Infrastructure in the News: April 27, 2015
NATIONAL NEWS
Washington Post: Operational apples and oranges: Comparing Boston, D.C. rail systems
After record-setting winter storms this year crippled the Boston area’s aged public transit system, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) wasted no time in trying to reform an agency that operates one of the nation’s busiest rail and bus networks.
New York Times: Concerns on Jeep Safety Remain, Despite Recall
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/automobiles/jeep-safety-still-shadows-fiat-chrysler.html
DETROIT — Since its bankruptcy and government bailout in 2009, the American automaker Chrysler has made a stirring comeback primarily by expanding sales of its popular Jeep sport utility vehicles.
STATE NEWS
Washington Post: Is Metro really so bad?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/04/27/is-metro-really-so-bad/
After studying a half-dozen big transit agencies — in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and Minneapolis-St. Paul — Joshua Schank, president of the D.C.-based Eno Center for Transportation, has some positive things to say about the Washington area’s much-criticized subway system.
Washington Post: Troubles with Interstate 66 signs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/04/27/troubles-with-route-66-signs/
Transportation officials said they are working Monday morning to fix the signs on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia.
WNYC: L Train Riders: Help Is on the Way
http://www.wnyc.org/story/increased-l-subway-service/
Last year, every single station along the L line in Brooklyn saw an increase in ridership. Now, the MTA says it's adding seven new weekday round trips between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. starting in December.
POLITICO MORNING TRANSPORTATION
By Jennifer Scholtes | 4/27/15 5:42 AM EST
With help from Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan.
SUGGESTION BOX STILL OPEN FOR TRANSPORTATION FUNDING STRATEGY: It’s the same refrain: just buy a little time with a temporary extension and a long-term plan will materialize before funding and authority run out again. But with a May 31 deadline approaching for expiration of transportation policy, it doesn’t appear lawmakers have even reached agreement on the length of another short-term patch. Our Heather Caygle reports that some legislators are floating the idea of passing a clean policy extension into the summer, aligning expiration with the point at which the Highway Trust Fund will need a refill. Others say they could pass a combo of authority and funding for a six-month stint or even through year’s end. “But nothing is concrete, as shown by a quick chat with a handful of Republicans on the House and Senate tax-writing committees,” Heather reports: http://politico.pro/1b4Sz3V
PORT TRUCK DRIVERS ANNOUNCE STRIKE INTENTIONS THIS MORNING: Port truck drivers out in southern California will say this morning whether they will strike over their classification as independent contractors. Pro’s Marianne LeVine reports: “In addition, the drivers are circulating a petition calling on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia to address what they say is the misclassification of port truck drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. This battle began in 2012 with a lawsuit and gained traction the following year when drivers working for Green Fleet Systems, Pacific 9 Transportation, and American Logistics International went on strike several times.”
THIS WEEK: Cabinet officials and congressional leaders will be bopping around town this week talking about infrastructure investment, answering to Washington audiences filled with folks growing increasingly impatient with their commitments to reaching a long-term transportation funding solution now that expiration of highway and transit policy looms a month away.
Today — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew speak this morning at an event hosted by Bloomberg Government. The department heads will be joined by former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour and a leader in the infrastructure industry. http://bit.ly/1Gbw2Le
Out in Portland, members of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association delve into the second day of their conference on transportation financing and charging for road usage. Rep. Earl Blumenauer kicked off that conference yesterday with a speech about the need for Congress to come up with a long-term solution for filling the Highway Trust Fund, as well as his proposals to increase the gas tax and to order a study of mileage-based fee systems. http://bit.ly/1FpiY9c
Police officers from around the country meet in Rockville this morning, talking about the role of drones in law enforcement during a workshop at an Institute for Defense and Government Analysis conference. http://bit.ly/1Ea5PPg
IT’S MONDAY — LET’S DO THIS: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Reach out: @jascholtes or jscholtes@politico.com.
