 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for being here today. And thank you, Mr. Secretary, for joining us with your team. I've been incredibly impressed with and grateful for the fast response and close collaboration we've had with the Biden Administration since the very start of our catastrophic flooding. Vermont will need federal support as we rebuild. And it's clear to me that FEMA, the Department of Transportation, and the White House are committed to helping us get through these difficult times. Today, the Secretary was able to see firsthand some of the incredible damage to our infrastructure. As someone who worked in construction for 35 years, I know how much work lies ahead. And I know it won't be easy. As I mentioned a few days ago when it comes to rebuilding our roads and bridges, it will take some time. In fact, we closed out our last Irene project just this past year. But we will rebuild and we'll build back better than before. We'll manage the recovery work at the same time we start projects that were already planned using funding from the historic bipartisan infrastructure law passed by Congress and signed by the President. And I know the Secretary worked hard to get that across the finish line. This will be challenging. But by using all these federal resources, we have an opportunity to ensure the infrastructure for monitors rely on is strong and more resilient. Here today, we have many V-trans employees who will be critical to that work. They've also been heroic in their response to these floods, working around the clock to reopen roads and keep for monitors safe. We owe a debt of gratitude to them, local crews and contractors across the state. I also to thank our team in the SCOC, the State Emergency Operations Center, some here with us today. Thank you thank you so much. They have literally been going 24-7 working with federal and community partners to coordinate resources and emergency response in all corners of Vermont. They're working hard day in and day out to serve the state they love and we're very fortunate to have such a strong team at the helm. This is the very start of the state of emergency. I continue to be so inspired by the resiliency of Vermonters. We've seen this before whether it was 12 years ago after Irene or during the pandemic. Vermonters have shown time and time they're willing to step up push through hard times and meet the moment. We've seen neighbors helping neighbors communities organizing to those in need to help those in need volunteers helping each other other homeowners to muck out their homes businesses donating supplies and more. Now while it appears the worst is behind us although I do have some concerns about rain tomorrow night I know we'll need that spirit of generosity and resiliency as we transition into the recovery stage and I know people are still hurting and the pain and damage caused by these floods won't be healed overnight so we can't lose focus on the task at hand and we need every impact of Vermonters to know we're in this with you until the end of this long road ahead. My team and I will continue to make sure you have as many resources as possible to rebuild and recover and I also know how no Vermonters will continue to step up be Vermont strong and tough too. With that it's my sincere honor to turn it over to Secretary Buttigieg and once again thank him and his entire team for their commitment to Vermont and helping us through our time of need. Being here has sent a powerful message and we're so very grateful. Thank you Secretary. I want to thank Governor Scott for your leadership for showing us not just the scene of what needs attention and support here but also helping to show us that resiliency you described among the people of Vermont there is no doubt in my mind as you said that these communities and this state will recover stronger than ever. I want to recognize Senator Welch who was with us earlier today as well as Senator Bernie Sanders I have been in touch with both of them as well as Governor Scott throughout this process and also Representative Ballant who was with us as we were meeting with people who have been impacted and visiting impacted communities I want to thank all of the state and local leaders who are joining us here our Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt and his team as well as all of our DOT personnel FEMA who have been so central to this response and most importantly want to join the Governor in acknowledging the first responders who have worked tirelessly across the state and region for the last week who have rescued hundreds of residents and facing one of the worst natural challenges that have hit this region in a century exemplifying the bravery and the responsibility that people feel here to look after one another and that might be the biggest takeaway that I've seen here is that readiness to step up I've seen cooperation across various lines that can sometimes get in the way of getting good work done I've seen people working across jurisdictional lines across different layers of government across any other barrier that could get in the way and tearing down obstacles literally and physically is going to be the name of the game and part of what we with our piece of the puzzle at the DOT want to be helpful with as well last week President Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Vermont and he ordered a whole of government effort to assist those state and local lead recovery efforts as Vermont moves from the mode of immediate response to long-term recovery that begins the hard work of rebuilding from this disaster I want to emphasize that the entire federal government including the U.S. Department of Transportation stands ready to continue to assist anyway we can when Vermont puts in its request for DOT emergency relief funds we will do everything that we can to get those dollars here quickly and to be with you for the long haul just as our department has been