‘Ridiculous Hogwash’: Tim Scott Lays Into Biden Admin Over Red Tape On Infrastructure Projects

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During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) gave opening remarks about bureaucracy regarding federal infrastructure investments.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Scott. Thank you Mr. Chairman, thank you to the witnesses for being with us

00:04today. Thank you for the committee members here with us as well. One of the

00:08challenges I see on this conversation that we're having today is to realize

00:12that local problems need local solutions. It's really hard for folks in Washington

00:20DC to understand the transit needs of folks in Charleston, South Carolina,

00:25Somerville, South Carolina, Columbus, Ohio or Chicago, Illinois. The most effective

00:29thing that we can do is make sure that the resourcing goes without all the red

00:34tape and challenges that comes from Washington DC. Getting that done seems to

00:39be too close to Peter walking on the water. Nearly a miraculous occurrence

00:45manifestation has to happen for us to just do the simple thing. I've spent half

00:51my career in politics on the local level, understanding and appreciating transit

00:57systems, infrastructure projects and what it takes to get those things

01:00done. When I first became a senator, the one thing I did was I

01:05decided that as a kid who grew up in a single-parent household, mired in

01:08poverty, who understood the transit needs of the poorest Americans trying to get

01:13to the job. I wanted to make sure that I was sensitive to the current state of

01:19Americans trying to get to work. So I decided I'd go back to the old bus

01:24routes and get on those bus routes and spend time talking to people waiting on

01:29the bus to come. I remember talking to a grandmother who worked at Walmart who

01:33wanted to spend more time with her grandkids on the weekends, but she would

01:36spend 80 to 90 minutes early in the morning waiting on the bus, seven hours

01:43at work and 80 or 90 minutes to get back home. Three hours to work a seven-hour

01:50shift or slightly more than minimum wage to provide the resources necessary to

01:56help our grandkids have a better life and a better opportunity to experience

02:00and enjoy the American dream. Having the conversations with folks who are

02:04struggling to make ends meet, thinking about how challenging it is as a local

02:10official to understand and then to decide the right transit routes so that

02:17the folks who need public transportation have access to the right routes at the

02:24right times to get to the right job. You just can't do that from Washington. The

02:31one thing Washington has done poorly is to put on more onerous burdens on local

02:39government and state government because somehow 535 people in Washington seem to

02:45know everything about local needs and yet we seem to know nothing about

02:52getting the job done. As an example, my friends on the left are always looking

02:57for a new green steel. They call it the new green deal, but in the end it steals

03:02opportunity and innovation, creativity and resources from local folks to make

03:11good decisions about what they need. But it's not just transit, it's actually the

03:16infrastructure needs that are delayed time and time again. I was thinking about

03:22this recently and it takes about seven years, seven years for a project to turn

03:30the shovel on a new highway program. I was thinking about Highway 17 and this

03:34expansion in Mount Pleasant in South Carolina a number of years ago. The

03:40frustration I felt as the chairman of the county, waiting for all the red tape

03:45to be cut so that we could simply turn shovel on a project that had been

03:50approved for years. And I sent some some notes to my friends back on County

03:55Council just to make sure that I was right about the seven-year process. It

03:59could take up to two years for the planning and the programming just to

04:03meet federal thresholds so that projects can start. And then after you do

04:08that, it can take up to three years whether it's NEPA or other environmental

04:14challenges. Throw the green new steel on top of all of that and you recognize

04:19that this owner's burden to start a road project takes seven years. Now here's

04:25the challenging part. When you get the price of a highway project, let's say

04:30those days was several hundred million dollars, 700 million dollars. It's not

04:36anticipated that seven years later, somehow, someway, miraculously, that same

04:42road project is gonna cost the same amount of money seven years later. That's

04:47what we call in South Carolina ridiculous hogwash. It just doesn't work

04:52that way. But none of that is anticipated in the actual price that people pay.

04:57Waiting and waiting and waiting for the federal government just to just do their

05:03jobs and get out the way. But then after you get through the environmental review

05:07and compliance, which is three years later, then you go to the preliminary and final

05:12design. Up to two more years on this process. And at the same time all of this

05:20is happening, currently under the Biden administration, everybody wants to

05:24celebrate the IJA and the IRA, the most ridiculously named bill in maybe

05:30American history, the Inflation Reduction Act that actually increases inflation,

05:34and the Chips and Science Act. What happens? Well, the cost of construction

05:39explodes to the highest level ever. It costs more money to do the same thing

05:45than it has ever cost three or four years later. And so when you take a

05:50seven-year delay on a road, you take all the impact studies that it takes, we're

05:55not smart enough to do them all at the exact same time. We're gonna wait for the

05:59first two years before we start the environmental impact studies, before we

06:04start the... If this was a business, we would just fire everybody. That's what I

06:10would do. That's what I did when I was in business. If you can't, if it takes you

06:14seven years to get something started, I want a new, I want someone else in charge.

06:18Americans want someone else in charge because the two billion dollar problem

06:24that they have in Maryland to rebuild a road that's gonna... a bridge that's gonna

06:28take four years is ridiculous, unnecessary. All you need is common

06:34sense and people ready to go to work. And unfortunately, every time well-intentioned

06:41politicians make the decision that we know better than the local community, it

06:48costs jobs. It costs prices because they explode. I gotta tell you, 13 years in the

07:00local level is a really good education on what not to do. Let's not burden local

07:07government with the green new steel that 7.5 billion dollars in green funding

07:14that results in only eight EV charging stations. That takes all those dollars

07:21away from being able to have real progress on real roads for real people

07:28to get to their jobs. Mr. Chairman, I'm glad we're having the hearing today, but I

07:36gotta tell you, most Americans would say skip the hearing, block rent the money,

07:42and let a brother go to work. That's what they would say.

07:48Thank you, Senator Scott.

‘Ridiculous Hogwash’: Tim Scott Lays Into Biden Admin Over Red Tape On Infrastructure Projects

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