On Wednesday, Senator Warner joined Vice President Joe Biden, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Representative Bobby Scott in Norfolk to celebrate the $15 Million federal TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grants recently awarded to the Virginia Port Authority.

The Port of Virginia hosted the group at the Nauticus Maritime Museum for a briefing to discuss the $15 million grant, which will help fund the Norfolk International Terminal Intermodal Gate Complex and Interstate 564 Connector project. This project will improve the daily commute for thousands in the Hampton Roads region, including thousands of active duty military personnel accessing the world’s largest Navy base, by alleviating congestion on Hampton and Terminal Boulevards in Norfolk. They also discussed plans for additional investments at the Port to keep it well-positioned in an increasingly competitive global economy. Projects include dredging channels to a 55 foot depth to accommodate larger vessels that will be increasingly used once the new Panama Canal opens.

Senator Warner, the Vice President, and other speakers also spoke about the need for the U.S. to increase its investment in the nation’s infrastructure, to reduce traffic congestion, boost worker efficiency, and help get U.S. manufactured goods and service to the world market.

"This is enormously significant that we got these TIGER grants, but we're going to need to come back in Congress and recognize that we cannot continue to punt on permanent funding for the Highway Trust Fund," Senator Warner told the crowd.

’What most people don't realize is that our economic maritime powers is just as important as our economic security, as our military maritime powers,’ Biden was quoted as saying in the Newport News Daily Press.

In July, Congress passed a stop-gap measure to keep the Highway Trust Fund, the primary source of federal funding for transportation infrastructure, from going bankrupt and remaining solvent through May, 2015.  Over that time period, Congress will explore various ways of putting in place a dedicated and long-term funding source to provide adequate funding to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent and boost our investment in infrastructure. 

Senator Warner believes that a part of that equation should be his bipartisan legislation, the BRIDGE Act, that would create an independent infrastructure financing authority to facilitate innovative financing mechanisms, provide low-interest loan and loan guarantees and spur public-private partnerships that could attract hundreds of billions of dollars in additional infrastructure investment from the private sector and pension funds.