The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's Benefits for Small Businesses (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, February 15, 2022)
Summary
Printed record of a hearing of the House Committee on Small Business, Subcommittee on Underserved, Agricultural, and Rural Business Development, held February 15, 2022, titled The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's Benefits for Small Businesses, Small Business Committee Document Number 117–045. Opening statements came from Hon. Jared Golden and Hon. Roger Williams. Witnesses were Ed Mortimer of the United States Chamber of Commerce; Mark Ouellette, president and chief executive officer of Axiom Technologies, LLC; Jason J. Shedlock, regional organizer for the Laborers' International Union and president of the Maine State Building & Construction Trades Council; and Terrance Lee Baker of T.L. Baker Pilot Car Escort Services. The appendix prints their prepared statements.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
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“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's Benefits for Small Businesses (House Small Business subcommittee hearing, February 15, 2022).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/the-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act-s-benefits-for-small-busine-d9d88b6691/
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS
ACT’S BENEFITS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON UNDERSERVED,
AGRICULTURAL, AND RURAL BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
HEARING HELD
FEBRUARY 15, 2022
Small Business Committee Document Number 117–045
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46–800 WASHINGTON : 2022
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
TROY CARTER, Louisiana
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
YOUNG KIM, California
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
BYRON DONALDS, Florida
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
ELLEN HARRINGTON, Majority Deputy Staff Director
DAVID PLANNING, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENT
Page
Hon. Jared Golden ................................................................................................... 1
Hon. Roger Williams ................................................................................................ 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Ed Mortimer, Vice President, Transportation Infrastructure, United
States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, DC ............................................... 5
Mr. Mark Ouellette, President and Chief Executive Officer, Axiom Tech-
nologies, LLC, Machias, ME ................................................................................ 7
Mr. Jason J. Shedlock, Regional Organizer, Laborers’ International Union,
New England Region Organizing Fund, President, Maine State Building
& Construction Trades Council, Portland, ME .................................................. 9
Mr. Terrance Lee Baker, Owner, Operator, and Independent Contractor, T.L.
Baker Pilot Car Escort Services, Blooming Prairie, MN .................................. 11
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Ed Mortimer, Vice President, Transportation Infrastructure, United
States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, DC ........................................ 28
Mr. Mark Ouellette, President and Chief Executive Officer, Axiom Tech-
nologies, LLC, Machias, ME ........................................................................ 31
Mr. Jason J. Shedlock, Regional Organizer, Laborers’ International
Union, New England Region Organizing Fund, President, Maine State
Building & Construction Trades Council, Portland, ME ........................... 33
Mr. Terrance Lee Baker, Owner, Operator, and Independent Contractor,
T.L. Baker Pilot Car Escort Services, Blooming Prairie, MN ................... 36
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
JCN - Jobs Creators Network ......................................................................... 39
(III)
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THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND
JOBS ACT’S BENEFITS FOR SMALL
BUSINESSES
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2022
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON UNDERSERVED, AGRICULTURAL,
AND RURAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 11:01 a.m., via Zoom,
Hon. Jared Golden [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Golden, Carter, Delgado, Williams, and
Stauber.
Chairman GOLDEN. I will go ahead and call this hearing to
order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at
any time.
Let me begin by noting a few requirements. First, let me say that
standing House and Committee rules and practice will continue to
apply during remote proceedings. House regulations require Mem-
bers to be visible through video connection throughout the pro-
ceeding, so keep your cameras on and remain muted until recog-
nized in order to minimize background noise. If we do have any
issue with that we will pause and ask individuals to mute them-
selves or staff to do it for them.
In the event a Member encounters technical issues that prevent
them from being recognized for their questioning, I will move to the
next available Member of the same party and I will recognize that
Member at the next appropriate time slot provided they have re-
turned to the proceeding. Should a Member’s time be interrupted
by technical issues, I will recognize that Member at the next appro-
priate spot for the remainder of their time once their issues have
been resolved.
If we have technical issues, we may need to recess the pro-
ceedings in order to address them.
And with that, let’s turn to today’s business.
Last November, the president signed the bipartisan Infrastruc-
ture Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infra-
structure Law. The law allocates $550 billion in new funds for
transportation infrastructure projects, supply chain improvements,
broadband expansion, and water system upgrades. This represents
the most significant investment in American infrastructure since
the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956.
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American infrastructure has for too long been in decline. Decades
of underinvestment led to a decline in the quality of roads, bridges,
airports, and other types of hard infrastructure. Both parties have
recognized that this trajectory was unsustainable and the effort to
pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was genuinely bipartisan.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, along with the White
House, worked to pass this once-in-a-generation bill and I was
proud to play a role in making this bill a reality, along with my
bipartisan colleagues in the Problem Solvers Caucus and in the
United States Senate. Together, we accomplished a goal that has
been pursued by Congress for many years under many different ad-
ministrations and have delivered for the country on an important
need.
The law will benefit communities across the country. In Maine,
it is projected to invest $1.3 billion in roads, $225 million for
bridges, $390 million to remove dangerous lead pipes and mitigate
PFAS contamination and more than $100 million for affordable
broadband expansion. These investments are more than just dollar
figures. They will lead to positive change and are critical for the
states’ economy and for economic growth.
When I talk to small business owners in my district, the con-
versation often has turned through the years to infrastructure.
They rely on our roads, bridges, and broadband to reach customers
and to deliver their goods and services. Unfortunately, many entre-
preneurs tell me that the sad state of American infrastructure has
hampered their ability to grow.
This law speaks to their concerns because it is designed specifi-
cally to help small firms compete for contracts awarded with the
funds it provides. Small construction firms and other types of busi-
nesses will play a direct role in building and repairing infrastruc-
ture projects funded by this law.
But there are also many more longer-term impacts for small em-
ployers that are important to highlight. There is an emphasis on
funding for rural broadband networks to encourage more economic
development and revitalization in rural communities. In my state,
at least 83,000 people still do not have access to a fixed, high-speed
Internet connection, a figure that likely understates the problem
given what this Committee has heard in testimony through the last
couple of years about how we measure broadband availability.
This lack of access to high-speed broadband has proven to be an
economic drain on many communities, impacting individual success
and education, wealth, and access to opportunities. By increasing
access to reliable broadband will help close the digital divide and
empower rural small business owners.
This law will also help the supply chain pressures that are caus-
ing delays, shortages, and higher prices for small firms as we look
into the future. By improving the poor condition of our roads,
bridges, rail, and ports, we can help improve arrival time for goods
that are key for our business owners. Obviously, they all need to
be able to deliver goods in a timely manner to their clients. It is
just part of being a good business. Investing in domestic manufac-
turing is another critical need that can make our supply chain
more resilient in the face of global crises such as the pandemic that
we dealt with over the last 2 years.
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The bill also dedicates funding to workforce development and will
invest in programs to ensure that small firms have access to a
labor force that is skilled and ready for competition in the rest of
the 21st century.
It is critical that we fully understand how this law will help our
nation’s entrepreneur community, so today I look forward to hear-
ing from our panel about ways that small firms can best utilize the
available infrastructure resources to the benefit of their commu-
nities and to their businesses.
With that, I would like to yield to the Ranking Member today,
Congressman Williams. Thank you for joining us.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing today. And I want to also say that we miss Mr. Hagedorn
who is not with us today but he is a hard guy to follow and we
want to say we miss him.
Infrastructure was once a common ground where Members on
both sides of the aisle agreed. However, today, rather than focusing
on areas of importance to our economy and our constituencies, such
as improvements to our roads, waterways, bridges, railways, and
broadband, my democratic colleagues are focusing on policies made
of radical ideas such as the Green New Deal. The Infrastructure
Law where only a fraction of the new spending will be going to-
wards traditional infrastructure adds hundreds of billions of dollars
in new debt, and let’s face it, will only lead to higher taxes, contin-
ued inflation, and will only make America less competitive. Fur-
thermore, nothing in the law was done to make any meaningful im-
provements to regulatory and permitting processes, which is some-
thing plaguing many small businesses today.
As we hold this hearing, inflation soars at a 40 year high, 7.5
percent, and gas prices have spiked at the highest price since 2014.
Rising costs continue to create uncertainty for small businesses and
makes it hard to compete with big businesses who have larger pric-
ing flexibility, long-term contracts, and preferential purchasing
agreements.
It is no surprise that a recent survey from Goldman Sachs found
76 percent of small business owners report that inflation had a
negative impact on their business’s financial health over the past
6 months. We are also experiencing record-breaking backlogs at our
ports, resulting in supply chain disruptions. And just last week, the
New York Times headline read this. It said, ‘‘A normal supply
chain is unlikely in 2022.’’
