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Volume 101 Number 06
February 9, 2001
Executive Digest

Congress
Information
Details

Norman Mineta Sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Transportation

    Former Congressman and Commerce Department Secretary Norman Mineta was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Transportation yesterday in an upbeat White House ceremony at which President Bush joked, "Usually at events like this, a new Secretary is joining the Cabinet. This time a new Cabinet is joining the Secretary."

    The President praised Mineta for his extensive knowledge and experience -- including 21 years as a member of Congress, chairmanship of the House Transportation and Public Works Committee, service as a mayor and city council member of San Jose, California, and Cabinet work in the Clinton Administration.

    "He understands the great challenges taking place in the economic life of our country. He has an understanding of the transportation needs of America," President Bush said. "He knows that America relies more than ever on the soundness of our roads and rails, bridges and runways. And as our economy grows, so must our capacity to move people and goods quickly and efficiently.

    "It's going to take some clear thinking and creativity to accommodate our nation's increased travel demands. And Norm Mineta is the right man for the job," Bush concluded.

    Mineta thanked Bush for the honor of choosing him for the Cabinet post and the U.S. Senate for unanimously approving his nomination.

    "I can think of no more fertile ground for bipartisan consensus-building than in the field of transportation policy," said Mineta, the sole Democrat in the Bush cabinet. "I look forward to working as part of your administration's effort to help build that consensus."

    "In my career as a member of the city council, and mayor of San Jose, California, and as a member of Congress, and as a business person, and as a Cabinet member, I have, time and time again, seen the power of transportation to improve the economic outlook for neighborhoods and communities, and to improve the quality of life for all Americans.

    Our economy depends on the ability to quickly and efficiently move people and goods to places that they need to go," Mineta said. "The public depends upon us."

OMB "Passback" Shorts Aviation; Mineta, Young Press for Full Hearing


T&I Committee Organizes With Oversight as Priority

    The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held its first meeting of the 107th Congress on Wednesday, approving a revised Subcommittee structure with new leadership and membership. Chairman Don Young (R-AK) said that oversight of the federal transportation program would be a top priority.

    In discussing the operating procedures of the committee and subcommittees, Chairman Young said that he would emphasize oversight of the federal transportation program, adding that subcommittees should make it their top priority. As part of the committee reorganization, Young dropped the Oversight, Investigations and Emergency Management Subcommittee, assigning those responsibilities to the subcommittees.

    In remarks to transportation stakeholders after the committee meeting, Rep. Thomas Petri said that the Highway and Transit Subcommittee, which he chairs, would investigate how the increased funding under TEA-21 has been spent. "We need to make sure the money is being put into infrastructure," he said.

    Petri added that steps need to be taken to stop project delays, and said that a mid-course correction of TEA-21 or some administrative action may be taken this year.

    Subcommittee Members Appointed

    At 75 members, the committee is the largest in Congress. Along with approving subcommittee composition and a new oversight plan, the committee agreed to increase the number of seats on each of the subcommittees to allow for better participation of members. Democrats selected their members to the subcommittee earlier that day.

    Subcommittee leaders include:

    Aviation: John Mica (R-FL), Chair; William Lipinski (D-IL), Ranking Member

    Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation: Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Chair; Corrine Brown (D-FL), Ranking Member

    Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management: Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Chair; Jerry Costello (D-IL), Ranking Member

    Highways and Transit: Thomas Petri (R-WI), Chair; Robert Borski (D-PA), Ranking Member

    Railroads: Jack Quinn (R-NY), Chair; Bob Clement (D-TN), Ranking Member

    Water Resources and Environment: John Duncan (R-TN), Chair; Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ranking Member

    A full listing of subcommittee members is enclosed for the AASHTO Board of Directors.

Senate Subcommittee Slots Filled

    Leadership positions for the subcommittees of the Senate Appropriations, Commerce and Environment and Public Works committees were announced last week.

    Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) will remain as chair of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) taking over the ranking member spot for Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who retired last year. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) also gained a seat on the subcommittee.

