(The following appeared on the Progressive Railroading website on May 12, 2009.)
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) is calling for a major U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) restructuring under the next surface transportation bill, according to BNA’s Daily Report for Executives.
The bill’s framework calls for creating a new undersecretary or assistant secretary for intermodalism who would meet monthly with all modal administrators. The bill’s outline also proposes to consolidate the USDOT’s 108 programs into four major formula programs: critical asset preservation; highway safety improvement; surface transportation program; and congestion mitigation and air quality improvement.
In addition, the USDOT and states would work to design six-year targets for four performance categories, with states submitting annual reports to the department and Congress.
The bill’s framework also proposes to “level decision-making factors between highway and transit choices/projects,” according to the outline. The federal government currently pays for half of transit projects, but funds 80 percent of highway and bridge work.