to identify all the situations in which ai were used in u.s. elections to build a database people can look back at and say i know about this incident i know what happened here is some evidence about what effect it had or did not have regrets working people find the forms? >> these reports are on our website. abundance.institute. you can go there and check it out. also learn a little bit more about the abundance. >> serves as a director of ai policy for the abundance. thank you for your time. >> coming up next on cspan2 from earlier today at infrastructure conference hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce. then a higher education professionals from the university of maryland and the university of north carolina at chapel hill discuss the status of politics in america american university. later senator mitch mcconnell, dick durbin john cornyn talking about u.s. aid to israel from

the senate floor. that and more coming up tonight on cspan2. ♪ c-span issue involves a view of government. funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be or recognized when the best internet providers we are just getting started building wondered a thousand miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving a front row seat to democracy. just chamber of commerce host and infrastructure conference in washington d.c. with the members of congress, by demonstration official state and local leaders. they discuss legislation passed during president biden's tenure how it's applied to workforce

training chip manufacturing and the electrical grid. the event began with key note remarks by acting labor secretary. this is about four hours. >> ladies and gentlemen director at united infrastructure. >> good morning. how someone doing this morning? fantastic. thank you, maria the rain just started as a perfect reason to get everyone inside of this beautiful space thank you all for taking the time this morning to be here with us. i loved seeing a room started slowly filled up with infrastructure nerds like myself. it's fantastic. welcome to infrastructure at 2024. very exciting.

i am supremely honored to lead infrastructure for my post and accelerate for america action. many have been with us two years ago it's been a fantastic two years leading this wonderful coalition organization and associations and private sector companies so many of you are a here in the room with us today thank you all for your support. for your dedication, for your work on this mission thank you so much. many of you are thinking what are we still doing here? why do you force us to come to these every year, year after year after year? i get it. if you're not going away i'm so sorry were forced to be here for many more years to come. get situated, get comfy. this year we are not continuing our admission of celebrate the successes of amplifying the project of the continuing to beat the drum for federal investment in infrastructure.

we are also acknowledging every critical milestone. the halfway point of the bipartisan info structure law. if the last two and half years steering committee or partnership network, our larger coalition of family partners have been beating the drum, pounding the pavement to make sure they know about these incredible investments and now we get to the critical work of paving the next steps. making sure we get to the next federal investment. quickly to my partner sure work to the calling sunroom from sidewalk infrastructure partners, meridian, stan tech and of course h ntb thank you so much for your hard work showing the rest of the counter the private sector should be doing in this space. and to her steering committee want to acknowledge her steering committee quickly. afl-cio the american science and the business roundtable thank you bart from credible reception last night the national

association of manufacturers national of cities nor thick american building trades unit that valuable water campaign and credible the u.s. chamber of commerce but look at this room thank you all want to thank our sponsor for today. thank you for your partnership, for your mission and recognition the importance of this work. around of the plaza for the entire u of i family.ly we have a truly incredible program today at silver in the tens of thousands projects in every single state and territory that have been funded to the ia ja. it's a celebration will have today to focus on the investments of the public sector from private sector, from philanthropy into our nation's workforce. getting more people opportunities to build the critical projectsrc that will be so pivotal throughout the next generation and beyond so thank you all for working with us to get that going as well. we are going to go through lunch we've got food taken care of movies in the briefing center right over b here i know you're

all very busy people thing to step out, take a call, joining beating, put out a fire please go to the room and do that and think back and join us if got a wonderful program so let's get to it. once again were so thankful to our partners u.s. chamber of commerce, hosting us today. i know she is very sad not to do with that she wanted to make sure she gives acknowledgment it's my distinct honor the president's seal of the u.s. chamber of commerce mrs. suzanne clark. thank you so much everyone. [applause] looks thank you welcome everyone to the u.s. chamber of commerce. we are delighted to host you all today to discuss how we can unleash the potential of our nation's historic infrastructure. this is about finishing the job we started. many of us spent years or even decades working to get a robust infrastructure bill across the finish line. what we should all celebrate that achievement the bipartisan infrastructure built simply laid

the foundation for increasing our nation's competitiveness. too truly see the opportunities before us we must create a policy environment that makes it easier for businesses to invest and to build a better future. to do that we have to do a better job of setting priorities as a nation and acting smartly and strategically to make them possible. billions of dollars of federal investments ready to go into our nation's roads, bridges, railways, and broadband. america's updating process is holding back progress, opportunity and economic growth. when it takes an average of seven and a half years to get a permit for a new bridge or a new road longer than it takes forad many projects that's not strategic. we want to talk on infrastructure challenge that hits closer to home for many in this region. it's more than a challenge it's

a tragedy. we with the key federation partner in the aftermath of the horrific collapse of the francis scott key bridge. think about the team and the people of baltimore are dealing with. families who've lost loved ones. who have l lost jobs, commuters who cannot get home. businesses have less access to the port that is vital to what they do. in addition to or for their part is help the community and the w families recover we must work to build that bridge. i will compound the challenge. prolong the disruption of commerce and daily life. we cannot let that happen in baltimore or anywhere else or project badly needs to get done. honestly permit america to build campaign. uniting more than 350 coalition

partners calling on congress to enact meaningful, durable permit performance. not long after as part of the debt limit built last june congress enacted the first meaningful update in more than 40 years to the national environmental policy act. that helped pave the way to get more shovels in the ground. there is plenty left to do and the clock is ticking. it may seem hard to believe funding for the bipartisan infrastructure law is nearing its expiration. the next congress but this reauthorization the best best way to build support for this legislation is to be able to point to its impact. that means making it easier to invest, permit build the speed and efficiency. and it means great more certainty from that priority to affect the nation's ability to drive growth, innovation and prosperity we are capable of. reauthorizing the infrastructure clear andevelop a

comprehensive energy policy that supports american energy production in the energy transition. addressing the workerr shorter crisis, securing our borders pursuing a market opening trade agenda and more. look, we have a lot of work ahead of us but i am optimistic. we have a demonstrate what is possible business come together around a shared national priority. today is the continuation of that effort. to date we can turn promises into projects and push for long-term investment thank you for your dedication and commitment and i look forward to partner with you in this effort. with that i will turn things over too brian jones president f the mid atlantic division.

>> good morning everyone. thank you suzanne it's truly a privilege to be here today represent the u.s. chamber of commerce board of directors as we embark on discussion surrounding one of the most monumental investments in america infrastructure and sustainability efforts in history. the crucial next steps to keep that momentum going over a decade ago infrastructure week was established as a pivotal platform uniting policy makers, industry leaders, the business community and the public and a concerted effort to advance critical conversations forward. unified by a common goal, this coalition employed considerable influence in urging lawmakers to elevate infrastructure investment as a top priority. from navigating legislative obstacles to fostering

innovative solutions inclusive dialogue the invaluable expertise leadership and guidance proved key to finding a common ground and reaching as we all know are rare bipartisan achievement. the infrastructure investment and jobs act coupled with increased state and local funding hold significant implications for the infrastructure industry and the american economy. our shrink and in a new era of opportunity, growth, and innovation. already receiving tangible impacts, projects previously stalled due to funding constraints are now moving forward in creating a millions of new jobs across various sectors. cutting edge technologies and sustainable practices are being adopted. positioning the industry as a leader in innovation while enhancing efficiency. but as suzanne noted this is only the beginning. our work is not over.

we must now concentrate on maximizing the impact of this historic investment while also identifying sustainable long-term funding mechanisms to preserve and enhance our infrastructure system for generations to come. our sessions today and others throughout the weeks, months, years ahead offered opportunity to deepen a collective opportunity not just of ventral infrastructure but approaches positive change and reit build connections within communities across our nation. please welcome welcome enjoining my friend maryellen ceo of accelerator for america in united for infrastructure. [applause] >> please welcome to the stage president accelerator for america. ♪