    For the Commerce Committee subcommittees, Hutchison will move from chairing the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee to head the Aviation Subcommittee. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) will remain the Ranking Member of the Aviation Subcommittee. Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) will take the helm of the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee.

    In the meantime, an expected switch in leadership for two subcommittees of the Environment and Public Works Committee was confirmed this week. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) will move to chair the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, while George Voinovich (R-OH) will head the Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee.

Amtrak Bonding Bill Introduced


Moratorium Urged on Airline Mergers

    Concerns that proposed airline mergers may harm competition and limit service to regions of the country have prompted calls by legislators for a nine-month moratorium on airline consolidations. But airline executives argue that the mergers will provide airline passengers with improved "seamless" service.

    Witnesses appearing before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Wednesday warned that proposed mergers of United and US Airways and American and TWA, would place 50 percent of the airline market in the hands of two carriers. Such consolidation would reduce competition in approximately 300 markets, affecting some 10 million passengers, according an analysis by the General Accounting Office. The mergers would also allow one carrier to dominate (obtain a greater than 50 percent share of traffic) in more than 100 new markets. The GAO went on to cite some positive aspects of the proposed mergers, such as new online service and possible new routes.

    The agency identified a number of public policy issues that ought to be addressed such as barriers to market entry by new airlines; competition in key markets; risk of travel disruptions; and possible affects on service to small communities.

    Key executives from American, United, Continental, America West, AirTran, US Airways, and DC Air testified before the committee outlining the potential affects of the mergers on the industry and on airline service. Airline executives from firms not yet involved in merger proposals warned that approval of the plans now on the table would force still more mergers as defensive measures.

    Michael E. Levine, one of the few private citizens invited to testify and a former member of the Civil Aeronautics Board when airline deregulation took place, said that current guidelines used by the Department of Justice to analyze merger proposals are inadequate to deal with network airline competition, and that by considering only one merger at a time the agency could "allow eggs to be scrambled without gaining an understanding of the recipe of which they are a part."

    He concluded that the industry is at a critical point, adding, "We can either preserve competition among four or five or six networks competitors, none of which have the potential of achieving a level of dominance which makes the others unable to compete. Or we can turn the deregulated airline industry into the preserve of two powerful airlines who have pulled up the ladder of access to the East Coast and who expect to watch their rivals fade away as they struggle to overcome an impossible competitive advantage."

    Many of the lawmakers testifying at the hearing urged that no stumbling block be placed in the way of the proposed acquisition of the bankrupt TWA by American Airlines. They contended that since TWA is a failed airline, the merger would actually serve to protect jobs and airline service. >br>
    Several members of the committee joined in a letter to the Department of Justice raising public policy concerns with proposed airline mergers. Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) also urged during the hearing that a nine-month moratorium be placed on the approval of any mergers, to allow sufficient time for such review.

DOT Pledges to Streamline Environmental Review Process for Airport Projects

    Top Administration transportation officials speaking at a U. S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit have called for environmental streamlining of aviation capacity projects to address rising flight demands.

    According to speakers at the summit held in Washington February 1-2, last year flight delays rose to an all time high, with some 450,000 flights arriving late to their destinations. Travelers found themselves grounded under an aviation system that is straining at close to full capacity, and the situation will not get better, most speakers concluded. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta told a Senate panel last month that the number of delays would likely remain the same or rise this year. Last year some 650 million travelers took to the air ? that rate is expected to increase to over a billion by 2009. The expected increase is flights will almost equal the population of the United States.

    While part of the problem lies with the nation?s air traffic control system, participants at an Aviation Summit agreed that runway and terminal capacity at airports have simply not kept up with demand. "You can?t stuff five pounds of airplanes into four pounds of airport," former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall remarked.

    Demand Exceeds Capacity

    Speakers cited a number of examples and factors which are affecting airport capacity:
    • In 2000, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of runway delays;
    • In the past 20 years, only 19 new runways have been built at major airports;
    • One-third of the nation?s most congested airports have no plans to expand their runway capacity;
    • At the 25 busiest airports (which carry 50 percent of all passengers), only five have built new runways in the last decade;
    • Only 10 new runways are planned for the coming decade at these 25 airports; and
    • If 50 more miles of new runways were built at these 25 airports, the overall rate of runway congestion in the country would be substantially reduced.


