As House leaders and Administration officials continue to negotiate a deal to avoid the pending ‘fiscal cliff’, it was announced last night that one of the nation’s longest serving and most distinguished statesmen – U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye – has passed away at the age of 88 from respiratory complications. A World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient, Inouye was elected to represent the state of Hawaii as Congressman in 1959 and as U.S. Senator in 1962. The second longest serving Senator in U.S. history, Inouye became President Pro Tempore of the Senate in 2010 after the death of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the nation’s longest serving Senator. A long-time champion for transportation issues, Inouye most recently served as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He previously chaired the Senate Commerce Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. His last word was “Aloha” according to his staff.

Committee Shuffle

As the 112th Congress works to wrap up business for the year, new and returning Members of Congress continue to jockey for plum committee assignments. The committee shuffle means lots of new faces will be joining veteran Members of Congress and staff in determining transportation policy in the year ahead. While more assignments are pending, here’s a quick guide to what we know so far:

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee

• Chairing the House T&I Committee will be Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA/9), son of former House T&I Chairman Bud Shuster and a strong transportation advocate. A conservative known for working across the aisle, Shuster has said he’s open to considering nearly every approach for averting transportation’s ‘fiscal cliff’ including raising the gas tax, expanding tolling, using proceeds from energy production to fund transportation, and exploring a mileage-based user fee. Taking a “don’t rule anything out approach”, Shuster said “We've got to figure out a way to finance the system and it needs to be done in a fiscally sound way, not borrowing a bunch of money and spending money we don't have.” Shuster has defended the federal role in transportation, citing Adam Smith, the Constitution, and a precedent of Republican leadership in transportation including the transcontinental railroad, Panama Canal and Interstate Highway System which were all pioneered by Republican presidents. Shuster spoke at ITS America’s Congressional Roundtable last December and has been a strong ITS advocate. For a good profile on Chairman-elect Shuster, check out today’s Politico article titled “All eyes on Bill Shuster, new transportation chairman”. Bloomberg News has also published a couple interesting articles about Shuster and the transportation financing debate, which are online here and here.

• Shuster has announced several key appointments to the T&I Committee staff next year including Chief of Staff Chris Bertram, who currently serves as Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs and CFO at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Chris was previously a senior staff member on the Senate Commerce Committee and has served at the Federal Aviation Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, and as Staff Director for the House T&I Subcommittee on Highway and Transit. Steve Martinko, who currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director in Shuster’s personal office, will move to the T&I Committee where he will serve as the Committee’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Jim Tymon will continue as Senior Advisor and Staff Director for the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, and Jennifer Hall will remain on the Committee as General Counsel. See here for the official announcement.

• While Shuster has not yet announced who will chair the T&I Subcommittees, the slate of Republican Committee members has been finalized and includes the following new Members (all of whom are freshmen except for Webster): Steve Daines (MT), Rodney Davis (IL), Thomas Massie (KY), Mark Meadows (NC), Markwayne Mullin (OK), Scott Perry (PA), Trey Radel (FL), Tom Rice (SC), Daniel Webster (FL) and Roger Williams (TX). These appointments reflect a number of current T&I Members who are leaving including Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) and Chuck Fleischmann (TN) who are forced to give up their T&I seats for an appointment on the House Appropriations Committee. Members selected to serve on Appropriations and other “A” committee are typically forced to step down from other committee assignments. This is also the case for Randy Hultgren (IL), a strong ITS and public transit advocate who is leaving T&I for the Financial Services Committee, and James Lankford, who will chair the Republican Policy Committee. Several Republican Members were defeated including Chip Cravaack (MN), a vocal opponent of mileage-based user fees who defeated former T&I Chairman Jim Oberstar for his seat in 2010.

• Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV/3) has been selected by the Democratic Caucus to serve a second term as Ranking Member of the T&I Committee. Rahall has said it will take a bit longer to name the Democratic subcommittee leaders and fill the nine committee seats left open by the departures of Jerry Costello (IL) and Heath Shuler (NC) who are retiring, Mazie Hirono (HI) who was elected to the Senate, Bob Filner (CA) who was elected mayor of San Diego, and Russ Carnahan (MO), Jason Altmire (PA), Tim Holden (PA), Leonard Boswell (IA) and Laura Richardson (CA) who were defeated in the primary or general elections. Democrats will receive one additional seat on the committee due to a net gain by the party in the 2012 Congressional election. This seat will be filled by former T&I Committee member John Garamendi (D-CA) who was forced to drop off the Committee after Democratic losses in the 2010 election reduced the majority-to-minority committee ratios.

Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee

• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will continue to serve as Chair of the Senate EPW Committee, where she made a name for herself over the past two years working tirelessly with current House T&I Chairman John Mica (R-FL) and other Republican and Democratic leaders to write and shepherd through a bipartisan transportation reauthorization bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). With MAP-21 set to expire at the end of 2014, Boxer will have another opportunity to tackle the most pressing challenge – the need for a viable long-term financing mechanism (or mechanisms) to pay for our nation’s transportation system. One of the interesting sub-plots of the reauthorization debate was the strong bipartisan relationship between Boxer and the Committee’s Ranking Republican, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK). While Boxer is considered among the Senate’s most liberal Democrats and Inhofe is among the most conservative Republicans, the two were able to work together to come up with a truly bipartisan piece of legislation which required compromise on both sides. Politico takes a closer look at this topic in an article today titled “Road to highway bill: Bipartisanship”. With Senator Inhofe term-limited out of his position as Ranking Member, Boxer will now have to work with Senator David Vitter (R-LA) who will take over as the Ranking Republican on the EPW Committee. All eyes will be watching to see how well the two Committee leaders will be able to work together on a variety of issues which will come before the Committee including the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) and MAP-21 reauthorization bills.

Senate Commerce Committee

• Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will continue to chair the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the safety, freight, research and technology provisions of the surface transportation bill in addition to rail, aviation and maritime issues. Rockefeller will also be working with a new Ranking Republican, Senator John Thune (R-SD), following the retirement of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), who was next in line to take over the Committee slot, recently announced his retirement to lead The Heritage Foundation in a move welcomed by many stakeholders who view Thune as more collegial and someone who can work across the aisle to solve tough legislative challenges.

Also of Note…

• While Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) will continue to chair the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) will replace Richard Shelby (R-AL) as Ranking Republican on the committee which has jurisdiction over public transit issues. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who chairs the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, is expected to take the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gavel from Senator John Kerry (D-MA) pending Kerry’s expected appointment to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
• Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX/21) will take over as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, where he promises to be “an advocate for America’s innovators by promoting legislation that encourages scientific discoveries, space exploration and the application of new technologies to expand our economy and create jobs for American workers.” Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX/30) will continue to serve as Ranking Member of the Committee.
• Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI/6) will remain chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with Greg Walden (R-OR/2) continuing to serve as chair of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA/30) will continue to serve as the Ranking Democrat on the full committee.
• Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), a member of the Senate EPW and Finance Committees, will take over as chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where he will be in a position to address what he says are the “numerous challenges that still lie ahead – whether it is securing our nation’s borders and ports, protecting our critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, reducing wasteful and fraudulent spending or getting better results from ineffective programs.”
• Michael Huerta, Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and former ITS America Board Chair, is expected to be confirmed as FAA Administrator before the end of the year according to Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, who said he’s “confident” the process will move forward now that a ‘hold’ on Huerta’s nomination has been lifted by departing Senator Jim DeMint. Michael has a distinguished record of service and we wish him a speedy confirmation.
• The Senate Commerce Committee held a recent hearing on three other Presidential nominees including Polly Trottenberg, who has been nominated to serve as Under Secretary for Policy at U.S. DOT. Trottenberg has been a strong supporter of the ITS community throughout her career, including in her most recent position as Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy. We wish her a speedy confirmation process as well.
• While transportation watchers continue to speculate on Secretary LaHood’s future, some other notable positions have recently been announced at U.S. DOT including Kenneth Leonard, who has been selected as the new Director of the ITS Joint Program Office, and Caitlin Hughes Rayman, who will lead the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Freight Management and Operations. We look forward to working with both Ken and Caitlin in their new capacities.