“Well she might've took my car keys, but she forgot about my old John Deere.” http://bit.ly/1FzuAI2
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THE REST OF THE WEEK:
Tuesday — House T&I Chairman Bill Shuster talks about infrastructure development in a discussion hosted by National Journal LIVE: http://bit.ly/1CR4dt0. The FAA’s special rules coordinator for drones, Robert Pappas, speaks at a forum on civil drone policy at CSIS, sitting alongside leaders from the ACLU and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International: http://bit.ly/1JITuCK. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s chief, Mark Rosekind, talks about strategies for raising the low completion rate for recalls, kicking off a workshop on the issue: http://1.usa.gov/1dhNGGv.
On Capitol Hill, Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, the head of the Coast Guard, testifies about his service’s resources before the Senate Commerce’s subcommittee that oversees his agency: http://1.usa.gov/1GwedJG. And the Senate Commerce subcommittee that deals with aviation issues holds its third hearing this month on reauthorizing the FAA, this time talking to the FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety and NTSB chairman Christopher Hart, as well as those who represent airlines and pilots: http://1.usa.gov/1zbBmBp.
A biennial tradition, the FAA calls a three-day meeting out in Reston of the forum tasked with designing aeronautical charts, as well as influencing flight information products and air traffic control initiatives: http://1.usa.gov/1J20HOh. The American Traffic Safety Services Association begins its two-day legislative briefing and Capitol Hill fly-in at the Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel near Union Station: http://bit.ly/1JIVnzc.
Wednesday — Looking into vulnerabilities the “gyrocopter” incident exposed, the House Oversight Committee holds a hearing on securing D.C.’s airspace: http://1.usa.gov/1Kmd8VY. The Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on opportunities for private investment in public infrastructure, with testimony from city development officials, as well as an infrastructure firm leader: http://1.usa.gov/1Ju2Buq. The House T&I Subcommittee on Highways and Transit holds a hearing on truck and bus safety programs: http://1.usa.gov/1KmaH5Z.
The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on lessons learned from response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill: http://1.usa.gov/1HJ7FJc. The American Traffic Safety Services Association wraps up its legislative briefing and Capitol Hill fly-in: http://bit.ly/1JIVnzc. The FAA presses on with its meeting on aeronautical charts: http://1.usa.gov/1J20HOh.
Thursday — TSA’s acting administrator Melvin Carraway testifies before a House Homeland Security panel about airport access controls: http://1.usa.gov/1JIVwTr. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration encourages people to tweet about distracted driving using the hashtag #justdrive: http://bit.ly/1EH4pPn. The FAA wraps up its meeting on aeronautical charting: http://1.usa.gov/1J20HOh.
Friday — The House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations holds a hearing on the Railroad Retirement Board’s controls for protecting against fraud: http://1.usa.gov/1GneSdP.
SHUSTER’S AIRLINE-INDUSTRY TIES THREATENING HIS LEGISLATIVE PULL? The latest eyebrow-raiser in the tale of House T&I Chairman Bill Shuster’s relationship with a top airline lobbyist could make it even more difficult for the congressman to cull consensus among his peers for anything aviation-related now that his work on the Travel Transparency Act is being questioned. POLITICO reports that the chairman swiftly guided the bill through his committee and through passage on the floor last year after asking Rep. Tom Graves to let him shepherd the legislation, which would allow airlines to advertise the base price of a ticket without including fees and taxes — a paramount priority for Airlines for America, the lobby shop his girlfriend, Shelley Rubino, helps lead.