>> good morning everybody. what a beautiful room of infrastructures, practitioners, stakeholders, advocates great to be with you we appreciate you joining us. i am mary ellen president ceo of accelerator for america. we are an entity that runs the infrastructure with all ofer yo. accelerator for america was a former los angeles mayor eric garcetti in 2017. we work every day in our mission to help develop solutions that combat economic and security and shared scale replicate those solutions across our network of cities and leaders everywhere in this country. at the core of our work has always been infrastructure because we know infrastructure helps reconnect neighborhoods and connect people to opportunity. infrastructures about our country's economic competitiveness and at its core it's about good jobs which is why i'm excited to be up on the

stage suited to introduce our key note speaker. and considering we both have california groups, let's talk a little bit about acting secretary julie su she took the reins in march of last year and under her leadership the department continues to put at the center of everything they do, those who have been historically under invested and underestimated. acting secretary julie su ensures these individuals is sometimes enforced to take on whatever work they can get an amount of the hours, no matter the conditions or the mistreatment they have new opportunities through this infrastructure law to work on projects that provide a family supporting wages. dignity and growth opportunity. acting secretary and i also share a first-generation american story. my father andr his family cameo this country after world war ii having nothing but the clothes

on their backs and their few k's suitcase and a few things will my grandfather with family supporting wages and a pension. the acting secretary's family came here couple decades later and she was born here in this country, just as i was. but maybe not the same opportunity. she ultimately became her parents most ferocious advocate she translated for them and help temake sure they got what they needed as a family that formed who she is in the work that she does today to make sure that people have dignity at work in the pay and benefits they need at work. early in her career she combated sweatshop conditions for more than 70 thai immigrants in california. leading her to found the organization sweat shop to watch focus on unproven conditions for those working in the garment industry. i worked to aid these vulnerable

residents helped earn eight macarthur genius grant. we have a genus in our midst this morning. acting secretary julie su would work for two california governors and for those who know accelerator you know we love governors and our mayors we are project lease thrilled with the initiative she has had with the national league of cities on tigood jobs, great cities helpig our city leaders form programs and initiatives around this amazing opportunity. higher on a panel layer from san antonio. secretary su understands importance of partnership none of the stuff happens alone as a team sport that we work in. at accelerator we are plural to part with the department of players women's beer on the line initiative leveraging infrastructure networks for equity to ensure these infrastructure and the clean energy job with the inflation reduction acts are available for

people of color, women, and people been historically under invested it in on. with that are skilled trades at work without our labors, steel metal workers are plumbers, painters, transportation, transit experts and so many more none of the infrastructure projects would be possible. but that in mind it is my great honor to introduce the country's number one advocate for great jobs and worker, acting secretary julie su. ♪ >> good morning everybody. mary ellen, thank you so much that very warm introduction. it was so lovely to speak with you before speaking with you.

good jobs really transform lives and do so for generations. i'm so pleased to be here today to talk to about that how we are in a moment we can make that akhappen. and we have done a very long time in the country. i know the best ideas happen when business leaders, unions, mayors other local officials others come together a partnership. i really appreciate you and your leadership in bringing together this group to talk about something that is so core to president biden's vision for america which is infrastructure. i want to acknowledge a few people before i start. my friends he will hear from and them just a little bit. press of the building trades present of the transportation trades department afl-cio.n

president biden is investing in america and the workers that sean and greg represent our building america. i want to recognize san antonio mayor ron nirenberg. as maryellen said our mayor is when getting stuff done on the frontline san antonio is one of the book great jobs great cities. san antonio is really setting an example i want to thank whose brilliant work got it so much of the biden-harris administration initial economic from pandemic response to stork job growth and suzanne clark who you heard from on the video has been great to work with it as well we think about how to build resilient supply chain across this

country. make sure economic growth broadly benefits all. as you all know, since even before this group came together about a decade of go we talk about the need for infrastructure investments. president biden is delivering them. now, everywhere i go i get to see historic investments taking shape all across the country. at pittsburgh international i airport we are investing $20 million to modernize the airport terminal. at the same time that work is using made in america steel. it is creating thousands of prevailing wage union jobs, it will generate $2.5 billion in economic activity. that's a theme which is how these investments are not just good for workers. not just good for those who work on them but power our economic growth. i also got to visit the site up and the people are creating

america's first interstate high-speed rail. this is going to connect california inland empire with las vegas. also built by union workers. and probably like many of our fellow west coasters that spent time on i 15 i know we welcome high-speed rail lent exactly wey between the two cities. i toured atlanta as a belt line that's improving transportation, petitete more green space as wel as affordable housing. reconnecting neighborhoods been divided by infrastructure the past we think about infrastructure people often ask me which is are we going to have the workforce for all this work? and the answer to that is yes. if we make sure these investments create good jobs and we focus on connecting the people that have been left out of opportunity for too long to tthose jobs. this it brings me too another

kind of infrastructure. i think of art workforce systemm as infrastructure to it is the roads and bridges that connect people to the good jobs they want and need an employer's to the people they want and need. just like our physical infrastructure our workforce infrastructure is got some cracks. it is got some potholes. not this time not on our watch. president biden's america we are building a workforce infrastructure as strong as her stphysical infrastructure. we are making sure it will reach alls. communities. when the high road training partnerships what do i mean by that? hi road partnerships start with the jobs. the t destination we cannot buid infrastructure if we don't know where we are going.

just like too many training programs in the past have focus on skills that might be needed for jobs that might materialize. not anymore. language the demand for labor it with the supply they involve management and labor sitting down together to plan to the design to actual jobs. for too long focus has been on the skill sufficiency of workers rather than on the quality of jobs. not this time. the panel that comes up after me is going to talk more about have experience in exactly how to build these threat way. hyatt road creating partnerships traditional training on its head by starting with the good jobs and making sure jobs with family sustaining wages jobs or workers have a voice workers can be in a union, jobs are every worker goes home healthy and safe at the end of the day and jobs for

families canob get breathing rom are at thef core of our entire infrastructure. our partnerships prioritize communities that have been left behind. talk about women. and document black workers, latino workers, asian workers, people who involve the justice system and young people who are not connected either to school or the workforce at this moment. at a time when our economy is growing ands projects are breaking ground all across the country have an opportunity to make sure that we build bridges to communities that have not been reached by them for too long. the high road training partnerships are those bridges these programs include registered apprenticeships we often describe as the super highways of this workforce infrastructure. training programs are not just one off. they're part of ann interconnected system we invest in also exist for the projects

of tomorrow. i always said this but i think it is worth repeating training should not in any job search. it should end and a good job. i was recently in milwaukee meeting with apprentices who were learning to be electricians. i asked them how it felt to be in the program? one of the young men said to me i feel secure. for the first time in my life i feel secure. that sense of security is what height road training ships can provide workers all across our country but also provide employers who are struggling with the challenge of how to meet their own workforce needs. another part of this important infrastructure is not just the employers and labor but also organizations like community organizations provide other services that workers need to be connected to jobs. as will policies on the state and local level who went putting out dollars putting out

opportunity can incentivize this kind of interconnectedness. so, making short workers have supported services like childcare, like transportation. like the things that get in the way people being able to get training programs and get the jobs. not because people are not willing to work not because they don't have the skills and can learn the skills but because that infrastructure that supports them is not been there for too long. one example is a city of san antonio. earlier thisan year my team: ld the city's equity at summit which focused on making childcare more affordable. through the summit we found nearly 60% of workers in san antonio cannot afford childcare in any given week. of the city's working on a budget proposal is going to help those families with childcare needs. leadership matters mayor ron leadership is making a big difference. we have kicked off an effort

line initiative. this is creating the infrastructure that allows women to get into good infrastructure jobs. to get it done or part with mary ellen and accelerate for american implement on the ground mayor. supporting workers getting good jobs intergenerational well-being that we talk about is not enough of an incentive let me also share another statistic. a study that we did at the department of labor found if this country invested in childcare and family supporting policies like paid leave the weight other comparable economies do in the world, it would allow about 5 million more women to come into the workforce. that would generate $775 billion with of economic activity. we do think the right way is good for working people it's good for communities is good for the entire community that you

all represent in the infrastructure at what it's good for our economy and good for our country. doing this the right way is president biden knows and is i know we do right by it working people we make our economy stronger makes america stronger. were also working to create better connections with our educational institutions who are very important part of this roads and bridges are connectable to good t jobs. that's investing in pre-apprenticeship program and community colleges. i was the community college of allegheny county met a student named parker who said he was in high school he never imagined e would get to do a job with his hands also get a college degree. now he's getting to do both of those things. he's getting it at his local community college with classes that connect to the job that he is doing in his local community to help build up his community. these are jobs of advance and ad manufacturing include clean energy.