The economic headwinds do not stop there as the labor shortage
continues to stifle growth. With 10.9 million open positions across
the nation, the economy is still nearly 3 million jobs short of its
pre-pandemic peak. NFIB reports that almost half of all small busi-
ness owners have job openings they cannot fill. And further, 93
percent of small businesses that were actively trying to hire found
little to no qualified applicants.
The rising cost of goods, delays in material, and labor deficiencies
are harmful for the construction industry and cause infrastructure
projects to be more costly and take longer to complete. So instead
of providing solutions, this administration, the Biden administra-
tion, has forced government mandates on businesses and employees
and halted America’s energy independence. Many people claim to
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support small businesses but they ignore the calls to reduce bur-
densome regulations and put a stop to the current tax and spend-
ing agenda. Washington cannot continue this reckless spending
habit. We must implement pro-growth policies that support small
businesses in combatting the current economic challenges.
As the administration continues to provide cost and implementa-
tion guidance for the Infrastructure Bill, it is imperative these
projects are funded in a responsible manner, and small businesses
and rural communities are not left behind. We must empower en-
trepreneurs in state and local governments to be in the driver seat,
not bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
So, I look forward to hearing the testimonies of the witnesses
today, and Mr. Chairman, as a small business owner, I think that
we have real issues to address. So, I yield back.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you.
Very quickly, I will offer some direction into how the hearing will
proceed for our panel. Each witness is going to start off with 5 min-
utes to provide a statement and each Committee Member will have
5 minutes for questions. Please ensure that your microphone is on
when you begin speaking. I am sure someone today will probably
start having forgot. Do not worry; we will remind you and you will
get your full 5 minutes but try to think ahead on that one. And
of course, when you are done, please go back to mute.
On to witness introductions. Our first witness today is coming to
us from the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Ed Mortimer, vice presi-
dent of Transportation Infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce. He has experience advocating for infrastructure investment
through the small business lens and played an integral role in ne-
gotiating the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He also leads the
Americans for Transportation Mobility Coalition where he works
alongside businesses, labor organizations, transportation stake-
holders, and concerned citizens to advocate for improved and in-
creased federal investment in the nation’s transportation system.
Thank you for joining us today, Mr. Mortimer.
Our second witness, Mark Ouellette is president and CEO of
Axiom Technologies. He has held a number of senior leadership po-
sitions in the State of Maine. Previously, he was the executive di-
rector of Mobilize Maine and has 20 years of economic and commu-
nity development experience. As president of a full-service
broadband provider in the State of Maine, his testimony will help
us understand the importance of broadband to our rural small
businesses.
Thank you, Mr. Ouellette, for joining us.
Third, Mr. Jason Shedlock, president of the Main State Building
and Construction Trades Council and regional organizer for the La-
borers’ International Union of North America’s New England Re-
gion. In a prior lifetime, he served as a special assistant to Port-
land Mayor Ethan Strimling, and served as chief of staff for D.C.
Councilman Phil Mendelson. He has demonstrated a true commit-
ment through the years to workers in our state as a gubernatorial
appointee to both the Maine State Workforce Board and the Maine
Apprenticeship Council alongside his position as an Executive
Board Member of the Maine AFL-CIO.
Mr. Shedlock, thank you for being here today.
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And I will now recognize Congressman Williams to introduce our
final witness.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for extend-
ing me this opportunity to introduce Mr. Terrance Baker on behalf
of my colleague and good friend from Minnesota, Congressman
Hagedorn who is unable to join us today and we miss him.
Mr. Baker is the owner of T.L. Baker Pilot Car Escort Services
in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. Not only is Mr. Baker a hard-
working small business owner, but he is also a veteran and served
in the United States Navy as a lieutenant commander and is a
Naval tactics instructor. Mr. Baker, we thank you for your service.
In 2010, Mr. Baker started T.L. Baker Pilot Car Escort Services,
which escorts oversized and over dimensional vehicles, directs traf-
fic, and operates specialized trailers. T.L. Baker Pilot Car Escort
Services is one of the numerous businesses who have been im-
pacted by rising gas prices, supply chain disruptions, and burden-
some regulations. Mr. Baker is constantly on the road and will pro-
vide us with a unique perspective on infrastructure projects and
the challenges small businesses face today.
Mr. Baker, I cannot thank you enough for joining us today. We
look forward to hearing more about your small business experience
and on-the-road experience. And I also want to thank all of our
other witnesses for joining us today.
And Maine is certainly represented well, Mr. Chairman. And I
yield back.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you very much. I am certainly very
proud of Maine as no doubt you all are of Texas. And we are happy
to have some good representation from Minnesota as well.
I have seen a lot of testimony from people from Minnesota, Mr.
Baker, in the last few years. In the last Congress on this Com-
mittee, I served alongside Pete Stauber as Ranking Member who
had a lot of great people from your state come and testify before
the Committee and now I have had the great opportunity to serve
alongside Jim Hagedorn. And I will add my thoughts and prayers
alongside Congressman Williams for Jim’s ongoing health, and we
look forward to seeing him back in the halls of Congress in Wash-
ington.
We will start with panel testimony here. First up will be Mr.
Mortimer for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF ED MORTIMER, VICE PRESIDENT, TRANS-
PORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE, UNITED STATES CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE; MARK OUELLETTE, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AXIOM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC.; JASON
J. SHEDLOCK, REGIONAL ORGANIZER, LABORERS’ INTER-
NATIONAL UNION, NEW ENGLAND REGION ORGANIZING
FUND, PRESIDENT, MAINE STATE BUILDING & CONSTRUC-
TION TRADES COUNCIL; TERRANCE LEE BAKER, OWNER, OP-
ERATOR, AND INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR, T.L. BAKER
PILOT CAR ESCORT SERVICES
STATEMENT OF ED MORTIMER
Mr. MORTIMER. Great. Good morning, Chairman Golden, Con-
gressman Williams, and distinguished Members of this Sub-
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committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you
today on this critical issue to the business community.
My name is Ed Mortimer and I serve as vice president of Trans-
portation Infrastructure at the United States Chamber of Com-
merce. I also serve as executive director of the chamber-led Ameri-
cans for transportation mobility.
Since 2000, this coalition that includes business, labor, and other
interested stakeholders has been advocating for improved and mod-
ernized infrastructure. I am very honored today to be joined—
Wyuna is one of our founding Members of our coalition and I am
glad that Jason Shedlock is on this panel with me. Business and
Labor have been together on these issues for many years. We may
not agree on everything but we understand the importance of mod-
ernizing our infrastructure to both business and labor and we are
glad to be hand-in-hand on these issues moving forward.
As Members of this Subcommittee know, 96 percent of Chamber
Members have fewer than 100 employees, and 75 percent have
fewer than 10. Since over 100 years, the Chamber has advocated
for policies that help businesses, both large and small, create jobs
and grow our economy.
And for more than 2 decades, we have been at the forefront of
advocacy for investment in the modernization of America’s aging
physical infrastructure. We have led various coalitions to promote
action at the federal, state, and local levels, to take an infrastruc-
ture that was the envy of the world and to modernize it. We know
we have gone from a brick-and-mortar economy to ecommerce, and
we really need federal action to have long-term economic growth.
We have worked with Republican and Democrat administrations
and Members of Congress over the years to have durable long-term
policy.
There is an old say in Washington, ‘‘There is no Democrat or Re-
publican bridge.’’ These are American assets that each of us benefit
from. We are grateful for Congress for passage of the historic Infra-
structures, Investments, and Jobs Act that was recently signed into
law. Is it a perfect bill? It is not. But again, this is bipartisan, du-
rable policy that will allow our nation to move forward and allow
small businesses to plan, to create jobs, and to grow for 50 years
to come. For many communities, whether they are minority, Appa-
lachia, tribal, agricultural, or rural, the dream of an inclusive social
and economic infrastructure is not a reality. We believe this legisla-
tion can be a building block that will allow all of our partners to
move forward with modernizing our nation’s infrastructure. And
again, it is a unique opportunity, once in a generation, Mr. Chair-
man, as you said, to close gaps that exist within our nation’s infra-
structure. It allows the private sector to bring innovation and tech-
nology that we have been having on the sideline for too long and
allow us to think anew. Let’s build modern infrastructure. Let’s
bring infrastructure that is more environmentally sensitive. Let’s
bring infrastructure that is going to connect rural America with
our urban centers so every American has an opportunity for suc-
cess.
As you all know, the Chamber has done studies with MetLife.
And again, small business owners are starving for modern infra-
structure, broadband, and the private sector is ready to deliver, in
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partnership with all of our government leaders. But getting this
legislation passed was a critical part of making that happen.
Again, you know, you talked, Mr. Chairman, about broadband.
The private sector is prepared to work with the government to hit
those underserved communities and to make sure that there is no
one solution but that the private sector can work with our public
partners to deliver. We have a broadband system that is the envy
of the world. We need to make sure every citizen has that ability.