Tangled timelines: Shuster’s own talking points for passing the legislation were strikingly familiar to those A4A put out. And his panel used very similar graphics to advocate for the bill, illustrating federal airfare taxes with a fake boarding pass, using the same base price, boarding time, ticket number and fictional passenger name. “Privately … many members have described the chairman’s relationship with Rubino as unseemly and said they were surprised that committee members were being lobbied by his now-acknowledged girlfriend. As the airfare legislation was gaining traction, Shuster’s marriage was crumbling. … At the same time Rebecca Shuster was filing divorce papers, Bill Shuster filed a document with his office stating that he was dating Rubino and that she would not lobby him or his staff.” http://politico.pro/1GmzP8N
Primary challenge: Back home in Pennsylvania, other Republicans may be plotting Shuster’s ouster. Pro’s Kevin Robillard reports that Tom Smith, a wealthy businessman who made a failed bid for Senate in 2012, is considering running against Shuster in the GOP primary. “Smith told Campaign Pro ‘several people’ — including Shuster's 2014 primary opponent, Art Halvorson — have approached him about running. Halvorson and Smith met this morning, and Halvorson said he planned to back Smith.” http://politico.pro/1bv37K1
SLOW THAT CABOOSE, EH?: Through an emergency order, the Canadian government is barring unit trains carrying dangerous goods from driving over 40 mph when traveling through urban areas. The government is also requiring more inspections and risk assessments along certain routes used to transport goods such as crude oil and ethanol. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe has the details: http://politico.pro/1I4Wnzq
MOTOR CITY’S RESURGENCE: Out in Detroit, a city still reeling from bankruptcy and the financial hardships of the American auto industry, investors and urban pioneers are making their way. Susan Ager, writing for National Geographic Magazine, explains that Motor City “is cool again” but still faces major economic challenges: “Once, men and women flocked to Detroit from the cotton fields of the South for well-paying automobile factory jobs. … Blue-collar jobs can still be had in the city’s three remaining auto plants, but most require advanced skills. Scores of tech start-ups in the new city do too. That leaves Detroit with a big obstacle to its rebound: the highest unemployment rate among the nation’s 50 largest cities.” http://on.natgeo.com/1aYYAz3
CRUISELINES SCURRY TO COMPETE IN CHINA: As the popularity of cruise vacations grows in China, major players like Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess “are engaged in an arms race of pampering-at-sea,” Bloomberg Businessweek explains in its latest cover story, “The People’s Republic of Cruiseland.” Christopher Beam reports: “The cruise business in China is still small. In 2014 about 700,000 Chinese travelers cruised, compared with 10 million Americans and more than 6 million Europeans. But the numbers are climbing rapidly — an increase of 79 percent from 2012 to 2014 — and the ceiling isn’t yet visible. In the U.S. and Australia, about 3.5 percent of the population cruises each year; the proportion in China is less than one-sixtieth of that. Some forecasters estimate that China will be the No. 2 market by 2017 — and that it could eventually replace the U.S. as the largest in the world.” http://bloom.bg/1yYt5QT
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Keys to the highway of the future: Smart cars, smarter networks. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Kmg0lR
— At the tender age of 10, the Airbus A380 is already entering a mid-life crisis. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1Kmgs3E
— Editorial Board: Fixes for ‘third-world’ airports. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1DB73Aw
— California’s state Senate committee has advanced a bill that would bar railroads from operating with fewer than two crew members. The Daily Democrat: http://bit.ly/1z48wTj
— Concerns on Jeep safety remain, despite recall. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1EaT7Qf
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 34 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 156 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 562 days.
THE DAY AHEAD:
All day — The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association hosts the second day of its conference on transportation financing and charging for road usage. 525 SW Morrison St., Portland, Ore.
All day — The Institute for Defense and Government Analysis hosts a conference on smart policing, with a workshop on the role of drones in law enforcement. 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md.
8 a.m. — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew speaks about transportation infrastructure at an event hosted by Bloomberg Government. 1101 K St. NW, Suite 500.
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Stories from POLITICO Pro
What comes next on the Highway Trust Fund?
Shuster muscled through transportation bill pushed by lobbyist girlfriend
What comes next on the Highway Trust Fund? back
By Heather Caygle | 4/24/15 5:50 PM EDT
Congress is once again playing whack-a-mole with the Highway Trust Fund. But in typical Capitol Hill fashion, lawmakers are bickering over where to aim the mallet.
As Congress charges toward a May 31 deadline — a must-act date that’s been on the books since last summer — there’s still no apparent agreement about what to do next.
“There are several permutations of this discussion which are all kind of built around some short-term extension and then followed by hopefully a multiyear bill,” said Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.).
Thune said that one of the main ideas being floated is a clean policy extension through some time in the summer, a relatively painless vote politically that would bring the reauthorization deadline more in line with when the Highway Trust Fund’s balance is expected to dip below a critical point. That would give Congress a couple more months to work on a long-term patchwork.
But nothing is concrete, as shown by a quick chat with a handful of Republicans on the House and Senate tax-writing committees.
