DC Velocity - January 2010

Public Administration, where he has served as chairman of the board of directors. He is a member of the board of directors of the Eno Transportation Foundation and has served on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Science & Technology Countermeasures to Terrorism. He has served on a DOT special panel to report on the safety impact of Mexican truck operations in the United States, he recently joined the Industry Leaders Council of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and he has served on the board of directors of the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak).

Downey spoke recently with DC VELOCITY Group Editorial Director Mitch Mac Donald about his career, the nation’s “vintage” transportation policy, and why he thinks freight interests might finally get a voice in the next round of transportation policy discussions.

QHow did you end up in your current role as it relates to transportation and logistics? AI have been in the transportation world now for a little over 50 years in one role or another, a lot of it in the public transportation area in New York. I was executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but I served during the Clinton administration as deputy secretary at U.S. DOT and got a much better appreciation of the goods movement side of the transportation world. I have kept part of my brain focused on that since I left DOT and entered consulting.

QYou served on the transportation pol- icy committee for the Obama presi-
dential campaign and then worked as part of the DOT
agency review team during the transition. What can you tell
us about your work there?

AIt was an interesting experience revisiting federal pol- icy and the Department of Transportation. During the campaign, the Obama folks had a very active group exchanging ideas and throwing in ideas about transportation policy. They published several fact sheets and working papers, more than have come out of any other presidential campaign that I can recall. I was fortunate enough to be asked to head up the DOT transition team.

Around this time last year, we began to organize that effort. Immediately after election day, we dropped everything and spent the next couple of months at DOT meetings with the career staff, meeting with virtually every interest group in the world who cared about transportation policy, and preparing documents that were handed over to the

incoming secretary, Ray LaHood, when he came on board. We also had the opportunity to brief him. It was a great chance to re-immerse in the policy issues and throw in my two cents’ worth on some of the directions. His team is off and running now, and I think the subject of goods movement and logistics is going to be an important part of its policy thinking.

QIt has long been argued that freight “needs a seat at he table” when national transportation policy is
developed, but that has yet to come to pass. What, in your
view, makes things different this time around?

AThe two catch phrases one usually hears are “freight deserves a seat at the table” and “freight doesn’t vote.” But the developments over the last eight or 10 years are changing things in a positive way. In the last round of transportation legislation—the so-called SAFETEA-LU bill, which is now mercifully expiring—there was an effort to bring freight into the picture, and those of us who worked on it felt it was moderately successful.

The other thing that came out of that legislation was the naming of two study commissions to prepare policy views in time for the next round of legislation because Congress couldn’t agree on a single charter. We had a commission devoted to policy and program development, and a separate commission that looked at financial issues.

I think from a freight standpoint, the policy commission was the more interesting one. Out of a combination of presidential and congressional appointees, that commission wound up with some people who were articulate on these subjects, including [Burlington Northern Santa Fe CEO] Matt Rose. They continued to follow up individually on the implementation of their recommendations and made a very strong case for a better focus on freight. They crystallized the connection between freight and the national economy, and the importance of addressing freight capacity issues as part of the policy debate.

I am not too optimistic that we will see anything but a short-term extension [of the current highway reauthorization bill]. But the major piece of work has been done, which is the development of surface transportation legislation from the House. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has picked up on a lot of our recommendations regarding ways of bringing freight to the table.