Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. The Secretary of Transportation,
Speaker 1: Pete Bodhaje Edge in the wake of the devastation that
Speaker 1: we've seen left by Hurricane Helene, Mister Secretary, welcome back
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg TV and Radio. There are a number of
Speaker 1: things we'd love to ask you about, beginning with this.
Speaker 1: People who are living in the most impacted areas right
Speaker 1: now feel like they're living on another planet. I spoke
Speaker 1: with a friend of mine in Asheville, North Carolina, earlier
Speaker 1: today on an old fashioned phone. By the way, Prema said,
Speaker 1: we have no water, no power, no Wi Fi. We're
Speaker 1: bathing in the creek, boiling water to drink. There's supposed
Speaker 1: to be food and water tents, but we can't access
Speaker 1: info on where they're located. And she says the roads
Speaker 1: are filled with trees and power lines, so we can't
Speaker 1: get there anyway. We'd love for you to give us
Speaker 1: a real time update, if you would, on what's happening
Speaker 1: on the ground here and when people like Premo will
Speaker 1: get some information on how they can help themselves.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the situation, especially in parts of North Carolina,
Speaker 2: but really across a number of states is absolutely shocking,
Speaker 2: and of course the best information for anyone directly impacted
Speaker 2: is going to come from local responders, local authorities. But
Speaker 2: what I can say from the transportation perspective on the
Speaker 2: federal side is that we have been engaged with the
Speaker 2: state leadership, with our folks on the ground really from
Speaker 2: the early phases of this to make sure that we
Speaker 2: can target resources to help restore that normalcy. You mentioned
Speaker 2: a number of roads. We're finding reports of hundreds of
Speaker 2: roads that have been compromised, affected by landslides, mudslides, flooding,
Speaker 2: as well as the number of bridges that have either
Speaker 2: been compromised or need to be inspected for twenty six
Speaker 2: including in key parts of North Carolina and Tennessee impacted,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be a while before that sense
Speaker 2: of normalcy returns. But who's our working very quickly to
Speaker 2: assess the damage and to clear away obstruction. We're able
Speaker 2: to provide funding to help make sure that that is
Speaker 2: never an obstacle to quick action, something that unfortunately is
Speaker 2: a tool we've had to use many times, most notably
Speaker 2: recently with the ship strike in Baltimore. But I've reached
Speaker 2: out to the governors of six impacted states, and our
Speaker 2: in state personnel have been working to help make sure
Speaker 2: that those assessments take place. The first priority, of course,
Speaker 2: is safety, making sure that a bridge is in fact
Speaker 2: safe before it's cleared for traffic to travel on it,
Speaker 2: making sure that those roads aren't compromised as well. But
Speaker 2: first and foremost, our hearts go out to everybody who's
Speaker 2: been impacted, and President Biden has asked every part of
Speaker 2: this administration to be there for as long as it takes,
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 3: Well, how long, mister Secretary, do you expect it will take?
Speaker 3: You mentioned it could be quite a while until there's
Speaker 3: a return to normalcy in these areas. When it comes
Speaker 3: to actual transit infrastructure, what timeline do you think is realistic?
Speaker 3: And frankly what costs?
Speaker 2: Well, the timeline will be dictated by safety, and that's
Speaker 2: part of what the hundreds of inspections that are already
Speaker 2: getting underway are going to tell us. When is it
Speaker 2: a case of simply being able to certify that, for example,
Speaker 2: a rural bridge is good to go. When is it
Speaker 2: in a condition that means there's going to need to
Speaker 2: be a limit on the loads that can go on
Speaker 2: that bridge till it can be reinforced. When do you
Speaker 2: have a situation where a bridge may look okay, but
Speaker 2: actually it has been undermined by the floodwaters and has
Speaker 2: to be closed completely. We can't say in advance what
Speaker 2: those inspections are going to reveal safety wise, but what
Speaker 2: we can say is we're going to make sure that
Speaker 2: the availability of federal dollars is not an obstacle to
Speaker 2: quick action. I expect the price tag will be enormous,
Speaker 2: certainly in terms of a natural disaster, outpaces anything so
Speaker 2: far mathematically that I've seen in terms of highway funding
Speaker 2: requests likely to come in. Now, we do have an
Speaker 2: emergency relief fund for this purpose. It will be able
Speaker 2: to respond to the immediate needs. But I don't see
Speaker 2: how we get the funding that's going to be needed
Speaker 2: overall without turning to Congress. I know even now they
Speaker 2: are biparties and conversations beginning about how to put that request. Together.