that's all the infrastructure talk about right and i would think about community colleges as onramp's to this infrastructure. recognize for your degree is not the only and best path for people to get to the future get to the best nation they want too. to meet this more of a of historic infrastructure the moment people in this room have been pushing for for some time we have to make sure they have the infrastructure to get the job that they need. we are eight training partnership exists we know that willed happen. thousands of partnerships like this across the country but i'm sure many of you know about them and have even a part of building them. but if you don't we have created a height road to the middle class map all of these training partnerships and where they are all across the country. those i training programs are connected in the investments are being made and present biden's s investigate america agenda. we create that map a year ago we have added thousands more dots

on the map. which shows we are not only doing what we say, we are scaling them in a way that we need to do. everybody represents in this room to help get to that point. so please join us on the high road. the department j of labor has a frame or preparing info structure workforce to support you in this work. i urge you to look at it and improve the components of it we just talked about how each member of the partnership with your business, a nonprofit educational institution, a union or a government entity can play their role in helping to build this house of partnerships. i'm going to close i know we are all here because we care about how these investments paid opportunity and intergenerational opportunity for working people across this country to talk about rose evans in ohio. rose was struggling to provide her s kids when she started at apprenticeship program and became a dirty work over the sheet metal workers union. roads daughter, dimon, so just

with this t good union job meant for her mother and for their family. and so she enrolled in a pre-apprenticeship program funded by the department of labor in conjunction with my friend of the building trades. today, mom arose is working on her second infrastructure project funded by president biden's investigate it's in kokomo, indiana and today she's working side-by-side with her daughter diamond on the project. would we invest in infrastructure we invest in families like rose and diamond we create intergenerational change for women, for people of color for all communities to enjoy the prosperity we are building in this country in this moment. let's do this right. let's do this together and see the moment to build the 21st century infrastructure that is physical the opportunity in every single community i'm so excited to work with you with the department of labor. stand with you. we have your back we thank you

so much for your leadership and all the work you're doing. thank you so much. [applause] >> please welcome to the stage america it works for works for e panel. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good morning everyone. >> good morning too. >> president of the brookings institution it's an absolute honor to be with you here today especially to follow my former friend and colleague acting secretary julie su i want to give a special thanks to the u.s. chamber of commerce for hosting us and to united for infrastructure steering

committee for putting on this really great event. our p panelists today are power players in this space. power players who have championed local workforce to velvet programs, lead and coordinate across unions with millions of members fought for crucial investment into our country infrastructure workforce. mayor ron of san antonio, sean president of the north american building trades union and president. thank you for being with us. today's conversation will really ofocus on expanding and diversifying infrastructure workforce which we know is quite a challenge. and yet delivering on the challenge is much harder and many discussions. stin the first round of questios i like to start with you, sean. i know you graduate her construction registered apprenticeship program. i am an academic we all believe

in the power of apprenticeship programs. the what is stopping us from making it more available? who is not playing ball? what are you doing to expand the apprenticeship program and diversify them how can we do that? >> we have been working for probably the last three decades to diversify the union construction. and we put together with community partners both national, local and i think the urban league the naacp scores of local community organizations we call apprenticeship reddish it programs what theyy are there's pre-apprenticeship for people to answer the apprenticeship system because the training is a rigorous and they need to step up in some cases to get them ready. in those programs wen target

women of color, at risk communities, indigenous people, formerly incarcerated, or in carson who are currently teaching our pre-apprenticeship programs in the prison system in six states. when they come out there ready to get into registered apprenticeship program. our graduates are 80% people of color 20% women. we have tremendous opportunity moving forward with the amount of work coming out and in construction speak c the regular construction industry to about $1.3 trillion a year without this federal legislation that we now have jobs going out as far as we can see. we look at the opportunity don't think we can compare it to set the end of world war ii the gis

were coming home after fighting tierney across the world. buildingor their families in the middleid class in this country that is how gigantic the opportunity is. the recruitment piece of it is huge for us. we are heavily invested with 225 of these programs going in excess across the united states. large and small that are creating a pipeline of opportunity for folks to get into the registered apprenticeship system. currently, registered apprenticeship system with 1600 training centers in the united states. if we were k-12 school district with the fifth largest in the united states if your state university system will be the third largest after the university of california five times a site of ohio state one institution the world trained more people and hard skill sets that we do and that is the united states village about two or a 5000 people and are registered apprenticeship training programs right now. we have expanded capacity. we have invested and reinvested

we spent our own money is not the government money and exit of $2 billion year for building infrastructure, training teachers, so we can greatly expand thater as the opportunits arise as more and more that's deployed is going to create more and more opportunities for people coming to the pipeline to get into a register to produce a system. the system. in just one more note we did a study last year an academic study to see how we were on diversity. we have a ways to go but the good news is everybody's got competition. the chamber knows all about that. our competition is the open shop construction center who considers themselves considerably bigger than us. we have taken into our registered system turn a thousand more people, more women over the last 20 years compared to our competition. we know we are on the right track but we ramped it up to

look for the opportunities to put people to work and move them to the middle class through our training on the investments of the federal government is making. >> to push a little more it sounds like this is fabulous you guys are making huge strides on apprenticeship. what do we need to do to increase and seat more apprenticeship more generally in the nine states? >> i personally think our system is a good one. it's cold manage system between the employers and the union. theyog run these programs a boad of trustees. they make the decisions on expenditures, investments in the program. hours have been around for going out 100 years now. there's lots of other industry out there currently who are worried about where they're going to the workforce that they need. unfortunately look at thehe history of wall street back of the 70s started looking at the

quarterly reports and a lot of internal training going on across industries in the united states was jettisoned to try to save money to please wall street investors. but they can get together as a third party operation. some are popping up. secretary su, as before the semester is needed good job of pushing the apprenticeship system into place as a people are looking at long-term about filling those job openings and prepare them for the job openings through apprenticeship reddish it programs or in particular through a registered mapprenticeship program to the people being taught skill sets they need not only gainfully employed but successful and move their way up the ladder from healthcare across almost any enterprise of the united states for quick sets>> finding ways to get the employers to come to the table as well. part unions or other organizations perfect.

great we've heard so much about a cleaner more modern transportation. what are some of the challenge is to train workers in this new knowledge and skills? what have been the most promising ways to address the challenges? >> you look at the model, so much historically in our grant programs with mta the administration have been focused entirely on capitol expenses. you are talking physical infrastructure new buses and trains new roots and lines. i think the way this administration is starting to change that dynamic with the low and no admission bus program they require 5% of all the funds and applicant receives few directed towards job training that includes the maintenance of electric vehicles quite a bit different than a diesel vehicle. it includes making sure we have the operators are trained up so that once these are deployed

they are ready to go it's ready to go right into service. thatth idea that we'd to be investing in the people and the workforce in addition to just the stuff. stuff is important is pretty fun to see more of that but the fact we have real money as sean alluded to in areas not just for roads and bridges which are important but for public transit, passenger rail, we are seeing new entrants and his marketplaces. like texas central and other places like that. this is all great. it is really exciting but if we built all this stuff and do not have the workforce ready to operate them and doesn't do anybody any good. you look at ambitious timelines like 2028 olympics we need to be recruiting and training those workerss now. we have to know how to do it we have the work for the union to represent the workers and freight already can be effective partners in that. we need to be able to start at this point. not four years from now or two years from now.

sounds like you know it today. are there people participants lining up? got very low unemployment rate in this country. in certain occupations is there a lack of demand for these oprograms? >> is a lot of demand on the employer side from the workers. we are facing a retirement crisis in public transit right now but we have a huge proportion of the existing workforce we do not have right now that pipeline. the employers are not being the bestdv advocates will make improvements within transit worker regulations everything

but a job in transit you be reading a local newspaper but another bus driver who got beat up this not a good advertisement. industry. how to address those in the rl industry people are going to remember things like east of palestine or the big contract fight that happened a couple years ago. throughout thing about the railroad retirement benefit for the good salaries these are career jobs that for generations they are proud to be railroaders. we need to change the morale to entice more people in. we have some ideas about how we can create eight pipeline similar to what they do with the apprenticeship programs because we nowms have multiple entities operating in these areas. weatherby breitling, amtrak, class two or three railroads. they're all going to g need the same types of workers. should figure out a way to use a

multi- union we should find a way. who will do that work? how does that work? we've had conversation amtrak and steven gardner in particular they're willing to invest in this we talk about the folks there willing to invest in it. we have the model there we have a model to how to make this work. it takes the money and the focus on it. those that you think standing in the way. >> where there is a will there is a wayre i'm counting on you. quick speaking of will and away let's talk about san antonio. you have a ready to work program i hope you will describe that for the audience. like her bouts of the challenges you encounter what you do to address them.