    Expanding capacity at airports has proven to be extremely difficult, speakers noted, saying it now takes an average of 15 years to complete a project. Some projects take much longer. For example, plans have been underway to add a new runway and reconstruct another one at the Memphis-Shelby County Airport. As the home base for Federal Express, it is the largest cargo airport in the world. However, despite having strong community support, the additional runway has taken 16 years to complete.

    FAA Administrator Jane Garvey acknowledged that "Increasing airport capacity raises far more political difficulties then improving ATC (air traffic control) technology."

    Such projects are often opposed by the local communities due to concerns over noise. However, the current federal environmental review process for airport projects has also proven to severely hamper needed runway expansions and improvements, speakers said. Often, delays due to a complex environmental review process are time-consuming and costly.

    While the Memphis project was constructed in one year, it was mired in the planning, design and environmental review process for 10 years. Some $250 million was spent on the environmental review process alone. Airport officials cited a number of reasons for the delay, including a requirement for multi-agency reviews by federal, state and local entities. The project became bogged down in inter-agency disputes, and there was no clear process existing to manage the review process.

    Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, noted that 32 agencies are involved in the approval process for building a new runway at the San Francisco International airport.

    Participants at the Summit agreed that assessing the environmental impacts of a runway project was an essential exercise, and steps should be taken to mitigate the adverse impacts from such projects. However, the current review process is fraught with duplication and inefficiencies that delay needed runway expansion projects, they said. Under current procedures airport planners must conduct similar reviews for many different agencies, one after the other.

    Streamlining the Process

    Efforts are underway within the new Administration and in Congress to streamline the process, Transportation Secretary Mineta said. He said that the Department of Transportation is committed to finding ways to ease the project review process for expanding capacity. "Adding runways is one of the most effective ways to expand capacity," Mineta said. "The process takes too long."

    The Department would look for ways to complete state and federal environmental assessments simultaneously. "Some worry that this would compromise the environment, but that doesn?t have to be the case," Mineta remarked.

    Administrator Garvey stated that streamlining the process was a good thing, in order to ensure that the process was made "certain and finite."

    As the Department of Transportation indicated they will look into the issue of streamlining, there are indications that steps might be taken by Congress to simplify the approval process. Specifically, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the new chair of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, said during Mineta's confirmation hearing that the airport project review process "deserves a bottom-up review."

Trade Panel Ruling May Broaden Access of Mexican Trucks

    A trade panel ruled Tuesday that current United States policy limiting the access of Mexico-based trucks to U.S. highways is a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), leading to indications the Bush Administration will loosen the restrictions. Key members of Congress and Teamsters Union officials immediately protested, saying the influx will make the roads less safe.

    The 1993 trade agreement provided for a phased-in access for Mexico-based trucks to haul goods directly into the United States, provided they could meet U.S. safety standards. Former President Bill Clinton, through the U.S. Department of Transportation, imposed limitations on that access after the Teamsters and others expressed concerns resources were insufficient to inspect or otherwise guarantee the safety of the vehicles or drivers of such trucks. The Teamsters suggested the U.S. should absorb trade sanctions by Mexico as the price of keeping the trucking restrictions in place. Mexico protested the restrictions to the panel, which was set up to oversee disputes over provisions of the trade-enhancement pact, which also covers Canada.

    Currently Mexico-based trucks can only travel within a zone 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, except for those whose ultimate destination is Canada. However, the US DOT Office of Inspector General, determined in reports in 1998 and 1999 that many Mexico-based trucks were traveling U.S. highways outside the 20-mile zone in violation of the U.S. restrictions.

    The Clinton Administration restrictions have been a sore point in U.S.-Mexico relations for several years. Bush's indication that he may loosen or lift the restrictions may in part be an overture to Mexican President Vicente Fox, with whom Bush is slated to meet later this month. While governor of Texas, Bush had favored allowing entry to Mexican trucks, and he has maintained that stringent inspections should protect other motorists from any unsafe trucks.

