DOT Nominee Chao Outlines Funding, Infrastructure Priorities
This story appears in the Jan. 16 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — Elaine Chao, chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, pledged to collaborate with Congress on boosting funding for highway projects and modernizing the country’s freight networks during a friendly confirmation hearing in the Senate on Jan. 11.
During the three-hour hearing, Chao stressed a commitment to explore myriad funding strategies aimed at addressing the federal Highway Trust Fund’s looming shortfall. She said the Trump administration would look to enhance states’ access to private capital, through public- private partnerships.
“It is important to note the significant difference between traditional program funding and other innovative financing tools,” Chao said in prepared remarks. “In order to take full advantage of the estimated trillions in capital that equity firms, pension funds and endowments can invest, these partnerships must be incentivized with a bold new vision.”
Chao indicated the Trump administration would begin to unveil details of an infrastructure funding plan, which Trump said during the presidential campaign would consist of investing $1 trillion over the next 10 years through tax credits for private firms. The incoming administration will assemble an infrastructure task force to come up with funding proposals for big-scale transportation projects, she added.
Chao would not say whether the task force would be able to provide the Senate Commerce Committee with details about infrastructure funding strategies relatively soon.
The full Senate is expected to take up Chao’s nomination this month, Republican leaders said. If approved, she would succeed Secretary Anthony Foxx.
In an exchange with the nominee, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said the committee would begin to examine ways of ensuring the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. Transportation stakeholders point to studies that have determined poor and outdated infrastructure contributes to highway congestion that impedes the efficient movement of trucks. An American Transportation Research Institute study last year revealed congestion cost the trucking industry almost $50 billion in 2014.
DOT uses the Highway Trust Fund to help states pay for freight corridors and infrastructure essential for connectivity. The account is projected to be unable to assist states after the five-year FAST Act highway law expires in 2020.
Chao also pledged, if confirmed, to develop a framework for engaging the autonomous vehicle industry. Advancements in self-driving technologies prompted the Obama administration to begin a national discussion on requisite guidelines to oversee the industry.
“The private sector is driving this innovation. They are working with cities and states to demonstrate improvements in the safety and efficiency of autonomous cars and trucks,” Chao said.
She also guaranteed to the committee a focus on providing mobility opportunities across urban and rural communities. And she pledged to review the Obama-era Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, infrastructure grants to determine how best to optimize access for construction funding.
Her experience managing federal agencies prepared her to lead DOT’s regulatory agenda, she told the committee.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Chao’s husband, emphasized that point in introductory remarks at the hearing. Chao led the Department of Labor under former President George W. Bush and had served as deputy transportation secretary and maritime administrator.
Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) told Chao she would oversee the development of the country’s growing freight network. Thune and his colleagues on the committee suggested to Chao she should expect an easy confirmation in the weeks ahead. The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, sounded the alarm on the country’s deteriorating infrastructure, calling on the nominee to focus her energies on modernizing freight corridors, if confirmed.
“Years of neglect and increased demand have brought us to a point where we can no longer sit idly by and watch our country’s most critical infrastructure continue to deteriorate,” Nelson said.
Missing from the confirmation hearing was an in-depth discussion on improving freight mobility.
More than a dozen transportation groups, including American Trucking Associations and the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, have endorsed Chao’s nomination.
ATA President Chris Spear, who worked with Chao at the Department of Labor, said: “President-elect Trump could not have picked a more qualified, experienced and dedicated individual to serve in this important role.”
IBTTA Executive Director and CEO Patrick Jones said that the tolling industry will look to ensure it “remains an important component of any proposal to rebuild our nation’s transportation infrastructure. We will do our part to meet our country’s surface transportation infrastructure needs.”