“There won’t be anything done now until September, October or November because I heard the chairman of the committee a week ago saying they’re going to get a six-month extension,” said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
“We’ll get a short-term fix through the end of the year and then we’ll patchwork probably a five-year deal,” said Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.).
On the House side, there seems to be even less agreement: “I think that an extension probably is going to happen, but I think the timeline is up for debate. I don’t think it’s been entirely decided that it might be in July or October or December,” said Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), who chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee that oversees transportation funding.
Much remains uncertain, but here’s what we do know:
The authorization for highway and transit policy runs out May 31, but lawmakers have some breathing room on funding. The Highway Trust Fund will have enough money in it to keep chugging along until mid-July, according to the latest DOT projections.
Without some sort of cash infusion around that time, it’s likely DOT will have to start implementing cash management procedures, which means slowing or delaying reimbursements to state agencies. Absent congressional action, the fund’s highway account is expected to dip below $1 billion around mid-August and would reach zero at the beginning of September.
But federal officials caution that the $4 billion number is really the critical point at which lawmakers need to act, saying that letting the trust fund dip below that would be disastrous.
With that in mind, Senate lawmakers are mulling a plan to move a policy patch — minus additional funding — in the next couple of weeks that would run through sometime in the summer. The next step would either be another short-term patch — possibly through year’s end — that would require additional revenue, or a multiyear bill, which would require even more revenue.
A path forward on the House side is less clear, although several members have voiced support for an extension into December, followed by a long-term bill.
House Ways and Means members have been intensely focused on a pending trade deal between the U.S. and Pacific Rim countries recently and are unlikely to take any action on the Highway Trust Fund next week. That would push House action on the issue into mid-May after the lower chamber returns from a one-week recess, making it more likely that the Senate will act first.
And although this issue has been on the calendar since lawmakers patted themselves on the back for passing an 11-month extension last summer, the overarching message is clear: They all just need a little more time.
“We need a little bit of time to look at how we accomplish first of all finding funding for the short-term extension. And then secondly, how do we fund a permanent bill?” Reichert said.back
Shuster muscled through transportation bill pushed by lobbyist girlfriend back
By Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan | 4/24/15 6:08 AM EDT
Last year, Rep. Bill Shuster approached fellow Republican Rep. Tom Graves with a request. The powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman wanted to take over Graves' moribund Travel Transparency Act, an industry-friendly bill that would allow airlines to advertise the base price of a ticket without including fees and taxes.
The bill had gone nowhere under Graves (R-Ga.) — it didn't even muster a hearing in committee. Once Shuster (Pa.) took over, though, it moved at lightning speed: He introduced a revised version of the bill in March of last year, the same day he met with an airline industry group that supported it. A month later, Shuster shepherded the measure through his transportation panel in about 10 minutes. It sailed through the full House three months later without a roll-call vote.
The legislation wasn't only a priority for Shuster: It was a top issue for Airlines for America, and for Shuster's girlfriend, Shelley Rubino, the organization's vice president and a top airline lobbyist. Shuster's panel oversees the airline industry, and Rubino's group spends millions of dollars lobbying Congress on behalf of major U.S. airlines. Rubino herself lobbied for the legislation, according to lobbying disclosure forms.
Shuster's relationship with Rubino was disclosed last week by POLITICO, but at the time the legislation was going through the House, it was being kept secret. His relationship with her — and his dealings with her employer — have raised new questions about Shuster's advocacy on behalf of the airline industry. The ties go beyond Shuster and Rubino: The wife of Shuster's chief of staff is a top executive for Airlines for America, which is known as A4A. And the congressman recently hired an A4A lobbyist to run the committee's aviation panel.
Both Shuster and Rubino moved swiftly last spring to get the revised Transparent Airfares Act of 2014 across the finish line. The industry group worked with Shuster on tweaking the bill. Shuster and A4A used nearly identical graphics to promote the legislation. And Shuster's verbiage on the House floor was strikingly similar to A4A's talking points.
A year later, Graves says he has no idea why his bill was ignored before Shuster took it over. "I don't know the answer to that. I really don't.
