Boxer holds transportation bill hearing

Every few years, Congress takes up a massive federal spending bill on transportation. The current bill, which provided $286 billion in federal funds, expires Sept. 30, 2009, and the new bill should start to take shape early next year.

In that vein, Sen. Barbara Boxer is holding a hearing tomorrow at MTA headquarters to discuss local needs with elected officials and community leaders. I would expect that subway proponents will offer about 9-billion reasons that project should be in the bill. I also expect Sen. Boxer won't be wearing the construction vest she modeled with other elected officials during a visit to the Gold Line construction site in February.

President Bush signed the last federal bill in 2005. You can read the whole thing at the Federal Highway Administration's website. And, yes, the fact that the bill is on the Federal Highway Administration's website should tell you a thing or two about the bill's priorities.

The bill is usually derided as being chock full of earmarks -- money for pet-projects that members of Congress insert into the bill without going through the usual vetting process. The federal Office of Management and Budget, in fact, maintains a website that allows you to look up some earmarks.

As a USA Today story noted last year, the Senate approved spending in a transportation and housing bill that included money for a North Dakota peace garden, history museum in Las Vegas and baseball stadium in Montana -- and they approved it just six weeks after the fatal bridge collapse in Minneapolis. And here's a link to a 2007 federal report requested by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) about the more than 8,000 earmarks that have found their way into recent transportation spending legislation.

More information about Thursday's hearing with Boxer and news releases from her office are after the jump.

--Steve Hymon

photo: Allen J. Schaben / LAT

U.S. Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works

*Boxer to Hold Transportation Briefing in Los Angeles*

BACKGROUND: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, will convene a field briefing in Los Angeles to discuss the upcoming federal transportation bill.  Senator Boxer will hear testimony from community leaders and state government officials on local and state transportation priorities.  A field briefing is also scheduled for September 3 in Sacramento, and additional California briefings will be held in the future.

WHEN:                            THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

10:00 AM PDT

LOCATION: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

One Gateway Plaza

Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Corner of Cesar East Chavez Avenue and Vignes Street)

Board of Directors’ Hearing Room

[Driving directions and parking information below.]

WITNESSES:                 (Order subject to change)

Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles

Karen Bass, Speaker of California’s Assembly 

Panel 1:

·         Hasan Ikhrata, Executive Director, Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)

·         Dr. Barry R. Wallerstein, Executive Officer, South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD)

·         Roger Snoble, Chief Executive Officer, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (METRO), in whose hearing room the briefing will take place. 

Panel 2:

·         Jeff Stone, Chair, Riverside County Transportation Commission

·         Jim Kemp, Executive Director, Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG)

·         Art Leahy, Chief Executive Officer, Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA)

·         Deborah Barmack, Executive Director, San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG)

·         Darren Kettle, Executive Director, Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC)

·         Fran Inman, Senior Vice President of Majestic Realty (Representing the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Mobility 21, a transportation coalition comprising representatives from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties.)

DRIVING DIRECTIONS AND PARKING INFORMATION:

DIRECTIONS:

From the East: 

1. 10 Fwy West toward Los Angeles

2. Take 101 Fwy North

3. Take Alameda St. exit and turn Right onto E. Commercial St.

4. Turn Right onto Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

5. Metro Building will be on the right (Corner of Cesar E. Chavez and Vignes)

From the West:

1. 10 Fwy east

2. To 110 Fwy North

3. Take 5 Fwy South/60 Fwy East turnoff (also known as 101 Fwy South)

4. Take Alameda St, Exit and turn Right onto E. Commercial St.

5. Turn Right onto Alameda St.

6. Turn Right onto Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

7. Metro Building will be on the right (Corner of Cesar E. Chavez and Vignes)

From the South:

1. 110 Fwy North

2. Take 5 Fwy South/60 Fwy East turnoff (also known as 101 Fwy South)

3. Take Alameda St. Exit and turn Right onto E. Commercial St.

4. Turn Right onto Alameda St.

5. Turn Right onto Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

6. Metro Building will be on the right (Corner of Cesar E. Chavez and Vignes)

From the North:

1. 101 Fwy South

2. Take Alameda Exit and turn Right onto E. Commercial St.

3. Turn Right onto Alameda St.

4. Turn Right onto Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

5. Metro Building will be on the right (Corner of Cesar E. Chavez and Vignes)

Parking lot entrance for Metro building is on Cesar E. Chavez Ave., just West of Vignes St.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA BOXER

Transportation Field Briefing

Sacramento, California

September 3, 2008

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you, everyone, for joining me here today to discuss the next authorization of the Federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs.  This legislation will impact all Americans because it sets the policy and provides funding for surface transportation nationwide.