doing as the governor noted in the Ireen after 2011 in fact in the years following that disaster our federal highway administration has provided more than $180 million in emergency relief funds to help repair the vital infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed by that storm and we're going to do whatever we can this time as well. Of course it's important to note that Vermont has endured two storms that would be called once in a century events in the span of just 12 years and I recall from my time as mayor South Bend what it was like when we had two events come within two years that should have been once every few hundred years. It feels like every few weeks we see a new flood, storm, heat wave, drought. It's not lost on me that our skies are hazy because of wildfires that are of a nature and severity that should not be an annual event and yet here we are Americans are seeing the results of climate change with our own eyes and dealing with the consequences. So as elected leaders our most important duty has to be the safety and security of the people we serve including when it comes to climate resilience. And in terms of transportation that means making sure that our infrastructure is built to withstand the extreme weather that's happening more and more often and showing itself to be more and more extreme. Just a couple of months ago through President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law we've been able to open applications for the first round of a new program designed to make our highways transit ports and rail systems more resilient in the face of extreme weather called the Protect Program. And the application window for that program closes on August 18th. So I want to encourage any local governments, tribal governments state DOTs certainly I expect this region to produce competitive applications. I want to invite everybody to take a look at that program. When disasters like this happen in addition to the cost measured in lives and livelihoods the cost of infrastructure is very real and very clear. First responders depend on roads and bridges to do their job in an emergency and of course everybody relies on them to get to where they need to be to get to work to check on loved ones and we know that we need to rebuild the infrastructure so that people in this region can rebuild their lives. And that's the work that we are here to help with. Governor and your team I want to thank you for your service to the people of Vermont during this difficult time and I want everyone to know that across this administration we will have your backs as Vermonters do everything to rebuild and recover. Thanks again for inviting us to do that. Mr. Secretary I know you're on a tight time frame but we'd like to take a few questions if we could. Sure. With emergency relief funding there are two layers to that funding what's called quick release which is to get dollars out quickly and then there's a reimbursable basis for the longer run and that is based on the request that comes in from the state and I know this is a state that's paying a lot of attention to making sure different communities are served well. The governor was pointing out the economic hardship that a lot of the communities we saw have already been through we were looking at how areas like Woodbury and Hardwick are trying to use tourism and recreation to build an economy that's been through a lot. We saw Barry and I know that there's been a lot of concern here. Obviously recreation cares deeply about equity as well and sometimes that means racial equity sometimes that means making sure rural areas or economically underserved areas are being taken care of and I would emphasize that's not just something that is important to consider is you're ensuring everybody who is hardest hit in a storm or disaster that their needs are met but also more generally as we look at the different applications coming into all of our programs and we're really proud of the record we're building up of making sure that underserved and overburdened communities see at least their fair share of the funds. I did my best. I'll editorialize briefly and then phone a friend with our federal highway administrator who's going to be overseeing that process but I'll just mention two things. One it's very important to be user friendly for smaller communities because I having been the mayor of a relatively small city in the grand scheme of things talking on the door of the U.S. D.O.T. I know what that can be like. The second thing is I want to acknowledge the work of our team on the ground. We have federal highway personnel who are based here in Vermont they can't even work in their normal office because what happened to the federal building and V-trans is hosting them and they built relationships that I think are going to be part of the glue that makes all that possible. Let me take liberty of inviting Shailen to share a little more about how that process works in detail. Yeah absolutely being a mayor he understands how important it is to get those resources directly to the communities that are hardest hit our division staff that is reaching out working closely with V-trans to find out where those folks are. If there are local communities that need help we have LTAP our local technical assistance programs that are available so our message is to communities big and small the federal government is here to help and we'll provide the resources that are needed. Sure Shailen S-H-A-I-L-E-N B-H-A-T-T and I'm the Federal Highway Administrator. One thing that is very important to President Biden is not to introduce new taxes impacting Americans making less than $400,000 a year and that's something we've held to at the federal level throughout our administration. We know that states are challenged in order to find different ways to fund their roads. Of course every state has a somewhat different structure in terms of how they do that. Some have introduced a fee on EVs that's