00:00Oh, sir. Padilla. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to all three of you. Mayor Gayo,
00:08good to see you again. I want to recognize that Phoenix recently hosted yet another Super Bowl,
00:15which didn't just put the city of Phoenix in a national and international spotlight, but
00:19places significant demands on the city's infrastructure. I'm asking this question
00:26because in the next three years, California will host a couple of Super Bowls as well as the World
00:33Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics. And so based on your experience, what can the federal government
00:40do to better support cities as they prepare for the transportation challenges of hosting
00:45large major events? Our Super Bowl was successful because of a partnership with the federal government.
00:52We were able to use the New Starts program to expand our transit system. Often with these major
00:58sporting events, everyone stays till the last minute. And that means that they're all leaving
01:03at once. The transit system was very important for moving people. We were able to, in partnership with
01:09the federal government, expand the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We had much more traffic when we
01:17were hosting that major event. I did want to note that people with private planes apparently left at a
01:22high rate right after the Super Bowl halftime show, which was not obvious to me what happened. New buses
01:27were really important to us because we had to dramatically expand our fleet. I should note in past Olympics,
01:35Phoenix has helped other cities that are host communities by lending buses. And I think all working
01:40together, we can help make sure it is a great experience. Our country is in the international spotlight,
01:46and it's in all of our best interest to make sure that works well. Not this community's jurisdiction,
01:53but the safety dollars you all sent are very important. Unfortunately, we're in a world where
01:57every pretty much city is investing in things like vehicle barriers, trying to learn from what happened in
02:02communities like New Orleans, and that done in partnership with the federal government. Those are the big two,
02:07security and transportation. Back to the the Super Bowl experience again. Are there any specific
02:13investments or flexibilities that could have been additionally helpful for the city that we should
02:19consider as we're crafting the next bill? I think we would again, because we often build our systems for
02:29the average transportation users and these events cause such a huge spike, we would love that the federal
02:35government understand the huge variety and look at funding for peak levels. Because you will hit an
02:42all-time peak in every mode of transportation in Southern California, and we ought to consider that
02:47in our planning. So that's a way we might need to modernize. It's important to us that security
02:54dollars and transportation dollars go hand in hand. Our transportation system does have some
02:59vulnerabilities, and so we need to plan ahead. We saw during the Paris Olympics, one of the most
03:04dangerous safety threats was to their train system, and so we ought to learn from that and plan ahead.
03:10Yeah, I was there when that happened. So thank you for that. I may have some follow-up questions both on
03:16that topic as well as the heat stress, heat island effects, and some of the initiatives that you're
03:24pioneering. I know it came up earlier in the hearing, but wanted to associate myself with that as a concern and as a
03:30need. Thank you for your leadership on that topic. It will save lives. And colleagues, I'll call your
03:35attention to the map of current fires out west. So we have a lot of work cut out for us. But in my time
03:42remaining, I do want to ask a question of Mr. Ramirez on a different topic. The bipartisan infrastructure
03:48law provided two and a quarter billion dollars for the port infrastructure development program
03:54to strengthen our nation's ports and freight systems. We know that these investments are part of
03:59a broader effort to expand capacity and keep goods moving more efficiently and reliably across the
04:06country. Now you mentioned in your testimony that supply chain issues are a primary business challenge
04:13for nearly a third of manufacturers. So can you talk about the need for continued investment in port
04:19infrastructure in our efforts to keep goods moving efficiently? Thank you for the question,
04:25Senator Padilla. Absolutely. So Husko is a global company. We've got facilities around the world. We've got
04:30suppliers around the world. We both import a lot of components from the rest of the world into our U.S.
04:35facilities and we export products that we make in our U.S. facilities around the world. So certainly ports
04:41are an absolutely critical part of the supply chain infrastructure that we have to deal with and has been
04:47an issue with congestion over the years. So any suggestions as to not just to maintain changes,
04:53additions to the port components of transportation legislation? I think continued investment in
05:00technology and how we load and unload containers can make a huge difference in throughput for our ports.
05:07Modernization and new fuel sources like hydrogen. Thank you, Madam Chair.
