Cardin Emphasizes Seismic Damage Of The FSK Bridge Collapse: A 'Catastrophic Event For Our Economy’

3 months ago

On Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) delivered a testimony on the collapse and rebuilding process of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Chairman Carper, thank you very much. Senator Capito, thank you for holding this hearing and

00:06for the courtesy of being able to testify. I want to also comment in regards to Jim Inhofe.

00:12We were elected together in 1986, so we were the same class in the House of Representatives,

00:18and we became close friends in the House and close friends in the Senate.

00:22I admired him greatly for his integrity and his passion. The line I like the most about what he

00:28would say is that a true conservative, as he was clearly, supports more money for infrastructure.

00:36He was the great chairman of this committee, so I thank you for that.

00:40It's good to be here with Senator Van Hollen. I know we're far apart at this dais, but believe

00:44me, we are working and joined at the hip in regards to this issue and the issues affecting

00:50Maryland. March 26 was a tragic shock day for all of us in Maryland. I was awoken early in

00:57the morning and looked at the video and was shocked by how quickly the Francis Scott Key

01:03Bridge collapsed after being struck by the dolly. The loss of life was our major concern trying to

01:10rescue. We lost six people that tragedy, and their thoughts are always in our prayers, and we are

01:18always with their families. The Port of Baltimore was closed, the third busiest port in the United

01:26States closed as a result of the tragedy. The next morning, workers had no place to go to work.

01:35Hundreds and thousands of people were directly impacted by the Port of Baltimore being closed.

01:41Businesses were shuttered. Small business operators had no business. It was a major

01:48catastrophic event for our economy, and by the way, it affected the entire region.

01:52Small business administration was there, setting up an office immediately affecting

01:57businesses in six states, so it was affected in the entire region of our country. In fact,

02:03it affected the entire country because the supplies of a lot of the agricultural and roll-off cargo

02:09was affected throughout our country. It shut down a major artery, a major artery of I-95,

02:17as the chairman pointed out, over 30,000 vehicles a day. I want to just first acknowledge the

02:24incredible unified response, starting with the President of the United States, President Biden.

02:30He was very direct about the federal response, and he was very helpful to all of us.

02:36I want to thank Administrator Batt and Secretary Buttigieg. They were there immediately providing

02:42the expertise and resources. As Senator Capito pointed out, $60 million was released almost

02:49immediately to deal with the cleanup operations of the bridge itself. I want to thank General

02:57Spellman and Colonel Pinchasen. I must tell you, I knew that they were good. I didn't know that

03:04they were this good. You're talking about, as Senator Capito said, 50,000 tons of debris,

03:12and it was highly contained. So therefore, when you started to try to remove anything,

03:18you would have a spring effect that could very well have caused additional injury and damage

03:24and death. And they couldn't see at all in the water. They had to use sonar in order to figure

03:29out where things were. The expertise was unbelievable, and the response was unbelievable.

03:34I want to thank the U.S. Coast Guard. They were the head of the Unified Command. They did an

03:39incredible job keeping all of the people working in the same direction. And Secretary Wietefeld,

03:45our Secretary of the Department of Transportation, along with Governor Moore and Baltimore City

03:49Mayor Scott all worked as a unified team in order to deal with the challenges of the families of the

03:56victims, to deal with the businesses that were shuttered, to deal with the workers,

04:00to deal with the port issues, and to deal with the replacement of the bridge.

04:04So, and as the Chairman pointed out, our incredible thanks go out to our first responders.

04:10It is almost unbelievable to believe we only lost six lives.

04:15The quick action of the first responders kept other vehicles from being on the bridge,

04:19and we're talking about seconds. It's all there was between the original alert and the bridge

04:24coming down, and they were able to prevent other cars from going on to the bridge, saving many

04:30lives. Now, in regards to the bridge replacement, we have a major issue. The city streets are being

04:38now inundated by truck traffic. We've seen an 18 percent increase in the tunnel traffic, which is

04:45causing major delays through our tunnels. For hazardous materials and those who choose to take

04:50the detour around the beltway, it's a 25-mile detour through a part of the beltway that already

04:57was congested with major delays, now having even more major delays. So make no mistake about it,

05:03there is a serious impact until that bridge is replaced, and it's going to take a couple years,

05:07we recognize that. But we need to act quickly. That's why Senator Van Hollen and I filed

05:13legislation to the Bridge Relief Act, because we need to know the certainty of the federal share.