designed to offset the gas tax that people are not paying but it's really going to depend from state to state based on how that state envisions its funding structure at the federal level. We've seen general dollars going in to meet that gap in the highway trust fund. There remains a longer question about what to do as the federal gas tax obviously will become each passing year a less and less significant part of how we fund our roads. When you see that hotel on Hardwick that was cut in half and carried down the river, when you see the impact on the road near Woodbury, when you see the railroad tracks coming out of Berry where the track is still there but the ties under it are gone and you know a train is not going to be able to run over that. You see just how urgent it is to make sure these communities get the help that they need. But I would add when you see everybody from the local select person to property owners to state legislators to the leadership team here the governor and federal representatives all standing together working through how to do that you see the kind of cooperation that makes it possible for us to be a good partner at the federal level. So there's no question in my mind that the resilience and the determination of these communities will get them through this. In particular it was pointed to see that rail trail which is more than just a nice thing to have it could be an economic engine in this region that I know the governor was looking forward to inaugurating. I'll just ask that you all save me an invitation when you do get it up and running because that's I think going to be a great symbol of the resilience of the communities here. When that is introduced and with all the economic benefit that's going to bring. In terms of you mentioned infrastructure how should communities in Vermont for more broadly Americans be thinking about rebuilding and should we be building in the same place. Look we can't go into into the future requiring communities put everything back exactly the way it was if a hundred year flood is about to become an annual event. If your road gets washed out and we have you put it right back the way it was and then it gets washed out again are we really going to repeat that. And the idea of programs like protect is to build smarter and to prepare this infrastructure for the future. We don't have time to get caught up in political and ideological debates about this it is upon us now and we need to respond now and we're going to rebuild in different ways now and that's already part of our approach whether we're talking about emergency response or the long-term vision under President Biden's leadership for this infrastructure reconstruction you're going to see that continue to be a hallmark of the work we do on projects across the country. Can you talk about the repeated reaction to a natural disaster like this. Twelve years we had another one now we have another one. Philadelphia another crisis How much can we take and how much is it taking the federal dollars. Well there's no question that this is not only costing taxpayers through the federal government but it's costing the homeowners and the business owners even if a hundred percent of them knew that they would be made a hundred percent whole financially which is far from certain there would still be the upheaval and the disruption that so many people are facing and it's really remarkable that there was not more loss of life and that too is a credit to first responders. So we see the very impacts and harms that we've been warned about for some time upon us right now. The question is how are we going to respond for transportation it means making sure transportation is less of a contributor to the problem for the future which is why we're building smarter and greener for the future but it's also just facing reality and knowing that these things are happening whether we acknowledge them or not and designing and building in ways that incorporate that and make us stronger so you don't have to deal with it in the ways that we have been forced to in the years leading up to this point. Well it's heartbreaking to talk to the owners of that in who described what they had put into building a business that was not just a business but part of the economic recovery of that region around Hartwick or to see with the pride of a former mayor who loves new infrastructure assets the brand spanking new bridge that was part of the gravel trail that we saw that was torn in half by the power of those floodwaters. It's a reminder of the extreme nature of weather events that are happening more and more often and the human impact of what happens here but again I'm also going to be going back to Washington this evening with a sense of optimism about how this community these communities and their leaders can respond and come back stronger than ever and of course we want to be a big part of helping with that process. Governor I'll leave it to you to have the last word. Thank you all very much and I really do want to give my sincere thanks to Secretary Pete and his team and all of the SEOTC teams and all the folks in recovery v-trans swift water rescue and everyone for pulling together during these tough times and we saw it when we were out on the road today and people willing to step even having damaged themselves but willing to help others get through their difficulties so again it says a lot about Vermont and tremendously proud to be your governor but we have a long road ahead and we'll get through it with the help of the federal government and the Biden administration has been really, really essential and very cooperative in trying to send the message to us that they're here with us and they're going to help us see this through so again I want to thank you for coming and look forward to you coming back to the rail trail opening. You can do the 93 miles for me and maybe I'll do about half that we'll see how they're doing don't let them