And we think the $65 billion in this legislation can make that hap-
pen.
Another critical part of this legislation is going to be the mod-
ernization of project delivery. For too long it has taken too long to
get a permit than it is to actually deliver a project. Under this bi-
partisan bill, we codified an executive order under the Trump ad-
ministration, one federal decision that is going to streamline the
permitting process without changing environmental law, without
changing public input, but putting reasonable timelines and a
transparent process so business owners, both large and small, are
able to deliver more investment on projects and not just sitting in
the permitting process.
Again, these investments for small business are going to be
where they locate, how they are going to succeed in the future get-
ting customers and providing the opportunity for their employees
to get in front of this.
This is also an opportunity for small business to be part of this
modernization, not just benefit from the investments but to make
sure that they are part of the design, the construction, the mainte-
nance. So we are going to reach out to underserved communities
who may not have had these opportunities in the past and make
sure that we can get the men and women to do these jobs.
So again, this is a once in a generational opportunity. The Cham-
ber is glad to be a part of this effort and we look forward to work-
ing with the Subcommittee in implementation of this critical legis-
lation. So thank you for this opportunity and look forward to your
questions later in the session.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Mortimer. We look forward
to that opportunity as well.
Next, we will hear from Mr. Ouellette. The floor is yours, sir.
STATEMENT OF MARK OUELLETTE
Mr. OUELLETTE. Thank you, Representative Golden. Good
morning, and a shout out to the great state of Maine, my Rep-
resentative Golden, Representative Williams, and the esteemed
Members of the Committee. Thank you for the invitation to speak
to you today as a rural small business located in ‘‘Downeast’’
Maine. Washington County, where my business is located, is called
the Sunrise County, because we are the eastern-most county in the
United States and the first to see the sunrise. At least we claim
to be the first to see the sun rise. Our county is three times the
size of Rhode Island with a population of 33,000 people. Our county
sits within the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi
that Representative Golden represents. It is big and very rural.
Axiom is an Internet service provider based in Machias, Maine,
the county seat and a small business. We are a small business with
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seven employees. We have been providing Internet service to some
of the most difficult to reach homes in all of the United States for
the past 18 years. During that time, it has sometimes been a strug-
gle to keep the doors open, but we have persevered knowing that
for much of our early years we were the only company willing to
deliver an Internet connection to some of the most difficult to reach
homes in rural Maine. Many of our original customers are still
with us today.
Over time, we have invested in variety of technologies and now
are deploying, almost exclusively, fiber optic Internet, commonly
called broadband. Our company has taken advantage of several
programs that were passed by Congress during the early days of
the pandemic, and I come before you today as a proud small busi-
ness owner with seven full-time employees and two part-time em-
ployees. Not only has pandemic relief kept all my employees work-
ing, but the funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
earmarked for broadband infrastructure investments, an amount
estimated in Maine to be in the range of $250 million, will help me
grow my business exponentially over the next 2 years, while also
adding employees. We expect to grow from a $1 million company
gross revenue to about a $5 million company as the broadband
funding is deployed. And importantly, expect to offer healthcare to
our employees for the first time, a struggle that has been with me
for several years trying to get them the coverage that they so des-
perately need.
I do not think it can be overstated how big the economic impact
of this bill will have on the Maine economy. Not only is my com-
pany adding jobs and growing, but the work we do will bring
broadband to thousands of rural Mainers. It is simply a
gamechanger. In Washington County and across rural Maine, we
experience the digital divide every day. Those that do not have ac-
cess to reliable, speedy internet are at a disadvantage, plain and
simple. And the pandemic has exposed how important it is to make
sure that children can access the Internet, Zoom with their teach-
ers and complete homework assignments, while at the same time
allowing parents to work remotely from home.
But the impact of broadband access goes even beyond that. They
help elderly Mainers age in place by accessing telemedicine oppor-
tunities. One example, a previously unhooked up customer recently
hooked up, is able to download his medical device information from
home. Previously, he was having to travel 45 minutes each way to
the nearest healthcare facility to download that information. A big
gamechanger in his life.
Recently connected customers on Cranberry Isles, year-round is-
landers living off the coast of Maine connected by ferry to the
mainland, now have the ability to work remotely for companies
anywhere. A professor of physics from the University of Arizona
will be able to work from his home in Roque Bluffs, Maine, when
we hook him up with a fiber connection later this year. That is a
community with a population of 303.
The bill also addresses affordability, a roadblock for rural fami-
lies struggling to pay their bills. The benefit will provide qualified
individuals with a $30 reduction on their monthly bill, really a
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gamechanger for disadvantaged families. We look forward to ad-
ministering that with folks in Maine.
Internet access is critical to keeping rural places vibrant and en-
suring that all Mainers can create their own economy. The impact
of the infrastructure bill, in short, will increase revenues at Axiom
five times, add employees and healthcare while providing world-
class Internet service to thousands of homes that lack broadband.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
I have heard some people call it the GSOM, the Great State of
Maine. So, with that, one more witness from Maine, Mr. Shedlock.
STATEMENT OF JASON J. SHEDLOCK
Mr. SHEDLOCK. Thank you, Chairman Golden, Ranking Mem-
ber Williams, and Members of this Subcommittee for this oppor-
tunity. My name is Jason J. Shedlock, and I represent the Labor-
ers’ International Union of North America, 500,000 plus strong
united men and women, most of whom who dedicate their lives to
building our nation’s infrastructure. Specifically, I am one of over
300 Members of Laborers’ Local 327 based in Augusta, Maine, as
well as the president of the Maine State Building and Construction
Trades Council, an organization comprised of 20 affiliated labor
unions representing over 6,000 workers across the state.
I am pleased to be with you today to share some thought son be-
half of the individuals who will be operationalizing the
generational legislation that is the topic of this public hearing.
The bipartisan action taken in Washington will have far-reaching
impacts on current and future working families across Maine and
the nation. Certainly, a direct and immediate benefit of the Infra-
structure Investment and Jobs Act should and must be seen by the
Members of our union and those of the entirety of the building
trades unions. These highly-skilled sisters and brothers will build
and rebuild the very communities where they live, while at the
same time building and sustaining a middle-class career for them-
selves and their families.
Tradespeople like the laborers I represent stand ready to heed
the call of lawmakers to fundamentally transform our nation’s in-
frastructure. From groundbreaking to final delivery, my fellow
Members build every sector of the construction industry. From sky-
scrapers and subways, to highways and bridges, from sidewalks to
solar fields, we literally build America.
Now, if you have ever been to Maine, and I know the Chairman
knows this will, you will undoubtedly notice that we do not have
any skyscrapers per se or any subways in our state. That said, we
are proud to be currently building the state’s tallest building, lo-
cated in the city of Portland, an 18-story hi-rise built by union la-
borers, operating engineers, iron workers, carpenters, electricians,
elevator constructors, and more.
This legislation will finally address what the American Society of
Civil Engineers calls Maine’s C- infrastructure system. Three hun-
dred fifteen bridges, 1,438 miles of highway are in poor condition,
earning C- and D grades, respectively. This law will mean at least
$1.3 billion for Maine’s highways, $225 million for those bridges.
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This represents a seismic change in our ability to invest in our
state. What it also represents is the opportunity to make a seismic
change in our workforce and our local economies. Through our top-
notch training programs, Members hone their skills in emerging
and cutting-edge technologies, making them the best and most
nimble in the business. Through our registered apprenticeship pro-
grams, we ensure that the next generation of builders are equipped
to secure their future with good pay, safe job sites, comprehensive
benefits, and an even shot at retiring with dignity after an honest
career.
I am proud to add that as the most diverse building trades
union, the laborers’ also continuously focus on outreach to tradi-
tionally underrepresented populations such as women, people of
color, and veterans, to ensure that our workforce adequately re-
flects the community where our Members live, work, play, and
pray.
To further amplify this law’s effects on working families, the
president’s recent executive order mandating that all federally-
funded projects of $35 million or more be performed under the gold
standard of a Project Labor Agreement means that this investment
will not only benefit every American but it will also translate to the
surety of safety and respect for construction workers and our signa-
tory contractors across America.
We are also currently in a challenging environment. Intertwined
with our collective success is the worsening job crunch in Maine
and in the country. No one feels this crunch harder than small
businesses, including small and medium-sized construction contrac-
tors. By partnering with the laborers’ union and our fellow trades,
we in essence provide these businesses with an ‘‘easy button’’ as
they can gain access to our highly-skilled construction workforce
while at the same time enjoy the job opportunities related to this
historic infrastructure investment.
I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge and appreciate
the laborers’ close working relationship with the U.S., as well as
the regional and local Chambers of Commerce across America with
respect to our nation’s infrastructure. It is only by joining together
with our partners in the business community that we will most ef-
fectively deliver on the tremendous promise of this legislation, and
I thank Mr. Mortimer for his words as well.
