Post Tagged with: "Transportation Reauthorization"

Press Release: Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Transportation Policy Project to Host Hill Briefing

June 21, 2010 at 11:55 am

WHO: Former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, Janet Kavinoky, Colin Peppard, Rob Puentes, and Kathy Ruffalo

WHAT: National Transportation Policy Project Briefing on practical strategies for beginning a transition to a performance-based national transportation program

WHEN: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 3:30PM

WHERE: Room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building

Congressman Sherwood Boehlert and other leading transportation experts will discuss transitioning to a performance-based system

Washington, D.C. – The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) National Transportation Policy Project will host a briefing this Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 3:30PM on transitioning to a performance-based federal surface transportation policy.  The briefing will be held in 406 Dirksen.

Former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, an NTPP co-chair, will welcome attendees to the event followed by a panel discussion with Janet Kavinoky, Director, Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Colin Peppard, Deputy Director, Federal Transportation Policy, National Resources Defense Council;  Rob Puentes, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; and Kathy Ruffalo, President, Ruffalo and Associates.

In conjunction with this briefing, BPC will release its latest report, Transitioning to a Performance-Based Transportation Policy.  The report details the steps necessary for building the foundation and capacity to successfully transition to a performance-based system.  NTPP has been actively researching how to move U.S. transportation policy to a system that establishes a set of national goals and holds federal investments accountable for demonstrating results toward these goals.

NTPP released its blueprint for surface transportation reform, Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy, last June, which called for a program with accountability and incentives for the achievement of clear national goals and interests.  Along with Congressman Boehlert, NTPP is led by its other co-chairs: former Senator Slade Gorton; former Congressman Martin Sabo; and former Mayor of Detroit Dennis Archer, and is composed of a broad, bipartisan coalition of transportation experts and business and civic leaders.

Media interested in the attending the briefing should RSVP to press@bipartisanpolicy.org.

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NY Times outlines the difficulties facing re-authorization; Legislation for a 21st Century Transportation System Doesn’t Come Easy

September 17, 2009 at 12:53 pm

(Source: Greenwire @ New York Times)

According to a Center for Public Integrity report released yesterday, there are nearly 1,800 special interest groups lobbying Congress on the transportation bill, ranging from local officials and planning agencies to real estate companies, construction firms and universities. In the first half of this year, the groups employed more than 2,000 lobbyists and spent an estimated total of $45 million on their transportation lobbying.

The road to reforming the nation’s transportation systems looks to be a long and winding one.

Once lawmakers decide when to move forward with the sweeping overhauls they promise, they will need to find a way to pay for it. And once that difficult task is accomplished, the debate will only grow more complicated.

Many in the transportation community agree the next multi-year surface transportation bill needs to significantly boost federal funding for the nation’s roads, rails and bridges. But the consensus soon begins to crumble when the issue turns to how to pay for the overhaul — with lawmakers loath to tell Americans they will need to foot the bill and the rest of the transportation community agreeing that is the only option to pay for it (E&E Daily, Sept. 15).

But even off the Hill, where key players agree massive reform is needed to make the system more performance-based and effective, there is no consensus on exactly what that new system would look like and what those performance goals should be.

Many of the goals discussed at the invitation-only event are conflicting by nature. The usual suspects include the funding ratio for highways and transit systems, and the rate of return that individual states see from taxes they pay to finance the nation’s road and rail work.

Robert Atkinson, who chaired one of two congressionally created blue ribbon panels to examine transportation investment needs, said his panel, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, did not even broach the subject of where the increased investment should be spent in its report.

According to government estimates, the transportation sector accounts for roughly a third of U.S. carbon emissions, and Democrats have vowed to recast the nation’s roads and rails in a “greener” light.

But many state highway departments that had previously voiced support for the new environmental focus are now worrying that the emissions goals may grow overly ambitious and threaten to deliver another blow to both the economy and their efforts to repair and replace crumbling roads and bridges (Greenwire, Aug. 27)

Congress must also decide whether or not to welcome the private sector into the transportation field by giving firms long-term leases on public roads and bridges, effectively turning public infrastructure into a private product.

