newsworthy
Can LaHood make good on transport
reauthorization?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went out on a political limb last month
when he said a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization bill would be
passed by Congress and signed into law by the August summer recess.
LaHood, who spoke at the SMC3 annual winter meeting in Atlanta,
based his comments on two premises: First, after helping shepherd two
prior reauthorization bills through Congress during his 14 years in the
House of Representatives, he knows that the process—despite its many fits
and starts—can work. Second, the need for transportation investment, and
the productivity and economic benefits that flow from it, is something
lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can agree upon.
As LaHood told the SMC3 gathering on Jan. 19, “There are no
Republican or Democratic runways. There are no Republican or
Democratic highways. There are no Republican or Democratic bridges.”
LaHood’s remarks come as the political winds driving reauthorization
have shifted. James L. Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who had chaired
the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and repeatedly
clashed with the administration over the reauthorization issue, lost his re-
election bid in the November midterm elections that turned control of the
House over to Republicans. Oberstar was succeeded by Florida Republican
John L. Mica, the committee’s ranking minority member.
The stars then began to align. LaHood, a Republican and a member of
the committee during his time in Congress, had worked with Mica. And
both Mica and the administration oppose the idea of raising motor fuel
taxes to fund transport programs. Mica, moreover, has called a reauthorization bill a top priority.
Two months before the midterms, President Barack Obama moved the
needle by proposing a six-year reauthorization plan. The move was a marked
change from the administration’s prior stance. Soured over repeated clashes
with Oberstar over the length of the reauthorization and the congressman’s
support of fuel tax increases, the administration had seemed willing to put
off addressing the issue for as much as two years.
James H. Burnley IV, who served as transportation secretary under
President Reagan and now heads the transport practice at Washington law
firm Venable LLP, said he was hopeful progress could be made in 2011. That,
too, represents a change from Burnley’s earlier position; in an interview with
DC VELOCITY one year ago, he predicted a multiyear reauthorization bill
would not be enacted during President Obama’s first term.
Burnley says the changes in the House of Representatives have changed
the equation. He noted recently that the administration and the GOP
House leadership—including Mica—are now aligned in their opposition
to fuel tax increases. “Thus, it’s possible that they [would] agree eventual-
ly to support legislation sized to fit the available revenue flow,” Burnley
said in an e-mail. “That would be a huge change from Oberstar’s futile
insistence on moving a bill that required a substantial fuel tax increase.”
Burnley said the political benefits of a new-found compatibility between
a Democratic administration and a Republican House can’t come a
moment too soon for an infrastructure network badly in need of repair
and starved for a reliable, multiyear revenue stream.
“We do have an infrastructure crisis, which federal and state governments are going to have to address sooner rather than later,” he said. ;
In some global
industrial real estate
markets, new space
is almost completely
absorbed and rents
are poised to rise,
which are incredibly
positive signs for our
industry and our
development business.
—Walter C. Rakowich, CEO, ProLogis.
In 2011, ProLogis expects to develop
$800 million to $1 billion worth of
properties on three continents, up
from $680 million in 2010.
“
”
Joe Cutrona, former
NASSTRAC head, dies
Joseph F.H. Cutrona, a retired
brigadier general who led NASSTRAC,
the nation’s leading small-package
shipper group, through the transition
to deregulation, died Christmas Day
at his home in Naples, Fla. He was 90.
Cutrona was executive director of
NASSTRAC from 1978 to 1998, representing the interests of small-parcel
and less-than-truckload (LTL) shippers
in Washington as they struggled to
adjust to the realities of shipping in a
post-deregulation world. Despite his
duty to shippers, he was known to
work and cooperate closely with carriers, believing that shipper interests
were best served through collaborative, rather than adversarial, relationships with carriers.
Cutrona came to the shipping
industry after a long career in the U.S.
Army that included service in World
War II, the Korean War, and the
Vietnam War. ;
—M.S.
