Port of Vancouver Board of Commissioners

0:00 [ Music ] >> No executive session held this morning. Please note this meeting is being recorded. My name is Don Orange and I am the Commission President for the Board of Vancouver. Joining me are Temple Lintz and Commissioner Eric LeBrant who is joining us virtually. Commissioner LeBrant, can you hear me? Can you hear me? >> Five by five, good morning. >> Excellent. Morning. We'll see if we can't make this work well.

0:56 We're conducting a hybrid meeting along with our in-person meeting we're having here. We're also set up for those who are not physically able to provide oral testimony, can do so virtually. Please join me in a pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> First item is approval of the minutes from the last meeting. >> Chair, I have reviewed the minutes and find them to be in order and move approval. >> I'll second the motion. >> Such a deal.

1:55 Moved, seconded. All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Unanimous. Next on the agenda is open forum. >> Yes, good morning, commissioners. We did not have anyone sign up virtually, and we do not have anyone signed up in the audience that's wanting to speak this morning. >> Such a deal.

2:23 Let's see, next up, action item. >> We have one action item this morning, and I would like to welcome Ahmed Mohammed, our engineering project manager, to the podium. Good morning. >> Thank you, Judy. Good morning, everyone. I'm here to talk about 2636-2026 priority paving project. This project supports the port's strategic plan goal to develop a rolling 20-year comprehensive scheduled maintenance plan to maximize operational capacity, efficiency, and life expectancy of port assets. The 2026 priority paving project includes rehabilitating asphalt pavements at Terminal 2, St. Francis Lane, and a section of Harbardside Drive, all of which are part of port's interconnected access network, supporting cargo transfer from rail and ship

3:21 for stakeholders. This paving project is anticipated to be completed by the end of October 2026. On July 9, 2026, Port of Vancouver issued an invitation to bid 26-36 2026 priority paving project. And on July 23, 2026, two bids were received. Western United Civil, a vehicle to Washington, submitted their total bid of $721,027, including a bid alternate of $54,690. The second bidder was Nutter Corporation of Vancouver, Washington, with their total bid of $768,542, including a bid alternate of $59,400. The lower bidder's base bid resulted in sufficient funding to proceed with awarding both the base bid and the alternate. Determination of the low bidder was made on the basis of the base bid,

4:20 not inclusive of Washington state sales tax or the additive alternate. Staff reviewed the Western United Civil Group responsive bid and concluded that the organization is a responsible contractor capable of performing the work. The engineers estimate for both the base bid and additive alternate ranges from $721,100 to $975,600. The project is included in the approved 2026 capital budget. The recommendation for the board of commissioners is to authorize the CEO to execute a public works contract with Western United Civil Group, the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, for bid 26-36, 2026 priority paving for the base bid and additive alternate in the amount of $721,027 plus applicable sales tax. Thank you.

5:19 That concludes my agenda item. Any questions? - Thank you. Do you have any questions? Eric? - I have none and would move that we adopt the recommendation as presented. - Second. - All those in favor? - Aye. - Thank you. - Approved unanimously. Thank you, sir. - Thank you. - Going to unfinished business? - Yes, so commissioners, every month in your packet you will see the port contract logs. And this is a list of all the public works contracts as well as the service contracts that the port currently has active. The highlighted sections are the most current activity. And these contract logs are also posted on the port's website, so everyone has the ability to see our active contracts. Any questions on the port contract logs? - We hear none. - All right.

6:18 - New business? - No new business today. - Counts payable, maybe? - We do. And I would like to welcome Nick McIntyre, accounting manager to present the payables. Good morning. - Good morning, thank you. Good morning, commissioners. We did not receive any questions prior to this meeting, so I'll start by reading the recommendation, then open the floor for questions. The recommendation is that the Port of Vancouver, USA Board of Commissioners by motion ratifies and approves the payment of July 2026 vouchers 128778 through 129187 and the amount of $5,394,425.87, including electronic payments generated between July 1, 2026 and July 31, 2026

7:13 and the amount of $901,066.57 and July 2026 payroll check 52281097 and direct deposits 280001 through 280143 and 300001 through 300141 and the amount of $860,007.96. - Thank you. - I have no questions, but I would move approval of the recommendation as presented. - Eric, you got anything? - No, I will second the motion. - Moved and seconded. All those in favor? - Aye. - Unanimously. Thank you, Nick. - Thank you.