>> i like to reflect on the fat the last time i was in this room is inside joke in washington for years our favorite week was infrastructure week. that's how it needed infrastructure bill. i want to take a moment to applaud the administration and the bipartisanship that was on display to get us the bipartisan infrastructure law that makes all this possible. so in san antonio we recognize a couple of things. anyone who spent more than a couple of minutes talk about public policy will know we've been acknowledging his skills cap for many generations. which is only growing but we didn't have the workers for the education skills necessary to fill the jobs that are being created today. the other issue was less noticeable for some the issue of income segregation and poverty

in america. soso it flashed forward to the height of the pandemic we saw our food t bank lines nearly double overnight because within a one week this event had shaken us to our core. we recognize the fact that millions of families tens of thousands one health event from financial catastrophe. we do not have an unemployment problem had it under employment problem. to make multiple jobs to make ends meet. and that ready to work program address both of these things. and the height of the pandemic who had a ballot proposition to take an eighth of a cent of existing sales tax devoted to workforces traded working with our employers to identify at wht jobs are being created. and also will be can do with providers to make sure they are trading for those skill sets so participants can fill those

jobs. our ambition is to make sure we can bring tens of thousands of san antonio families have been again underemployed or unemployed into the workforce to fill manufacturing jobs, healthcare jobs, trades, et cetera. were doing a pretty good job. within a year end a half of this program being launched 7000 folks in role bee of almost 1000 people who are already graduated from the various training programs. and into new jobs. i like to mention were targeting the folks who need this the most. the average participant in san antonio enters ready to work pipelinen and their household is making $15000 a year. that was the household income for the participant. againe under the poverty line. could not afford rent, food, et cetera. when they leave this program the average participant is making $44000 year has a transportable

credential is employed or the high gain careers healthcare industry increasingly whether that's a skilled trade so we have partnerships wither provids we have partnerships with the employers we connect the two with job placement removing barriers to make sure folks can stay in the program. our hope is aspiration only we can change the economic trajectory and break cycles of poverty. >> that sounds fabulous. has it all going according to plan? >> no. i will say one of the big lessons learned is that job training takes time and it is difficult work. the reality is every single one of those 7000 participants and we hope it's going to be a lot more as his program moves forward as an individual story. every single person has barriers that will eventually cause them

to have to choose whether they want to stay in the program or go and work a job. we have to marry the participant up with job navigators. from the very start assessing the skill sets and whatever training they might need. health event to make sure they stay in the traininge program they work with the employers to place that into a job on make sure they are successful. grandpa training provider. we are the broker. it's an intense amount of work ultimately able to land the job.

i continue to remind the folks in our community it does take time but it's hard work. everyone hasyb an individual set of circumstances. got to work with them all. we also encountered challenges within employers put every single sector works little differently. we need to work at employers who are than the providers of the training. some skill sets on a particular client and a manufacturing facility are proprietary. we have got to make sure we have opportunities for employers to provide the training themselves. our lessons have been many. i was eight number one making toreset the proper aspirations d keep people focus that we are changing lines. were not discounting numbers. working individually with folks not elevating too high i do a

lot of work in education and training but basically you get what you pay for it sounds like if you put the time and the investment in you get more of a return on the other end. i want to shift gears in my time remaining we have so many new public dollars that are flowing through the system and the economy. so we have an opportunity to replicate what works. and yet expiring with the next congress the clock is a quietlyu or maybe not so quietly ticking. i'd like to close with some promising intangible ideas for the future. sean i like to come back to you. during your time as president to have you -- you have created capitol strategy program. with thepp opportunities you see for this privately funded infrastructure projects but also to hold accountable those developers that will claim the ctira lien tax credits. >> we discovered probably 15 years ago they are invested in

companies or projects actually, the labor strategy for that project was not to use us. it certainly did not make sense to us that we were an owner and didn't have the opportunity to build it. we form the capitol strategies group and its primary mission was to get a handle on almost minor billion dollars worth of investments that we have. you see where they are at and will start out looking at consultants and making sure we negotiated with harlequin individuals. this money is invested across a wall street's invested in infrastructure and commercial real estate. it's invested in low and moderate income housing and just making sure people are aware if they wanted to do business with us except investment into a

project they're going to build there certain strings that were attached one of the strings was you're going to use union labor to build it. that is create lots of great relationships for us to believe it or not. we formed in the national labor management eric american active economics i'm sorry the investment counsel. private equity or sitting and talking about. most players in the business are good players. they want to do the right things. unfortunately there are some bad players out there. we sit with groupse. like that d ansee opportunities but we talkd spend a lot of time about pipeline and what do you want out of your investment. not only want to build the infrastructure we the projects being built with the picture that is complete specifically in

a major project they're part of the project the jobs created once the project is a finish and we take those folks who had through apprenticeship readiness build the project they go on with us to the next project to build. we create the cycle and the continuous pipeline. the scale of investments the work that's coming. we've never seen anything like it. there is nothing to compare to, to describe it. we used to get excited when somebody it would beed talking about the threat of million-dollar project. that is a gigantic projects. we're talking 10 and 20 billion-dollar projects in the chips space in the small modular reactor and offshore wind. all the programs come the tax credit program and there there's

language for the first time we were going to take advantage of the tax credit programs, there is an accelerator. if we want to take 5%, no strings attached we get 5%. fluent 30% tax credit on your investment you meet certain labor standards to do that. good jobs and not the race to the bottom which the president's focus on building the economy for the bottom up in the middle up. there is a tax credit program. people quite honestly i never heard of that are not knocking on my door every day think how do we build a relationship with you?? i want to take advantage of the programs but we want to make sure we make this capitol investment we have human capitol with the skill sets that are required to build that you're really the only people have the infrastructure on the training side to partner with us and

guarantee that. >> terrific. once a major priority of the ttbiden administration. what have you learned? we've learned across the country question equity think of theco idea of moving projects quickly of the mutually exclusive ideas? to establish a new way of handling, especially private entrance into the transportation infrastructure area. supplement their coming to us. in large part it's because over because ofthe by demonstration t the importance the way they

emphasize a priority. some these other companies are approaching us. how can we partner with you? because a really effective partnership a number of different areas where we have delivered together the company and the union have delivered a substantial investment in federal government to buildld modern better info structure projects. the more we can show the model partnership the more we can show we don't need to be at odds. we can supplement each others os efforts and form effective partnerships that more that can become the norm and that's what we're going to focus on but not everyone is going to want to do with the way we've done in these projects. i can guarantee you a dozen out ofits president biden or presidt trump, or mike pence. whoever it is. if they are making decisions about grant applications and they are figuring out which projects are worthy of money. but we have partner and corporate interest on the same page of labor and corporate

interest on the same page we are going in together it makes the decision a heck of a lot easier. i don't care who the decision-maker is they may be then biggest may hate us the most. but if we are making the decision easy for them or having effective partnerships and having those relationships, they are going to make the easier call one that's not going to be controversial. that is the type of sustained efforts i am hoping to really build upon over the next few years. >> you have acu particular exame across the country? >> oyez. oh yes. breitling is the best one. if an mou on the operations the pla we are talk about this work in the concession areas and all of that. we had a all wants a private

company previously operates all privately financed. there is money available they wanted to f invest with some of this infrastructure money. they recognize there's a value and bringing us in. there are other good options in the transit state there's companies who want to get the right way. they want to make sure, sure we have a small autonomous that's going to feed more people into a transit system. wheat once you have a labor support for this approach are going to make sure it's maintained by the union workforce. were going to t make sure their opportunities, and growth opportunities for dispatching the job people can advance their eecareers it's not going to be e of these things were a private company comes in and undercuts the existing wages of working conditions bite 40% to cut costs.

