Copyright 2002 Commonwealth Business Media  
Journal of Commerce Online
October 16, 2002, Wednesday
SECTION: LOGISTICS; Pg. WP

LENGTH: 548 words

HEADLINE: Slater calls for renewal of TEA-21 this year

BYLINE: BY BILL MONGELLUZZO - THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE ONLINE

BODY:
OAKLAND, Calif. - The gains made in intermodal transport over the past decade will be threatened if Congress fails to reauthorize the Transportation Efficiency Act this year, former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said. Slater said the proposed reauthorization of TEA-21 legislation will extend the gains that were made under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the TEA-21 legislation of 1998.

"It will build from strength to strength," said Slater, who is now a partner in the Washington public policy firm Patton and Boggs.

Slater spoke Tuesday to international transportation executives at the Pan Pacific 2002 conference here.

Previous transportation programs helped establish intermodal connectors between the nation's highways, rail systems and ports, but demand for federal support outweighs the funding that is available by a factor of 15 to one, he noted.

The terrorist attacks of September 2001 also made obvious that an efficient intermodal network is needed to protect the nation's security, Slater said. About 80-90 percent of Defense Department cargo moves via commercial transportation.

The ISTEA and TEA-21 programs recognized the significant growth in intermodal freight over the past 20 years. Intermodal traffic tripled to 9 million containers and trailers from 1980-2001, and is projected to double again by 2020.

Failure to reauthorize TEA-21 would result in unacceptable delays in the just-in-time delivery that U.S. manufacturing is based upon, Slater said. He cited the recent 10-day lock-out of West Coast longshoremen as an example of what happens when intermodal transportation does not operate efficiently.

Slater noted that the shutdown of West Coast ports cost the U.S. economy more than $1 billion a day and caused containers to back up at Asian ports. "A congested intermodal freight corridor in California can affect productivity in Hong Kong," he said.

Reauthorization of TEA-21 would continue basic efforts to improve intermodal gateways and connectors, streamline the funding process and augment existing trust funds. It would also maintain the firewalls that Congress established to ensure that money gathered in the trust funds is used for intermodal transportation rather than slipping into the general fund, Slater said.

When he was Transportation Secretary under President Clinton, Slater advocated establishing a program to help fund projects at ocean, river and Great Lakes ports. He continues to support the proposed SEA-21 effort, although Congress will most likely wait until next year to take up that legislation.

Slater said SEA-21, like any effort that calls for federal involvement, will have to include some type of funding mechanism. The nation's maritime industry supports SEA-21, but wants the federal contributions to come from the general fund.

Given the budgetary problems in Washington, Slater said that some type of user fee will most likely be necessary. However, using the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor in Southern California as an example, he noted that a package of creative financing that includes federal, state and local money, as well as investments from the private sector, should be enough to guarantee passage of SEA-21 legislation.

LOAD-DATE: October 18, 2002