8:13 - OK, my goodness, are we at the CEO report? - We are, we're clicking right along today. So we have a couple of presentations under CEO report. I'd like to welcome Mark Newell, our project delivery manager, who's going to give us an update on some projects. Good morning. - Morning, Julianna. Good morning, commissioners. OK, few updates that we have for the Port of Vancouver here. So we'll start with the Terminal 1 dock replacement project. Progress has really been clicking along down there. It's really starting to look like a dock. And so you can really see that we're getting a lot of coverage over most of the areas of the dock. The project is around 65% complete right now. The contractors also working on installing stormwater pipe

9:12 and other elements underneath the dock, kind of trailing behind as they continue to march downstream towards the Vancouver landing. Concrete work has been the primary focus for the last four or five months. And a lot of that work is in progress. There's a lot of different construction concrete placements here, just because of the nature of the design, where the design has a couple of different stages of concrete. And it also has some wall sections that are there as part of the future public marketplace crawl space there. So in the photograph here, you can see a lot of the precast panels have been installed. And you can kind of see the far end. The eastern end there is kind of staggered up a little bit in that direction. So crews are really working in all different aspects here, the project. Next slide.

10:11 So this slide shows a little bit of kind of the progress and kind of the connection point to the Vancouver landing. And on the left-hand side, you can clearly see the precast panels prior to their closure pour placements. So again, those panels are placed over the pile caps. And then they are welded connections together in the center pieces. And then those areas to the far right there, that kind of steps back up. And that will be part of the future kind of plaza area that will be in front of the public market and then tie into the Vancouver landing. So those crews are working on the pile caps themselves there. And that's kind of the last section of pile caps for the project. Underneath in different areas, we also have catwalks. And that construction is also going on with some structural steel work underneath. Next slide.

11:09 Just kind of a little bit of a oblique angle here, just looking back, just kind of how they have their supporting pieces, their beams and structures that they've been leapfrogging forward. And so we'll continue to see that progress through the rest of the summer here. And into the fall, we expect concrete to continue. And then eventually, later in the fall, we'll see fender pile installation once all the concrete facing is done on the water side. So great progress here. A lot of activity. Next project I wanted to shift to is building 2001 improvements. And again, this project is really to extend the life of a pretty important asset for the port, which is that building 2001 with our current tenant underneath it. So this system here, you can see we're about 65% complete with the roof work.

12:08 And really, this project is addressing not only the roof, but it's also addressing areas where moisture's kind of got into the structure below. So it kind of has a couple of different phases, one on top and then the other one down in some of those other areas below. Next slide here. This kind of shows a little bit. This is the roof membrane induction welding. So this is kind of the methodology that has been chosen for this. So here you can see in the photograph, they have some different layers of this roofing membrane material. And they use kind of a magnetic piece there to help seal those things down. And they have a couple of different devices that they use to bring that. But pretty interesting technology that's a part of that. And so those crews are-- roofing crews

13:05 are continuing to work through there, making good progress. Next slide. It's kind of more on the interior. We do have interior work. The building drains-- has interior drains on this. And so there's some work that needs to be done in there. There's also some fire sprinkler work that crews are doing on the interior and accessing underneath. And then next slide, we have interior remediation. So this shows just areas that are sealed off just to make sure that they're safe. And they have to be contained within those areas while they remove drywall and sheetrock and other areas that need to be patched for moisture and also replace certain ceiling panels where there has been leaking and other elements. So lots of work going on down here. A lot of coordination going on with our tenant to keep them active and operating and moving at all times.