Through this partnership, we can also help address the unaccept-
able reality of America’s gender pay gap. According to the U.S. Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics, while overall women earn 81.1 percent of
what men in, in the construction industry that number increases
to 99.1 percent. Further, according to the National Women’s Law
Center, unionized women earn 24 percent more than women who
are not represented by a union.
Mr. Chairman, the overarching takeaway is very simple and was
summed up very well by my general president, Terry O’Sullivan,
upon the bill’s signing. ‘‘The investment will put laborers to work
in every community, revitalize our nation’s economy, and open
doors to the middle class for hundreds of thousands of working men
and women.’’
Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. As any
good union laborer, I and my sisters and brothers, stand ready to
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assist you in any way necessary as we work together to put this
legislation into action, from groundbreaking to final delivery.
Thank you.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. I look forward to seeing those
projects move forward, too, and those people working. And as we
discussed, working closer to home. More on that later in regard to
Maine.
But let’s finish things up and hear from Mr. Baker for 5 minutes.
Thank you, sir
Mr. BAKER. Okay. Am I unmuted here, sir? Oh, good.
Chairman GOLDEN. Loud and clear.
STATEMENT OF TERRANCE LEE BAKER
Mr. BAKER. Okay. Thank you to Representative Williams for
that eloquent introduction. And I also want to express gratitude to
my congressman, Representative Jim Hagedorn. And I add my
thoughts and prayers for your speedy recovery, sir.
As already mentioned about my present employment, I am a
pilot car owner and operator. And just to add to what Representa-
tive Williams already mentioned, when you happen upon an over-
sized load, it is always a spectacle on the highway. You will see
flags, oversize load signs, police light bars with amber flashing
lights. And typically, we have to block one or more lanes of traffic
because of the dimensions of the load, and so our priority is to alert
the driving public and to encourage them to maintain distance
until we can get the load down the highway and keep everyone
safe.
Through the years of doing this, I have operated through all of
the 48 states of the Continental U.S. and a lot in Canada, specifi-
cally in Ontario, and especially in Québec. And so, a lot of infra-
structure to see there. But I want to mention that it has always
been a challenge because of fuel prices from 2010 to 2016. Climate
initiatives have always kept diesel up somewhere near $4 a gallon.
I was very thankful to get a reprieve 2017 through 2020 when for
once we became energy independent and I was paying as little as
$2 a gallon for diesel which immensely helped a small operator like
me.
2020 promised to be a great year and then, bam, the Flu COVID
crisis hit. Mask mandates, vaccine mandates, social distancing, the
general flu hysteria. Restaurants, motels, hotels, truck stops—they
were shut down. Job sites were shut down. Manufacturers of the
oversized things that we hauled were shut down. Work stopped and
my income stopped. Further complicating COVID, the governor of
my state has now imposed California air standards on Minnesota.
What is the impact of that? Well, sometime in the future I will not
be able to renew the Minnesota registration on my pickup because
I no longer meet California air standards.
Additionally, the state of Minnesota is now requiring that pilot
cars based here take a Minnesota pilot car certification test, and
it will no longer honor my Utah DOT certification. Coincidently
and just in time, the new SBA director in January of 2021 offered
loans and available money and small business support. I was grate-
ful to see loans being offered at 3.75 percent with a payback period
of 30 years up to a half million dollars. Well, I do not need a half
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million dollars. I am just one guy with one vehicle but, yeah,
please, send SOME of that money my way. I did apply for a loan
and I am very happy to say SBA called me just this morning in-
forming me, after I applied over a year ago, that finally the loan
will be approved and we are waiting for funding on that.
So, I am looking at now refitting my pickup with California emis-
sions equipment, buying a new California compliant vehicle, or
moving out of state because of the new and onerous DOT and EPA
standards. In the news, CPI is up to 7.5 percent, 40-year high.
Well, every time I go to the diesel filling station, or go to the gro-
cery store, or pay my heating bill, I do not see increases of only 7.5
percent. Diesel is up 80 percent. This last month, I paid $100 more
to heat my house than I did a year ago. So what does this mean
as a small business owner? I have to increase prices to my cus-
tomers, my few remaining customers if I am going to stay profit-
able. And I am discovering they are not going to pay it. They will
not pay it. It is too much.
So my observation iss, and I have limited time here, this admin-
istration could instantly, overnight, fix inflation and cost of living
by just reopening domestic oil production. Open up Keystone. Fin-
ish the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. Get off the back of
Pipeline 5 and Dakota Access operators. Let the oil flow. We are
reminded that the cost basis of everything—goods, services, hous-
ing, food, transport is energy. It is ENERGY!!! Until we get that
back down, we are going to keep spiraling downward.
In summary, I see in my co-drivers and people that I work with:
fear, resentment, and hatred toward the present administration,
and its policies are really mounting. People are getting frustrated
out here because it is getting harder and harder to run a business,
to survive. We cannot allow ourselves to be driven into poverty and
destitution by SENSELESS policy. We need to look at Canada and
really take that truckers’ strike, pardon me, seriously. I think that
will come here.
Thank you, Ranking Members and distinguished witnesses for
listening and I have to yield up my time now.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you, Mr. Baker.
Next, we will move on to the question-and-answer phase of the
hearing.
I will begin by recognizing myself. We will have several rounds
of these time allowing, so please, it is certainly my intent to try
and give each of you a little bit more time to talk about the issues
that you want to address here today. I know time is pretty
crunched with a 5-minute start on your opening statements, so I
will start by recognizing myself.
This infrastructure bill is Chamber of Commerce endorsed; Na-
tional Association of Manufacturers endorsed. Of course, part of it
is built upon the foundation of our Surface Transportation Reau-
thorization, which really is all about infrastructure, $550 billion in
addition plus to invest in our nation’s infrastructure. Of that, $110
billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for transit, $66 billion for
rail. And I must point out a big portion of that is likely to go to
freight, which is an economic driver for our businesses around the
country. $25 billion for airports, $17 billion for ports. These are
some big numbers and I think it is going to do some great things
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for the American economy, not just in the near term but in the long
run here for our infrastructure.
It is just critical as you pointed out, Mr. Mortimer. Can you talk
a little bit more about why the Chamber of Commerce got behind
this legislation? And I thank you for pointing out some of the regu-
latory reform that it did possess. You did say not a perfect bill,
very few are, but the one federal decision permitting I think is
going to go a long way towards speeding delivery and providing
regulatory certainty to businesses, would you not say?
Mr. MORTIMER. Absolutely, Mr. Chairman. And again, you
know, the Chamber of Commerce has got behind this because, look,
we need federal investment to have a national network. Right? The
Constitution called for the federal government to do two things.
They may have wandered a bit beyond that and we could have a
whole hearing on that. But the two things it called for is national
defense and interstate commerce. So for businesses to succeed, we
need the vision of Eisenhauer when he developed that interstate
highway system. Teddy Roosevelt with the Inland Waterways. That
network was the envy of the world but it has reached its useful
conclusion.
My colleague, Mr. Shedlock, talked about the American Society
of Civil Engineers’ C-. So we needed to modernize. We needed the
federal investment and vision to do that. State governments and
local governments have been doing this over the last several years
but they by themselves cannot make the type of investments to
handle all the physical infrastructure we talked about in this hear-
ing. You know, our road system and our transportation network is
the backbone, but broadband, energy, all those things require, and
it is not all on the federal government. It is a shared responsibility.
But this legislation is going to provide the building block. And
again, our view is these are going to be shovel worthy projects.
These are going to be projects that are going to make our country
succeed for the next 50 to 75 years. This is not a quick jolt.
To Congressman Williams’s concern about inflation, the U.S.
Chamber is very concerned about inflation, but we view these in-
vestments, again, as a long-term vision for our country that actu-
ally are going to be deflationary because they are long term. This
is very different than 2009 when it was shovel ready and just
hurry up. Let’s get a bunch of people out there and fix some things.
This is being strategic, long-term investments that are going to
benefit small business owners for many years to come.
Chairman GOLDEN. You talked a little bit about partnering
with the Committee to make sure that the implementation is done
correctly or to see that some of these reforms in here are adhered
to. How can we best work together, Mr. Mortimer, to make sure
that small business firms represented by the Chamber of Com-
merce are going to capture the benefit of this work?
Mr. MORTIMER. Great question. So two things we really would
like the Subcommittee to help us with. First of all, we need to get
a full year, 2022 appropriations bill. Because we are on a con-
tinuing resolution, the full benefits of this legislation are not able
to take place. So we are supporting Congressman Moulton, Con-
gressman Katko. They have over 50 Members and growing, signing
a letter to leadership, urging them to finish a full year appropria-
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tions bill by the March 11th deadline. So again, let’s get a bipar-
tisan solution for a full year bill so we can fully implement the leg-
islation.