    House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) jointly voiced their reservations about changes in the U.S. restrictions on Mexican truck access on Wednesday.

    Young urged the Bush Administration to "quickly develop an effective truck-screening system at the border" prior to changes in the current approach. "We will carefully monitor the Administration's compliance with the arbitration panel's ruling," Young said.

    Oberstar added, "We have the right to set safety standards for the trucks that travel our nation's highways and to require Mexican trucking companies to meet those standards. Even the NAFTA arbitration panel agreed with that," Oberstar said.

    Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) who has focused closely on trucking safety issues in the past few years sent a letter to Secretary Mineta voicing his concern about any loosening of the restrictions.

    "Tread very carefully on this issue, because lives are at stake," Wolf wrote. "Already more than 5,000 people die every year on our roads in accidents involving heavy trucks. That number could skyrocket if unsafe trucks from Mexico are allowed on our highways."

Wilson Bridge Contracts Delayed, Lawsuit Filed

    Work on the replacement for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a joint $2.2 billion project involving the Federal government, the states of Virginia and Maryland and the District of Columbia, took one step forward and two steps back in the past week, as dredging work ended but a key contract-letting was delayed by two weeks and a new lawsuit against the project was filed.

    Completion of $15 million in dredging work in the Potomac River, which the bridge spans, was achieved two weeks early and cleared the way for the second phase of the massive project ? installing foundation pilings for two new six-lane bridges that would replace the single six-lane bridge.

    However, at press time word had not yet come from the Federal Highway Administration whether Maryland's plan to use union-only labor for bridge construction will be approved. A spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation, Jack Calahan, told the Washington Post that plans to open bids have been moved back two weeks, to February 22, to see what FHWA decides. Maryland has primary responsibility for bridge construction. However, there is opposition from Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore to disallowing non-union work on the bridge, based on cost concerns. Proponents of the all-union approach say it will speed completion because such an agreement would include a no-strike clause.

    Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed February 6 against several federal agencies calls for a work-stoppage on the bridge alleging the federal government has failed to ensure the work will not threaten endangered species in the area. Members of the filing group, the National Wilderness Institute, told reporters at a news conference that the suit aims to halt what Executive Director Robert E. Gordon Jr. termed unfair use of federal environmental rules to achieve conservation goals without adequate regard to property rights.

    Gordon said the federal government enforces the Endangered Species Act more stringently elsewhere in the United States than it does in the Washington, D.C. area. He was joined in the news conference by U.S. Rep. George Radanovich, (R-CA) who said he endorsed the lawsuit as a way of giving the East a taste of heavy-handed regulation. Radanovich was a sponsor of legislation in the 106th Congress to exempt the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and other facilities from certain provisions of the ESA.

Georgia Governor Proposes GARVEE Bonding to Speed Rural Roadbuilding

    Georgia Gov. Roy E. Barnes this week proposed legislation to clear the way for state issuance of $200 million in Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles (GARVEE bonds) to complete construction in a rural highways program in seven years, instead of taking up to 22 years to accomplish the same work.

    GARVEE bonds, authorized under the federal Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), allow states to issue debt against future federal highway trust fund receipts. Currently, 14 states have issued such bonds.

    At issue is the Governor's Road Improvement Program, or GRIP, a rural road building program started a decade ago. Its full estimated cost is $2.32 billion; more than 1,500 miles has been built or is underway as a result of the program.

    Georgia's constitution does not allow the state Department of Transportation to issue bonds. Barnes proposes putting the State Tollway Authority in charge of that, after renaming the entity the State Road and Tollway Authority. Georgia's DOT receives about $930 million in federal funds annually through TEA-21.

AASHTO Seeks Engineering Management Fellow


Klika to Head Standing Committee on Administration

    Cristine Klika, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation, has been named to chair AASHTO's Standing Committee on Administration.

    Klika was appointed to the new position for a two-year term by AASHTO President Dean Carlson, replacing Elizabeth Mabry, who has resigned from the committee post. Klika will continue also serving as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Information Systems, which reports to the Standing Committee on Administration.



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