14:04 Next project. This one's right next door here. So small project, but has its own little unique twist. So building 3103 canopy project. And this is kind of between our buildings here. So really, the canopy structure starts with the foundation. The foundation work starts with excavation. And so we had a little bit of utility relocation to do that. And really, the project is to install pier footings. Next slide. Kind of shows the basics of pier construction. So reinforcing, got to have reinforcing down there. And then you have to install it down inside the area where the structures are. So there's only three piers on this project. Pretty straightforward. Next slide here kind of shows the contractor placing concrete and anchor bolts for the structure above it. Interesting thing about this project

15:04 is just a tight area right next to some existing infrastructure. And so really, the trick was kind of how to excavate this without undermining. And so the contractor used a hydro excavation strategy to basically do this. And then install what they call sonotubes inside to support the concrete. And then place these bar ends. So it worked pretty well. Pretty good idea by the contractor to address some risk here. And they're making good progress on that. So we'll see them probably wrap this project up. And we're working on fabrication of the structure in the next probably month and a half or so. Next project to give an update on is the trail segment four and five. And project's around 40% complete. Here you can see the contractors installing the leveling pads installed for the Gabion wall.

16:01 So this is kind of the far end of the project to the west end there. And so they're moving pretty good on that. The next slide here shows a little bit about reinforced soil slopes. So reinforced soil slope is kind of a way of kind of doing layers of different slopes or layers and wrapping those with geosynthetic. And so you can see some of that material here. It kind of gets wrapped over itself like a number of burrito layers. And that's another method of wall construction that we have on this project. Then final slide here that I have is just-- this is wall three. And in this type of wall circumstance here, you can see it's more vertical walls. And they're doing block stacking in this space. So they're kind of working in a number of different areas and kind of maintaining that slope

17:01 adjacent to Lower River Road. And with that, that's all the updates that I have right now on projects. Any questions? Eric? Sorry, I was trying to get to my mute button there. No, it's just really fascinating the technical angle as far as these trail segments. It becomes really obvious how much more technical they are than the other segments that we've had. So thank you for sharing that, Mark. And I appreciate your work on that. Thanks, Commissioner. Eric, did you ever hear of induction welding before this morning? No, I haven't heard of that. I had not heard of the geo-- what was it, the layering? Geo-synthetic. The soil layering? Yeah, the geo-synthetic soil layering thing.

17:58 So yeah, I always learn something new when Mark is presenting. That's all right. I learn as well. So thank you, commissioners. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. OK, so next is a federal affairs update. And I'd like to welcome Ryan Hart, our chief external affairs officer, who is going to introduce our special guest today. Great. Thank you, Juliana, and good morning, commissioners. It's my pleasure to introduce Dale Learn this morning. Dale is our federal lobbyist located in Washington, DC. And he's joining us in person this morning to give an update on what's happening in Washington, DC. We make a few trips back to Washington, DC every year, but we're fortunate to have Dale there for us year round, advocating on behalf of the port, serving as our eyes, ears, and voice back in the other Washington. Dale's the managing partner of the Washington, DC branch of the law and government relations firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell, GTH.

18:58 Dale's worked for GTH since 2005, successfully representing several public and private sector clients on a variety of issues, including the Port of Vancouver since 2006. As I was reading that, I realized that this is the 20th anniversary of us working with Dale, so I think we may have missed an opportunity this morning to have cake. But that's OK. Prior to joining GTH, Dale spent over six years as the chief counsel to US Senator Patty Murray, and two years as senior advisor to US Representative Adam Smith. Dale is a native of the Pacific Northwest. And with that, it is my pleasure to turn it over to Dale Learn. Dale. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it. Well, thank you again, Ryan. Thank you, Juliana. Thank you, commissioners. As Ryan alluded, I haven't been here in person for a few years. I had circumstance and timing, but I'm here.

19:56 And I'm glad to be here. I timed my conversation about 15 minutes. Hopefully, I won't go much beyond that. And then I'll take any questions that anyone may have. Try to go big picture at the federal level, discuss our major issues, where they are now, where they could go. And then I'll give my much heralded midterm election prediction. So big picture, the appropriations federal process. It's the one thing we do every year. Sometimes we bleed into the preceding first quarter to finish it, but we do finish it. And the House has completed all 12 federal appropriations bills out of committee. The Senate has now tried twice to mark up kind of a four package bill deal that has been pulled down both times. The Senate Appropriations Committee is having a pretty vibrant debate on how much to spend on defense.

