Editorial: Transportation Officials Ready to Act?

Washington, D.C., is often the butt of jokes for its year-after-year inaction. But this week — one filled with transportation events — there is a sense that maybe, just maybe, 2014 will be different.

One critical event will be a Jan. 14 hearing by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The panel’s Capitol Hill hearing is the first of the year that is expected to address the need for a long-term funding source for the nation’s infrastructure.

With MAP-21, the current highway law, expiring on Sept. 30 and reports of the pending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund, there is no time like the present to finally address this issue directly.

We’ve said this before, and it has yet to happen. And there always seems to be a reason. In fact, analysts are already pointing to the reason inaction could rule again — the focus on the midterm elections — instead of making the hard but necessary choices on transport funding.

At nearly the same time, just several blocks across town, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will present a briefing on its pending regulations, studies and research.

The agency’s to-do list is a long one, with the pending electronic logging mandate expected to be issued this winter. That is the same rule the agency said it would issue during 2013, but the rule remains under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

FMCSA’s event takes place at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. For many, TRB will be the first chance to hear Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx speak in person.

Foxx has not been very vocal during his first months in Washington, but that could change this year as transportation funding is debated.

In Texas last week, Foxx advised motorists to encourage their elected leaders to put together plans that include more funding for transportation.

And that is just what groups, including American Trucking Associations and the U.S. Chamber ofCommerce, are doing.

The Chamber called infrastructure investment one of its highest 2014 goals, while ATA issued a priority list that includes securing highway funding and advancing truck technology rules.

ATA Chairman Philip Byrd Sr., the president of Bulldog Hiway Express, summed up in the statement how many transportation advocates feel:

“January is a time when we take stock of where we stand and set goals for the coming year,” he said, “and we sincerely hope that our government leaders will take some time to reflect and to take these common-sense, and in some cases, long-delayed actions to improve highway safety, the environment and the efficiency of our economy.”