QYou’ve been out of government for more than 20 years. How has life been on the other side?
ALife, in general, has been good. I’ve been able to stay involved in transportation policy issues, which is what
I enjoy. While the pace is still intense, it’s not as intense as it
was at DOT. That was a six-and-a-half day a week pace. This
is much more civilized.
QAs you look at the scope of the DOT then and now, and the transportation industry then and now, what
has been the biggest change at DOT and in the transportation world in general since your time at the agency?
AThe biggest set of changes at DOT occurred as a result of 9/11 when the [Department of Homeland Security
(DHS)] was created, the Coast Guard was moved out of
DOT, and what responsibilities the department had in aviation security were moved to DHS. In terms
of the shape and scope of the DOT, those are
the biggest events of the past 20 years.
I think virtually everyone would agree that
DHS is a work in progress. It’s had some very
able leadership, but it’s such a disparate set of
agencies, and there were so many differences
among the agencies that were thrown into
DHS. It’s fair to say that if Congress had to do
it over again, it might think through whether
that’s what it wanted.
In the transportation world, the biggest events have
revolved around the continuing evolution of economic
deregulation. When I was at DOT in the 1980s, the transportation industries were just beginning to shape their
response to the changes that had taken place from 1978 to
1980 [when airlines, railroads, and truckers were deregulat-ed]. At this point, we’ve hit a plateau. These are still dynamic industries, but they’ve plateaued as dynamic industries.
The dynamic is mature.
QIt’s been 30 years since the railroad and trucking industries were deregulated. How would you judge
that evolution?
AI think it’s been enormously favorable. The average American is much better off. The prices we pay are
lower than they would otherwise be because the logistics
cost component of the things we buy is lower than it would
otherwise be.
QHow would you rate the Obama administration in its handling of transport issues up to now?
AOne point of frustration is that they are reopening a rulemaking on truck drivers’ hours of service. [The
regulations] have already been through three iterations.
There is a great danger they will go through several more
now that they’ve reopened it.
That said, the challenges the administration has inherited
are very substantial. We are in an extraordinarily difficult
and somewhat unprecedented period in the history of the
federal role in transportation. Before [DOT Secretary]
LaHood got there, the highway trust fund collapsed. Today,
we are seeing multibillion dollar transfers of funds from the
general treasury because fuel tax and excise tax receipts
aren’t enough to fund existing programs.
Secretary LaHood also arrived just as President Obama
said he wouldn’t consider an increase in fuel
taxes because of their regressive nature. This
has put the secretary in a very difficult position.
QHighway funding reauthorization is liv- ing on a series of short-term extensions.
Do you think it’s possible that we may not
have a multiyear reauthorization bill by the
end of President Obama’s term in office?
AI started saying a year ago that we were facing four years of short-term extensions
of existing programs, and I’m sorry to say this is a prediction
that I believe will come true. It will be especially difficult for
the Obama administration and Congress to agree on a solu-
tion to the trust fund crisis if the political environment holds
in November and we have more Republicans occupying both
Houses who are skeptical of higher taxes of any kind.
What worries me is that the whole concept of the trust
fund is breaking down. You can’t make the argument with a
straight face that the trust fund should be spent just on
transportation programs and that it should be walled off
from the appropriations process while at the same time getting huge sums of money from general revenues. That is a
corrosive process. By 2013, we could find the whole notion
of the trust fund obsolete.
QThe conventional wisdom is that the controversial “cap and trade” provision contained in House-passed
climate change legislation has been killed by the election of