20:52 The president has requested $1.5 trillion with a T. And that's significantly beyond what we've spent on our Defense Department ever. So that and some other social program cuts the president wants is kind of gumming up the Senate process. The Senate did, on Saturday morning, pass a continuing resolution through December 11th. And the House had passed one through December 4th. So when they come back after the Labor Day holiday, they will kind of hammer out the differences on those CRs. With the CR, you're simply allowing the members to campaign and to avoid a shutdown, which is very damaging. One issue important to us and a lot of other local governments is the OMB has sought to take more control over the federal grant process. They have a rule proposed, which would give a lot more power

21:50 to the administration and the political appointees within it, even over things like federal formula funds that a lot of local and state governments rely on. Our Senator Murray has been successful, including a temporary pause on the implementation of that rule. There's not one in the House version, the CR. We think the one in the Senate will stick. And December, I think the senator will try to nix that rule altogether. It's going to be a big debate. The reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Bill, which is the programs and funding levels for all our surface transportation programs at the federal level, is up for debate. The current law expires at the end of September. We will likely have an extension just because of how deep and long that debate is. But I think that will be a big part of our agenda come 2027.

22:46 There are several members of the Pacific Northwest delegation who are on important committees as far as that piece of legislation. Congressman Rick Larson is the ranking Democrat in the full House on that committee. He will likely be the new chair come next Congress. Senator Cantwell is the ranking member on the Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the freight title of that bill. Senator Wyden is the ranking member on the Finance Committee with Idaho's Mike Crapo as the chair, which comes up with the funding part of that bill. The House has unveiled their version in May. Passed the committee 62 to 2, so a bipartisan effort. Pretty good for freight. A lot of programs we've learned to love, like infra, build, mega, some of the bridge programs all in the bill. The House did strike some of the authorizations, but they're very popular. And while in committee, they struck some of those authorizations. But they're very popular.

23:44 And we think in the end, a lot of those programs will remain. They did create some new programs in that bill, like the Surface Transportation Accelerator program would definitely benefit freight, the freight formula program. Again, I mentioned the bridge program, all retained in that House bill. One thing, the IIJA, the previous authorization or the one we're under currently did authorize the poor infrastructure development program. This bill did not, but we think through the process, it's also a very popular program. In other ways, it will be authorized and appropriated for. Senate has yet to release a bill. We do anticipate one could come in September, a draft, and then probably the latest by the end of the year to build that debate in 2027 on the reauthorization. The administration released a bill, not a great bill. But typically, the executive branch

24:42 is in the shadows when it comes to the reauthorization. It's really a creature of Congress. So I don't anticipate them having a lot of impact unless-- I mean, I have yet to see threats of vetoing the Surface Transportation bill in the many years I've been back there, but who knows? Again, we anticipate an extension for the September, after the September 30th deadline, and that this will be a robust debate come 2027. And as always, we will be very, very involved. The Water Resources Development Act has been on track of being approved every two years. So this year is up in 2026. This is the bill that provides the policy and programs for the Army Corps of Engineers. Very critical to the river and the management of the river. The House and Senate have both released their versions of the bill and passed them out of their respective committees. Both bills, for the most part, respects

25:42 the previous frameworks for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and several authorized projects on the Columbia. We have been lobbying very hard on this word to deal with issues related to the Corps' 20-year dredged material management plan. And I'll talk more about that a little later. So those major issues on the water side, energy and water probes, operation and maintenance for the Columbia, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, report language, good numbers. Typically, all administrations have asked for some cuts and the Congress has fought back and they're doing that currently as well. On that word of 2026, that push on the dredged material management plan, the Corps wants the confined aquatic structures they're proposing to be paid like new construction. We want it to be paid like O&M, which is the difference between significant or 100%