Click here to read the entire article.  For those wondering what is in the minds of our lawmakers drafting the reauthorization bill, here is congressman Oberstar’s handwritten scrap-paper version (pulled right from the House T&I Committee website, which has a lot of interesting materials to read on this subject).  Though it is not very detailed, it offers a general sensing of the direction he is taking (e.g., consolidating the existing behemoth (108 programs) into 4 categories to simplify the mgmt. structure, adding Office of Livability & Office of Expedited Project Delivery to the FHWA, etc.)

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Transportation Reauthorization Updates for June 18, 2009: Bill Outline released; LaHood Blogs, Oberstar stays upset & moves press briefing to 2PM; etc., etc…

June 18, 2009 at 10:59 am

(Source: NY Times, USDOT Secretary’s FastLane Blog, AP via Google, Transportation for America)

Late-breaking: The full outline of Rep. Oberstar’s proposed bill is now available on Transportation for America’s website.  For those readers brave enough to wade into 90 pages of policy detail, please click here to download a copy of the PDF file.  Personally,  (after a super-quick glance) I was left scracting my head about the directions of cutting edge programs like Intelligent Transportation Systems. Absolutely no mention of it except under some transit discussion.  Also, I did not see any references to how this program will help spur the infrastructure development aspects of electric vehicles (like charging stations, etc)? Possibly dealt through CMAQ or other climate-friendly avenues in ths bill?  Would love to know what y’all found out after a careful reading of the outline.  Please leave your thoughts in the comments sections below.

With plans for a six-year, $450 billion transportation bill hung up over the question of how to pay for it, the Obama administration said Wednesday that it wanted to put off the thorniest questions for now. Instead, officials proposed essentially extending the existing law for 18 months and finding a short-term way to pay for highway and transit projects.

Rather than face a series of three-month extensions of the law, which has happened in the past, Mr. LaHood said it would be less disruptive for everyone to plan for an year-and-a-half extension now. “We think this is the most realistic approach,” he said.  In an interview with Bloomberg, LaHood describes his decision as one to “face reality” instead of “stringing Congress along with three-month or six-month extensions.”

The media reports indicate there is a serious fight happening in the Hill between the Secretary and the folks who spent months working on this bill.  The AP report states that at LaHood’s request, Oberstar and key members of the committee met with the transportation secretary Wednesday morning, a half hour before the congressman was scheduled to brief reporters on his bill. LaHood laid out for the surprised lawmakers a plan that seeks to approve money for transportation for another 18 months, eliminating the likelihood that highway and other transportation projects would come to a halt for lack of dollars. The plan would require Congress to approve an estimated $13 billion to $18 billion in stopgap cash.

Rep. John Mica, the senior Republican on the transportation committee, likened LaHood’s presentation of the finance plan to a bomb being dropped on committee members.

“That’s a real slap in the face to a lot of hard work … earth-shattering,” Mica said. “I would have been mortified if this had been done to me under Bush.”

LaHood asked to meet with Oberstar as soon as the administration worked out the details of its plan and went straight to Capitol Hill, said Jill Zuckman, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.

For his part, the Secrtary used his blog to convince the public that he did what he and the Obama administration think is the best approach rather than  rushing for a reuathorization bill.

Here are his words: ” Yesterday and today, I briefed members of Congress on the Highway Trust Fund situation and proposed an immediate 18-month highway reauthorization that will replenish the Fund. This is an unusual step, I know. But, with the Fund likely to run out of money by late August, it’s a little too late to worry about business as usual.

Beyond keeping the Highway Trust Fund solvent, an immediate 18-month reauthorization provides Congress the time it needs to fully deliberate the direction of America’s transportation priorities. That’s the kind of thoughtful decision-making America deserves.”

