The provision in the energy bill mandates that the volume of ethanol increase from the current 1.7-billion-gallon-a-year level to 5 billion gallons by 2012. Another provision phases out use of the gasoline additive MTBE, which is ethanol's primary competitor, by 2006. The provisions reflect an agreement reached by representatives of the oil and ethanol industries, Senate leaders and the White House (AASHTO Journal, March 15).

Concerns have been raised about the impact of an ethanol increase on the Highway Trust Fund, since ethanol is taxed at 5.3 cents-per-gallon less than the 18.4 cents-per-gallon rate for regular gasoline. Exacerbating the effect is the fact that 2.5 cents of the ethanol tax is deposited in the General Fund for deficit reduction. Should the Senate bill ethanol mandate be adopted, the Highway Trust Fund could lose up to $2.3 billion in revenue.

Citing adverse impacts in their states, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York have introduced and supported amendments to remove or delay the mandate.

As the country's largest consumer of alternative fuels, California would be particularly hard-hit by the mandate, Sen. Feinstein said Thursday. She said it could drive up gasoline prices by 4 to 10 cents per gallon across the country, and by 9 cents per gallon in her state. Feinstein's amendment would have required the Environmental Protection Agency to act on state requests for waivers within 30 days, and would have delayed implementation of the mandate by a year. It was defeated by a vote of 61-36.

Oberstar was joined by several family members of people killed in work-zone crashes for the unveiling of the memorial wall, now slated to travel to 10 U.S. cities over the next six months. The event was covered by the Associated Press as a national story with three captioned photos and by several Washington, D.C.-area television and radio stations and the Washington Postand Washington Times. State work-zone safety observances across the nation also were covered extensively from coast to coast.

AASHTO Vice President James Codell, Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, spoke at the event and Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary John Porcari acted as master of ceremonies for the news conference, held in Capitol Heights, Maryland at a work zone for a new on-ramp to Interstate 95 at Ritchie Marlboro Road.

Oberstar, ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, noted that improving job-site safety has been a priority of his since his youth in an iron-ore mining area of Minnesota, where he said he once witnessed a fatality caused by a mining vehicle running over the driver's coworker.

Even though substantial thought and funding went into the safety-promotion aspects of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, Oberstar said, still more needs to be done. "We're building the world's best highway system. We've not done enough to make it the world's safest highway system." According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1,093 Americans died in work-zone crashes in 2000, compared with 872 the previous year.

Codell noted that by a factor of four to one, crashes in highway work zones claim the lives of drivers and passengers in larger proportion than those of construction and maintenance workers. All such deaths are avoidable, he noted: "If you drive, you are in a unique position to do something about work zone safety, and the life you save may very well be your own."

Amy Snyder, recipient of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association scholarship award for students whose parents are killed in work-zone crashes, was moved to tears as she told about the day in 1999 her beloved stepfather Heiland Goldsborough, a highway construction worker, didn't come to pick her up from school - and ultimately, never came home.

In February, identical bills were introduced in the House and Senate to restore $4.4 billion of the slated $8.6 billion cut in highway funding in FY 2003. The Highway Funding Restoration Act (S. 1917, H.R. 3694) raises highway funding from the $23.3 billion proposed by the Bush Administration for FY 2003 to $27.7 billion, the amount authorized in TEA-21. The reduction proposed by the administration is a result of lower-than-expected tax receipts into the Highway Trust Fund in 2001.

Both bills have strong support in each chamber, with 315 co-sponsors in the House and 71 in the Senate. The administration has indicated it will support the $4.4 billion in additional funding.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was scheduled to mark up S. 1917 Thursday, but that was postponed after some committee members disagreed about a proposal to add another $1.2 billion to the measure.

Some committee members contend that the higher figure should prevail because the Senate's FY 2003 budget resolution sets highway funding at an overall level of $28.9 billion. It was reported that some Republican members do not support the additional $1.2 billion, and would rather stick with the $4.4 billion increase included in the House FY 2003 budget resolution. Members of the committee's staff said there will be meetings to explore the issue and determine how the panel should proceed.

Budget on Slow Track in Senate

In the meantime, it's still unclear when - or whether - the FY 2003 budget resolution will be considered by the Senate. Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) told reporters this week he intends to bring up other bills before moving to the budget resolution, including completing the energy bill, considering fast-track trade pact authority for the executive branch, and other legislation.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Amtrak's 15-month-old Acela high-speed service appears to be carrying as many passengers as two major airline shuttles in the heavily traveled Boston-to-Washington corridor, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics numbers.

Edward R. Hamberger, President and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Railroads that "Although Amtrak was created as a for-profit entity, experience has shown that this is not achievable. No comprehensive passenger system in the world operates today without significant government assistance."

Hamberger also said that safety requirements "and the integrated nature of railroading" make breaking passenger-rail service up among different providers a poor idea. "Further," he said, "Amtrak's right of access, preferential access rates, and operating authority should not be transferred or franchised."

