CITS Updates
(A Sampling of Notes to the Members)

May 1, 2003

HEARING BY JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE (Email from Ike Bannon)

The Joint Economic Committee of Congress will be holding a hearing entitled Financing Our Nation's Roads on Tuesday, 6 May, at 10:00am in Dirksen 628.

During the current debate over the reauthorization of TEA-21, a bipartisan group in Congress has made an argument, convincing to many, of the need for increasing expenditures on our nation's roads. At the same time the House leadership, along with a good portion of its rank and file, have announced their firm opposition to any sort of an increase in the gas tax.

In the current milieu is there any way to reconcile these positions? A number of economists have suggested ways to finance the building of roads that go beyond the highway gas tax, and these innovative proposals are at the center of the hearing.

The witness list includes Rob Atkinson, Vice-President of the Progressive Policy Foundation, and Rob Poole, Founder and President of the Reason Foundation.

For questions or information on the hearing please contact Ike Brannon at (202)
224-0378 or Ike_Brannon@jec.senate.gov.

CITS will be there.

COALITION WEBSITE: http://www.transportationsolutions.info

Keep checking. Every day we post new materials.

MONTHLY MEETING REMINDER: MAY 9 at noon Koch Offices 655 15th Street, Suite 445

2003 NATIONAL SUMMIT ON PERFORMANCE BASED CONTRACTING IN TRANSPORTATION:

Performance Based Contracting for Transportation
Sponsored by The Performance Institute May 12-13, 2003, Arlington, Virginia

Many of the CITS members are speaking, including Shirley Ybarra, giving the key note address. The pdf is attached for more information and  registration information. (click here for C122-MA.pdf)

PRESS RELEASE BY CONGRESSMAN KENNEDY AND SENATOR ALLARD

Congress of the United States

Representative Mark Kennedy

1415 Longworth House Office Building

Washington DC, 20515

News Release

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Rep. Kennedy and Senator Allard Hold Press Conference on Transportation Initiative

Congressman Mark Kennedy and Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) held a press conference today on the Freeing Alternatives to Speedy Transportation (FAST) Act (H.R. 1767). The FAST Act repeals prohibitions in federal law in order to permit expansion of congested interstate corridors paid for by user-fees. FAST lanes are a voluntary, user-choice option, where those who use it pay for additional interstate lanes.

"The FAST Act brings proven innovations to the interstate system," said Congressman Mark Kennedy. "It empowers the states and localities to solve the congestion problems that keep us all stuck in traffic and away from our families."

"Colorado has witnessed a decade of unprecedented growth," said Senator Allard. "Our states need new options to finance transportation projects and this legislation provides just that - flexibility and innovation to move forward with projects that will ease congestion and improve our quality of life. I look forward to introducing this bill in the Senate and to working with Congressman Kennedy as we make this bill a reality," said Senator Allard.

"Across the nation, states are facing the challenge of paying for needed investments in infrastructure with shrinking funds," said Congressman Adam Smith. "We need to ensure that we're giving state and local governments the flexibility and tools they need to meet these challenges. This bill gives states one more option to provide for their transportation needs."

"Like welfare reform, the FAST Act is about unleashing the creativity of states and localities to solve problems. We will give them the authority and the tools they need, but with three important conditions: (1) only non-cash electronic technology used to collect fees on the new lanes, no tolls, and no toll booths, (2) the fees collected on the new lanes must be dedicated to the road on which they were paid, (3) once the revenues pay off the costs of the expanded interstate facility, the fee collection goes away," said Congressman Mark Kennedy.

"There is a great disparity today between highway revenue and highway need, this bill opens a new revenue stream, allowing us to solve the serious congestion problems we face in an innovative way," said Congressman Kennedy.

Congressman Kennedy introduced the bipartisan bill on April 10, 2003 with Congressman Adam Smith (D-Wash.). Senator Allard will introduce a companion bill shortly.

April 30, 2003

Several Items:

Private Activity Bonds:

My sources tell me Treasury has signed off on some form/amount of private activity bonds in the Administrations Bill, primarily for highways, intermodal connectors and "exempt facilities."  Now for the heavy lifting!!

CITS Briefing for the Battelle Report:

We hosted a very successful briefing on the Battelle Report, "Performance Based Contracting for the Highway Construction Industry, An Evaluation of the Use of Innovative Contracting and Performance Specification in the Highway Construction"  We had about 40 staffers from both the House and the Senate side.  A briefing was provided by Battelle about methodology and recommendations, Governor Gilmore provided insight as to the national impact, and Ron Utt of Heritage and Rob Atkinson provided thoughts from the policy perspectives.  We had a number of good questions and also had the opportunity to talk about the FAST bill introduced by Congressman Kennedy. If anyone wants attendance list please let me know.