26:41 potentially federal funding or a $100 million bill for the Columbia River ports. That's a significant amount. Over the last year, we put together a pretty impressive coalition of impacted ports, businesses, tenants, customers to launch a strategy to get our way on this piece of legislation. The campaign has taken us into congressional offices. We don't normally lobby. One's from the plains states in the Midwest. Essentially, anyone that could be impacted by a large financial burden that affects our costs and efficiencies. And it's been very wildly successful to date. People from outside the PNW have sponsored like Wyoming and others our word of language. Ryan has been the lead amongst the Columbia River port representatives for identifying who's affected, who are impacted, and going into these offices

27:40 and making the push that the products and states and businesses in those states are impacted. And therefore, they should support us. The result has been very favorable language in the House bill and language in the Senate. And we are now aggressively pushing that the final bill will include more like the House language than the Senate. And kind of a side benefit when you do these types of efforts where you're getting mass support outside of your typical region is that if we ever have a large scale effort in the future, we've kind of built the framework for that. And Ryan deserves a lot of praise for being the chief strategist on this, not only here, but also amongst all these different organizations. We continue to pursue federal funding for our birth aid improvement project in the PIDP program. We've again had to adapt to Merritt's ever changing requirements and conditions. But it remains kind of like hitting a moving target on horseback.

28:39 Nicole and Mike and Casey and Ryan have done a good job trying to navigate that. We will fight for that money. It's definitely a good project. Our government relations efforts in supporting getting more labor at the port has helped. We've had administration officials here. We fought very hard to get the Curtis moved before the variety of deadlines. And now we're looking forward to get some additional permanent labors. And we have a good group of allies and who are helping us persuade the administration to do that. On the surface side, I discussed the IJA reauthorization and potential new programs. Again, in 2027, we'll be a part of that as we've always been in fighting for a significant freight title and a good one for us. Some near term projects, obviously the bridge continues to be important. Trying to get some federal funding

29:34 for the marketplace at Terminal 1 has been part of our effort. Senator Cantwell, ranking on commerce, has been trying to help us in using her power there. There are a significant number of people who don't like to open up some of these programs as far as eligibility criteria. Certainly on the conservative side, they see kind of these broad economic development programs that have sort of matured in HUD and the Department of Commerce as something that's too much money, too many types of projects. But we're still fighting there. And hopefully, we will find some potential federal funding. I will mention a potential one later on. The EMR process remains available. We have two appropriators in this region. Senator Murray is the ranking member on the Senate committee and then Marie-Gusacam Perez. There were 21 PIDP earmarks in the House bill, ranging from $250,000 to $11 million

30:31 in four projects for Washington, one at Bellingham and three at the Port of Seattle. Senate bill hasn't moved yet, but the Senate bill had six projects last year. Our effort to inform DC about our issues surrounding competitive access did not go unnoticed. And our congressional allies were not shy about bringing up the issue to our friends at the Class 1 railroads. We also met with the Class 1 DC reps on a few occasions. And shout out to Kent Cash for leading that effort overall. And it worked, which is most important. On other issues, the Columbia River Treaty, we had a tentative deal. Now we don't. Who knows, hopefully, on taxes and trade. The reconciliation package made some changes to some of the programs we support, some good, some bad, but kind of an overall decent picture. And then tariffs, very exhausting process, one way or the other. And we'll just have to continue to fight. We've got, obviously, a supportive Supreme Court

31:31 ruling. But it's just such an odd issue. And the administration is hell-bent on extracting money and tariffs as much as they can. And we'll continue to fight on that, too. So new stuff comes up all the time. The administration recently has been pushing for this maritime action plan. And it contains this idea of maritime prosperity zones. The governor is involved. Some Puget Sound ports have been involved. And recently, a group of folks who work with Columbia River ports has started to try to influence that initiative. The drafts that have been floated mostly focused on shipbuilding. But we're trying to push it towards other broader aspects, which could include something like the marketplace. And before I give my election prediction, I want to open up for some Q&A. I'd be remiss not to compliment the staff and the electeds here on your efforts in the nation's capital