"I felt like as chairman, you know, if he'd like to have his name on the front of it," that would be fine, Graves said in an interview. "I think I was second co-sponsor." Graves added, "I was the only one who had an interest at that time and then I guess some others gathered some interest."
A4A was unsuccessful in getting the measure through the Senate, and it's now seeking Shuster's help again. The trade association is trying to wedge the legislation into a massive overhaul of the FAA pending before the transportation panel. Shuster is crafting that bill, and Rubino's group has a major stake in it.
Shuster said Rubino stopped lobbying him and his staff in July 2014. But prior to that, Rubino was the lead lobbyist on the Transparent Airfares Act and worked closely with Shuster, according to multiple people familiar with their relationship. She currently is permitted to lobby the other 50 lawmakers on Shuster's committee and their staffs while she openly dates the chairman.
Both Shuster and A4A deny that the relationship or their joint work on the ticket-pricing legislation were improper or crossed any ethical lines.
Shuster, however, did not respond to questions about whether he should continue to oversee a massive industry that his girlfriend lobbies on behalf of.
"The chairman has a policy in place that goes above and beyond anything that is required, stating that Ms. Rubino does not lobby the chairman or his staff. There are no restrictions on whom a member of Congress can or cannot date," Casey Contres, a spokesman for Shuster, said in a statement. Contres added that several other interest groups, unions and airline companies also supported the legislation.
Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office declined to comment on whether Shuster should recuse himself from aviation issues, whether the speaker has confidence in Shuster or whether the Pennsylvania Republican should step down from the committee.
"I'm not going to discuss Mr. Shuster's relationship with anyone," Boehner said at a news conference Thursday in response to a question. "But I'm also very comfortable that the proper procedures were put in place to avoid a public professional conflict of interest."
Mike Long, spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), said in a statement that, "it appears that Chairman Shuster has done what the House Ethics Committee would expect from any member in this situation. Beyond that, I won't comment on a private relationship." McCarthy oversees House chairmen.
Shuster, a Republican, and Rubino, a Democrat, are well-liked among their peers in Washington. Lawmakers — many of whom have aspects of their private lives they, too, would like to keep out of public view — have been wary of commenting publicly on Shuster's relationship with Rubino or his close alliance with the airline industry. Several House members privately shrugged their shoulders and said the relationship is simply emblematic of how Washington works.
The Pennsylvania Republican was on the House floor this week, gladhanding members of both parties.
Privately, though, many members have described the chairman's relationship with Rubino as unseemly and were surprised that committee members were being lobbied by his now-acknowledged girlfriend.
As the airfare legislation was gaining traction, Shuster's marriage was crumbling. Rebecca Shuster filed for divorce on July 2, 2014, according to court records filed in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The Shusters' 27-year marriage formally ended on Dec. 11.
At the same time Rebecca Shuster was filing divorce papers, Bill Shuster filed a document with his office stating that he was dating Rubino and that she would not lobby him or his staff.
It is unclear when the relationship between Shuster and Rubino actually began. The two have long been close.
Their legislative priorities have been closely aligned, too. Indeed, Shuster, Rubino and her employer made for a remarkably unified and effective team.
On April 9, 2014, Shuster steered the bill through his committee and secured a fast-track process on the House floor. Shuster never made leadership or members of his committee aware of his relationship with Rubino, who was also pushing for the bill on behalf of A4A, according to multiple sources.
A4A launched a lobbying offensive, meeting with staff and lawmakers and distributing an informational packet noting that the bill had bipartisan backing and arguing it would end "the government's ability to hide the ball on rising aviation taxes and fees." Consumer groups disputed that characterization, saying in fact the bill would reverse a government rule forcing airlines to disclose the full price of tickets on the front end, rather than informing customers of hefty fees and taxes just before they're asked to pay.
A4A also created a website last April — airfaretransparency.com — to push the bill. That website now urges lawmakers to include the legislation in the FAA reauthorization that Shuster is leading.
A4A spokeswoman Jean Medina denied Shuster and Rubino's personal relationship influenced the group's lobbying efforts or the bill's success in the House.