A copy of the report can be found on a new website which we will announce officially soon.  http://www.transportationsolutions.info

I have been asked to provide some follow-up briefings and will try to schedule when one or more of you can accompany me.

Meeting with Chairman Young's staff:  Last week I accompanied the National Council of Public Private Partnerships to a 2+ hour meeting with Chairman Young's staff to discuss PPV's, SIBs, Private Activity Bonds, streamlining TIFIA, etc. (Read the CITS agenda).  The Council had prepared language and recommendations which CITS had contributed to.  Ken Butler representing Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, a member of CITS and a member of the executive committee of NCPPP was also in attendance. This was a very productive meeting.

Finland Contact:  I have been in contact with the Finland Road Agency officials who are addressing similar issues and recently published a wonderful report.( www.finnra.fi) - go to English pages and then finnra today)  We are exchanging reports and ideas.

Next Meeting:  Mark your calendars for Friday May 9, 2003 noon (light lunch served) at the Koch Offices (655  15th St. NW, Suite 445)

Shirley

March 19, 2003

Megan Stanley (now with PB) and I attended a luncheon at Heritage Foundation along with a number of Hill staff, think tankers and other "fellow travelers." We heard a presentation by Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-MN) entitled "Unleashing Local/Private Innovation on Federal Roads" These are some of his ideas on reauthorization. I have attached a copy.

Congressman Kennedy is very interested in encouraging private sector participation in transportation projects, supports private activity bonds and is interested in bringing HOT lanes/toll networks to enhance capacity. It was a lively discussion about the issues and how to work through some possible obstacles.

I will be meeting with his staff in the next few days. They already have a copy of the CITS material. Soon we will be arranging a meeting for our members to sit down and discuss this further with the Congressman. He is very articulate on the issues and interested in moving this forward.

We want to thank Ron Utt for including us.

Shirley

March 9, 2003

This is an exciting time for the Coalition for Innovative Transportation Solutions!! We are moving from the "concept" discussion phase to actually seeing the bills being introduced in Congress.

As you know, last year we put a lot of energy into working with the Administration and from all reports, our efforts will prove successful. We now have work to do as Congress begins it deliberations.

CITS is moving forward too!!!

Wed. Mar 12, we are announcing our new co-chairs, former Governors Bob Miller of Nevada and Jim Gilmore of Virginia. We believe the former governors will give us new and exciting opportunities and can promote their experience in the states.

Fri. Mar 14, Jim Rowland, Chief Counsel of FHWA will be joining our lunch meeting (at Koch offices at noon)

CITS has also partnered with the Dutko Group to give us important Hill connections and announcements will be made shortly as to the events scheduled on the Hill. (FOR MEMBERS ONLY)

We are also looking forward to Hill staff joining us for lunch discussions. Already scheduled is Dawn Levy to be our luncheon guest for the April 11 CITS lunch. Upcoming also is Debbie Gebhart and others.

In April, CITS will announce the recently completed report by Battelle on the benefits and cost savings associated with performance based contracting. As we move closer to the release and Hill briefings, we will provide you with more information. I personally am very excited about the report and believe it lays a factual foundation for the Coalition's agenda. I look forward to its release.

I am very excited about the upcoming year. I hope you are also.

Best Regards

Shirley

February 24, 2003

Report on Meeting at GAO

I was asked to a meeting at GAO regarding Public Private Partnerships because of my experience in Virginia. GAO is doing a follow-up report to their testimony at the hearing last fall. I spent about 2 hours with the researchers who are being led by JayEtta Hecker, Director, Physical Infrastructure.

It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss not only PPV's but the Coalition's agenda and the importance of innovative financing and contracting and the proposal for a small incentive fund. GAO was very interested in the Coalition. I believe they are supportive but trying to get their arms around some supportive data. The most difficult item for them to grasp was how states would compete for a relative small amount of money as we did for the SIB money. With SIB's experience as a concrete example, however, it speaks for itself.

We covered the waterfront on a number of issues facing state DOT's including the state legislatures and laws precluding certain innovative activities, e.g.PPV's, design build. We also discussed truck lanes, hot lanes/hot networks, GARVEE's, TIFIA, et.al.

However, from their questions, I believe I would categorize them as "skeptical" as to the importance of private activity bonds for transportation projects. "Is this really 'new money' since these bonds need a revenue stream?" I talked about how this is probably the only "new money" available and how it brings projects on line faster, thus saving (at least) the inflationary costs.

I told them I would provide contact info for Geoff Yarema, Steve Lockwood and Tom Bradshaw if they need additional help on this issue.

I have forwarded a great deal of information which I have accumulated including the CITS summary paper and letter to Chairman Jeffords. I have also provided them with the multi-trans material which many you have provided me.

GAO agreed to do a presentation at a CITS lunch.

Feel free to call me with any questions.

Just wanted to bring you up to date.

Shirley