Speaker 1: Well, i'd like to ask you about that, mister Secretary,
Speaker 1: among some of the other topics we'd like to get into.
Speaker 1: Is it time to call lawmakers back? Do you think
Speaker 1: that that's something that we will see between now and
Speaker 1: the election. Otherwise the people impacted by this storm could
Speaker 1: be waiting quite a long time.
Speaker 2: Well, again, we do have billions of dollars available in
Speaker 2: the Emergency Relief Fund, So just strictly speaking for the
Speaker 2: US DOT, we're not looking at a run on the
Speaker 2: bank in the next few days or weeks. But we
Speaker 2: do face a bigger structural issue if Congress doesn't replenish
Speaker 2: that fund to be able to keep up with demands. Now,
Speaker 2: we have an authority called quick Release that means that
Speaker 2: we can get a very quick turn on some of
Speaker 2: these dollars. But at the end of the day, when
Speaker 2: you talk about the level of destruction that we are
Speaker 2: witnessing that some communities are still assessing the level of damage,
Speaker 2: I just don't see how it's going to happen without
Speaker 2: a lot of concerted bipartisan action across the country and
Speaker 2: from across the aisle.
Speaker 3: Well, and that's one of the reasons why this timing
Speaker 3: is so difficult, not only because Congress is not in session,
Speaker 3: but also because, Sir, of something that could happen in
Speaker 3: a minute past midnight, just hours from now, forty five
Speaker 3: thousand dock workers on ports along the East Coast and
Speaker 3: Gulf are set to go on strike unless some last
Speaker 3: minute agreement could be reached. These are ports that handle
Speaker 3: imports of goods that may be needed in some of
Speaker 3: these areas affected by Hurricane Helene. Is that factoring into
Speaker 3: the conversations at all from your understanding and frankly, what
Speaker 3: can be done to secure those supply chains. If this
Speaker 3: strike does indeed.
Speaker 2: Happen, it's certainly something that adds to what is already
Speaker 2: the major importance of America's ports, and it's why we
Speaker 2: have been engaging the parties really for months as it's
Speaker 2: been known that this deadline was approached, because it will
Speaker 2: take the parties coming to terms that means, the ocean carriers,
Speaker 2: in the ports and the dock workers in order to
Speaker 2: prevent a strike like that. Now, if you think about
Speaker 2: the timelines of ocean shipping, obviously they're very different from
Speaker 2: the timelines associated with something like air freight, and the
Speaker 2: stocks that you expect to see aren't to kind of
Speaker 2: a day by day thing, But it doesn't take long
Speaker 2: before you would really feel the impacts of that. Now,
Speaker 2: we've established tools here at the Department of Transportation to
Speaker 2: help manage some of the very different supply chain issues
Speaker 2: that we've seen starting with COVID than what happened on
Speaker 2: the Red Sea, issues with water levels in the Mississippi River,
Speaker 2: in the Panama Canal, and now the potential for labor
Speaker 2: action and the impact that that would have. It means
Speaker 2: we've got a dialogue with a number of logistics and
Speaker 2: shipping players who weren't all talking to us or to
Speaker 2: each other before we built up some of these relationships
Speaker 2: and some of these tools. Apartment just today had another
Speaker 2: convening that my colleagues at dot brought together with about
Speaker 2: sixty different players across logistics and supply chains to make
Speaker 2: sure that we're mapping everything in anything that needs to
Speaker 2: happen in terms of adjustments or flexibilities across road, rail
Speaker 2: and different ports across the United States. But certainly the
Speaker 2: best thing that could happen is for the parties to
Speaker 2: quickly come to terms to do that before midnight and
Speaker 2: for there would be no work stoppage.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we're talking about basically half the imports coming
Speaker 1: into the United States that these East Coast and Gulf
Speaker 1: Coast ports are receiving. Mister Secretary, This really speaks to
Speaker 1: the focus of your job right now, could you be
Speaker 1: more specific about the contingency plans that you're making to
Speaker 1: avoid another snarling of our supply lines and avoid another
Speaker 1: inflationary experience that we all remember from our ports.
Speaker 2: Well. Again, we've been using tools that we've built up,
Speaker 2: a new multi mode Little Freight Office created by the
Speaker 2: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Regular Convenence, a new tool
Speaker 2: that we established called Flow, which helps to map the
Speaker 2: longer forecast for what's happening with ups and downs of
Speaker 2: container shipping, engaging with the beneficial cargo owners, the shippers,
Speaker 2: the store chains and others that actually have the goods
Speaker 2: coming across on those containers and understanding better the positioning
Speaker 2: that they've had. Now, there was some activity over the
Speaker 2: spring and the summer with the anticipation of the possibility
Speaker 2: of an issue on the East coast, which led some
Speaker 2: cargo to be directed to the West coast instead, But
Speaker 2: there's really no substitute for the ports being up and running.
