Infrastructure bill: 'We need everything that's in here,' Siemens U.S. CEO says

Siemens U.S. CEO Barbara Humpton joins Yahoo Finance Live from the White House lawn to discuss President Biden signing the new infrastructure legislation into law.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Welcome back. In less than two hours from now, President Biden will sign the landmark $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law at a ceremony at the White House lawn. It comes at a time when Biden is facing slumping poll numbers ahead of next year's midterm elections. At today's bill signing will be governors, mayors, members of Congress, and business leaders, including Barbara Humpton, president and CEO of Siemens USA, who joins us now from the White House. Barbara, it's good to see you again, and welcome back to Yahoo Finance.

BARBARA HUMPTON: Thanks, Alexis.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So Barbara, I know that we keep saying this as a historic bill, but I'm wondering how transformative it really is. I mean, this is a watered down bill. Initially, it was $2.3 trillion. It had to get knocked down to $1.2 trillion to find bipartisan support. How much do you think this bill is really going to accomplish? Does it go far enough?

BARBARA HUMPTON: Well, Alexis, this-- we have waited for this bill for a long time. And honestly, we need everything that's in here. There's been a lot of discussion about the focus on the roads and bridges that need repair, but what I'm excited about is that this bill contains elements that are the future infrastructure that is really going to be important to help us transform this economy, especially as we come through the pandemic, and the economy resurges.

KARINA MITCHELL: And I wanted to ask you-- congratulations on being there today. You've been involved in infrastructure. You've been waiting a long time, I'm sure, to see something like this come down the pipeline. What does this bill do for Siemens in the long run? And then how do companies making an ESG push remain competitive in this sort of environment with the issues and the initiatives contained in the legislation?

BARBARA HUMPTON: Yes, many know about us, but let me share that Siemens has been a national asset here in the US for over 160 years. Our focus has been on industry and infrastructure, infrastructure including both transportation-- think about the future of trains-- as well as built infrastructure, the connection of buildings, their controls, and now this new emerging area of the edge of the electric grid.

So we are at a moment. This last 10 years has been about the creation of the internet of people. We've seen how digitalization has transformed our lives. And what this bill has in it is the elements that lay the foundation for us to have people create the internet of things, really bringing our infrastructure online.

So as we look across the portfolio of our nation's ports, as we look at the electric vehicle charging transformation that is now well underway, but needs to accelerate, as we look at the future of transportation via trains and transit systems, Siemens is a perfect partner for all of that work. And we've been really pleased to be supporting legislators and love the fact that this had full bipartisan support, as this moved its way through Congress. And we are delighted now today to be able to be here and see it signed into law.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Barbara, what about a timeline? I mean, we keep hearing about certain projects can probably get worked on right away. But others may take years, possibly decades. When it comes to your company and your employees, what projects will you be working on in the short term, if any?

BARBARA HUMPTON: Yeah, we already have a lot of things well underway. For instance, electric vehicle charging. We've already deployed over 75,000 chargers here in the US. But we all know that if we want to get over range anxiety, we need to have charging available to folks. And so, we've made the commitment to bring the manufacturing of a million more electric vehicle chargers to the US and manufacture those over the next four years.

It's those kinds of things we're committed to do. We know that what will happen is as the funds from this bill work their way through to state and local decision makers, to the utilities, to the building owners, who ultimately will be deploying that infrastructure, it's going to give the tailwinds that make the private investment move that much faster.

KARINA MITCHELL: And Barbara, as you know, President Biden later on this evening will have a virtual summit with the Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping. How crucial is it that this happens now, this infrastructure deal vis-a-vis where China is? They are so much more advanced than we are on their infrastructure projects.

BARBARA HUMPTON: Yeah, both the China and the US have huge roles to play, particularly in this decade. I was honored to be in Glasgow last week and to hear special envoy Kerry talking about his bilateral conversations with the Chinese. And I was glad to see agreement coming out. These two countries, our two countries have a responsibility to the rest of the globe to move quickly with the decarbonization of our infrastructure. So here we are, we in the United States, taking our steps. My counterpart at Siemens China likewise is working with Chinese industry and governmental officials, really leading the changes that we have in place for the decarbonization of industry and infrastructure.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And Barbara, you have such a diverse business there at Siemens USA. Talk to me a little bit about how inflation has been impacting your business and also the supply chain disruptions that we've been seeing. How have you been navigating through that?

BARBARA HUMPTON: Yeah, at Siemens, we are very fortunate to have gifted experts in supply chain management, who've been using the tools available to them and reaching out to a much broader set of suppliers, so that we would have a lot of flexibility, as we moved our way through the impacts of the pandemic and then the current supply chain issues. The really good news for Siemens is that we're also a supplier into the world of manufacturing, where there are so many of these shortages to be addressed.

So, for instance, take the chip shortage. We're working closely, particularly here in the US, to help bring the manufacturing here. We've supported the Chips Act. We hope that bold investment will be made in semiconductors here in the United States, and it will establish manufacturing again here that we so desperately need. So we're bringing our know-how to help unblock those supply chain issues and keep things moving forward.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, well, we're going to be watching that signing of this infrastructure bill into law a little over an hour from now. Barbara Humpton, president and CEO of Siemens USA, thanks so much for making time for us.