05:22And let me just point out, we are asking for 100 percent, because that's what we've done in the

05:29past. And we need it now, because we are lending contracts to start the construction now. We don't

05:35want to delay this. Every month that's delayed is additional loss to our communities, and

05:41frustration among drivers, not only those that are directly impacted by the port, but those that are

05:46using our streets. Neighborhoods are impacted, so we need to get this moving as quickly

05:51as possible. I point out that changing the share to 100 percent is totally consistent with the

05:58prior practices that we've done during emergencies. We did that for the I-35W bridge in Minnesota,

06:04we did it for Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Fiona. All those, we changed the share

06:10from 90 percent to 100 percent. Why? Because it was a major event. Senator Van Hollen and I,

06:18the Maryland delegation, strongly supported our efforts on behalf of our sister state problems,

06:23and we expect that we'll get the same courtesy in reply. Let me also point out that,

06:29in support of the administration, Director Young has sent a letter to us supporting this.

06:35Let me mention the issue in regards to the toll issue, because Senator Capito mentioned that.

06:40The toll issues in regards to this facility is totally consistent with the requirements in Title

06:4623. The toll revenues are not used to build a replacement bridge for Francis Scott Key Bridge.

06:53It is used for the maintenance of our interstate system. It's already taken a major hit as a result

06:59of Francis Scott Key Bridge being knocked down. We've lost literally millions of dollars of

07:04revenues already, and we're behind in the resources we would normally get. This is not

07:10being used for the replacement of the bridge. Secondly, there will be recoveries. We put that

07:16in the legislation. They're expecting a record recovery from insurance and third-party claims,

07:22and that will be used to reduce dramatically the federal share. Now, the state of Maryland,

07:28all those funds go to the federal government. It would be penalizing the state of Maryland if you

07:33required us to use our toll facilities to repay our 10 percent. So we think that would be totally

07:38unfair, and I just have to be pretty honest about that. I think it would be penalizing our state.

07:45Yes, I support the supplemental. We need to get the ER funds up to where it needs to be. We

07:49strongly support that, but let's be realistic. That's going to take some time before we get

07:54around to doing it. I would ask your support, the first available vehicle for us to be able to get

08:00the cost-share legislation passed. I think that's a matter of fairness and importance

08:05for us to be able to move forward with this project. And with that, I'm glad to be here

08:09with my colleague. We're going to work together, and we're going to certainly work with the chair

08:12and ranking member and all the members of this committee in order that we can get this project

08:16done as quickly as possible. Senator Cardin, thank you for those words. Before I recognize

08:22Senator Von Hollen, I'm going to go back to Jim Inhofe. And Jim Inhofe, for those who remember,

08:28was a, I don't mean this in an unkind way, he was a climate change denier. And there was famously

08:35one of the most memorable things he did. I don't know if it was like springtime, and we had like

08:41a big snowfall here. And he went out and gathered snow in front of the U.S. Capitol and made

08:49snowballs and brought them into the chamber and said, for those of you who think that this climate

08:56change is real, look at all these snowballs. He ended up, at the time that he was here, joining

09:01me as, initially, the George Winovich Republican from Ohio, but later, Jim Inhofe, to be the

09:07co-chair, the co-sponsor for the Diesel Emission Reduction Act, which has done a whole lot to reduce

09:14diesel emissions and help us in the battle on climate change. So, God bless Jim Inhofe. Thank

09:19you. Chris, welcome. Chris Van Hollen, who is, I think, if I'm not mistaken, previously a member,

09:27a valued member of this committee. And we're grateful that you can join us this morning.

09:31You're not recognized. Go ahead, please. And at some point in time, maybe right after,

09:36Senator Van Hollen, I need to run over to the Homeland Security Committee. We're having a

09:40hearing on permitting, which my colleagues know is a big deal for all of us. So I'll have to slip

09:45up for a part of that. When you step out, can I take the chair and move my legislation forward?

09:52I'll second that.

Cardin Emphasizes Seismic Damage Of The FSK Bridge Collapse: A 'Catastrophic Event For Our Economy’

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