Number two is this Subcommittee and your Full Committee has
an opportunity to oversee the departments that are enacting this
bill to make sure that small business has a voice. There are provi-
sions in this bill, like in Federal Highways, 10 percent of funds can
go to small business owners. We need to provide that oversight and
make sure that they deliver on the promises made. And so, Con-
gress and this Committee have a key role to make sure that as
they roll out these guidances, and many are going to be rolling out
in the next month, that you ensure that the congressional intent
is being met.
And for those who did not vote for the bill, this is an opportunity
to say let’s—it is the law of the land—let’s make it the most bene-
ficial to our communities. So, let’s take another look at this and
let’s see how we can make our communities fully benefit from the
investments that this law can bring.
Chairman GOLDEN. I certainly agree with you about the impor-
tance of the oversight role of the Committee. And of course, also
hoping that we will get a good omnibus.
My time is expired.
Next, we will recognize Congressman Williams.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would also like to enter into the record an op-ed from Job Cre-
ators Network titled ‘‘Nine ways Biden’s feckless cabinet Members
are contributing to our country’s problems.’’ This article highlights
the failures of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Small Busi-
ness Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, and Treasury
Secretary Janet Yellen, who continues, by the way, to defy the law
by refusing to testify before this Committee. She is breaking the
law. So, I want to get that in the record, Chairman.
Chairman GOLDEN. So ordered.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you. Thank you, again, and witnesses,
for being here today. We appreciate you.
Skyrocketing inflation continues to create uncertainty for small
business owners across the country. I am one of those small busi-
ness owners. And while the Biden administration claimed that in-
flation had reached its peak months ago, working families and
business owners are seeing the highest inflation in 40 years. I am
in the automobile business and so I can tell you about that. A re-
cent survey by the Jobs Creation Network and the National Fed-
eration of Small Businesses confirmed that inflation is the biggest
concern among small business owners.
So, Mr. Baker, it is good to have you here today. And in your tes-
timony, you mentioned that the rising cost of gas has caused you
to pass along the price to your customers. Unfortunately, that hap-
pens when you are a business owner.
Can you expand on how the rising cost of goods has impacted
your business and your customer base? And is there not a point
where the cost is just too great to your customers to absorb?
Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir. I have fuel receipts from a year ago where
I was paying $2.08 (per gallon) for diesel. Right now, I look out the
window and I see the diesel price $3.89. that is over 80 percent,
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sir. That is not 7.5 CPI. That is 80 percent. Everything for mainte-
nance, vehicle maintenance and everything else is up accordingly.
And I already mentioned hotels and truck stops. They have to in-
crease their prices or they go out of business. So naturally, I have
to raise my per mile rate when I am out escorting someone. And
I used to be able to afford to deadhead out to New York or Québec
to find work. That is running out alone with my vehicle to pick up
work out of Montréal or Trois-Riviĕ1res. They have a lot of wind,
had a lot of wind going on in 2020 before they closed the Canadian
border. I cannot afford that anymore because when I go through
Pennsylvania and New York, they are over 4 bucks a gallon for die-
sel. So, there is an example, sir.
And also, I wanted to mention, I know a lot of truckers who are
over-the-road semi drivers. The California air emission standards
forced a lot of them away from California ports. In fact, a majority
of the truckers who service those ports are from out of state. When
California doubled down on that ludicrous emissions requirement
for the ports, the truckers shrugged and said, ‘‘...okay, we will go
work Gulf Coast ports. We will go work out of Florida ports. You
are not hurting us at all. Let us know how that works out, Cali-
fornia!’’ That is why there is a supply chain problem there.
But, sir, I am happy to report at the beginning of 2020, I knew
we were going to be down for COVID for a while so I took my pick-
up in, did a top engine overhaul and had to order a lot of parts
from Germany. Bosch parts made in Germany. I experienced no
supply chain problems at all because they were flown in or shipped
in through Jacksonville, Florida. So there is the contrast and that
is how onerous regulations in some states just kill us, adding to the
cost of operations.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Let’s continue.
As a small business owner myself, I have been in the automobile
business for over 52 years, I know firsthand that the best thing for
business is if government simply gets out of the way and lets busi-
ness owners work in the free market. Let competition work. Let the
consumer decide who is good and who is bad. Unfortunately, the
American Action Forum reported that the Biden administration
capped off its first full year in office with more than $201 billion—
think of that, $201 billion in regulatory costs and 131 million hours
in new annual paperwork to generate actually nothing. These kinds
of burdensome regulations and requirements for you and myself
create unnecessary barriers for all small businesses which prevents
them from growing and contributing to the U.S. economy in a more
substantial way, and frankly, giving service to the customer.
So, Mr. Baker, how do regulatory burdens impact your ability to
maintain revenue, retain clients, and still grow your business? And
you do not need Big Brother looking at it every single day.
Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir. I mean, it all revolves around cost. And as
I mentioned before in my oral intro, the cost basis of everything is
ENERGY. And as diesel keeps rising, it will be more and more dif-
ficult to come out with a net profit. And like I said, I have reached
the limits where some customers tell me I cannot run with them
anymore because I am charging too much. Well, I have to charge
that much at a certain level just to remain profitable. Otherwise,
it does not pay to go out the door anymore. I may as well sell my
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pickup and go be a Walmart greeter because that is what inflation
and these new regulations will force, as in the case of my state,
California air emissions in Minnesota. Are you kidding? They are
going to drive me out of business eventually if these costs keep ris-
ing, sir. I hope that answers your question.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, it did. And thank you for being a small
business owner and taking risk in this great country.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. I am going to go ahead and rec-
ognize Congressman Stauber.
Mr. STAUBER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, Ranking Mem-
ber Williams. I really appreciate the witnesses and hearing your
testimony.
You know, Mr. Williams just said something very striking, and
do not diminish his comment. The Biden administration in 1 year,
by their own admittance, has added $200 billion of new regulatory
cost on top of prior. That is $200 billion of regulatory cost, addi-
tional regulatory cost on small businesses in 1 year. We cannot
have this. The small businesses represented here, Mr. Baker, I do
not know how you can do that, add 7.5 percent inflation. We have
always said that small business is the engine of our economy. And
what we are doing is we are suffocating small business with these
overburdensome regulations that some unelected bureaucratic
thinks is a good idea to put on the American small business owner.
They do not deserve that and we can do better.
So, Mr. Baker, for you. As the top Republican on the Natural Re-
sources Subcommittee overseeing oil and gas development, I could
not agree more with your comment in your testimony about the
need to reopen federal lands to oil and gas development. Even in
Minnesota where we have no oil and gas, how has Joe Biden’s deci-
sion to ban federal oil and gas leases impacted your ability to run
your pilot car business and the cost of fuel?
Mr. BAKER. Well, it has just escalated to the ridiculous. I mean,
every day I look out the window or I drive by the diesel stop and
it is up 5, 10 cents a gallon. Pretty soon we are going to be at $5
a gallon, over some nefarious environmental initiative which at its
core philosophy demonizes carbon dioxide of all things. I would like
to speak on that if I had the time but I do not want to overcom-
plicate my answer here. Just simply ENERGY, the cost of EN-
ERGY is the basis of all my costs anymore and it drives everything
else up—food, restaurants, truck stops, supplies, repair parts.
Mr. STAUBER. Well, Mr. Baker, give me an idea, give the panel
an idea what the percentage of your overall commitment is for oil
and gas. What has the increase in the gas cost you? Can you give
us a number or a percentage of this past year’s bill?
Mr. BAKER. Okay. I have got a 35-gallon fuel tank in my pickup
and I used to be able to fill that, especially running down through
Texas, $70 would top it off right to the top of the filler brim. If I
fill now in my hometown, it is in excess of $130 to fill that tank.
If I do a day escort run, and hoping to make $200 from the truck-
ing company and then come back home, I will burn out nearly a
tank of fuel just maneuvering around the load, keeping the traffic
off of it, steering the trailer. I have to idle my pickup when it is
cold just to stay alive. By the time I am done, I have spent almost
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as much fuel as the trucking company pays me for that day. That
is not good business. I cannot live that way. I cannot make a living
that way.
Mr. STAUBER. So Mr. Baker, you are almost paying a half more
than you were a year and a half ago. And so, in addition to paying
almost double for the fuel and then the added $200 of additional
burdensome regulations, small businesses are really hit hard and
it is not right.
So, bureaucrats in Washington that come up with the onerous
climate initiatives and regulations often do not consider impact on
small business owners like yourself, Mr. Baker. We must eliminate
hurdles for our small businesses so they can contribute to our econ-
omy and our infrastructure projects, not put in place more burden-
some regulations or take steps to weaken our energy and supply
chain independence. Mistakes like these only benefit large corpora-
tions who can afford such costly policies. Small business resiliency
is how we guarantee America’s resiliency. And I hope this adminis-
tration starts taking that into account moving forward.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman GOLDEN. The gentleman yields back.
