Lawmakers in both parties predicted Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was heading toward the helm of the Department of Transportation. 

Relatives of the victims of a 2009 Continental Airlines crash will be in attendance at Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx's confirmation hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

A group formed to lobby for the families of victims of the 2009 plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., said it would push Foxx, who is currently mayor of Charlotte, N.C., to continue the DOT's effort to enact more stringent rules for regional airlines.

The doomed flight that killed their relatives, which crashed as it approached the Buffalo airport in February 2009, was being operated for Continental Airlines by Colgan Air.  

South Carolina resident Scott Maurer, who lost his 30-year-old daughter Lorin in the crash, said the relatives of the accident's victims would ask Foxx to continue the effort to make regulations of smaller airlines more uniform with their larger counterparts. 

The Heritage Foundation has released a number of questions it wants lawmakers to grill Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx on at his first confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

The conservative think tank has long argued for a reduced federal role in transportation funding and is calling on lawmakers to press Foxx for his views when he testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

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Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx will face lawmakers for the first time this week as the Senate's transportation committee holds a hearing on his nomination.

Foxx (D), who is currently the mayor of Charlotte, will face questions from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday.

The panel will have to approve Foxx's nomination before it goes to a vote of the full Senate. 

Illinois drivers may soon be taking trips on the Ray LaHood Highway, if an effort in the state's legislature to rename a portion of a key interstate is successful.

A bill has been filed in the Illinois House of Representative to rename a part of Interstate 74 in Peoria after LaHood, who is retiring this year after serving four years as transportation secretary and 14 as a congressman from the city.

Despite his service in a Democratic administration, LaHood is a Republican. However, the bill to honor him with a highway designation is sponsored by a Democrat, Illinois state Rep. Jehan A. Gordon-Booth.

"Secretary LaHood has dedicated his career to improving Peoria and central Illinois," the legislation honoring LaHood says. "He served as the chief planner for the Rock Island-based Bi-Metropolitan Commission, as an aid to Congressman Tom Railsback and Congressman Robert Michel, and as a member in the Illinois House of Representative from 1982 to 1983."

The Senate committee that oversees transportation issues will hold a confirmation hearing newt week for President Obama's Transportation Secretary nominee, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx (D).

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said on Wednesday that the hearing would be held on May 23.

Foxx was nominated by Obama last month to replace retiring Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. 

A conservative group argues Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx's transportation record makes him wrong person for job.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wants the ban on cell phones and e-readers eliminated.

Pete Lawson, once a senior lobbyist at Ford Motor Company, has joined a prominent lobby firm.

Lawson is now a principal at the Bockorny Group. A veteran K Streeter, Lawson was vice president of U.S. Governmental Affairs for Ford before leaving last year. Before that, he was the top Democratic lobbyist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“Pete is a major hire for our firm,” said Dave Bockorny, the firm’s chairman and CEO, in a statement. “He is a senior Democratic stalwart who is well respected on both sides of the political aisle. The work of our firm will be greatly enhanced by his keen understanding of how business and government can work together to accomplish important public policy goals.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx (D) was a "wise choice" by President Obama.

Reid also added that the man Foxx will be replacing if he is confirmed for the DOT job, outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, was a standout member of Obama's first Cabinet.

"I think it's a wise choice," Reid said of Foxx during a press conference on Tuesday.

"He's someone that understands government," Reid continued. "He's head of transportation program that he's worked on as mayor…he was recommended highly by the president's secretary, who I think was a star of [Obama's first] administration." 

National Democrats are charging Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), running for Senate in West Virginia, with hypocrisy for suggesting she cut back on spending in her own life while going on congressional trips to foreign nations.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation (DOT) is getting ready to become chief of staff for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

DOT Public Affairs Director Sasha Johnson is scheduled to assume the chief of staff position at the FAA at the end of the month. Her last day at the DOT is scheduled to be on Friday.

Johnson has been with the DOT since 2009. She said in an email to media outlets on Monday that she was "incredibly excited about this opportunity and [looking] forward to this new challenge." 

The State Department on Thursday lifted a visa ban on Burma's military and government officials as part of the Obama administration's efforts to encourage the country's transition to democracy.

The 1996 ban targeted “persons who formulate, implement, or benefit from policies that impede Burma’s transition to democracy, and the immediate family members of such persons.” Burma, also known as Myanmar, remains subject to other travel sanctions under the Immigration and Naturalization Act, the 2008 JADE Act targeting regime leaders and President Obama's Executive Order 13619 of last July that targets human-rights abusers and people who threaten peace.

“This termination, effective immediately, is consistent with the Administration’s calibrated approach to strengthen and encourage further reform while holding Burma to its commitments on human rights and democratization,” the State Department said.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) announced Wednesday that they would introduce a bill to end doping in horse racing and kick cheaters out of the sport.

“The chronic abuse of race horses with painkillers and other drugs is dangerous and just plain wrong," Udall said. "Racing groups have promised drug reform for decades, but this bill would bring in real standards and enforcement from an organization with a proven record for cleaning up sports."

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) is praising President Obama’s choice of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx (D) to be the next U.S. Transportation Secretary.