Call for Signatures: Join ITS America on 5.9 GHz/Connected Vehicle Letter

ITS America has drafted a letter to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information regarding a spectrum sharing study being performed by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) which could potentially impact the future of the connected vehicle program. The Congressionally-mandated report, which is expected to be released soon, is focused on the feasibility of opening up the 5.9 GHz band to unlicensed users, and whether this would interfere with ITS safety applications dependent on a Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSCR) backbone for which the spectrum was allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). ITS America is inviting all interested parties to review and sign onto the letter in order to demonstrate broad stakeholder support for establishing a more substantive dialogue with the Department of Commerce about this critically important issue.

• Click here for a draft copy of the letter. Please let me know by 12:00 p.m. noon this Friday, December 21 if you or your organization will be able to sign onto the letter or if you have any questions.

ITS America Launches Leadership Circle

ITS America is pleased to announce the creation of a new transportation thought leadership group, the ITS America Leadership Circle, to help promote and enhance the use of technology to solve transportation challenges. The Leadership Circle will advise ITS America and the broader transportation community on significant issues such as MAP-21 implementation and reauthorization, alternative transportation financing mechanisms, and evolving business models.

Founding public sector members include the California DOT (Caltrans), Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Carnegie Mellon University, Chicago DOT, Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Michigan DOT, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley (California PATH), University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Texas DOT, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Founding private sector members include CH2M HILL, Eberle Design, Econolite Group, IBM, Image Sensing Systems, Intel, Iteris, Kapsch TrafficCom, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and TransCore.

The role the Leadership Circle will fulfill is: 1) to advise the ITS America Board on how to further widespread ITS deployment; 2) to promote and champion ITS solutions; and 3) to assist in providing thought leadership and advocating on behalf of ITS America. The Leadership Circle will work alongside the ITS America Board and with ITS America staff on cutting edge projects to define and expand the ITS marketplace, forge new partnerships, educate policy and decision makers, and encourage investment in transportation technology. To learn more about joining the Leadership Circle, please contact ITS America President and CEO Scott Belcher at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

ITS America Welcome New Board Members

ITS America is pleased to welcome five distinguished transportation leaders to its Board of Directors. The ITS America Board of Directors voted this month to approve the following new members:

• Malcolm Dougherty, Director of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans);
• Gabe Klein, Administrator of the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT);
• Jon Morrison, President and General Manager of Meritor WABCO;
• Keith Parker, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA);
• Ananth Prasad, Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

ITS America Shines Smart Solution Spotlight on Streetline

ITS America is pleased to present its latest Smart Solution Spotlight award to Streetline, a leading global provider of Smart Parking solutions. Streetline uses sensors in parking spaces to detect the presence of a vehicle, and feeds the data through to a variety of applications for cities and drivers. Parker™, Streetline’s smartphone application, provides real-time parking information to drivers, guiding them to open spaces, giving them pricing and policy information, and enabling parking reservations by smartphone. ParkSight Portal gives cities the information they need via a web application to implement smarter policy and pricing by having real-time information and historical analytics at their fingertips. According to Zia Yusuf, CEO of Streetline, “Intelligent transportation solutions, fueled by the revolution in real-time data and mobile devices, are shaping how we work and live. Sensor enabled Smart Parking solutions are leading the charge in shaping the future of intelligent transportation and we are grateful for the support and encouragement of ITS America.” More information about the award is available here.