Speaker 2: That's why the ports are where they are. And again
Speaker 2: the most important thing is going to be for the carriers,
Speaker 2: the shippers and the workers to come to terms so
Speaker 2: that everybody can be working and goods can move smoothly.
Speaker 3: Well, mister Secretary, this is just one example of what
Speaker 3: seems to be broaderly strife in transportation. We've seen it
Speaker 3: in just the last few years with rail We've seen
Speaker 3: it with cars. Now we're seeing it obviously at the ports.
Speaker 3: We're seeing it too with planemakers. Is the stripe is
Speaker 3: still ongoing of the Boeing machinist now entering it's third week.
Speaker 3: What exactly do you see happening here thematically and couldn't
Speaker 3: reshape American transportation moving forward?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've definitely seen a bigger, broader pattern in recent years.
Speaker 2: It's been characterized by these businesses in those sectors doing
Speaker 2: very well, a lot of profitability, certainly when you talk
Speaker 2: about shipping or when you talk about railroading, and workers
Speaker 2: insisting on participating in those earnings, and frankly having a
Speaker 2: president who supports the idea that these contracts should arrive
Speaker 2: on terms that are working for business, but also that
Speaker 2: are working for workers and allowing them a chance to
Speaker 2: participate in these sometimes record breaking profits. That's what you saw,
Speaker 2: for example recently with a historic deal that was reached
Speaker 2: with American Airlines and their flight attendants. We've seen a
Speaker 2: major raise going to rail workers, and also an issue
Speaker 2: that was not resolved at the time of the threats
Speaker 2: of a strike with rail workers a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: At the time, only about five percent of them had
Speaker 2: access to sick leave. Right now, that's about a ninety percent,
Speaker 2: and we were pushing for the railroad companies that can
Speaker 2: get that last ten percent done to get together with
Speaker 2: their unions and make that happen. But there's no question
Speaker 2: that you see a period where workers are seeking to
Speaker 2: participate in the economic growth that's happening. You could obviously
Speaker 2: say the same in terms of the historic deal that
Speaker 2: was reached with auto workers. And look, when you have
Speaker 2: historic profits and you look at ocean shipping, it became
Speaker 2: an unbelievably profitable industry over recent years. Then of course
Speaker 2: you're going to see workers seeking to participate in that
Speaker 2: to make sure that they're getting a share of that.
Speaker 2: The whole idea of collective bargaining is to reach an
Speaker 2: agreement on something that is consistent with the business thriving
Speaker 2: and empower the workers to thrive. We've seen that happen
Speaker 2: in time and time again as the result of collective bargaining,
Speaker 2: and it's what the President hopes and expects to see
Speaker 2: here as well.
Speaker 1: Well, you must, mister Secretary, you must feel like you're
Speaker 1: running the labor department over the course of this conversation today.
Speaker 1: So I guess i'd have to ask you ahead of
Speaker 1: tomorrow night's vice presidential debate in our remaining moment. I
Speaker 1: know this is something that you've been involved in here,
Speaker 1: what is the message when it comes to labor that
Speaker 1: will win swing state votes?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, in this capacity, I can't speak about
Speaker 2: the campaign and election side of things, but what I
Speaker 2: will say is that you do have an administration that
Speaker 2: is proudly pro worker. The President prides himself on being
Speaker 2: the most historically pro labor president in modern times. And again,
Speaker 2: you know, he's also demonstrated, given the record profitability and
Speaker 2: economic growth that we've seen, that being pro worker can
Speaker 2: be consistent with business thriving too. Certainly, you're right have
Speaker 2: been involved in a lot of labor matters, but I
Speaker 2: don't want to take any credit from our Acting Secretary
Speaker 2: of Labor, Julie Sue, who's been doing an enormous amount
Speaker 2: of work, both in this particular case, engaging the different
Speaker 2: parties to help them make progress at the table when
Speaker 2: it comes to the dock workers, and generally just doing
Speaker 2: a fantastic job helping to make sure that we have
Speaker 2: economic growth and worker empowerment at the same time.
Speaker 3: All Right, mister Secretary, thank you very much for your
Speaker 3: time this evening on what I'm sure has been a
Speaker 3: busy several days. That's Transportation Secretary Pete buddhaj Edge