32:28 on behalf of the Port of Vancouver and other ports. We have a great team. Julian has been heavily involved in all that I've discussed. Ryan is the leader on this, has been very much respected and listened to, others like Alex and Mike Bomar and Casey Kent, Jim, Nicole, all have been very involved. I know the commissioners, LaBran and Orange, have come back several times and done advocacy directly at DC. Hopefully, Commissioner Lentz will come and experience-- I'm sure she's experienced it in other aspects of her life. But as far as for the port and experience that, it's good to get out there and be an advocate for the region and for the port. And of course, we'd love to host you. We aggressively engage with our associations, with our fellow ports and impacted businesses. And as Ryan mentioned, we're there 24/7, except for when we come out and see you every once in a while. And Ryan comes back quite a bit and others

33:24 to do important meetings with our federal stakeholders and is in charge of making sure our federal stakeholders here are involved and a part of what we're trying to do. So that election prediction is strapped in. The Congress will come back in September. And as I mentioned, get that CR done. And then they'll be literally off to the races. And in the House, typically, the president's party loses several House seats in the midterms with the current three-seat majority for GOP history. One could argue history would almost guarantee they'd lose the House. The wild card here is the political gerrymandering fights in which I think-- my analysis, the GOP came out slightly ahead. That said, with the economy, the war, it would be a shocker, shocker. It would rumble the foundation of D.C. If the Dems didn't take back the House in all indications, that's probably where it'll go. Some are predicting as much as the Dems getting 245 seats.

34:23 But I'll be conservative. There's obviously some time between now and the election. The Iran war, something hopefully successful can happen there as far as our interests and our people's interests. Campaign finance differentials are pretty heavily favoring the GOP. So I will predict the Dems end up with 230 seats and the Republicans with 205. So that's a 13-seat majority. On the Senate side, the map didn't look great for the Dems of having a possibility of recapturing the majority. But it looks potentially winnable now. I see pickups for them in the state of Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Alaska. So if they retain Georgia and Michigan, they will get the majority. That said, Michigan has a controversial Democratic candidate. Sue Collins of Maine always escapes defeat somehow. Actually, a very good person, but she just is very crafty. And Alaska is notoriously hard to pull.

35:23 I mean, Texas is a total wild card, but it's hard to bet against the GOP there. They've been in power for 30 years. No one gives up power easily. And someone like Senator Fetterman of Pennsylvania could switch parties at any moment. So there's a lot of unknowns. So my gut tells me a 50-50 Senate with the VP breaking the tie and the GOP retaining the majority. With that, I will attempt to answer any questions. I was probably beyond 15 minutes. I'm really sorry. Actually, it wasn't. I nailed it? Yes. I think this may be more of a question and discussion for Port staff at a future time. But Dale, first, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. That's actually for you, not for Port staff. But thanks for that presentation. And thanks, everybody, for all the work.

36:19 I know it's a lot to go back and advocate for our Port's interests. I'm really curious about and concerned about the OMB proposed rule. So my question potentially for the future is, should that move forward, even in a slightly different version than we see it now, what the potential impact for the Port would be so that we can have an understanding of that as early as possible? But I'm grateful that Senator Murray is working on holding it back. But I wonder if you have any additional thoughts or insight into the future of that rule. Well, I mean, the positive thing is a very wide and diverse group of those who depend on federal funding, including local governments, state governments, nonprofits, a lot of different people. Those who get discretionary funding, and even more alarming,

37:19 get formula funding, which is a lot because that goes to the states and counties and things like that are well-organized. They got 50,000 comments. That's a lot. But they are very hell-bent. I mean, the administration is hell-bent on giving more power over the grant process. And I think the GOP majorities want to give them that, at least right now. And there are a few. Senator Collins, as I mentioned, sided with Patty Murray in that CR fight to ensure that there's a moratorium, at least till the end of the CR. But I'm not-- some version of it-- if I had to predict, Commissioner, in December when we have this final fight, some version of it will probably stay. Now, if the House changes hands, and certainly if the Senate changes hands, the Democrats will attempt, mostly using the power of the Senate,