Fudge had criticized Obama for lacking diversity in his early Cabinet choices, but she said Foxx, who is African-American, would make a good DOT Secretary.

“Through his work as mayor and as a city councilman in Charlotte, Anthony addressed the needs of an area that experienced tremendous growth within the past decade,” Fudge said in a statement released by the CBC. “Anthony will surely be an asset to the president’s cabinet and to this nation and I look forward to working with him to ensure the needs of our country’s transportation system are adequately met.”

President Obama called outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood "maybe the best secretary of transportation" in U.S. history on Monday.

Obama was speaking at his announcement of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to replace LaHood atop the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Before he formally introduced Foxx, Obama heaped praise on LaHood.

"Ray LaHood has said that being the secretary of transportation is the best job he ever had in public service," Obama said at the opening of his remarks on Monday. "And that’s fitting because Ray may be the best secretary of transportation that the nation’s ever had." 

The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees transportation said Monday afternoon that his panel will move quickly on President Obama's nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to be the next transportation secretary.

Obama announced his choice of Foxx to replace outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood during an event at the White House on Monday.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) praised the pick and promised to quickly hold a confirmation hearing on Foxx.

"I look forward to meeting Mayor Foxx and discussing his vision for the Department and our transportation needs," Rockefeller said in a statement. "I will move his nomination in the Commerce Committee as soon as possible."

“There is no such thing as a Democratic or Republican road, bridge, port, air field or rail system," Foxx said.

Foxx would replace outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

A top Energy Department official said Thursday that the department is on the cusp of making decisions about an array of industry applications to export liquefied natural gas.

“We are very soon going to be in a position to start making decisions based on the record, based on the documents supplied,” Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said of proposals that would expand U.S. exports.

“I wouldn’t think it would be months,” he told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Former House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica's (R-Fla.) longtime chief of staff has joined a private sector transportation firm.

Rusty Roberts, who served under Mica for 18 years, is working now for Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), a real estate and rail company based in Coral Gables, Fla.

A key industry group is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ratchet back this year’s volume requirements for biofuel production, arguing the proposed standards are unrealistic.

Veterans living in small towns or remote rural areas could receive federal grants to help them travel to the doctor, under new rules to be issued Tuesday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) rules could provide up to $50,000 to state agencies and veteran organizations to offer transportation to service members living in “highly rural” areas.

Former House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) is facing political trouble after using a racial epithet in an interview.

Young, who was chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 to 2007, used the term "wetbacks" to describe Latino workers on his family farm.

"My father had a ranch; we used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes," Young told Alaska radio station KRDB-FM. "It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine."

President Obama is reportedly considering appointing Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx (D) to run the transportation department in his second term.

Foxx is under serious consideration to replace outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has announced he is retiring this year, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

Foxx was elected mayor of Charlotte in 2009. Charlotte is where Obama was nominated for a second term last year.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has hired a new communications director for the panel, his office announced Wednesday.

Former House Ways and Means Committee spokesman Jim Billimoria will take the lead on pushing the GOP’s message on the Transportation Committee.

Billimoria has previously worked in the press shops of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and former House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio).   

Shuster said Wednesday Billimoria’s experience made him a good fit for the Transportation Committee post. 

Furlough notices started going out Thursday to thousands of Customs and Border Patrol employees, who face up to two weeks of unpaid leave between now and September thanks to the sequester.

"We're sending up a warning flare, not to scare anybody, just so people understand there are consequences," said the secretary.

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood touted a recent trip to Montana, which he said Thursday completed a stretch of visiting every U.S. state during his tenure at the Department of Transportation.

In a blog post on the DOT website, LaHood said a visit to Montana on Monday marked the last remaining state he had not been to since he was appointed Transportation secretary by President Obama in 2009.

LaHood said he has greatly enjoyed the traveling aspect of his soon-to-be former job.

“To say it has been a good ride would be understating it,” he wrote. “During the past four years, it has been a series of many, many rides ... by plane, train, car, boat, streetcar — you name it — and all of them good.

Former Rep. Jim Oberstar was chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee from 2007 to 2011.

Passengers have been safely removed from a stranded Carnival Cruise Lines ship after it reached shore in Alabama in the early hours of Friday morning, according to company officials.

The ship, named the Carnival Triumph, was stranded at sea since it lost power on Sunday after one of its engines caught fire. The disabled cruise liner was towed by tugboats to Mobile, Ala.

In a series of tweets on Thursday night and Friday morning, Carnival said it had removed all 4,000 people who had been on the boat for more than a week.

"All guests have now disembarked the Carnival Triumph," the company tweeted at 12:45 a.m. on Friday. 

A tug line that was being used to tow a stranded Carnival Cruise Lines ship to shore in Alabama broke Thursday afternoon, briefly setting back efforts to remove passengers from the debilitated ship by the end of the day.
 
The ship, named the Carnival Triumph, has been stranded at sea since it lost power on Sunday after one of its engines caught fire. The disabled cruiseliner is being towed by tugboats to Mobile, Ala.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Carnival said that one of the tug lines that was being used to haul the ship to shore had broken.

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) said the crippled Carnival cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico was proof the industry needs more regulation.

