Future of Transportation Policy Is a Mystery as GOP Takes Congress, NITL President Says
This story appears in the Nov. 22 print edition of Transport Topics.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The future of federal transportation policy is a major question as the Republican Party prepares to take control of the House of Representatives, the National Industrial Transportation League’s president said.
Speaking at a press conference here during the TransComp/Intermodal Expo trade show, NITL President Bruce Carlton said that “it’s a new morning for all of us who have toiled in the trenches of transportation.”
Because the Republicans haven’t announced specific goals, Carlton said he had to rely on “conventional wisdom inside the Beltway.”
That speculation, he said, “was that the [Republican] leadership will do what it needs to do and no more than that [about transport policy], since they have got other business, like spending and tax cuts.”
Carlton said he didn’t know specifically whether a new multiyear infrastructure spending bill was on the agenda.
“We don’t know what his model is,” Carlton said, referring to Florida Republican John Mica, the expected new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “We don’t know what he is going to be able to do in his caucus.”
Carlton said the Obama administration’s policy goals also are a mystery.
“We haven’t heard from the administration,” he said. “We don’t know exactly what they are thinking.”
While there is uncertainty on several fronts, the absence of a consensus on transport spending policy remains.
“The problem in 2011 is going to be the problem we had in 2010, and 2009 and 2008,” Carlton said. “How do you pay for infrastructure improvements that have to be undertaken?”
One certainty is a renewed effort by what Carlton called a “very broad-based coalition of shipping interests” to press for a measure that would remove antitrust immunity for ocean carriers that now can meet to set rates collectively.
“No one wants the carriers to suffer the kind of economic losses they have,” he said, referring to the carriers’ estimated losses of at least $15 billion last year. “We just don’t think they need the ability to sit down and talk to each other about pricing,” he said.
Ocean carriers, he noted, received that immunity in 1916, when conditions are far different from today.
Among the other transport issues that remain uncertain is rail policy.
“Limbo is a pretty good word for that,” Carlton said. He noted that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who still will chair the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has vowed to keep advancing his bill intended to inject some new competition into the rail industry. However, that bill never reached the Senate floor in 2010.
Carlton also noted that Mica hasn’t made any statements about rail competition policy.