38:15 to stall the final budget process, any process like that, until the new members are sworn in. It might successfully do that. And that will change the dynamic. So there's a lot of that going on as well. So it's a lot of different things. I'm not trying to evade the answer. I just think there's a lot of unknown in December what will happen. And it could be very damaging. And I know that there's a pretty diverse and strong group fighting. But I'm not going to-- this one's not one I can say, oh yeah, I mean, I've been there long enough to know that these folks will win. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Eric, you got anything? Yeah, I'll just say, as we see a lot of uncertainty on the national and federal stage, I think our role as a port tends to be to maintain some stability for the local and regional economy. And I think the work that you're doing in DC

39:12 kind of exists at the intersection of that. So I appreciate the ongoing efforts out there to help us here try and accomplish that. So thank you. Well, thank you, commissioner. You and Commissioner Orange have come out and advocated for the port. Certainly, Juliana's had leadership roles on National Association and comes out often and advocates. And of course, Ryan and others that come with him are constantly engaging in the vast array of people that are involved in all the efforts to ensure not only the regional economy, but the national economy. So all that helps in getting in front of decision makers at the national level. Like my fellow commissioners, thank you. Better you than me. Two questions.

40:10 The first one is the headlines keep saying that the SAVE Act can't happen because there's the wrong count in the Senate. But the president keeps pushing for it. So he must think that there's some sort of a window. Is there a window? I think, realistically, no, because he doesn't have the votes. To change the rules on the filibuster, he needs 60 votes. And he may not even have 50 votes for it right now. There's an argument you can do it in reconciliation, which is a budget process where you only need 50 votes. But that is reserved for budgetary issues. This is a policy issue. So I mean, he said it kind of publicly, but the majority leader in the Senate, John Thune, has tried to explain to the president that they don't have the support for it through any measure,

41:09 whether it's on appropriations or attached to a CR or in reconciliation or certainly as a standalone. And he doesn't seem to want to accept that. So I'm not going to say 100% no, but I'm going to say 99.9. The courts would have to come in and say, we are violating the separations of powers. And this is so critical to the national security of the United States that we are going to change by our interpretation of constitutional power what roles you have via our Constitution. And that's the 0.1%. Thank you. You're welcome. One more. Yes, sir. I got a question. When you talk about the defense budget or the war budget, I think they would call it now, being increased by about a half a trillion dollars.

42:09 We used to have regular discussion of what is the deficit. And all I've heard in reading and reporting for the last year or two is what's being spent. There's been no reference to are we spending our children-- at what rate are we spending our children's country? Well, I mean, Commissioner, as a former philosophy history major and as a lawyer, we can have this conversation and very in-depth about fiscal policy. I was looking for a mathematical answer. Understood. The parties, the two major parties spend on different things, and they spend a lot. And the GOP argues that a tax cut is not spending,

43:07 but it does have a fiscal impact based on anticipated revenue. And the Democrats definitely want a broader use of funding in a variety of different areas, as you know. And we've just not-- people who are true, quote unquote, "fiscal conservatives" at the federal level are drowned out by both. And I agree with you. At some point, the argument people make is when you surpass GDP on debt, that's when your country has problems. And we see it all over the world. We've seen it historically. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer. I think we're probably 10 years out on that. We're so by far passing GDP because we're still a very productive economically in the United States. So once we get to a certain point past GDP where our debt service is so high and we're spending so much, then that's a problem. Now, what does the world do?

44:05 We're one of three nations that run the economy in the world. And if we falter, the whole world is, as you know-- I mean, I could use an expletive, but I won't. So there's a lot of things that go into that. And if we go down, the world goes down. So I'm not in dire straits about this yet. I think people should be warning about it, but I think we're about 10 years out if we continue doing what they're doing where we can take ourselves, at least significantly diminish-- and I don't want to get into dystopian movies or anything like that, but significantly diminish our economy and then the world's economy. Is that a good answer, sir? Let's say yes. OK. Or does that somewhat answer your question? I know there's a lot of unknown in that one. Yes, it did. OK. Thank you. You're welcome. You got any more? It may have answered your question, but it's not a good answer. Sorry.