However, William Rennicke, vice president of Mercer Management Consulting, told the subcommittee that at least a dozen companies stand ready to "step in and be private operators" if Amtrak is broken up.

The hearing, titled "Passenger Rail in America: What Should it Look Like?" is the third in a series held by the subcommittee on the future of the troubled rail line.

Amtrak has only stayed operational with federal subsidy since it was created in the 1970s, and Congress in recent years set a deadline on the line to pay its own way by the end of this year or face possible dissolution.

Amtrak officials in recent months have announced plans to cut service if Congress does not supply $1.2 billion in subsidies this year; the Bush Administration budget only calls for $521 million, the same amount Amtrak was budgeted for in the previous year.

The CQ Daily Monitor reported that staffers of the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee were asked to prepare a stopgap measure offering $1.2 billion in federal aid to Amtrak - the sum needed to keep it operating for a year - in case no consensus can be reached in a shorter time-frame on what to do. Several individual lawmakers have legislation pending to offer more assistance to Amtrak, or alternately to break it up and let individual states and private-sector groups pick up its pieces.

Though federal emergency assistance comes to states through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the compact would help states help each other. The April 6 National Journal reports that former Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles got the program started following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The 19 states of the Southern Governors Association formed a more limited compact, which was opened to other states in 1995. Congress recognized the compact as a model in 1996. Currently only Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming and California remain outside the compact, which requires a membership fee of $1,000 a year.

The compact sets uniform legal and financial provisions regarding assistance efforts in advance of an emergency, so aid can move quickly in time of need. A secure electronic network is available to share requests for help and identify assets available. Members hope to create a 50-state database of such assets, sorted into categories, and to develop standardized assistance packages with specific personnel and equipment.

New York State, which received offers of help from every state and accepted assistance from more than two dozen in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, was one of the most recent to ratify the compact, on September 17.

Linking the gas tax to inflation is "absolutely critical for a long-term transportation program and highway-reconstruction program," said Deputy Commissioner Jane Lincoln of the Maine Department of Transportation.

According to the Kennebec Journal, Maine' s highway fund faces an $88 million shortfall in the two-year budget cycle that starts July 1, 2003. The initial tax hike of 2.6 cents per gallon in fiscal 2003, followed by a half- cent hike in 2004, would raise $47 million to $48 million over the next two years. The amount would fill more than half of the $88 million hole in the highway fund.

The gas tax increase is expected to shrink a shortfall in the state fund that pays for highway and bridge work, thereby allowing pending transportation improvements to go forward. The initial increase will add about 2.6 cents to the 22-cents-per gallon tax, unless the next legislature reverses the decision before the increase goes in to effect a little less than 15 months from now. The gas tax has not gone up since 1999, when it jumped from 10 cents to the current 22 cents.

"Maine roads need to be fixed; Maine bridges need to be fixed," said Rep. Gary Wheeler, D-Eliot.

The Maine Transportation Department backs the increase and estimates it will cost the average motorist about $15 per year.

Federal Highway Administration Executive Director Frederick "Bud" Wright announced the new assignment on Monday, effective May 26.

"The Directors of Field Services are an important extension of my office, and the Administrator and I believe that Christine's experience and skills will bring a valuable perspective to the position," Wright said.

"In her new role, she will assist us in dealing with programmatic issues, achieving better alignment between headquarters and the field, developing technical expertise, transferring technology, and further developing the leadership capacity of our agency."

Wright also stated that in her current positions, Johnson has significantly raised the bar in deploying technology and innovation to improve the nation's transportation systems, and has been a strong advocate for the development of technical expertise within the agency.

Governor Mark Warner (D) chose Shucet from a field of more than 125 candidates, according to the Washington Post.

"Mr. Shucet was the clear choice," said Warner. "He will bring accountable leadership and the best of public- and private-sector experience to the Virginia Department of Transportation."

Prior to his appointment, Shucet was an executive vice president at the Pennsylvania- based engineering firm Michael Baker Corp., where he successfully reorganized its environmental unit. Virginia DOT faces financial problems that affect both its short-term ability to pay the bills and its long-term commitments to build promised projects.

"Definitely, the mantra is to move forward. VDOT has had a tough time," said Shucet. "I need to use my eyes and ears a lot before I engage my head."

"The biggest overall issue for Shucet is to restore confidence in the planning and programming side of VDOT," said John G. Milliken, the former transportation secretary who led Warner's transition.

Since 1995, Kyriacopoulos has worked for Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening as Chief Congressional Liaison and manager of federal affairs in the governor's office in Washington. In the four years prior to that, he served former Gov. William Donald Schaefer of Maryland on federal issues relating to agriculture and the environment, and for more than a year preceding that Kyriacopoulos followed agriculture, the environment and transportation for former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard. Kyriacopoulos also served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan for nine years.