>> perfect. i love the close of you. y whether it cities, counties, metropolitan government toward congress the next administration do to better help localities do need more money for workers programs? for technical existence, all the above? later go to groundwork for this. the answer is yes to all of the above. want to emphasize what greg said. we need employer by an on these programs in san antonio we had employers, scores of reportersme signed a ready work pledge that is an agreement to his share their information but what kind of jobsth are being created so e can make sure we are preparing the right kind of workforce. kin addition to that we've withemployer by anja providers f training wells have employers os vying to be the hirers of our participants. we havee about 535 employers who have hired ready to work

participants out of this program. it is not a feeder for a particular business it's a well-roundedor workforce for our city. what we haveve found over the course of the last year end a half and i'm sure this is true in your community as well. we are not going to achieve our goals for workforce and being able to fill the job vacancies that so many industries have if we do not focus on the barriers. one specific barrier in particular that's the need for child care. we need an investment in childcare across every single community. secretary su said a number of our folks have no access. households in general. merging a couple assessments ones on need but also the capacity. we need investment a partnership. the other issue is we like to train folks in childcare. workers are not to the level

where a child care worker could actually make ends meet if that was the sole source of income. so we need to improve the labor standards and wage standards at every level for child care workers in this country. and then of course absolutely, we did investments in workforce. investment in infrastructure are great but if they are not coupled with an expectation to create a workforce, we're not doing much good. each of these investments even these capital programs are jobs programs at the end of the day. >> well, i want to thank all of you for protesting in >> i want to thank all of you for participating in today's panel. this brings us to a close of this morning's session and so i very much look forward to the rest of the program and thank you all for joining us as well. [applause]

deputy secretary of the u.s. department of commerce. [applause] >> well, hello everyone. i am pleased to join you all for

infrastructure i week at the u.. chamber of commerce. the administration and department of commerce as i'm sure many ofbi you know have ben focused on guaranteeing we have the economic foundations that we need to build prosperity that will last not just for a a few months or years but for generations. that's more than just the traditional infrastructure the roads, bridges and electrical grids et cetera but also includes a technology that will support smart cities and communities and includes a technological infrastructure thatin will allow us to outcompe our adversaries. through the landmark chips and science act semi conductors are the lifeblood of our technology from controlling the machinery we use in manufacturing facilities to tipping fighter jets in the air to something as

simple as running an appliance in our home and at the capabilities expand to the technology off the future like i and quantum computing. but to envision the path forward on chips, we have to take a step back and understand where we are starting from. right now we are deeply reliant on other countries for our chips but it wasn't always like that. in 1990 many of us remember the u.s. made 37% of the worlds chips. today we made it just 12%. a tiny fraction of the world's legacy chips and none of the leading edge that we need to power the most advanced systems. the covid-19 pandemic shed a light on the vulnerabilities in this sector and the supply chains broke down leaving dangerous shortages putting american businesses and consumers at risk. but two things became clear in the wake of all of this. first, this was a monumental

risk for allll of us in this country and second, we couldn't let it happen again. the president and vice president know that if america is going to compete and reaffirm our leadership on the world stage, we have to make these once in a generation investments in our technology and manufacturing because this isn't just about our economic security. it's about our national security. that's why president biden passed the chips and science act, a major part of his investingaj in america agenda. investing more than $50 billion to build new semi conductor factories and scale up the support of manufacturing are necessary to help them grow investing in or entity centers and training workers to ensure america remains the leader in this critical industry. make no mistake, this is a targeted industrial strategy. the chips and science act is our innovative solution to

challenges that if left unaddressed will send shockwaves through the economy for decades to come andad with the new strategy, we are already beginning to see transformative results. in march we announced the preliminary memorandum of terms with intel corporation to provide up to $8.5 billion in proposed funding to strengthen u.s. domestic supply chain resilience and reestablish american leadership in semiconductor manufacturing. there hasn't been a greenfield lab like this in the u.s. for more than three decades. with a proposed investment in intel's projects acrosste the country, we are securing access to the leading edge chips and benefits to the technology, economy on the national security while also being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. we are leveraging up vast amounts of private sector investment. and this multibillion-dollar preliminary agreement to stand

alongside similar preliminary agreements with other leading companies like global boundaries, samsung. and they mark some of the largest investments of announced in u.s. semiconductor manufacturing. but best of all, because of its proposed targeted investments in these companies, we anticipate that america will produce roughly 20% of the world's leading edge chips by the end of the decade. by investing in the chips manufacturing right here in america, we are providing new economic opportunity topo amerin workers and their a communities bolstering america's technological leadership and shoring up the national security rebuilding our infrastructure. this is president biden's and best in america action. we aren committed to continuing this work complementing the efforts of so many others that are right here in thisy room and working with all of you across the country to build a stronger and more secure country. thank you so much and it's good to be with you.

[applause] please welcome america's electrical grid panel. >> good morning, everybody. apparently we are supposed to wait for the intro to add. i am currently a partner at the advisors but most of you know me from my previous role where i was the senior advisor to public engagement for the department of transportation. on they pleased to be d

stage today but i'm going to start with the good news bad news. this is always going to be a good b news bad news conversati. we have an all-star panel of women that are here to drop some knowledge on youe also the conversation today is on grid resilience and the good news piece of that is that obviously this administration has invested historic resources into all of the climate resilience programs i'm excited to introduce the lady beside me, so to my immediate right here we have maria robinson who is the director at the grid deployment office for the u.s. department of energy and abigail campbell the head of climate and infrastructure policy at siemens which is doingre a little bit of something around infrastructure thesee days. please join me in welcoming

them. [applause] >> let's start with you. you have a tough job. you might be the only person i know is the director of an office who has a multiple set of phd's. >> thank you so much for having us here today. i love nothing more than talking about investing in our electrical grid, so the grid deployment office is actually a brand-new office we were just founded in august of 22, so i started w with two people at a babe since grown to 140 with a mission about $22 billion out the door in order to invest in ouror electric grid. our goal is to both enhance the

existing grid as well as building outut new in order to meet all of the new demand as we have on theut grid in part becae of the great investments being made by m the biden administration. what does that team look like, what is the grid deployment office? >> we have a whole bunch of policy wonks and engineering nerds coming together to make a really good decisions, and a lot of it is focused on working closely with industry so as mentioned with the state representative in the previous lifetime and the association immediately before that, so for me it is going out there and talking to people that are going to utilize these mechanisms whether it's the direct funding and having conversations and if our program seems really good in our little forestalled building that is impenetrable, that's only going so far. we were able to recruit a number

of folks in industry. a lot of folks work at the state level that are tasked with implementing a lot of the work to make sure we have the strongest mind is that are realistic saying we are going to run into this problem over here. can we figure out how to tweak the language in our actual moving forward, so we have a wide variety of folks that are helping us figure that out as well as dedicated public servants that are helping us navigate how to cut through the red tape of bureaucracy every day. >> congratulations. the folks in this room know about breitling west and all the exciting things happening. from the industry perspective and all the things that are part of your portfolio, what keeps you up at night? >> we've seen thislu huge influx

and the public-private partnerships and a lot of facilities so it's an incredibly exciting time one for quite a while in the u.s. into so i think with that being said it's how we actually achieve it. talk about chargers, which we makee and from this legislation provides this opportunity to localize in the u.s. or when we talk about solar, the opportunity to localize manufacturing in the u.s. also a lot of our peers and customers ordering the samend thing, so it's not just our infrastructure we are building but also our concern of working with our colleagues in the department of energy and partners andgu communities to figure out how we actually get the power needed is a wall of the new facility is coming online, the data centers for these new really strong u.s. ports for the economy and so i think for us it's exciting because the technology is there and we know that there's some immediacy in terms of hardware and software and additional tools that can bring everything together at a rapid pace, but it's what can we do right now to

