Secretary of transportation makes stop in Wayne County
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 29, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx speaks at IMPulse NC after a tour of the facility Tuesday afternoon.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Choice is the watchword for transportation in the 21st century and for the U.S. that means focusing not on a highway trust fund, but rather on a wider transportation trust fund that looks at more than just highways, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx says.
Foxx made his comments following a Tuesday afternoon tour of IMPulse NC, a leading manufacturing of overhead contact system hardware for high-speed and light rail, electric trolley buses and vintage trolleys.
Company President Jeff Wharton said that during the tour Foxx had been "very interested" in how much of the company's product is made in the U.S.
"It is nice to have that notice and they recognize the importance of our business and how it contributes to the transportation network," Wharton said. "Over 98 percent of our product base is of American origin. That was a main focus.
"Then he was interested in the overall well-being of our company, how we are doing and how the projects are going through the pipeline. Right now, things are going well. Our business is doing quite well."
Touring with Foxx were 1st District Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who invited Foxx to Mount Olive, Mount Olive Mayor Ray McDonald Sr., Wayne County Commissioner Ed Cromartie and Mike Haney, interim president of the Wayne County Industrial Alliance.
The trust fund bill is needed to "actually going to stabilize" the fund while increasing the investment in infrastructure so more people will be working in plants like IMPulse across the country, he said.
"Congressman Butterfield and many of his colleagues have been strong supporters of getting the country moving forward," he said. "But we need a stronger presence at the leadership levels on the House side and in the new Congress to get this done.
"I am hoping that when we go around the country we are able to convey that this is not a Democratic or Republican issue -- that we are one country, but we have got to act like it," he said. "When we send people to Washington we have got to demand that they actually push to get something done here."
That means spending money and making investments, but the investment pays off, he said. Foxx said that one reason for his visit to IMPulse was to see somewhere that has happened.
"I remind folks that Abraham Lincoln, during the middle of the Civil War, put money aside to build a transcontinental railroad," he said. "It created benefits for this country that we are still reaping."
The transportation proposal would also look at greenways, bicycle and pedestrian modes of transportation, Foxx said.
"We are finding in communities all across the country a variety of transportation strategies that communities want to use," said Foxx, a former mayor of Charlotte. "They want to have passenger rail. They want to have transit. They want to have highways. They want to have bike and pedestrian facilities."
The country's population is expected grow by 100 million over the next 35 years, he said.
People will find that the ability to build in response to that growth will be far more expensive than building before growth happens, he said.
States have a role to play as well, Foxx said.
"A lot of our work is dependent on the state to create the vision and create the project path that enables us to come in and help," he said. "I think there is a lot of focus that needs to be placed on the state level.
"That is your governor, on your General Assembly and on your state Department of Transportation to actually put the pieces in place to get us in a position to help."
People want more mobility choices, Foxx said.
"It's helpful, frankly, to get people a little bit off the highway onto rail because we have a lot of freight that needs to move around in areas like this that could use a little less congestion."
Foxx called IMPulse "amazing," and a "great example" of how infrastructure investments in the country through the Buy America program creates American jobs.
More than 98 percent of IMPulse's products are Buy America compliant. It is not only using American labor to make products, but many of the companies that source IMPulse are also using American labor, he said.
The company is building products that are being sold all over the U.S., as well as overseas, in a field where American companies, historically, haven't been as competitive, he said.
"It's a reminder that when you give the American worker a challenge, he or she meets that challenge every time," he said. "Today we are here because this company is a great example of the Buy America program within USDOT which puts primary focus on our investments in companies that use American workers and employs American worker to grow our infrastructure.
Foxx said the message he would take back from his visit is that the perception that transit is an urban issue is absolutely wrong.
The people that are building products for transit in this country aren't just located in San Francisco or in New York. They are right here in eastern North Carolina, he said.
"The jobs that are created here put food on tables, roofs over heads and clothes on backs and those are good jobs. So we need to make the investments so we can continue to growing the country, creating opportunities for people, creating jobs and a better quality of life."