Making a case for his proposal, Sec. LaHood first brought up why we are in this mess and how the Highway Trust Fund went south over the years and months past.

Image Courtesy:USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood's Blog - Fast Lane

As the chart below shows, even in years of relative economic security and gas-price stability, the Highway Trust Fund ended the fiscal year with less money than it started. He pointed to the change in the consumption patterns of the US consumer who was losing sleep over the economic concerns that rocked the country (as well as the entire planet).   The prolonged economic insecurity and gas-price volatility, like the one we experienced in 2008, when people bought less gas and Fund’s revenue source dropped off  (evident from the chart above). Congress had to kick in an extra $8 billion to the Fund. He warned that the Fund is likely to run out of money once again, and soon. Expenditures will stop; states will be in danger of losing the vital transportation funding they need and expect; projects will shut down; jobs will be lost.  That’s the road we’re on right now. Once again, the Highway Trust Fund will need a massive cash infusion.

Can we really go through this every year? Is that really the best this Nation can do?.  With that question, he brought the hammer down on Oberstar’s plans. saying “I don’t think so. That’s why I went to the Hill yesterday and why I’ll be there today.”  He strengthened his argument for his delayed reuathorization proposal, saying “Time is running out, and the Highway Trust Fund must be made solvent. Then, and only then, can this country get the kind of thorough transportation discussion needed to address our infrastructure investments in a smarter, more focused way, a way that best meets the real demands of the country.”

Representative James L. Oberstar, who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, still plans to introduce a new bill’s outline today at 2PM (The House T & I Committee Twitter note annoucned that the 11AM briefing is now moved to 2PM), but Democrats said they had not determined how to pay for it.  Oberstar had been counting on a looming Oct. 1 deadline — that’s when the current law authorizing federal highway and transit programs expires — to force lawmakers to make tough decisions on how to pay for transportation programs over the next six years.But Oberstar’s spokesman Jim Berard conveyed the Chairman’s displeasure:  “The chairman is not too pleased with the administration’s proposal.”

All is not bad for the Secretary.  He enjoyed the support of some of his powerful allies in the Senate.  Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and a key player in the federal transportation re-write, expressed her support for the delayed reauthorization proposal put forward by the Secretary.  “I am very pleased that the White House is being proactive in working with the Congress to address the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund.  As we work our way out of this recession, the last thing we want to do is to drastically cut back on necessary transportation priorities.  The White House proposal to replenish the Trust Fund until 2011 will keep the recovery and job creation moving forward and give us the necessary time to pass a more comprehensive multi-year transportation authorization bill with stable and reliable funding sources.”

Two congressionally mandated transportation commissions — one in 2008 and one earlier this year — have recommended raising gas taxes as the most practical solution for making up projected declines in revenue over the next several years. The most recent commission also recommended moving to a system that would use GPS technology to tax motorists based on the number of miles they drive as the best long-term revenue solution.

Either step is expected to be politically difficult.

DeFazio said the administration’s plan risks tens of thousand of jobs because contractors need cash commitments beyond 18 months for major, multiyear construction projects.

LaHood acknowledged his plan will be unpopular with some lawmakers and transportation interest groups.

“With the reality of our fiscal environment and the critical demand to address our infrastructure investments in a smarter, more focused approach, we should not rush legislation,” LaHood said in a statement. “We should work together on a full reauthorization (bill) that best meets the demands of the country. The first step is making sure that the Highway Trust Fund is solvent. The next step is addressing our transportation priorities over the long term.”

Late Breaking Update: Transportation for America(T4America), the ever popular website that has been a great source for reauthorization updates just made available a summary of  Rep. Obsertar’s proposed bill (shown below, courtesy of T4America)and a 10 page breakdown of the consolidated/terminated programs. A quick analysis by T4America reveals Oberstar proposal terminates or consolidates 75 federal programs from the program and recommends a consolidation into a “performance based framework”.  Read the 17p summary and the 10p breakdown of consolidated/terminated programs now on the T4America blog.

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