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s favorite president is Abraham Lincoln — but don’t tell President Obama that.

LaHood, an Illinois native who represented the state in the House, waxed on about his love of the 16th president at Monday night’s premiere of the National Geographic Channel’s “Killing Lincoln.”

He pointed out: “Lincoln served in the House for one term. I had all nine of his counties when he was in Congress, and I was part of the team of people that helped build the library and museum in Springfield, Illinois.”

Granholm joked that her swipes at Republicans as host of a left-leaning TV show could make Senate confirmation messy.

The Congressional Black Caucus said Rep. James Clyburn is "exceptionally well-qualified" for secretary of Transportation.

NTSB head says future appointments would not affect her agency's current safety probes.

A newspaper in National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Deborah Hersman's home state took a look at her candidacy Tuesday for the Transportation secretary job that is being vacated soon by Ray LaHood. 

Hersman, a Democrat from West Virginia, has publicly demurred when asked about her interest in assuming the position atop the Department of Transportation.

But citing national media reports that President Obama is leaning toward nominating Hersman for the post, the Charleston Daily Mail sized up her chances — and West Virginia ties — on Tuesday. 

"Her job on the safety board has brought Hersman to West Virginia several times," the Charleston paper wrote of Hersman, who is a native of nearby Spencer, W.Va.

"In 2011, she rode a UPS truck to Charleston, where she discussed highway safety issues," the newspaper continued. "After meetings here, she continued on to Louisville, Ky., riding in trucks from U.S. Express and Walmart." 

Deborah Hersman, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, is reportedly the front-runner to replace Ray LaHood.

The Los Angeles mayor had been widely speculated to be a strong contender for Transportation secretary.

Departing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was an "unexpected champion of green policies," the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said Thursday.

NRDC Executive Director Peter Lehner lavished praise on LaHood for policies such the Obama administration's push to require automakers to produce cars that get more miles per gallon by the year 2025.

"The Republican from Illinois backed the administration’s historic 54.5 mpg fuel efficiency standards," Lehner wrote of LaHood in a blog post on the New York-based NRDC's website.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) is taking himself out of the running to replace departing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. 

A group that encourages women to seek employment in the transportation industry is thanking departing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for helping to boost their ranks during his tenure in office.

LaHood announced this week that he was retiring from President Obama’s Cabinet.

The Washington, D.C.-based Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International said LaHood made it a priority to increase the number of women working in the transportation industry.

“Secretary LaHood epitomizes what WTS set out to accomplish when it was founded 35 years ago,” WTS President Marcia Ferranto said in a statement.

“While he’s been leading the charge to keep America’s transportation structure operating, he’s also been working and partnering with organizations like ours with an eye on the future,” she continued. “Workforce development is critical for this country and the world’s future, and bringing young women and other critical populations into the industry is where Secretary LaHood’s passion comes through.” 

Hersman has said publicly that she is not interested in the Transportation secretary job.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman — and potential Transportation secretary candidate — Deborah Hersman thanked departing Department of Transportation (DOT) chief Ray LaHood for his service Tuesday afternoon.

Prior to LaHood's announcement on Tuesday that he was stepping down from the transportation post in President Obama's Cabinet, Hersman has been mentioned as possible successor to the gregarious, departing DOT chief.

Hersman, who has is much less boisterous than LaHood, said she was thankful for the work the former Republican congressman had done since he was appointed Transportation secretary in 2009.

"I appreciate Secretary LaHood’s leadership in making transportation safety a priority," Hersman said in a blog post on the NTSB's website.

"He led the way on several important initiatives, including the effort to stop texting while driving, addressing the commercial vehicle safety, and pushing for the long-awaited rule to address fatigue in the cockpit, to name just three of the key safety initiatives under the secretary’s leadership," Hersman continued. "All of us at the NTSB thank Secretary LaHood for his public service and wish him all the best in the future."

White House officials have been tight-lipped, but the rumor mill is churning with candidates to become the next Transportation secretary.

President Obama praised Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday, saying "every American who travels by air, rail or highway" should thank the outgoing Cabinet official for his work at his department.

"I want to thank Secretary LaHood for his dedication, his hard work and his years of service to the American people – including the outstanding work he’s done over the last four years as secretary of Transportation," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

"As secretary of Transportation, he has fought to create jobs and grow our economy by rebuilding our roads, bridges and transit systems," Obama continued. "Under his leadership, we have made significant investments in our passenger rail system and laid the groundwork for the high-speed rail network of the future. And every American who travels by air, rail or highway can thank Ray for his commitment to making our entire transportation system safer and stronger."

LaHood, one of two Republicans in President Obama's first-term Cabinet, will stay on as secretary until a successor is confirmed.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Marco Rubio is set to introduce legislation Tuesday on visas for high-skilled foreign workers.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would make a "terrific" replacement for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Asked about potential LaHood successors during a breakfast with reporters, Boxer said, "I'm hoping names like [Los Angeles Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa ring true.

"I think he'd be terrific at it," Boxer said of the mayor of the largest city in her home state. "No one has asked my opinion, but I think he would make a very fine secretary of Transportation."