The current authorization bill will expire on September 30, 2009.  As Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I am leading the effort to develop the new transportation bill. 

The Committee has already begun the authorization process by holding several hearings in Washington, D.C.  We will continue to hold hearings, meetings, and listening sessions to make sure all points of view are considered. 

I am here today to hear from Californians about their priorities so that I can incorporate them into our legislation.  I will leave the record open for two weeks following this briefing so those who are not testifying can submit testimony in writing. 

I have been working with the leadership of the Environment and Public Works Committee to develop a set of principles for the next bill.  These principles include:

o       Maintaining the National character of the interstate and federal highway system

o       Efficient movement of people and goods (including intermodal)

o       Safety (including condition and design of infrastructure)

o       Reducing congestion and its impacts

o       Sustainable funding (Trust Fund Including Alternatives)

o       Consolidating programs substantially to refocus the program

o       Establishing funding and performance criteria

These principals are reflected in the title for the bill, “MAP 21” (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century). 

One of my primary goals for this bill is to improve air quality.  All of these goals are critical to improving the quality of life and flow of commerce in California and across the Nation. 

Nowhere is the need to improve goods movement more obvious than in California.  For example, 45% of all containerized cargo destined for the continental U.S. passes through California’s ports. 

The high volume of cargo truck traffic has a huge impact on roads and communities in California.  Freight handled by trucks is projected to double by 2035.  Traffic through West Coast ports alone could nearly triple over the same period.

Not only does congestion cost time and money due to delays, it is a major contributor to increased transportation related pollution. 

The movement of goods has a serious impact on air quality and global warming.   Freight transportation is still largely driven by fossil fuel combustion.  With that combustion comes emission of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter.

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), approximately 75 percent of diesel particulate emissions in California are related to goods movement. 

In addition, CARB has attributed 2,400 premature deaths to diesel emissions, and estimates that the cumulative health costs of diesel emissions from 2005 through 2020 are an astonishing $200 billion dollars.

Reducing congestion will improve air quality and public health.   We need to find a way to reduce congestion while our population is growing and placing new and greater demands on the existing transportation systems.

According to the Census Bureau, by the middle of the Century, the Nation will have grown to 420 million people from the 300 million mark hit in 2007.  This equates to 11 new Los Angeles metropolitan areas and a population increase of 50 percent in 50 years nationwide.   

In addition to addressing congestion and improving our transportation systems, the transportation projects included in our bill will create good jobs and stimulate our economy.  According to the Federal Highway Administration, every $1 billion in Federal funding for highways supports 35,000 jobs. 

Another challenge that must be addressed in the next bill is that the Highway Trust Fund, which funds the legislation primarily through gas tax receipts, is expected to run out of funding before the end of the 2009. 

The tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis demonstrated the need to increase investment in infrastructure, not decrease it.  The discussion of funding options will be a key element of the next bill.

We have great challenges before us.  It’s time to start rebuilding America.  Investing in our transportation infrastructure helps America compete in the global economy and maintain our quality of life.  It is that basic. 

At the end of the day it’s a matter of setting the right priorities and crafting innovative and effective means to address them.  The next transportation bill provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at these programs and make the changes necessary to ensure our transportation system will meet the Nation’s needs in the coming years.

I look forward to hearing your perspectives and working with you in the year ahead.

Comments

[Dana Gabbard]

"Sustainable funding (Trust Fund Including Alternatives) "
is an oblique reference to the dire condition of the federal highway trust fund, which is funded by federal gasoline taxes and is the source of federal investment in roads, transit and other transportation programs (but not Amtrak, which is handled separately). This has been a problem developing for some time but when the last federal funding bill was being prepared the issue of new revenues or raising the gas tax was avoided. Now the crisis can no longer be ignored.

The Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst to the L.A. City Council prepared an excellent overview in 2006 that is still up-to-date as to the situation:
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2006/06-0603_rpt_cla_4-3-06.pdf

And last year the Congressional Budget Office offered testimony on it:
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/79xx/doc7909/03-27-Highway_Testimony.pdf

I'm curious what Boxer thinks should be done.