make sure we are building because although all of these things have been announced with needs immediately to support them. >> and you've done a great job i think as a company i can say that outom loud to this group working collaboratively with the administration as the administration,n my former home, as well asin all these historic programs. what advice would you give from the private sector perspective about how to work with of the administration better? >> i think it is the same thing. we were catching up in the back briefly. we had worked together on the trade associations, so i think what we see now is the agreed range of experience in terms of individuals that have been a part of industry or academia or this great new manufacturer startups, so for us the important thing is what can we do to share our expertise and what can we do to also be open to listen. we understand t that again there is a once in a generation opportunity right now, but no one company can go it alone so no one administration can

complete everything. it's a lot of different multiple pieces that are going to be ae part of all of this and so we understand that these last couple of years have been multiple years of opportunity, so it's understanding and trying to make sure that we are bringing such expertise but also an open ear to the conversation, knowing that there's a different side to the puzzle right now. >> into from your perspective, we talked about some of the challenges a little bit, but lay it out for us. what are some of the solutions, what is exciting that you are working on? >> i think we are all pretty familiar with of the challenges when folks ask what keeps me up at night, in part because the challengeses are so great this s the first time that the industry is seen growth so they are not necessarily prepared when doing long-term planning for the investment that we put into the grid and power system we talk about them on the 30, 40, 50 52

timescale and now suddenly this influx of new manufacturing, data centers, of ai, this is happening so quickly, so it's figuring out what can wepp do bh in the short term and then figuring out these longer-term issues for us to handle some of the concerns. abigail mentioned in particular some of the software solutions. when you think about the electricut grid, you don't necessarily think about software, but that is a phenomenal solution for us whether it's this thing called dynamic line reading where you can use a little bit more of the grid during particular peak hours than you thought you otherwise would and it helps the engineers to be a little less conservative about whetherer thy want to deploy more power in times when everybody has the air-conditioning on or the heat on. if you are up north. so, those are things we can look at in the short term and there's some great technologies, whether it's advanced, the wires have a little metal piece called the conductor that goes through them

and they've made some real scientific advancements over the past 30, 40 years to make some lighter the stronger, better conductors that go in as well as trying to prevent wildfires, which is the thing that keeps me up at night the most right now. i know a lot of folks in the utility space bar anxious about that and so some of our funding we've committed to $7 billion last year just out of my office alone goes toward that wildfire prevention, so every dollar that we are putting in we are going to get so much value if it means we don't't have to worry about e grid going down. that preventative stuff gets all of us here at infrastructure week really excited, but it's sometimese' a harder sell outsie of the folks that are thinking ahead and looking ahead. so we've got a big mission ahead of us, but we also have quite a few tools in our toolbox. >> part of the reason we have the places we do is because i think we are all a lien to that as abby said earlier we can't go it alone. and i would love for both of you

starting with abby to talk a little bit about the kind of collaborations that have to happen. >> starting with the department of energy, and credible partnerships we have seen there i know obviously the team you are leaving for has grown over time to really support these opportunities and what has been great i think in a lot of these areas is where we know what the challenges are. we as an industry have an opportunity and responsibility to educate where the technology is and where the opportunity is to advance the need to build. there's so many digital tools. how can we ensure that there's still community engagement, environmental safeguards and timelines that are kept to by using additional tools. how can we take some of these processes and digitalize them. we are still having the same outcome inms terms of community ownership and everything that needs to happen to ensure that proper review, but there is a clarity and a timeline, so for

us spending that time to share what we see and what we see coming in the future or what is being piloted right now for the department to have that understanding, the other thing that has been really helpful is we also see this opportunity to invest in the u.s. and to bring technology here. so, with bipartisan infrastructure law and the reduction act, there's so much implementation workk that has hd to happen so it's been great to work with of the department of energy and other departments to actually work through what that looks like. soik we have a lot of lessons tt have been learned from previous administrations and a lot of feedback from local officials of what has worked for them and what hasn't and understanding that all these things have to be brought to the table, so i think that for us it has been really great. it's a tremendous amount of opportunity, but having that constant feedback loop and so having really strong technical advisors or individuals recruited into the departments that have different

levels of expertise in terms of on-site experience or onside capital finance and so really trying to build the community to o understand how we can make the most of each day, but i think that's been the biggest thing for us is how to make sure we are transparent and open to what is available now so we can do our part to make sure it is as fast as possible. >> and you are looking at the national picture here but also it's a patchwork. >> it's definitely a patchwork and i want to emphasize what we are most excited about is seeing companies like siemens and others cry getting these partnerships that otherwise wouldn't have happened. even for folks who one of our programs, the resilience and innovation partnership was oversubscribed by eight to ten times over but what we saw from the folks that may be didn't get an award from us is that they developed a new partnership working with their state regulator, working with of the technology companies and they found a way toto get there witht us even putting any funding towards it and so that is the

really exciting part that by the federal government having a little bit of this it's forcing everyone to think a little bit more creatively than they otherwise would and i would say we hear fromis regulators in particular and state legislators that they are always trying to figure out how to push industries. these are all regulated industries in their own estates which is a little different then maybe some of the other folks that you've heard of here working with either commerce or the department of transportation. so, they are such an important component of the conversation because if you can't get the cost recovery on some of these investments and the regulator isn't willing to pay that extra marginal cost to have the poles that it means 200 mile-per-hour winds instead of 100 mile-per-hour winds but the department of energy can kick in with of that marginal cost, that can make a huge difference. and what wean find in this industry in particular is once someone does a pilot, then everybody else follows no one ever wants to go first so

everyone wants to go second. we are hoping if we see a lot of those type of pilots, that will help create more certainty in the long term for this industry which is really important setting up this isn't just a one-time infusion of funds but how we create a more sustainable long-term investment in grid resilience year-over-year. >> i can't be on the stage and not ask i a question about equiy so when we look at that a nationalmap and we look at the k and the regional, state, community level differences, how are you both thinking about manufacturing deployment et cetera in a way that is advancing equity. i will start with you. >> i think that it's a long conversation how toon weave it through everything. howou do we also ensure that we are reflective if we look at the policies five to seven years ago that we are seeing is innovative and there are lessons learned in terms of who was all oft the table, how we were actually

ensuring that there was a robust communication stream, so this idea of continuing to be better today than last year and understanding that there is a threat that goes across the projects. i think what's been great and in these policies and to build on a comment that was just shared is that there's so many distinct pockets whether it be through chips, ira, so it's also trying to work with partners to navigate so i think with the incentives and opportunity that's been built in, we definitely have seen influx in interest and energy communities, tribal governments, it's how we can get funding there and a lot of lessons learned from states about what is actually going to work from them and how they can move these projects forward in the certainty they need. the other part of it is again, that ecosystem because it is still aec process. so, to have the partners and local, state ander federal offis that can help you navigate because i thinker sometimes that

equity challenge we still have is not everyone has the resources to understand how you move each true and what might be available. so the working groups and again that hope is they continue to move forward and continue to be a place for them because i think the area that we are still focused on is how do we ensure that we are helping folks navigate the process because that is still something that is i think to be billed out. >> my colleagues at the office of clean energy demonstration for the rural and remote program are challenged by the secretary to make a simple of a form as humanly possible that is still acceptable by the department of energy. what can we do that looks most like a google forum to allow some of these rural and remote communities to be able to have access to some of the funding, and we continue to see this is a big challenge. the kind of projects that i love, so last year we gave an

award out to the general electric was working with a number of tribes of warm springs out in oregon, and part of the pitch was making sure some of the infrastructure was ultimately owned so they developed it and ultimately the tribes would own it and so those are the kind of projects that we are really excited about where you're helping some of these disadvantaged communities. all of our programs i know i'm sure that you've got asked in the early days as did we, what does that mean for -- justice 40. so as we had these community benefits planned and in particular when it comes to transmission, historically we have put a lot of energy infrastructure into the disadvantaged communities and we are still dealing with the aftermath of that long-term so folks are hesitant at having new types of energy infrastructure even transmission, which is certainly not on the same level as a coal plant. so we are figuring out new ways.