45:04 [LAUGHTER] Right. Eric, you got any more to throw at him? I did have one follow-up question that came to mind. With your prediction about Congress potentially changing hands, and who knows on the Senate, but Congress has that oversight function, if that were to take place, what do you see happening with that in terms of the ability to get things through? Are they going to be tied up in oversight activities, that kind of thing? Does that balance shift any? Are they able to get stuff-- are they able to get budgets pushed through more effectively or less effectively? I mean, I think if the executive branch and the legislative branch agree that they can both walk and chew gum

46:03 at the same time, yes, that the both are like, OK, we'll do some investigation on things that probably need to be investigated. You helpfully comply with our subpoenas, which they probably won't, and we'll fight in the courts. Or eventually, your people will come, or people won't come to the Hill to testify, and the people will be in contempt. All that will happen. Undoubtedly, all that will happen. And as long as both can separate and say, well, let's just do the regular business over here, and people don't often sit on those committees at the same time. There's people that are very attracted to the investigative committees and those that are attracted to the meat of government types of committees, then we'll be fine. But who knows? Maybe temporarily, maybe initially when the subpoenas fly and the hearings are decided upon,

47:00 it could gum up a lot of things just out of spite between the two branches. But they'll get back to it, I think, hopefully. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Dale. We're very fortunate to have you in DC representing us, and thank you for a great report. Well, I love representing the port, and it's 20 years now. It's wonderful, and I've always had such great relations with your team. And Ryan is such a great leader for government relations, and we appreciate him very much. Great. Thank you so much. That's it. You're done with CEO? I am done. OK, it's time for commissioner reports. It's been a pretty quiet couple of weeks for me, so I don't have anything to report. Eric, how about you?

47:59 Just briefly had the opportunity to attend the Labor Roundtable on Friday the 31st. And I think that actually kind of captures it. That was, of course, running up to the primary election, so a lot of-- I think that was probably most of the focus of that particular meeting. But yeah. Thank you. I've had a relatively sleepy couple of weeks. Met with the CEO a time or two. Met with sheet metal workers representative. Also, just to kind of a point, the commissioners were scheduled last Tuesday evening to do national night out, which I think

48:59 is kind of a take back the night kind of a thing, so that people feel comfortable in their communities.

49:09 Point that I'm coming to is it got canceled, because the air was so damn bad that people couldn't get out and breathe it. And so maybe besides avoiding crime or things such as that, we need to think about the climate and the efforts that the board makes to do things properly, and not to back off them for economic or other reasons.

49:37 It was a wonderful thing there was breathable air this morning. And we talked a little bit about what we're going to pass on as a legacy to our kids with the dollars, and to talk about what we're going to pass on to the next generation, whether they have a-- I don't think we're going to solve the problem with wildfires with tariffs. I think we've got a whole lot of work to do. So I run out of words, which is a damn good thing. Yes, ma'am. No, not project updates. What's coming up? - We have some upcoming events. So a reminder, our next commission meeting is Tuesday, August 25th. And the Clark County Fair is happening right now. And just a reminder that the port does have an area. It's called a parklet, where you can rest and charge your devices.

50:35 And then we have a port video that is streaming while people hang out there. I think Ryan mentioned he was there the other night, and there was about 40 people sitting in that space. So a great opportunity for folks to see what's happening at the port while they're charging their devices and resting. And Commissioner Orange, you mentioned national night out. So it has been rescheduled, and it is actually happening this evening. So it's great to have a nice day for that. And then we have our port tour number seven coming up on Thursday, August 13th. - Very cool. I think the next thing I'm supposed to do-- - Commissioner, if I could just do a quick reminder on how to communicate with the commissioners. So folks can join us at open forum here during our meetings. You can email the commissioners, call the office. We'll get folks in touch with you.

51:32 And then also, please visit the port's website. There's a lot of great information. - I think it's my time to say we're not having a workshop. - Correct. - Which brings this meeting to a close. We will adjourn it after we sign some papers. But thank you all for being here.