We will now recognize Congressman Carter from Louisiana.
Mr. CARTER. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for the op-
portunity.
Mr. Mortimer, can you explain the benefits of historically under-
served businesses like those owned by women, minorities, and vet-
erans gaining access to state and federal contracts, particularly for
surface transportation projects?
Mr. MORTIMER. Absolutely, Congressman. Thank you for the
question.
So, you know, we have been very engaged in the business com-
munity to, you know, obviously, workforce development and work-
force challenges are a big focus of the Chamber. And we created an
Equality of Opportunity Initiative where one of the things we have
heard when we talk to minority and women-owned businesses was
they did not know where these opportunities existed; right? We did
not have a lot of them at the federal level. But with passage of this
legislation, one of our goals is to partner to make sure we go to
those underserved and underutilized communities who did not even
know these benefits happened. And if they do not have the workers
there that have the job skills, let’s get the job skills with the men
and women so they can do these jobs. So, they do not just benefit
from the infrastructure development but they actually are a part
of it. And again, we know the communities around the country are
starving for think of something anew. How would you love to be
part of an effort to modernize infrastructure? And these jobs are
not a 4-year college degree. These are training jobs.
My colleague on this panel, Mr. Shedlock, you know, we work
with organized labor. They have great apprenticeship programs.
The business community wants to copy those but we need to go to
those communities themselves. We cannot have them come to us.
We need to go to them. And so, the Chamber, through its Equality
of Opportunity Initiative, we are reaching out around the country
to those communities, making them aware of these opportunities.
We created a website that shows all the government procurements
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and contracts that are coming out and we are going to work with
our state and local Chambers so they can work with those local
communities to find men and women who, these are good jobs.
Mr. CARTER. And listen, I would love to work with you on that,
Mr. Mortimer, because I will tell you, we just recently had the Sec-
retary of Labor, Marty Walsh, in my district in Louisiana. And we
went to some of our community colleges. We met with some of the
stakeholders. And one of the repeating refrains, particularly people
that are re-entering the workforce, people that had been recently
incarcerated, who paid their debt to society, nonviolent criminals
who are now back out and have skills and we should put them
back in the workforce in addition to creating more opportunities for
small and emerging businesses. So I am happy to hear you say that
and I extend my hand to work with you and local chambers to
make sure that we get into those communities that historically
have been underserved and do not know these resources exist. So,
I am happy to hear that you recognize, as I do, that we can have
the best programs in the world. If people do not know they exist,
they are doing us no good whatsoever. So thank you very, very
much for that.
And I will ask you one final question. If you sat where we sit,
if you were Members of this Committee, Members of Congress, and
you had the opportunity to do something in addition to what has
been done, what would you direct us to do that we can do better
to help you serve our community?
Mr. MORTIMER. First of all, I look forward to the partnership
with you on this effort because we are very serious about that com-
mitment and the Chambers looks forward to working with you on
that.
So, from your seat, and no offense, I am glad I am not a Member
of Congress, but from your seats, I think, again, making sure that
your communities put together priorities; okay? Because we cannot
just trust state and local governments to deliver the projects that
are truly going to be transformational. So businesses working with
organized labor with the other stakeholder communities and make
priorities. And then have community consensus around those pri-
ority projects. Those communities that are able to do that are going
to be the ones most successful. If everyone is——
Mr. CARTER. Mr. Mortimer, thank you. I’m sorry to cut you off.
I have just about a minute left and I want to really ask one quick
question for Mr. Baker but I definitely want to follow up with you.
Mr. MORTIMER. Sure.
Mr. CARTER. Mr. Baker, you know, we hear from small firms
all the time about having trouble recruiting and retaining workers.
Do you think government investment in workforce development
would help expand the pool of skilled workers for businesses? And
if not, what can we be doing better?
Mr. BAKER. Oh, I think that is obvious. I mean, if you provide
training and opportunities for people seeking work, of course that
would be helpful, sir.
Mr. CARTER. Do you think there are other ways that we might
be able to weigh in to do that from your perspective? I will ask you
as I asked Mr. Mortimer, are there other things that you think we
can be doing better? And if so, could you share with us very briefly
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in about 20 seconds on what you think we can do? Because our job
here is to listen, to legislate, to govern, but we should not do that
in a vacuum. We have to do that with the involvement of people
like you and others that are on the panel today.
Mr. BAKER. Well, in my industry, there will always be a de-
mand for truckers. I think fostering and encouraging a vocational
training program for semi-truck drivers or pilot car operators
would give that industry a boost and certainly employ or self-em-
ploy a great many more people. So a simple answer to your ques-
tion, sir.
Mr. CARTER. Thank you very much.
I yield back, sir.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I have a few remaining questions. Certainly, Representative Car-
ter, you are welcome to stay if you have others. It sounds like you
might. And Congressman Williams, just let me know if you have
additional questions at any point.
I was just going to work down the line starting with Mr.
Ouellette. Just thinking about Washington County alone, what do
you think the digital divide looks like maybe in just an estimated
percentage of residents currently without access to broadband? And
how important do you think that is to the prospects for economic
development in Washington County?
Mr. OUELLETTE. Thank you, Representative Golden. I appre-
ciate the opportunity.
There are at least 10 percent of the population that has no
broadband whatsoever and is working off a cell phone, at least
that. Probably closer to 15 percent, something of that range. Those
who do not have access to broadband that meets the new state defi-
nition of 100 over 100 megabits per second are almost nonexistent.
Only fiber connected customers can achieve that level of service
and there are far and few in Washington County that have that
service. We, through the CARES Act, we are now serving East
Machias and Whiting, two small communities adjacent to where we
operate out of Machias. Those communities now have access to
world-class broadband. Basically, you can get better broadband in
those communities today than you can get in New York City. No
offense to New York City. So the kind of infrastructure from a
broadband perspective that are going to be put into Washington
County is really literally going to give a significant economic boost
to all families who are currently underserved or unserved by their
current broadband connection. Because as I am sure you are keenly
aware, and those on the Committee that come from rural places,
typically, a family has two, three, maybe even four jobs to keep
themselves working. And giving them more tools to allow them to
build their own economy in the way that they so choose while still
living in a place that they love and not being forced to move or go
to a different location to be able to do what they need to do to keep
their family healthy, safe, and obviously active in the kinds of
beautiful places that Washington County is and very many of your
other representatives’ locations in rural places across America is
critical. So I see this as being, as I said in my testimony, a game
changer, not just for Washington County but all of rural Maine, all
of rural America from a broadband perspective. There is no reason,
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frankly, that we should be lagging behind places like South Korea
and other nations that many years ago invested in broadband in-
frastructure and put that in to help their citizens grow, and cer-
tainly, the pandemic has made this an acute problem that needs
to be addressed in the Congress bipartisanly—is that a word,
bipartisanly? Yeah, there you go. Really had the opportunity to ad-
dress and pass this piece of legislation. And we are grateful be-
cause we know every day from our folks in Washington County
how important and how large the digital divide is for those families
that do not have service right now.
Yeah, go ahead.
Chairman GOLDEN. You know, Ed had mentioned that for those
communities’ consensus for projects, they are going to be best in
place to take the full advantage of this law.
You mentioned in this bill a provision I think a lot of people do
not know about where for those who need the help, who qualify be-
cause of their financial situation, they can get a $30 monthly bill
reduction so they can afford this broadband. What other ways do
you think we can work together, businesses like yours and this
Subcommittee, to get the word out to communities about how best
to take advantage of this law?
Mr. OUELLETTE. Yeah, thank you for the question. I appreciate
that.
I think certainly that a great amount of education still needs to
occur about what is contained within this bill and how Congress
should communicate that information through the state or through
the Members of Congress to different areas to try to effectively drill
down into places where folks may not be aware of these kinds of
programs or the kids of effects that the infrastructure bill is going
to bring to places like rural Maine.
I think one of the big, I think, something very important from
my perspective would be for representatives to really effectively
come to the places where these funds could be effective and speak
on them because I think Members of Congress maybe can have a
great out-larged effect when they speak and I think, you know, peo-
ple do not see enough of their representatives frankly in this envi-
ronment because of the pandemic, because of the way you have had
to hold your business over the last couple of years. So, we would
love to see more Members of Congress out in the field talking about
what this bill can bring. And I think that could be very effective
for the Committee also.
Chairman GOLDEN. It sounds like an invitation to Washington
County. We should set that up.
Mr. Williams, do you have any questions?
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Baker, or any of you can answer this, but I am a small busi-
ness owner, employ hundreds of people. I am in the automobile
business. I have for over 50 years. I am a big tax cutter. I ran on
tax cuts in 2012 and won and I have won ever since. In 2016, we
had the largest tax cuts in the history of our country, and created
more cashflow than we have ever seen, and allowed business to in-
vest and take risks and get rewarded. And that is what America
is about.