we have a funding mechanism that allows for direct economic development in cities and towns that are going to host the transmission line so that is exciting that we can see some of that direct benefit for the folks that are making these decisions now but actually see a park or playground or some sort of water treatment plant pop up and make sure they understand that they are seeing some of that direct impact in their own municipality.. >> there's a lot of agreement the stage.n now i'm going to ask more about the areas of disagreement. obviously there's a lot of historic resources that are being pumped into programs and communities into the grid, and abby, from your perspective, you all are trying to drive innovation as quickly as possible so begin get to that and you might want to talk a little bit about bright line and the zero emissions. what do you see as a major impediment to driving that innovation and moving forward? >> i think again at the sake of

being repetitive, we have a great foundation right now. we have basically a decade's worth of policy and funding and so that already has this ecosystem as innovators and firms and technologies that were maybebe a few years behind so tt really excites us in terms of who we can partner with and who we canan bring along because we know h the financial service tem is always actively looking to see who the next generation of innovators and manufacturers are. similarly, we have a lot of individuals that maybe don't have the team managing real estate and folks may not be aware but it's a very large goal. a lot of buildings and manufacturing companies, we have a wholele team to navigate that

and i think as a kind of look through this it's also understanding the permitting process. i think that we have seen a lot of really good areas where there is existing authority across local, state and federal government to figure out how we could get the g project up. again it's been 90 facilities out on the side and then you have the chips facilities and the data centers and as others all of that alongside the hospitals and schools that can't go off-line or they are off to dreamland manage the sustainability goals so i think for us what keeps us up is again how do you help people navigate the process and to ensure everyone has that opportunity that we are furthering it as much as possible but also how do we look at the process to understand what could be

foundational that is still in place or to have trust in the process that is environmental safeguards and communityfe engagement and community ownership and access and benefits, but then there's also not everybody has an ability to navigate the interconnection at the same timeline as may be others and so there's an equity component. how will we get to the goal if we are unable to deploy as quickly as possible, how do we get the national infrastructure as quickly as possible and there's conversations also happening. to make sure they continue to make sure they are reliable as all facing that as conversation at least to continue and again with a lot of sort of foundation of what can we do to build process so there's an open seat at the table. but that project is moving forward. >> you're going to have to throw

out a fishing pole if we get a little too far. what i would say is i know more about the environmental than i ever wanted to do as a part of this job, which is good for everybody else, but maybe a little pain painful for myself. so, what we are starting to realize is that every single thing that we are doing is in an administration in terms of getting funding out the door is the major federal action, and all of that requires a variety of other environmental assessments necessary. and so we can talk all day about section seven which you have to do for every single dollar that goes out the door and federal government and i think folks that are coming to apply that are really thoughtful and mature companies have done this before know what they are getting themselves into. a lot of folks that are comingg to l the table have no idea. >> talk timelines. >> we are talking at least two years, absolute bare minimum.

so, we actually out of our office at the departmentgy of energy just put out a new rule for the transition where after about fiscal responsibility acta we really went and we dug through every little last piece ofin legislation after the act n 2005 where we found out the department of energy can actually coordinate all the federal permits for transmission and it puts it on a two-year timeline and they have the authorityy to actually issue those permits, so we went tthrough the process of the rulemaking to be able to do that and now if folks enter that process with us we will be the one that talks to fish and wildlife and of the bureau of affairs and everybody else under the sun and help you get all those permits, which is in and of itself like a full-time job for a lot of folks. so we need to find more of those tools where we have either just one agency, so it's so much easier for folks to be able to go through just one door. we are not changing anything

about the process. you don't have to go get all those permits. you don't have to have all the information but the more that we can streamline that, i think the better off we are going to be in terms of working with the private sector and being honest about those processes and how much time it is goingng to take. it doesn't matter how small of anan area of land. there's a good chance like the monarch butterfly is going to fly by and you have to do any endangered species act to work and i think the more we can spell that out for folks in the early days and make sure that they are aware of what some of thoseen commitments are, it sets the stage a little bit better for the compositions further down the road as we are to be in negotiations with folks that are actually getting the permitting. >> permitting all day every day. >> and we are still hopeful that there's something going on over on the hill. we hear rumors every day, but i think it is just one area where we can all agree that there is certainly room for improvement. >> give us a peek under the

hood. what does it take to build these innovative products that are going to be impacting, what sort of things are you building? >> i think for us there's a few different thingsre that are of interest. i spoke a little bit about the digital tools and i think we are very excited about how we can use the technology to help model the grid and help understand these environmental concerns and also understand the highest hour and a day and year out as some of these foundational pieces about the process works, so what can. we do with these technologies that are in existence right now and being used too a great success with large benefactors how do we take that and move that to expedite it and i think also on the digital side, what have we done to these infrastructure projects what are some of the best case examples that also are digital tools that sort of synthesize or

rebuild model text or other things that are emblematic of the process into so i think that is one area that is innovative in the respect that it really needs to be furthered. the other thing is when we look across the grid, understanding that we have a lot of technologies that are foundational when it relates to theset projects or equipment tht is being innovative to make it more sustainable, smaller, all the different ways to continue to breatheti into the toolbox ad the other thing that we are looking at is what technologies can also give back to the grid. so what can we do to give the churches back to the grid. so very proud to be a part. >> and how does that work? >> so i think for us we look at these as the immediacy that

provides a benefit for individuals going to work or rtraveling across the country or commerce that is moving. we also know a lot of the times individuals are going to be charging at home, so when we are looking at these new models of vehicles coming out there is also a huge opportunity to provide that ownership of the grid to the family. to have that charger to be able to be pulled back, that is an opportunity we have the distributed assets on the grid right now and they are not always available or accessible so that's also an innovative tool we are looking at is how to provide that access with the idea of how can we continue to build and invest in the grid to make sure that is the facilities are doing this what are we doing for these tools where there are

thesese features were residentil but also more efficient ways. >> what are you doing areas? it may not be so easy to plug in at home. >> that is one area that we have worked to try to understand i think principally a couple of questions how do you finance what these look like in the government structure so it's been a lot of lessons learned and a lot of feedback so we are in a lot of early-stage conversations and i think that this has been a very positive conversation. it's been a good connector because we are trying to work through those projects but to your point. the community now also serves as

a resiliency point in terms of impact us in california and they've also been able to terms in terms of rescuing humanitarian needs is also trying to replicate that and having an open area of what do we not know and how do we come into that in a different way. >> were you going to jump in? >> i am not adding anything. if everybody is charging at home and every substation they have f these enormous bushings coming out, people in the room also notice them. >> either we have to make those enormously bigger to handle all these solar on your house and

that's what your utility comes back and says we can't do this year so they need to adopt more tools to figure out how to make them a little bit smaller, we figured out how to make microchips i think that we should also be able to figure out how to make the substations a little bit smaller and deal with some of the environmental issues and working with disadvantaged communities but also they are not that great to look at so people are not super excited when you say you want to do a replacement and make it even bigger than it currently is, so all that has to be upgraded to meet the moment. what is hard for folks to understand, i don't know about you but i upgrade my phone every two years or something like that, my laptop at least every five years and it's entire lifetime some because the second onee is holding the first one u.

it's going to be expensive to make l sure that we can get to next level but it's making sure that we are replacing with higher-level technology. in maintaining the grid last year a lot of that is like for my car, i'mplace probably not going to replace it like for like. i would like bluetooth in my next car for example, so i think orthat it's important to make se that we are pushing the industry a little bit further to adopt some of these new technologies to meet the moment in the same way that wet do with a lot of other industries. >> everything is behind the bushes and peopleg may know what is going on back there. of the secretary used to say there are some things we should do and not talk about. a lot of the infrastructure is

behind bushes and people don't even know it's d there. how much of the work should be trumpeted, and how much of it should be just done? >> such a good question. some are s hard to get politicis behind. one of it is grid infrastructure and because you can't really takeke a picture it's a lot harr than going too a windfarm and yu have a hard hat on and get politicians behind that but it's a lot harder to get the things that you don't see. all these things happen at this technical level where you feel like you need to the engineering degrees to be able to engage in the conversation so that's one of those areas we have to figure out how to talk about it in the way that helps people understand how they areow benefiting direcy will this reduce the cost of the

electricity bill and how willct this create jobs. a member of the projects. is something i think folks can get behind and put able to bit more of a human face on some of these infrastructure pieces. unlike the states that you see every single day doing some sort of project, whether you are cheering them or cursing them along the way you don't necessarily see this infrastructure work happening so it's a great point we have to figure g out how we talk about t so that it's a little bit more accessible for the everyday person. >> i completely agree i think youu think when you charger vehicle were turn your lights on but it's there but not the sort of intrinsic understanding of things that come along with it.

