not legal, responsibility

04:07 for how the states are doing, to be side-by-side with them. Well, but it's not

04:10 really just meant for the states. It's meant for all of the federal agencies to

04:14 be cooperating and moving into a one federal decision. What kind of

04:18 accountability are you asking for EPA, Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife?

04:24 Yeah, so that's part of why we have the kind of interagency partnerships that

04:28 were stood up through the White House's leadership on implementing the bill, and

04:32 I think that that's reflected in the fact that, for example, every schedule

04:35 posted on the dashboard for an EIS that has been initiated since the fiscal

04:40 responsibility act passed is shorter than two years compliant with statute

04:44 in that regard. Obviously, we have some EISs that were initiated as early as a

04:49 decade ago, so those have gone through a lot before we even

04:54 arrived at this, but when it comes to something we can do, for example, the

04:59 provisions that you put forward that made it possible for us to adopt a

05:03 categorical exclusion, working with DOE so that something didn't go into

05:07 that more elaborate process, that can help us on the front end. Are you using

05:12 that provision? Yes, I believe that. Could we have follow-up on that?

05:17 We'll try to get you a sense of how that's coming to play in the EV projects.

05:20 Yes, I do have another question on project grant agreements.

05:25 They're not getting out the door. They're delayed as well, and I'm very frustrated

05:29 by that, but I'll submit this for the record. Thank you.

Shelley Moore Capito Grills Pete Buttigieg On Improving Safety Of Roadways

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