Office of U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned Steven Bradbury at the confirmation hearing on his nomination to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation.
During the hearing, Senator Fischer asked Bradbury about his commitment to supporting rural America, specifically citing small, rural Nebraska communities, by maintaining the Essential Air Service (EAS) program for smaller to medium-sized airports. She also questioned him on his plans to ensure that all state Departments of Transportation receive clear, consistent guidance from the Federal Highway Administration over funding requests. Finally, Senator Fischer asked Bradbury how he plans to hold companies like Amtrak accountable for using their grants efficiently and effectively.
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Senator Fischer questions Steven Bradbury:
Senator Fischer: Mr. Bradbury, as you know, rural communities rely heavily on the Essential Air Service program. It provides them with connectivity and access to critical services. In my home state of Nebraska, we have seven communities that are served by Essential Air Service. It provides these communities not just with an increased opportunity to connect with the outside world, but it serves to help them attract business, attract visitors, and it drives local economies.
Yesterday, in our meeting to get to know each other and have a good conversation—thank you for coming—you mentioned looking at potential reforms to Essential Air Service, and you said, including examining the subsidies that airports receive. Are you willing to commit to me and the committee today that you stand with rural America, and ensure that our airports are able to maintain the Essential Air Service that meets those needs?
Steven Bradbury: Yes, Senator, I appreciated our chance to meet together. Thank you very much for being available to meet with me. I appreciated that. The Secretary, I think, in his hearing, made it very clear he’s a strong supporter of Essential Air Service, and I certainly know how important it is to small and medium communities across the country, and clearly it has very strong support in Congress. And whatever proposals may have been made to reconsider that or phase it out, I don’t think that’s realistic, and I don’t expect to be pushing for anything approaching sunsetting or eliminating Essential Air Service. There are still decisions that the department makes in implementing the program and examining whether communities are meeting the metrics stated for the program. And that’s a process that happens periodically, and it’s a very important process. And sometimes new communities come into the program, and that’s something the Secretary will look at. And I expect to assist him in that with an eye to preserving the effectiveness of the program.
Senator Fischer: Thank you. I also appreciated the opportunity yesterday to show you my frustration with FHWA. They seem to be struggling to provide any kind of clear, consistent guidance across their division offices. And as I stated yesterday, I’ve heard from state Departments of Transportation that there is a lack of that consistent guidance from U.S. DOT regarding the requirements needed for states, such as to justify building back better after a disaster. If confirmed, how would you work across the Federal Highway Administration to ensure that division offices are consistent, that they are clear in their guidance to our state DOTs?
Steven Bradbury: Well, thank you, Senator, it really requires strong leadership from the head of FHWA and the Secretary out to those field offices. Consistency is critical, but also making clear that the states have a strong role in deciding the use of the funds that come into them from the Highway Trust Fund, but we need a focus on safety, efficiency, capacity, and resilience of our infrastructure—and not to be distracted by other goals, policy goals that may not be necessary and that may divert from those central, important goals of safety and efficiency. So, I think that consistency is critical and working closely with the state and the state DOTs is absolutely essential.
Senator Fischer: I hope we can work together on that. It is extremely important, and we can certainly see cost savings when things are more streamlined and made available to the states, so they can get those projects out there and get them going. On rail service, Americans, they want safe and reliable rail service. With Amtrak, that’s not always been fiscally responsible, I believe, nor have they been cooperative with their state rail partners, who are operating profitable rail service across the network. I have some legislation on that, the Amtrak Transparency Act. It would require them to have open board meetings to state partners and requires disclosure of executive bonuses. I’m sure you recall the articles that came out about those bonuses several months ago, totally indefensible that they were given. As the DOT Deputy Secretary, how will you address concerns over Amtrak’s fiscal responsibility and ensure that they work well with their state rail partners?
Steven Bradbury: Well, thank you. I appreciate those goals and definitely would look forward to working with you and this committee on any legislation that would address that. But with regard to the current situation with Amtrak, there’s so much additional funding that has been provided to Amtrak. There’s so much money in the system. We really need to take a careful look and ensure that it’s being used efficiently and effectively. And there shouldn’t be any wasteful spending, unnecessary bonuses that don’t make sense, and certainly they need to cooperate closely with states and local interests on their passenger service. You know, just before COVID hit, Amtrak was on the brink of finally being in the black for the first time across their network. Of course, that still assumes a lot of grant money coming from Congress. Real tragedy for Amtrak what COVID did in terms of hitting it. And it’s still coming back, but we really need to take a hard look at the economics.
Senator Fischer: Thank you.