Senior Fellow at @EnoTrans. Editor of @EnoTranspoWkly. Congress junkie. Man about town. Opinions my own.
Arlington, VA
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Here's how all this plays out:
House unable to elect Speaker on Jan 3 or many days after.
There can be no joint session to count electoral votes before the House gets a Speaker, Jan 6 or later.
If no Speaker by noon Jan 20:
Acting President Chuck Grassley
ASSUME DEER DEAD
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In 1970, then-Prince Charles was on a ceremonial visit to DC and toured the Senate, where they gave him a personalized copy of the Senate rule book. He muse not have appreciated the gift properly, because I found it in a used bookstore in 2018 and got it for $20.
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In re NYC flooding, now is a good time to point out that just 6 weeks ago, the @USDOT IG did an audit of the money Congress provided after Superstorm Sandy to fix NYC mass transit after those floods and found less than 1/2 had been spent, 8 years later: oig.dot.gov/library-item/384…
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Senate Commerce Committee announces vote on @PeteButtigieg nomination for Secretary of @USDOT Wed. Jan 27 at 10 a.m.
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There is actually a stronger argument that the Founders would have approved of a strong federal role developing/funding #broadband than most other types of #infrastructure. Because what else was the Post Office in 1787 except a network for nationwide information transmission?
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Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approves the nomination of @PeteButtigieg for Secretary of @USDOT by a vote of 21 to 3. Nomination now goes to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, hopefully later this week.
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Why don’t federal agencies make charts with artwork like this anymore? From the Civil Aeronautics Admin in 1946, found in the @TrumanLibrary
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Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), head R on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, reverses his previous “no” on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and now says he will vote ”yes.”
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New data from @USDOTFHWA says that the cost of building & maintaining highways has risen 50% since 2020, effectively reducing FWHA buying power by $21.5 billion ($115b in nominal obligations = $93.6b in "real" obligations). Story:
enotrans.org/article/highway…
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Of the $550 billion in new, above-baseline spending in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, at least $105 billion will for @USDOT competitive grant programs so that @SecretaryPete can select the winning projects. $105 billion. A stunning total. 1/2
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Reminder: the purchase, care and feeding of cars and trucks represents 14.1 percent of the total CPI "basket of goods" and those prices collectively rose 23 percent in 2021, a big driver of total inflation:
Cost of Driving Drives Cost of Living Increases enotrans.org/article/cost-of…
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"There is only one thing I hate more than lying. Skim milk, which is water that’s lying about being milk." - Ron Swanson
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The U.S. Senate has confirmed Polly Trottenberg to be Deputy Secretary of @USDOT (the "S-2") by a vote of 82 to 15. Congrats Polly!
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What to expect from the @SenateCommerce confirmation hearing for @PeteButtigieg on Jan. 21: enotrans.org/article/buttigi…
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That time when the prospect of 4 percent inflation forced LBJ to accept a tax increase and a $6b (3.3%) cut in federal outlays.
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If this BIF deal holds, it would put just a staggering amount of money in the hands of @SecretaryPete to distribute via @USDOT’s own selection of projects (competitive grants) instead of the traditional formula-based distribution to states and cities. Just staggering.
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On rail, the clear winner is the Northeast Corridor, getting at least $30 billion of the $66 billion in guaranteed above-baseline funding in the BIF ($6 b straight to Amtrak for the NEC and $24 b for fed-state partnership grants for NEC projects).
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Dems are putting a special rule on the floor that would (a) automatically pass the Senate-passed budget blueprint without a separate vote and (b) allow the Speaker to schedule a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill at any time between now and Jan 3, 2023.
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AAA reports that as of today, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. has dropped by 17.8 cents/gallon from its recent March 11 peak. By tomorrow, inaction will have given us the same relief that a federal gas tax holiday (18.4 cpg) would have given... 1/2
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RIP BUILD grants, now as extinct as TIGER. Long live RAISE grants. (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity.)
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When I was on the Hill in early 1990s I worked for a landlocked Appalachian member. The maritime unions came to every fundraiser and gave, and all they asked for was to be with them on a Jones Act vote every 6 or 8 years that no one in his district knew enough to care about.
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Here are the 5 national rail route maps that OMB gave President Nixon to choose from in Nov. 1970 when they were setting up Amtrak. More info: enotrans.org/article/amtrak-…
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Offhand, I cannot recall a previous Secretary of Transportation ever going on this show
The US Secretary of Transportation has called out airlines for cancellations & delays. We were joined by @SecretaryPete to talk about what the airlines need to do to redeem themselves:
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Freshman Sen. @LeaderMcConnell meeting w/ Pres. Reagan, VP Bush, CoS Howard Baker, UWDA Sec. Lyng, and WH aide Bill Ball. March 30, 1987. Subject: 1987 highway bill veto. Photo courtesy of Reagan Library. (McConnell voted to override veto.)
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Reminder to fans of @USDOT or of @SecretaryPete - I am keeping a log of all the Administration's DOT nominees, updated every couple of days, and the WH announced a few more today... enotrans.org/eno-resources/s…
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Excellent new study from @NASEMTRB on how state DOTs use their ability to transfer federal highway funding between highway programs and from highways to mass transit. Some states do a whole lot more "flexing"from highways to transit than others. nap.nationalacademies.org/ca…
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Reminder: all that money in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is subject to "Buy America" rules that include paying 2x the global market price for steel used in construction. It's been U.S. policy since 1978.
Your periodic reminder that US manufacturers are paying almost twice as much for hot-rolled steel as are manufacturers in Western Europe:
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New from @USDOT - the first year's tranche of large bridge grants from the Bridge Investment Program created by the bipartisan infrastructure law.
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As if the BIF wasn't enough news, my colleagues at @EnoTrans have released an epic report on why building mass transit rail projects in the US costs more than in peer nations, complete with a database of facts on 180 projects worldwide projectdelivery.enotrans.org
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New from my @EnoTrans colleagues this week - an initial set of answers to the question "why do mass transit projects in the US cost so much more than those in other peer nations?" enotrans.org/enotransitcapit…
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The metadata of the leaked 6-pg PDF summary of the Trump #infrastructure plan says the author name (who converted it from Word to PDF on 1/8) is the same as that of a lobbyist in the firm co-chaired by former Sen. David Vitter. Correlation does not = causality, but still...
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The Senate Commerce Committee has posted Mayor Pete’s nomination questionnaire in advance of tomorrow’s hearing: commerce.senate.gov/services…
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Congress systematically under-funds upgrades to air traffic control equipment vs other aviation priorities. Even with the extra $1B/yr from IIJA in FY22 & FY23, FAA capital got $841 million less than the authorized target level over the 5 years of the latest authorization law.
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The Senate has confirmed @PeteButtigieg as Secretary of @USDOT by a vote of 86-13. "No" votes were R's Blackburn (TN), Cassidy (LA), Cotton (AR), Cruz (TX), Hagerty (TN), Hawley (MO), Lankford (OK), Marshall (KS), Rubio (FL), Scott (FL), Scott (SC), Shelby (AL) Tuberville (AL)
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(Don't get me wrong, each program has rules written into the law that he has to obey when selecting winning grant recipients, and he can't just make up rules as he goes along – but this is way way more money than any other SecDOT has ever been given for discretionary grants.) 2/2
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Looks like DOT is rolling out the Reconnecting Communities program in conjunction with Secretary Pete's trip to Alabama today... transportation.gov/briefing-…
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Department-wise, @USDOT is the clear winner in the $550 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that is about to be introduced. $274 billion in new, "above baseline," guaranteed spending.
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If you, like me, are tired of hearing people be imprecise about what, exactly, the "80-20 highway-transit split" is, and want some actual facts, look no further... enotrans.org/article/explain…
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The Senate has passed HR 5434, the 1- month Highway Trust Fund extension, clearing it for POTUS signature so that the 3,700 furloughed @USDOT employees can return to work on Monday
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Funds provided directly by the infrastructure bill to @USDOT over 5 years:
Highways - $312B
Mass transit - $91B
Railroads - $66B
Highway bridges - $40B
Airports - $25B
Safety - $18.3B
Ports (landside only) - $2.3B
Multimodal grants - $12.5B
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Because the hijackers of Southern Airlines flight 49 in Nov. 1972 threatened to fly the plane into the Oak Ridge nuclear reactor, rendering large swaths of Appalachia uninhabitable. That is why Nixon ordered the federal government to take over airport security.
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Over 10,000 transportation professionals will be coming to DC starting tomorrow for #TRBAM. The Metro stop at National Airport will be closed (northbound) for maintenance and DC will be paralyzed as usual with a small snowstorm. Yay, transportation!
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Most profound thing ever written about autonomous vehicles (not original to me - stolen from FB re-posting):
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Not surprisingly, the $6 billion for highway and transit earmarks for @TransportDems has been dropped from the reconciliation bill. But the $10 billion for transit and $10 billion for high-speed rail remain in the latest version: rules.house.gov/sites/democr…
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The Big Take on the 2020 Census: rural population decline continues almost everywhere, urban population gains continue almost everywhere.
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In case anyone wants to hear me narrate a PowerPoint explaining the transportation spending in the BIF for a half-hour and then take 15 minutes of Q&A, this is your lucky day... piped.video/watch?v=0lfcHWwB…
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The EPA is threatening Calif. with a highway funding cutoff for nonattainment areas under sec. 179 of the Clean Air Act. But that leaves regions free to flex all of their hwy. formula $$ to transit projects. This may be the most pro-transit thing the Trump Admin. has ever done.
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For everyone new to the #transportation beat -if you are interested in long-form articles about how federal policies and institutions developed, start here #learnaboutdot enotrans.org/article/transpo…
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The IIJA #infrastructure bill definitely made a difference in @USDOT priorities, particularly if you group the non-highway surface #transportation modes together...
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Now that NYC is so so close to finally enacting downtown congestion pricing, and LA and SF are looking at it, it’s worth pointing out that President Eisenhower had the idea for DC on his own, unbidden, 60 years ago: enotrans.org/etl-material/19…
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This is the deepest into decimal points that I have ever seen federal funding legislation go, and I have been at this a while. From the Senate EPW highway bill apportionment formula:
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In case you were wondering what kind of authority @SecretaryPete has to approve or veto state highway projects using @USDOTFHWA money:
A History of the Secretary's Ability to Approve (or Disapprove) Highway Projects enotrans.org/article/a-histo…
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Remember: the reason the FAA was created in the first place, in August 1958, was because there were 2 fatal crashes between passenger airliners and military planes back-to-back (United 736, 4/21/58, and Capital Air 300, 5/20/58).
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Best
1 Alan Boyd: wrote the DOT Act, spun up the Dept
2 John Volpe: foremost advocate for letting cities make mode decisions and giving them $$ to do so
3 Drew Lewis: orchestrated 1982 gas tax increase
4 Norm Mineta: managed 9/11, created then got rid of TSA
5 Rodney Slater: GPS
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The House has passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill (Senate amendment to H.R. 3684), without amendment, clearing it for President Biden's signature. The vote was 228 to 206, almost but not completely party-line.
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Looks like the total on-budget 10-year deficit increase under BBB, per CBO, is $389 billion, or slightly more than the real deficit increase caused by the BIF.
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The Senate has adopted the Sinema-Portman (BIB) substitute to HR 3684 by a vote of 69-28 and has voted to invoke cloture on HR 3684, as amended, by 68-29. No further amendments are in order except by unanimous consent. Final passage vote depends on yielding back debate time.
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The phrase "Inflation Reduction Act" does not occur anywhere in the bill POTUS is about to sign. Because a bill's "short title" doesn't increase or decrease the deficit, it violates the Byrd Rule, so it was jettisoned before Senate passage. (Along with the table of contents.)
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2/2 The IRS collected a net $26 billion in gasoline taxes, and did it at only about 1,300 points of collection (refineries and wholesale tank farms). Much, much more efficient than the IRS trying to collect $26 billion by measuring the annual mileage of 253.8 million vehicles.
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Can't tell for sure without seeing the finished bill, but if the FRA authorizations for future appropriations stay the same as base bill, here are the funding increases over flat-line baseline in the BIF bill, by @USDOT mode
FHWA +49%
FMCSA +52%
FTA +65%
NHTSA +71%
FRA +726%
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Congratulations to longtime Assistant Secretary of @USDOT for Budget and Programs Lana Hurdle on being named Acting Secretary for those few days until Sec. @PeteButtigieg gets confirmed. Could not happen to a nicer and more competent person... whitehouse.gov/briefing-room…
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The House has passed the rule by a full attendance, party-line vote of 220 to 212, so the FY 2022 budget resolution has now been automatically adopted, and a firm-seeming deadline of September 27 for a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill has been set.
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I sleep in on a fed. holiday and miss the news that my old friend Polly Trottenberg will be nominated as Deputy Sec. of @USDOT. Extremely qualified, here is her job resume as of 2012, before 2 hrs as Undersecretary and before 5 years as head of NYCDOT
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It's a good time to be a planner. A drafting error in the IIJA means that RAISE grants for planning have the same minimum size ($5m urban/$1m rural) as capital projects do, even though they median planning grant in urban areas is only around $900 grant.
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20 years ago today I sent out my first (4-page) issue of the transportation policy newsletter I was starting. It wasn't very good, and it had (in retrospect) inauspicious cover art, but it got better.
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Is someone out there keeping track of all live media hits by Cabinet members? I am sure Sec. Pete is in the lead but I would love to know by how much.
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Reminder: the single most important thing Comgress and POTUS can do for air traffic control is to exempt the @FAANews controller training academy in OKC from government shutdowns. Every shutdown = complete abolition/reboot of academy = another year farther behind staffing goals.
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The original rationale for federal operating subsidies for mass #transit. From the OMB memo to President Ford recommending he sign the big NMTA transit bill during the 1974 lame-duck session:
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By counting up all of the Highway Trust Fund grant programs in the underlying bipartisan bill (not just the one-time general fund appropriations), my tally of the money that @SecretaryPete will be able to give out via competitive grants he selects will be around $124 billion. 1/2
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With quotes from yours truly:
Analysis: U.S. infrastructure bill makes power broker of transportation chief Buttigieg reuters.com/world/us/us-infr…
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The US House has passed H.R. 4679, naming the @USDOT headquarters building after former Secretary (and Congressman) Norm Mineta, by a vote of 409 to 14 (with 1 "present"). The Senate earlier passed a bill (S. 400) naming the same building after former Secretary Bill Coleman.
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Once @PeteButtigieg is able to put together a proposal for new surface transportation policy, I wonder if it will go as far in giving local govts. complete freedom of choice as Nixon's @USDOT Sec. John Volpe proposed with his Single Urban fund in 1972 (rejected by Congress):
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Big winners in the FY 2021 round of RAISE grants announced by @USDOT this morning:
Pennsylvania$60,607,018
Washington$58,106,000
California$56,507,075
Alaska$52,075,000
Missouri$50,476,255
Details here: transportation.gov/policy-in…
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Tooting my own horn for a minute - this is true, I have written a whole lotta long-form stuff on the history of transportation policy decisions and most of it is collected here…
In addition to writing about breaking transportation news for ETW, @JDwithTW also provides an invaluable historical perspective to our work. Check out this article which includes ALL of the transportation policy history articles Davis has written for ETW.
bit.ly/2TeozvX?utm_campaign=…
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Mort Downey, aka "Mr Transportation," passed away last week. He was very proud of his 8 years as Deputy Secretary of @USDOT as evinced by his personalized plate. My summary of his 60-some year career in transportation policy is here: enotrans.org/article/mort-do…
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One of the first things they teach you in legislative drafting class is the difference between the words "may" and "shall." The latter is mandatory, not optional, which is why the new Rules language stating that the House "shall consider" the BIB on Sept 27 is a big deal.
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Everyone be careful reporting the "$110 billion for roads in the BIF" line - originally, that was 110 for roads and bridges AND megaprojects, and some of those megaprojects are rail or transit or port. Need to isolate roads & bridges only to do apples-to-apples.
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Now that the Biden Admin. has had 4 cycles of RAISE grants, the trend is clear. Obama Admin put $311m (6.2%) of its $5b in capital funding to bike-ped, Trump Admin zero, Biden Admin $1.4b (21.3%) of its $6.7b to bike-ped. And that does not count "Complete Streets" road projects.
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Now that POTUS has signed the infrastructure bill into law, states should be receiving their 30 percent highway formula funding increase (FY 2022 over FY 2021) via formal apportionment from @USDOTFHWA within 2-3 weeks. Over $13.5 billion more than last year.
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I decided to put our summary of the safety portions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill on the free side of the paywall: enotrans.org/article/biparti…
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If @SecretaryPete or anyone on #TeamPete wants the full (long) story of how an active Secretary of @USDOT got @Amtrak created in the first place, just over 50 years ago, over tremendous internal White House opposition, read on... enotrans.org/article/amtrak-…
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Last week I found the original Railpax Board materials that McKinsey prepared in early 1971 that picked the existing routes. Am writing an article for publication in about a month that explains it all.
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Pretty sure this is the most @USDOT money for a single project since Woodrow Wilson Bridge in 1990s. But WWB was uniquely federally owned:
Roughly $1.6 billion secured for new Brent Spence Bridge construction wcpo.com/news/local-news/rou…
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Air traffic control costs to the FAA are entirely per airplane and zero per-passenger. An commercial airliner from point A to point B uses exactly the same ATC resources as a private jet going from A to B at the same altitude, no more and no less.
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When everything (IIJA and regular funding) is taken into account, FY 2022 total @USDOT funding increase from FY 2021:
FAA +30.6%
FHWA +42.8%
FMCSA +46.6%
MARAD +47.6%
NHTSA +50.5%
FTA +58.3%
PHMSA +76.0%
Office of Sec. (RAISE/Mega grants, etc) +222.4%
FRA +485.8%
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Big change in modal emphasis between Administrations on RAISE grants. More behind paywall: enotrans.org/article/dot-ann…
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The federal gasoline tax, which some Democratic Senators want to suspend, has been losing ground as a proxy for a mileage fee and has lost buying power using @USDOTFHWA construction cost indices...
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Some personal news...
Eno’s Jeff Davis to Receive P.D. McLean Award from The Road Gang enotrans.org/article/enos-je…
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Press releases announcing the introduction of a bill that do not include a link to the text of said bill should be ignored.
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In non-bridge news, FHWA announced this week that highway construction costs increased at an annual rate of 24 percent in the July-Sept 2023 quarter (6% qtr-on-qtr). $49 billion in federal highway $$ lost since the end of 2020 to cost inflation.
enotrans.org/article/fhwa-hi…
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By my reading, President Trump has ordered the immediate shutdown of all ongoing highway bridge projects in the US, or at least to stop paying states the money they are owed once they build the bridge. Because "disbursements" means outlays and IIJA funds $7.3B/yr for bridges.
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Here's a slide I put together for my presentation on how the omnibus appropriations bill in combination with the IIJA has changed the size and focus of @USDOT funding, in billions of dollars.
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