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Now, Mr. Baker, the Democrats talk about raising taxes, really
frankly on everybody. And just raising taxes alone when we ought
to be cutting taxes, frankly, what would that do to your business
along with inflation and everything else you talked about today?
Mr. BAKER. Well, in combination with all of the above, Rep-
resentative Williams, I pay taxes in two places, Minnesota and fed-
eral. Any raise in taxes would be even more devastating on top of
already what I am dealing with. I am really considering moving to
Texas, which is a no state income tax state, sir. I wish you would
have me.
Mr. WILLIAMS. We will take you.
Mr. BAKER. Thank you.
Mr. WILLIAMS. But raising taxes does not do your business any
good?
Mr. BAKER. No, definitely not. How does it benefit me? More
dollars out of my pocket. Less operating funds. You know, the
checkbook won’t balance anymore.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Shedlock, you represent a lot of great busi-
nesses, a lot of great people. We are a right to work state in Texas
but tax increases certainly could not help your businesses or your
people, could they?
Mr. SHEDLOCK. Well, I appreciate the question, Congressman.
You know, I think we are obviously all in this together and, you
know, it is incumbent upon us to make sure that the promise
1:11:00xxx of this legislation is implemented. You know, the impor-
tant thing when you invest in human beings who actually are hold-
ing those shovels of these projects that are shovel ready is that you
are investing in a person and in a working family and paying them
a wage where they can be reintroduced into their communities
where they live.
Mr. WILLIAMS. I hate to interrupt you but let me say, but tax
cuts certainly would help your workers and your companies a lot
better than raising taxes and putting, again, the burden on tax-
payers, would you not agree?
Mr. SHEDLOCK. My Members are following their collective bar-
gaining agreements jointly with our signatory contractors.
Mr. WILLIAMS. But I am sure they would like more money in
their pocket. I think they would. And thank you for answering that
question.
Let me just come to you, Mr. Mortimer, being with the Chamber
and so forth. And I am a Member of the Chamber and small busi-
ness owner.
All the stuff we were talking about is great, but if we put the
burden on small business owners and Chamber Members by rais-
ing taxes, instead of cutting taxes, frankly, and putting more
money in their pocket that gets put out in the system, raising taxes
right now with inflation like it is is not at a benefit, would you not
agree?
Mr. MORTIMER. Yes, sir, Mr. Congressman. We appreciate, you
know, you are a small business owner and you understand the
Chamber has been supportive of the Tax Reform of 2017. We also
have strongly opposed Build Back Better just for that reason. And
so, you know, there are some that felt that a vote for this infra-
structure bill was actually going to help Build Back Better. Well,
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it has shown that supporting long-term investment is good for our
country. Supporting short-term things such as Build Back Better
are bad. And so, we are very happy that Congress has not moved
forward with that part of the agenda.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you very much.
And Mr. Chairman, I will return my time to you.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I want to make sure I am not leaving people out.
Mr. Shedlock, you talked a little bit about the importance of put-
ting money in people’s pockets. Certainly, you see a lot in this bill
that is going to increase work opportunities for laborers in Maine
and New England. Important things that are going to see us with
more Buy American, Made in America type of contract opportuni-
ties. In general, you think this law is going to generate more work
and better pay opportunities for your workers. And when I say
that, I also, of course, mean businesses that they work for. Could
you talk a little bit more about the benefits?
Mr. SHEDLOCK. Sure, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the question.
Chairman GOLDEN. By the way, you touched on the importance
of the laborer aspects, the laborer development aspects. I mean, in
Maine, obviously, we have got to develop a skilled workforce for the
future and maintain it. And really, at the end of the day that is
one of the things that I think perhaps is going to be most signifi-
cant about this bill. But I would love to hear a little bit more from
the perspective of laborers and trades.
Mr. SHEDLOCK. Sure, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the question.
And you hit it right on the head. We have an aging workforce in
Maine and across the country in the construction industry. And one
of the things that this piece of legislation is going to spur are reg-
istered apprenticeship programs. Mr. Mortimer spoke about them
as well. They are the gold standard when it comes to training
someone in the building trades with a set pathway and a paved
road to the middle class. So as we partner with our small and
midsize businesses to operationalize this piece of legislation, we
have the opportunity to create a sustaining training module for
these individuals but also, you know, it is not like when these in-
frastructure projects are built and we often say in the construction
industry we work ourselves out of a job. It is our job to finish the
work. It is not like the training that these individuals will receive
due to the much needed investment that this piece of legislation in-
jects into Maine and the state. After those projects are over, they
are not just going to go home and, you know, I think Mr. Baker
talked about being a greeter at Walmart. These are individuals
who are now equipped with the tools that they need to pivot from
those jobs into work in other areas across the state with the skills
that they have learned because of this piece of legislation. And you
know, what happens in Maine, as we say, you know, as Maine
goes, so goes the country, what happens in Maine is not unique.
This happens in jurisdictions all around the country when we bring
folks into the fold. And as I said, and it should not be underesti-
mated, women, people of color, veterans, traditionally underserved
populations, we make a concerted effort to make sure that our
unions’ workforce looks like the communities in which they work.
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So these are opportunities that are going to be immeasurable for
working families in Maine and across the country.
Chairman GOLDEN. Yeah, I really appreciate the effort to hire
veterans. I was coming out of the Marines back in ’06. I was Infan-
try. That is all I ever wanted to do in the Marines. And as you
know, I went to Afghanistan and Iraq. And coming home, I would
have loved to have known about an opportunity to walk into an ap-
prenticeship program and pick up some trade skills. So, I really ad-
mire and appreciate the effort of your organizations on that front,
as well as for other important parts of our community, making sure
people have access to get those skills, be successful is what it is all
about. And I know it is important to the businesses. They would
not be able to meet their workforce needs without groups like
yours. So, I certainly appreciate that very much.
We stood under a bridge linking Maine to New Hampshire and
heard directly from workers about the human aspect of this for
people around the country. Some of the workers there, I think some
of them laborers, some of them operating engineers, talked about
how they had not had a job in Maine in years. And therefore, were
sleeping in motels during the week away from their family, from
their kids. And really what they saw in this Infrastructure Law,
and you will remember, they were asking me to push back against
the Speaker linking the infrastructure bill to Build Back Better
which I fought real hard to get this infrastructure bill free. But for
them it was about not just the paychecks and the skills develop-
ment, but it was about work closer to home and going home to eat
dinner and put the kid to bed; right? There is a real human aspect
to this, too.
Mr. SHEDLOCK. There absolutely is. I appreciate you bringing
that up, and it was a pleasure to partner with you on that event
and so many others.
You know, we have talked a lot this morning about the price of
gas; right? And, you know, no one can deny the price of gas is ris-
ing. What our Members do not appreciate, and partially to Con-
gressman Williams’s point, is to have to drive, and using that gas
out of state to make a decent wage for a construction job. This is
going to provide the opportunity for our Members, the women and
men, the laborers and the entirety of the building trades unions,
to work where they live. When that happens, not only do you not
have to shell out more money from your pocket for a tank of gas
or a motel room or, you know, many Members also sleep in their
cars I have to tell you, you are also going to be spending money
in your communities, but you are also going to be, you can go to
church on Sunday in your community. You are going to coach, you
know, I am a youth basketball coach in Portland and you are going
to be able to coach your son or your daughter in the games. You
are going to be productive Members of the communities visiting
those small businesses that we all care so much about and who are
the backbone of much of Maine.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Congressman Williams, I am going to ask one question to Mr.
Baker, but I want to give you the opportunity if you want to ask
any more questions of anyone.
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Mr. WILLIAMS. No, I am good. I guess I would just say to every-
body, you Maniacs got us Texans outnumbered on this call. But I
would invite Mr. Shedlock and Mark, and of course, Ed knows this,
and Terrance already brought it up, you all are invited to Texas.
No personal income tax. All your people make more money. They
are free to work for who they want to work for. So that invitation
is out there, Chairman.
Chairman GOLDEN. Well, I appreciate that. Let me say, I had
Pete Stauber up in Maine and I visited Minnesota with him and
Jim Hagedorn actually back in 2019, and I would certainly—Van
Taylor has been up to my district in Maine—and I intend to go to
Texas and visit down there. And maybe we will have the oppor-
tunity to get together. It is a big state, like Maine, obviously,
but——
Mr. WILLIAMS. My son-in-law, Mr. Chairman, is from Bangor.
Chairman GOLDEN. Oh, no kidding. There you go.
Mr. WILLIAMS. So you have got a great state. We just happen
to be warmer than you are.
