Highways, Bridges and Roads

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday a "new transportation era" will begin next week with the implementation of the $105 billion transportation bill that was passed by lawmakers earlier this year.

LaHood said in a blog post on the Department of Transportation's website that the DOT was gearing up because many of the provisions in the new law, which became the first new road and transit spending approved by lawmakers since 2005 in June, are scheduled to take effect on Monday.

LaHood said the provisions that begin on Oct. 1 will "really change the transportation status quo."

"This Monday, October 1st, those changes go into effect, and we are working hard to make sure our state and local transportation partners are aware of the changes and are ready to join us in hitting the ground running," LaHood wrote.

A rare thing happened in the first Massachusetts Senate debate this week: a lawmaker running for reelection touted voting for the $105 billion transportation bill that was approved by Congress earlier this year. 

In a debate with Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) on Thursday night, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) cited the transportation bill as proof of his bipartisan nature. 

Not many other lawmakers have mentioned the transportation bill on the campaign trail this year. 

The measure, which was the first new road and transit spending measure passed by lawmakers since 2005, was part of what is widely thought of as the final burst of legislative activity before the November elections. But lawmakers have largely stayed quiet about it as campaigns cast each other as big government spenders. 

Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee questioned on Thursday the Department of Transportation's handling of bus and truck safety programs that were put in place in 2010.

The panel's Highway and Transit subcommittee held a hearing to examine the implementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

Committee Chairman John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said the program was created help the agency within the Department of Transportation to better keep track of data relating to safety violations by bus and trucking companies.

But Duncan said Thursday that the data has thus far not been very reliable.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to reverse cuts in transportation funding she says takes road and transit spending below levels of the recently approved $105 billion highway bill. 

Boxer said a continuing resolution of the previous transportation bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which has been expired since 2009, would cut $500 million in transportation funding from the 2013 fiscal year because it does not include an adjustment for inflation that was accounted for in the larger transportation bill. 

Boxer said Boehner should honor the funding levels lawmakers agreed on when they passed the first multi-year transportation in seven years in June. 

"Congress made a commitment to the American people that we were going to invest in our nation’s infrastructure at a time when our economy needs it the most," Boxer wrote in a letter to Boehner. 

The platform expected to be approved by Democrats on Tuesday lauds President Obama for the auto industry bailout and for implementing a new gas mileage standard.

The platform also calls for a longer transportation funding plan than the two-year, $105 billion highway bill that was recently approved by Congress.

The more than 25,000-word platform is expected to be ratified when the Democratic Party convenes the first day of its convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday.

The Republican Party's platform, which was approved last week, took whacks at Amtrak and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but the Democratic platform focuses on the $80 billion that was loaned to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009, arguing the assistance saved the U.S. auto industry.

"President Obama and the Democrats boldly rescued America’s auto industry, saving more than one million jobs, preventing the collapse of the industry’s supply chain, and shoring up countless communities, while revitalizing the backbone of America’s manufacturing sector," the Democratic platform says.

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The America Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) said Thursday that higher gas mileage requirements for cars enacted this week by the Obama administration will make less fuel tax money available to pay for construction projects.

The Washington, D.C.-based ARBTA said the administration's proposal to require cars to get 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025 will cost the highway trust fund, which traditionally pays for a large portion of road and transit projects, $71 billion. The new emission rules were finalized by the departments of transportation and environmental protection earlier this week.

The federal gas tax, which has been 18.4 cents per gallon since the early 1990s, currently generates about $35 billion per year. The recently approved $105 billion highway bill spent more than $50 billion annually, which transportation advocates argue is barely enough to maintain the existing road and transit systems.

The Transportation Committee chairman easily beat freshman Rep. Sandy Adams in their GOP primary.

Mica, who is facing Adams in a primary, has objected to an ad featuring footage of House floor proceedings. 

The Washington-based American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) is calling on the Democratic and Republican parties to include language about transportation construction in their platforms when they convene in Charlotte and Tampa for their conventions.

In letters to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schutlz (D-Fla.), ARTBA President Peter Ruane said it made sense for both parties to support transportation in their respective platforms.

"A firm belief in the value of infrastructure is…woven into the historic fabric of the Democratic Party," he wrote to Wasserman-Schultz. "In 1806, Thomas Jefferson, America's first Democratic president, authorized funding for the National Road, running west from Cumberland, Md., and all the way, ultimately, to Vandalia, Ill." 

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is predicting that a proposed transportation tax in Georgia will pass when voters cast ballots on the measure at the end of the month.

The proposal to increase sales taxes by 1 cent in 12 regions across Georgia to pay for road and transit projects is being watched closely by transportation observers nationally because of its occurrence in strongly conservative state.

Polls have showed support for the transportation tax is dropping in the final weeks of campaigning for the proposal, even in the traditionally Democratic city of Atlanta.

But Reed said in a speech to the Atlanta Business League that was posted online by his office that the transportation tax would be approved at least in the region that includes his city.

"Take it from somebody who knows how to win when I'm behind...We're gonna win this election," Reed said in a reference to his 2009 campaign.