"To suggest legislation moved through because of a personal relationship is inaccurate and inappropriate," Medina said in a statement. She noted that the House considers a large number of bills on the suspension calendar, the accelerated process that was used to approve the airline bill.
Shuster and other lawmakers also met with A4A's board on March 6 to discuss the group's priorities, including the Department of Transportation's airfare regulations, Medina said. Shuster introduced his bill that same day.
Medina added that the group has also had, "rapid bipartisan consideration" of other legislative priorities, including a cap on passenger security fees.
Still, Shuster worked so closely with the airline group on the ticket pricing bill that their talking points and graphics promoting the bill were nearly identical.
In his committee in March, and on the House floor in July, Shuster said: "For instance, right now DOT requires an airline and travel agent to advertise a $237 plane ticket as costing $300, hiding the $63 of taxes and fees from consumers."
In an informational handout passed out to House staffers, A4A wrote: "Today, on a typical $300 one-stop domestic roundtrip ticket, airline customers pay a whopping $62 in federal taxes and fees, or 21 percent of the ticket price."
Nick Calio, the group's CEO, has also used that same rhetoric.
"Right now ... 21 percent of every ticket goes to federal government in taxes and fees paid by airlines and their passengers," Calio said in a video posted to YouTube. "So if you buy a $300 roundtrip ticket, that's $62 that goes to the government."
In the course of trying to pass the legislation, Shuster addressed criticism that he was attempting to solve a little-noticed problem.
"There are some folks that have complained, 'Why are we doing this?' because nobody is complaining about it," Shuster said. "But if it's hidden, consumers don't know, so we're making sure that consumers know what the federal government is imposing on them in these taxes and fees."
Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the legislation, said he supported the legislation because the federal rules on airline ticket pricing shroud government taxes and fees and are akin to a "real nanny state bureaucracy." He said he was never lobbied to support this issue and had no comment on Shuster's personal life.
When Congress was considering the bill, consumer advocates argued it would instead allow airlines to hide the true cost of tickets up front. Charles Leocha, chairman of the consumer group Travelers United, said he was stonewalled when he asked the committee to delay the hearing on the bill last year. He called the bill "a form of bait-and-switch advertising."
He is now calling for Shuster to step down as head of the powerful committee.
"Having the most powerful person in the House on transportation issues going out with someone who is working for the airline industry isn't right," Leocha said. "This shows such an incredible lack of integrity."
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a friend of Shuster and former boss to Rubino — who worked on the Hill prior to A4A — bristled at questions over the lobbyist's relationship with Shuster. "Is falling in love appropriate?" he asked a POLITICO reporter.
Larson said he has spoken with Rubino and Shuster since their relationship was made public. Larson said he does not believe Shuster should have to recuse himself from aviation-related issues, but added the Pennsylvania Republican should consult legal counsel.
"I've known Shelley Rubino she graduated from college and came to work for me when I was Senate president in the state of Connecticut," Larson added. "She's got more integrity in her baby finger than most people here collectively have all together."back
POLITICO Pro Whiteboard: Lew: Gas tax hike in 1993 was 'enormous accomplishment'
4/27/15 9:57 AM EDT
The Highway Trust Fund may be again edging toward insolvency, but don't expect President Barack Obama's Cabinet to get behind a gasoline tax hike.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew were both lukewarm to the idea of a gas tax hike this morning, instead continuing to push the administration's long-shot plan of refilling the Highway Trust Fund via a comprehensive tax overhaul.
"I don't think there's any secret that the tax politics have been difficult for the last 20 to 30 years in this country," Lew said when asked during a Bloomberg Government event about increasing the gas tax. "One could say that it was an enormous accomplishment that in 1993 that we were able to fix the Highway Trust Fund for the time being."
Administration officials and most members of Congress have long shied away from endorsing a gas tax hike, even though the idea has the backing of a broad array of advocacy groups including the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO.
"What matters here is 535 people agreeing on a solution," Foxx said, noting that in addition to being politically unpopular, the gas tax also has a "structural challenge." "At the end of the day it's about what Congress is actually going to pass."
Lew said he was continuing to push Congress on a tax overhaul between now and Memorial Day, when the current authorization for highway and transit programs expires.
— Heather Caygle
To view online:
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