that being said, it is an exciting time we had with individuals that are brought for different reasons so if it is aa natural disaster to build back in a stronger way that don't want to have that technology protecting them and their family, individuals with of the amount of money that a family spends, the big part isey goingo be on their home bill and then you have a lot of individuals that feel the technology connection and when we talk about the role distributed to kind of put that different face on technology, it is the next system that we have so there's all these different features people do have that immediacy and connection to that are moving forward at a rapid pace with electrification that there is an opportunity to also reimagine what we think and also a company like ours we go through boxes that are super glamorous and definitely

appreciate it's hard to translate something that is miles away or something that just seems like a very complicated system of wires and boxes.es >> it was like the number one conversation that we had. you won't hear the annoying sound of the motor outside your window. fine, do whatever you want to do. i think it is figuring out where we are meeting people out and how it works for them individually. >> they are just about to pull the hook and grab us on stage. you're sitting here in a room of privateav sector leaders, funde, elected leaders and enthusiasts, so 15 seconds hear what would hd your call to action be? >> i think whether it's innovations coming down the line and then also the idea of what can we do to have an ecosystem

approach or best examples to get the projects p moving quicker. >> close us out here. >> we need to continue to invest to have the economic development that america needs. we have to do this year-over-year it cannot just be a one-time only thing and we are willing to work creatively so call the office. we are very open to ideas. >> thank you so much. thank you for the conversation. [applause] good morning. i'm vice president for infrastructure, energy and

environment of the business roundtable. we are excited to be joining you alll this morning. but we start by thanking the chamber of commerce. what a great facility to be hosting this event, and what great supporters for the many years they've done for infrastructure. you to the chamber of commerce today. the business a roundtable is an association of more than 200 chief executives of america's leading companies. they represent every sector of the u.s. economy. our ceos lead to the basic economies into support, sarcoma us-based companies, one in four american jobs. and almost a quarter of u.s. gdp. and we've been proud to support infrastructure and we can be a part of this event now for nearly ten years. that's why i'm also excited to introduce our next speaker, the new leader of the business

roundtable's ceo infrastructure committee and the ceo of fedex, a little company. can any of you think of a company that is more to demonstrateur the value of transportation infrastructure every day? something like 15 million deliveries every day that fedex makes. if you've never seen the operation at oneif of their airport hubs, i recommend it. it's an incredible experience. to watch plane after plane come in, the incredible logistics of unloading all of them, resorting every single package and envelope, reloadingre them and getting them out before the sun rises. it's absolutely amazing the volume of it, the precision to know where every single package in that process is. s there's no one more dependable than fedex to get things where they belong on time. and of the employees regularly

report that it is one of the best places to work. so, it is no surprise fedex has been among the top 20 most admired companies in the world for 24 years straight. the ceoti is equally impressive. he served in multiple leadership roles in the company for more than 30 years. most recently as president and chief operating officer before becoming ceo in 2022. the international leadership experience the keen business insight and focus on contributedn have to the success of fedex and provide a blueprint the company is revolutionizing the transportation and logistics industry. it's currently spearheading the global transformation of the company which includesnc revitalizing their bargaining strategy, growing their

e-commerce business and harnessing the power of global supply chain data to drive the company's digital agenda. so now as chair of the business roundtable ceo infrastructure committee, he is leading his peer ceos as we work together with the government and other partners to modernize and strengthen america's infrastructure. please join meth in welcoming to the stage the ceo of fedex. [applause] >> good morning. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. i'mou glad i could experience a little bit of springtime here in washington before the humidity

really sets in. but like i say, that is just another day. i'm president and ceo of fedex and chair of the business roundtable infrastructure committee. and of the business roundtable is an association of more than 200 ceos of america's leading companies representing every sector of the u.s. economy and supporting one in four american jobs. as the chair of the committee, i am bringing my perspective as a user of infrastructure. i'm sure many of you are familiart with fedex and what we do at the world's largest transportation company. i want to tell you something that might surprise you. it's not magic that enables fedex to deliver u to every u.s. zip code and 220 countries.

it's infrastructure. reliable infrastructure helps critical supply chains moving. it enables fedex to generate $8.7 billion of indirect economic impact and communities across the u.s. in our previous fiscal year. it helps the companies support nearly one quarter of the u.s. gdp. world-class infrastructure for the roads and bridges, airports, pipes and wastewater systems, pipelines and powerlines are high-speed internet access enables us to thrive economically and supports vibrant connected communities. in fact, research shows that every dollar spent on the infrastructure used nearly four dollars and economic growth over 20 years making infrastructure

investments that pay serious long-term dividends. from my perspective, representing the business community, safe roads modern airports and maritime ports anda a better infrastructure are essential for the movement of people and goods. it's easy to take the complex systems for granted when things seem to be working well. unfortunately, we have seen what happens when the physical infrastructure fails us. the recent collapse of the francis scott key bridge reminded uss how much american commerce depends upon safe modern infrastructure in the everyday heroism of the infrastructure work. ports, whether at the end of runways o or waterways are the gateways for critical components for u.s. manufacturing and other cargo that supports lives and livelihoods. we need bridges and roads around

them has the capacity expands. and increasingly, we are dependent ont strong energy infrastructure to unlock the full potential of the modern economy initiatives such as the electrification have been building a lot of momentum for businesses like fedex but also for individual consumers. the infrastructure is key to enable these ships. the digital economy needs energy as well. and over the last few years we have seen the use of digital tools and the new capabilities growing at an exponential rate with no indication of slowing down. fedex has been a pioneer in ausing data and technology to transform an industry. we have been making our own investments to meet this new reality, but there will need to be broader support. as the businesses rely more and more on this rise of digital

technology, aia and data centers will require reliable power and electric grid that can handle the increased demand. equally important are the team members and all americans rely on the infrastructure every minute of every day beyond just safe transportation, investing infrastructure strengthens communities providing clean drinking water recovering quickly after a natural disaster and is applying the broadband internet that makes running a small business or helping with homework easier. for the good of all americans our country's infrastructure needs to be robust, up to date, safe and we must help break down some of the biggest barriers achieving that goal. as the chair, the two issues i

want to challenge us on, first the lack of the reliable mechanism to support the existing infrastructure of today and to build infrastructure of tomorrow. bringing the benefits of the infrastructure to life requires the reliable predictable funding structure that is brought by from all of the relevant constituencies. fedex understands firsthand how critical infrastructure to success of our business but also of the broader economy, which is why we have prioritized our own investment in the key infrastructure. for example, we are in the midst of a multiyear $1.5 billion investment upgrade modernizing the air hub as well as a 200 million-dollar project upgrade airport infrastructure in anchorage alaska.

projects like these along with other conditions from the private and public sectors are critical for the country's continued economic success. second, we must improve the sluggish permitting process. it can still take as long as a decade or more to permit some projects. that's simply unacceptable. we need a permitting process that is unpredictable and operates on the unreliable and reasonable timeline. despite recent legislation process passed by congress on a bipartisan basis more work remains to be done so the permitting process is not a roadblock to upgrading the infrastructure system at the pace we need. policymakers across the aisle from the hill to the

administration must work to address additional supply chain challenges. the bipartisan infrastructure law will provide benefits for years to come both in terms of improvements to funding. but as we heard this morning, it's about finishing the job we started. it's beginning to expire and we work together for the sustainable funding solution especially for the highway system at ports. what we can all agree is there needs to be reliable funding to make sure the infrastructure will rely on every day is robust, resilient and safe.

to solve these challenges and to everyone involved in this important conversation today, which i know will continue in the days, weeks and months and years ahead. thank you very much for your kind attention. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the director at united infrastructure. >> thanks to all the speakers so far. we are going to get you some food now so you can just step right over