Chairman GOLDEN. Well, that is right. Obviously, I want to go
to Texas right now, but you might want to Maine in the summer-
time. You know, but I want to learn a little bit about the economy
down there when I visit and, of course, get down to the border if
we can. Although, I have talked to the Border Patrol people up
here in Maine and it is easy sometimes to forget about the north-
ern border which is important, but they all rotate down south, too.
So, I hear from them. But I look forward to that visit in the months
ahead.
Mr. Baker, I wanted to tell you one thing. I know that you do
not yourself drive trucks but certainly, that industry is at the heart
of the business that you started as you were looking for the oppor-
tunity to start your own business and have a little bit more control
over your life. One thing that we did in this bill I wanted to let
you know about, I imagine you would be supportive and it gets a
little bit at the, I think, trucker shortages. I do not know if you
ever heard of the Drive Safe Act. So there were these laws where
we had qualified truck drivers of a certain age, under 21 years old,
who were only allowed to drive inside their state but not across
state borders which created some really strange situations where
we had qualified, certified drivers able to drive hundreds of miles
across Maine—east, west, north, south—but could not deliver a
load from one business in western Maine to a business in eastern
New Hampshire just 30 minutes down the road. Did not make any
sense. Also made it hard for them to get hired. And for some busi-
nesses who operate all over New England, made it hard for them
at times to meet their workforce needs. So, the Drive Safe Act is
going to create a new apprenticeship program for young CDL driv-
ers. Make sure that there are new training opportunities. But also,
it is going to allow those 18-to-21-year-olds to drive under the ap-
prenticeship program across those state lines. In general, I do not
know if that is something you have heard about in Minnesota, but
I wanted you to know about it as you are having conversations
with different trucking companies out there. It is a new oppor-
tunity.
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Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir. I am aware of that. I am a CDL holder my-
self, so yes, thank you for that. Thank you for reminding me.
Chairman GOLDEN. Very good. Certainly, some things we can
agree about. Looking back, just thinking about the inflation right
now, about higher gas prices, I certainly believe actions can be
taken to try and address that. I pushed the Biden administration
to release some of the oil reserves to try and push down those
prices, but I, too, have expressed frustration with political inter-
ference with things like the Dakota Pipeline 5. You may find that
there may be laborers in America who agree about that and things
like Keystone. So certainly, there are things that can be done.
Just looking back in 2009, I know that when Obama came into—
the White House, we were pumping about 5.1 million barrels in
January of 2009. By April, that was up to 8.9 million barrels a day.
And in 2015, the U.S. pumped the most oil it had in 43 years. They
were ranking like number three in crude oil globally and number
one when you looked at both oil and gas. And prices dropped by
half from 2014 to 2016 and ’17. So certainly, there is something to
be said for an opportunity to take some policy action here to ad-
dress higher gas prices. And you pointed out some of the regulatory
stuff which I agree with you about.
But some people in Congress have started talking about the need
to address these high gas prices immediately. This would be a
short-term fix, not a long-term one. But what do you think of con-
versations that have just started in the last couple days about a
gas tax holiday for the remainder of 2022? Would that be beneficial
to you as a business owner or just as a regular guy?
Mr. BAKER. Are you asking me, sir?
Chairman GOLDEN. Yes.
Mr. BAKER. Temporarily, sure. Any reduction in whatever kind
of tax would temporarily help. But gee, just build the Keystone.
Get the people back out on the site. Finish the Pipeline. Do it right.
Do it PERMANENTLY.
Chairman GOLDEN. Certainly, if Pete Stauber were still here,
he would agree with you about that.
Mr. Mortimer, go ahead.
Mr. MORTIMER. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, if I could jump in on that
real quick because we do have a concern. There are some that are
talking about temporarily appealing the gasoline tax. It is 18.4
cents. It has not been adjusted since 1993. It has lost almost 50
percent of its purchasing power. And in our view, we are talking
about modernizing our infrastructure. Now is not the time to do
that. There are a lot of other issues and I think Mr. Baker and oth-
ers talked about some of the reasons that fuel prices are as high
as they are. But from the Chamber’s perspective, now is not the
time to temporarily repeal the gas tax. We actually thought we
should raise the user fee because these investments should be paid
for. This bill did not get to that issue but it is something we still
are urging the Congress to look at, that there is a reason that we
have user-based systems for our roads and bridges.
Chairman GOLDEN. That is an interesting perspective.
Some people that have been talking about doing this gas tax holi-
day in 2022 for business owners or for individuals like Mr. Baker
or Mr. Shedlock have talked about the importance of backfilling
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that money into the Highway Trust Fund out of recognition of what
you are talking about. But one thing that we looked at in the Prob-
lem Solvers Caucus in the House, and of course, this did not get
into the bill as you said, it is not a perfect bill, is the overall long-
term problem with our gas tax. We have electric vehicles now hit-
ting the road. They are not paying enough of their fair share of our
highway, road, bridge maintenance. So, I think we have got to also
look at, you know, revisit how are we going to make sure that ev-
eryone is paying their fair share of maintaining our infrastructure
and meeting our future infrastructure needs. And I am sure truck
drivers and others would agree about that need. We cannot just
make it all about the gas taxes. There is a diminishing return on
that as we see more fuel-efficient vehicles which is what consumers
are demanding.
I saw your hand go up, Mr. Williams.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yeah, I think from a business standpoint, when
you cut taxes that is a good thing. I think we would not have to
talk about tax holidays and so forth from a gas tax if we just cut
taxes. Let businesses have more of their money to invest and re-
search and develop and hire people. It works. And of course, we are
still in the Trump tax cuts right now but we need to cut taxes and
do not nibble around the edges because everything is temporary
unless you cut taxes and let businesses make money and invest
money.
Chairman GOLDEN. Thank you.
Speaking of the 2017 Tax Cuts and then Build Back Better, of
course, one thing I did not end up supporting which you know and
some people agree with me, others not, I have raised concerns
about inflation through 2021. But I also pointed out my concerns
about proposals to do away with the SALT part of the 2017 Tax
Law in part because I am looking in the years ahead with those
individual tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Law are set to expire, SALT
being one potential way to extend those tax cuts for working mid-
dle-class Americans. I think it expires at the end of 2025. Is that
not right, Mr. Mortimer? But we are way off topic now.
I think there was one more point I wanted to make for Mr. Baker
but now it has gone and slipped my mind. It was another thing you
had mentioned that I thought would be helpful to you but perhaps
it will come. Oh, on the EIDL loan, I am glad that the Committee
staff was able to help you in getting that approved. And it is unac-
ceptable it took as long as it did. That is part of the oversight role
of the Committee, so I am glad you brought that forward as a con-
cern to your representative and I hope you will continue to give us
feedback on your relationship with the SBA as a business owner
in the future. It is one of the things we love doing as Members is
trying to make sure that our small business owners are getting
well served by SBA. So glad you are getting that loan, which as
you pointed out does have great rates, but what good is it if you
cannot get it approved in a timely manner when you need it.
Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir. Thank you for that thought. I appreciate
it. And I think I know every staffer and every loan officer at SBA
now after a year of calling them weekly to try to inspire this to fi-
nally happen.
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Chairman GOLDEN. I am very glad that that is moving forward.
If it continues to take too long, reach back out. I am sure you will
to Mr. Hagedorn.
Mr. BAKER. Thank you. Yes, sir.
Chairman GOLDEN. I want to thank all of our witnesses for
being here today. Your testimony has really been helpful and shed
light on many ways that small businesses will benefit from the law,
the Infrastructure Law that is. And I can tell the excitement that
the Chamber has, the Laborers have, small business owners like
Mr. Ouellette has, and certainly, business owners like Mr. Baker
are excited to benefit from those infrastructure investments on the
ways it will help their business in the future. We also appreciate
concerns raised by Mr. Baker and others about other issues, per-
haps not focused on the Infrastructure Law today but welcome,
nonetheless. We appreciate the time you have all taken to be here
with us today.
Looking ahead, I think that this infrastructure investment, we
have been wanting to do it for a number of years. When I first ran
for Congress, I was watching Congress talk about it. I was pleased
to see that it was bipartisan. I think it was more bipartisan than
it even looked on paper in many ways. Time to process, not the
best. I was one of the most vocal about that. But the product itself
is going to have a big impact, a positive impact on the country. And
I appreciate the Chamber, the laborers, the trades, and everyone
out there that worked together to make it happen.
I want to ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 legisla-
tive days to submit statements and supporting materials for the
record.
If there is no objection, we will consider that done.
And if there is no further business to come before the Committee,
we will go ahead and call it adjourned. Thank you all very much.
Take care.
[Whereupon, at 12:28 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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Æ
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File and source
- File
- CHRG-117hhrg46800.pdf
- Size
- 1,539,937 bytes
- SHA-256
- b2ff517bf7a8543c46bc1c1b84bbfc503ceb422696ec9045194a3928ce896f3b
- Our copy
- CHRG-117hhrg46800.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov