From now until 2016

[jis]

Yeah I agree overall with Mica's "let me toss $hit around and see what sticks approach" to be annoying and wasteful. I was commenting on just this particular hearing, which appeared to be timely and useful, possibly contrary to Mica's goals and expectations - an unintended consequence. In general I think Mica is looking for his own relevance at this point, and as all politicians are wont to, when they get in that state they easily make fools of themselves without knowing.

 

[CHamilton]

Four Republicans Who Might Work Across the Aisle on TransportationIn a Republican-controlled body, legislation needs at least one Republican co-sponsor to go anywhere. Any bill that benefits transit, biking, or walking can usually count on some Democratic support, but if it’s not at least nominally bipartisan, it will be essentially dead on arrival. ...

Who will do that in the next Congress? Streetsblog set out to identify the moderate Republicans in the House who might forge some solid, bipartisan transportation legislation, or at least keep bad ideas from getting too much momentum. After all, it was Republicans who helped torpedo the worst parts of the House transportation bill this year. These representatives could still make an impact in a chamber where the leadership remains hostile to transportation reform.

 

[afigg]

Appears that Secretary LaHood may stay on into Obama's second term according to Politico: LaHood talking with Obama about staying. Good news if he does stay on for another year or two because Transportation policy and funding at this time has a greater need for a skilled politician who can negotiate and work with both parties on Capitol Hill and in state governments than a policy wonk or administrator type.

Of course, nothing is certain until there is an formal leak or official announcement.

 

[CHamilton]

Mica’s New Post Gives Him a Good Vantage Point For Sniping at Amtrak

Perhaps Rep. John Mica’s most remarkable legacy as chair of the House Transportation Committee is the single-minded focus he gave to attacking Amtrak. Under the guise of wanting it to succeed, Mica has repeatedly excoriated it as a “Soviet-style monopoly” and a waste of taxpayer dollars. He’s tried to sell off its only profitable line, the Northeast Corridor, and made a mockery of every aspect of its operations, right down to food service. If there’s anything he got more glee out of criticizing, it was the Transportation Security Administration.
Mica’s no longer chair of the Transportation Committee. But as of this morning, he’s got a new post from which he can take shots at these agencies.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where Mica was already a senior member, is consolidating two subcommittees into a new Subcommittee on Government Operations. That new subcommittee will oversee the TSA and Amtrak. And Mica will be the chair.

 

[jebr]

Why are they being moved to that committee? By that standard, we should move everything to the Government Operations subcommittee.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Mica’s New Post Gives Him a Good Vantage Point For Sniping at Amtrak

Perhaps Rep. John Mica’s most remarkable legacy as chair of the House Transportation Committee is the single-minded focus he gave to attacking Amtrak. Under the guise of wanting it to succeed, Mica has repeatedly excoriated it as a “Soviet-style monopoly” and a waste of taxpayer dollars. He’s tried to sell off its only profitable line, the Northeast Corridor, and made a mockery of every aspect of its operations, right down to food service. If there’s anything he got more glee out of criticizing, it was the Transportation Security Administration.
Mica’s no longer chair of the Transportation Committee. But as of this morning, he’s got a new post from which he can take shots at these agencies.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where Mica was already a senior member, is consolidating two subcommittees into a new Subcommittee on Government Operations. That new subcommittee will oversee the TSA and Amtrak. And Mica will be the chair.

Senority is Everything in Congress! Once youve been a Chairperson and been on the Dole, er a Member, for a Few Years you're set for Life! It's Scratch my Back and I'll Scratch yours in the Joke known as the Peoples" Congress! :blink: Of course Speaker Boehner has his problems, he got re-elected but he can't Control his Party Members the way the great Speakers have in the past! Joe Boardman should get ready for More Dog and Pony Shows featuring Amtrak!!!

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

I agree with this. HSR is not the real answer. I'd rather see those Billions of $$$$$$ put into Amtrak to improve and/or expand service. And I'm not just saying that because I live on a 150 MPH stretch! Many more people in (say) MT, NV, NM, AR or WV I think would rather have another "slow" train that have a semi short stretch of 200+ MPH in some other area of country!

I'd just like to have ONE Amtrak train through NASHVILLE TN. The CONO barely touches the far west corner of Tennessee over 200 miles from Nashville and 400 miles from Knoxville and Chattanooga.

 

[afigg]

Mica’s no longer chair of the Transportation Committee. But as of this morning, he’s got a new post from which he can take shots at these agencies.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where Mica was already a senior member, is consolidating two subcommittees into a new Subcommittee on Government Operations. That new subcommittee will oversee the TSA and Amtrak. And Mica will be the chair.

As a Subcommittee chairman, Mica is not going to have the latitude to call hearings at his whim w/o the blessing of House Oversight committee chairman Issa. Issa may allow Mica to have a hearing or two on Amtrak to keep Mica happy, but not the full set Mica was able to hold as the Transportation committee chair. Still, Boardman is likely to have to put up with a Mica led hearing on waste in Amtrak. However, Mica is in line to become the House Oversight committee chair in 2014 when Issa is term limited, which is an argument to hope the Democrats get control of the House in 2014. :giggle:

BTW, the Senate did a huge number of appointment confirmations yesterday prior to the end of the congressional session as the Senate Republicans relented on blocking a bunch of them. Among the confirmations, were 2 members of the Amtrak board. See Rail News link.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, people may have heard about the blow-up in the House over Boehner dropping the plans to bring the $60 billion Hurricane Sandy emergency aid package to the House floor for a vote before the end of the session. The big aid package is now supposed to be passed in mid-January, but who knows if the $336 million for Amtrak will remain intact. Still, Amtrak could get $336 million in January for Sandy losses, flood mitigation projects, and starting the Gateway project and then get hit with $50 or $100 million in sequestration in March. :blink:

 

[CHamilton]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, people may have heard about the blow-up in the House over Boehner dropping the plans to bring the $60 billion Hurricane Sandy emergency aid package to the House floor for a vote before the end of the session. The big aid package is now supposed to be passed in mid-January, but who knows if the $336 million for Amtrak will remain intact. Still, Amtrak could get $336 million in January for Sandy losses, flood mitigation projects, and starting the Gateway project and then get hit with $50 or $100 million in sequestration in March. :blink:

In related news, you may have seen a list of "special deals" that were passed as part of the "fiscal cliff" nonsense. I'll let a friend's Facebook post explain.

One of the complaints circulating about the bill Congress passed to avoid going "over the fiscal cliff" is "A hundred million or so for ... provides tax credits to certain railroads for maintaining their tracks. It’s unclear why private businesses should be compensated for their costs of doing business. This is worth roughly $165 million a year."
While in general, I find subsidies of big business objectionable, one needs to understand why this subsidy has merit. Clearly the person who wrote the above quote does NOT have a clue, or is dishonest. Generally speaking, railroads are the ONLY form of transportation that relies primarily on PRIVATE investment to acquire, build, maintain, police, signalize AND pay taxes on their right-of-ways. ALL OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION (highway, waterway & aviation) rely in part or in whole on tax dollars to acquire, build, maintain, police and signalize their TAX-FREE rights-of-way.

The REASON railroads are granted a tax credit is to take a SMALL step towards leveling the playing field in the area of transportation. The USA continues to distort transportation economics, hurting our economy. I do not claim to have a good resolution to the problem, but we all need to be better informed about the fact that our transportation policy does NOT serve us well, and we need to try to resolve it. On this particular issue, I say "Thank You" to Congress and the President for taking a small step in the right direction.

 

[LIRR]

The real problem with funding and expansion of passenger rail is that it fights very, very strong trucking and highway lobbies. They don't differentiate between passenger and freight in their lobbying. To them it is all rail and therefore, anything given to rail is taken from them...plus they feel they move things better than rail...and they throw the money around congress like you wouldn't believe. What kind of lobbying does Amtrak do? Not much, which is partly a function of them being a quasi-governmental entity.

 

[CHamilton]

Jay Rockefeller to Retire From Senate in 2014from Streetsblog Capitol Hill by Tanya Snyder

Sen. Jay Rockefeller is expected to announce later today that he’s retiring from the Senate in 2014. The West Virginia Democrat will have served 30 years in the Senate. He chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, one of the four Senate committees – though probably the least of the four – that crafts the surface transportation authorization, with a focus on rail.

On Wednesday, Politico published a story asking who in the Senate would take up the mantle of the infrastructure bank if Sen. John Kerry becomes Secretary of State. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Republican co-sponsor of Kerry’s infrastructure bank bill, left the Senate to pursue an ultimately unsuccessful run for governor. The Politico story mentioned Sen. Frank Lautenberg as another champion for the bank, but he’s 88 years old and faces a potential primary challenge from the ridiculously popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Rockefeller would have been a natural to step into the role of pushing the infrastructure bank. He co-sponsored Lautenberg’s bill, a somewhat different vision than the one put forth by Kerry and Hutchison. But with Rockefeller leaving the Senate, Politico’s question becomes ever more salient. Who’s left in the Senate to push for one of the main components of President Obama’s infrastructure plan?

 

[Ryan]

Nobody?

Not to mention, that'll amost assuredly flip one seat from blue to red in the 114th Congress.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I agree with this. HSR is not the real answer. I'd rather see those Billions of $$$$$$ put into Amtrak to improve and/or expand service. And I'm not just saying that because I live on a 150 MPH stretch! Many more people in (say) MT, NV, NM, AR or WV I think would rather have another "slow" train that have a semi short stretch of 200+ MPH in some other area of country!

I'd just like to have ONE Amtrak train through NASHVILLE TN. The CONO barely touches the far west corner of Tennessee over 200 miles from Nashville and 400 miles from Knoxville and Chattanooga.

I'd want it too, but it probably won't happen before 2016.

 

[CHamilton]

Jeff Denham Appointed Chair of House Railroad Committee, Vows to Continue War on California HSR


Congressman Jeff Denham, who barely survived his first bid for re-election in November, has been appointed to chair the House Transportation Committee’s Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee. Denham has been a leader in the fight to stop the California high speed rail project, despite the numerous benefits it would bring to his district, and he vows to continue the fight to block new federal funding from his new perch.

 

[Ryan]

Oh yay, friggin wonderful.

 

[CHamilton]

LaHood Says He’s Staying On as Transportation Secretary




U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he will stay on for an indefinite period in President Barack Obama’s second term.

The Illinois Republican’s future has been unclear as Obama’s other cabinet picks have fallen into place. The White House has designated new leaders for the State, Defense and Treasury departments. It has identified several other department heads who are leaving or staying without discussing LaHood.

LaHood declined to say whether he would stay or go several times at public appearances last week. He said at an inauguration party in Washington last night he will be “sticking around for a while,” without specifying.

 

[jmx53]

Good news that Secretary LaHood is staying on for now, I think he is doing a good job as SecTrans.

Unfortunately, more news RE: Mica and his anti-Amtrak crusade:

From a Jan 23,2013 article in Transportationnation.org:

"Representative John Mica (R-FL) will retain some influence in helping set transportation policy, even though Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Shuster has taken over as chair of the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mica was appointed to three subcommittees: Highways and Transit; Railroads Pipelines and Hazardous Materials; and Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. He was also named chair of the subcommittee on Government Operations under the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee."

 

[CHamilton]

Membership of Senate’s Primary Transportation Policy Subcommittee Announced


Here’s the 2013-14 lineup for the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee:
Democratic Members

Max Baucus, Chairman (Montana)
Thomas R. Carper (Delaware)
Frank R. Lautenberg (New Jersey)
Benjamin L. Cardin (Maryland)
Bernard Sanders (Vermont)
Tom Udall (New Mexico)
Kirsten Gillibrand (Massachusetts)

Republican Members

John Barrasso, Ranking Member (Wyoming)
James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)
Mike Crapo (Idaho)
Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
Deb Fischer (Nebraska)

 

[afigg]

Kirsten Gillibrand (Massachusetts)

Er, Senator Gillibrand is from NY. Pretty sloppy on their part.

What I notice is that 4 of the 7 Democratic Senators are from NEC state along with Senator Sanders from VT. Chairman Baucus is from Montana where the Empire Builder is seen as a critical transportation service. So there will be support for Amtrak from the Democratic members. But all the Republican Senators are from states with light or no Amtrak and transit presence. Likely to be some serious partisan splits on that committee when it comes to transit and passenger rail components of infrastructure.

 

[jebr]

Kirsten Gillibrand (Massachusetts)

Er, Senator Gillibrand is from NY. Pretty sloppy on their part.

What I notice is that 4 of the 7 Democratic Senators are from NEC state along with Senator Sanders from VT. Chairman Baucus is from Montana where the Empire Builder is seen as a critical transportation service. So there will be support for Amtrak from the Democratic members. But all the Republican Senators are from states with light or no Amtrak and transit presence. Likely to be some serious partisan splits on that committee when it comes to transit and passenger rail components of infrastructure.

And the ranking member is from Wyoming, which has no Amtrak service whatsoever. Idaho (which has another GOP member) only has one train stop, along with a few Thruway stops.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Kirsten Gillibrand (Massachusetts)

Er, Senator Gillibrand is from NY. Pretty sloppy on their part.

What I notice is that 4 of the 7 Democratic Senators are from NEC state along with Senator Sanders from VT. Chairman Baucus is from Montana where the Empire Builder is seen as a critical transportation service. So there will be support for Amtrak from the Democratic members. But all the Republican Senators are from states with light or no Amtrak and transit presence. Likely to be some serious partisan splits on that committee when it comes to transit and passenger rail components of infrastructure.

These are all "Lightweights" in the Senate and this Committe isnt' One of the Prestige/Top Tier Ones that gets all the Pub but they will be Involved in Lots of $$$ being Doled out for Various Programs, Hopefully Rail will get it's" Fare Share" (Pun Intended! :giggle: )with the NE Senators and the Veep Amtrak Joe to Run Point!

 

[Nathanael]

Despite the fact that Oklahoma pays for Amtrak service while New Mexico doesn't, I would expect Udall to vote for Amtrak and Inhofe to vote against. Sigh.

 

[jmx53]

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Rep. John Mica (R-FL) no longer chairs the House Transportation Committee, but that doesn’t mean he’s eased up on his crusade against Amtrak. Calling the company a “Soviet style monopoly,” Mica used his afternoon address to the U.S. High Speed Rail Association to announce his plan to revive his despised and defeated measure to privatize parts of Amtrak.

Mica plans to introduce legislation to end Amtrak’s “monopoly” by allowing “open competition to provide intercity passenger and high-speed rail service.”"

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/02/13/mica-wont-let-his-grudge-against-amtrak-die-revives-privatization-scheme/

 

[CHamilton]

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Rail Promoter, Announces Retirement

This afternoon at 2:00 p.m., Lautenberg issued a statement that “improving passenger and high-speed rail service in America and on the Northeast Corridor is a top priority that my Subcommittee will pursue aggressively.” That’s no surprise to anyone — Lautenberg is a strong voice for robust infrastructure spending, especially for intercity rail and urban transit.

And then, just about an hour after listing all the wonderful things he is going to do in this session to advance high-speed rail, fund Amtrak, and improve transit, Lautenberg sent another statement: He won’t return to the Senate in 2014.

No one will be shocked by this news. Lautenberg just turned 89 years old. He’s serving his fifth six-year term in the Senate. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a rock star of local politics, has made no secret of his plan to run for Lautenberg’s seat.