Foxx and 11 Former DOT Secretaries Call for Long Term Infrastructure Funding

With a short-term fix to the looming expiration of funding for the Highway Trust Fund expected shortly, USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx, and 11 former USDOT Secretaries, have issued an "open letter" to Congress, urging a long-term solution to transportation infrastructure funding. The open letter is attached here.

Foxx and his predecessors emphasize that the expected short term funding does not "fix" America's transportation system. Noting that the USDOT Secretaries have lead the department for 35 years under 7 presidents, they write: "Suffice it to say we've been around the block. We probably helped pave it." The Secretaries also stated, "So it is with some knowledge and experience that we can write: Never in our nation's history has America's transportation system been on a more unsustainable course."

Other highlights from the open letter:

"This is no way to run a railroad, fill a pothole, or repair a bridge. In fact, the unpredictability of when, or if, funding will come has caused states to delay or cancel projects altogether."


"America needs to break this cycle of governing crisis-to-crisis, only to enact a stopgap measure at the last moment. We need to make a commitment to the American people and the American economy."

"Until recently, Congress understood that, as America grows, so must our investments in transportation. And for more than half a century, they have voted for that principle -- and increased funding -- with broad, bipartisan majorities in both houses. We believe they can, and should, do so again."

9th Time is the Charm for Temporary Surface Transportation Funding

President Obama signed a 90 day extension for surface transportation funding, representing the 9th temporary extension of such funding since 2009. This latest move preserves on-going projects and continues the government's authority to levy the gasoline tax. Here is media report from the Washington Post.

Needless to say, this latest stop-gap measure pushes the legislative work even furhter into the election year.

See my earlier post about a prior House version of the legislation.

STB to Determine if Rail Tariff requiring HazMat Indemnity from Shippers is Reasonable

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) announced its decision today to determine if a railroad's requirement of indemnity from shippers for hazardous material liability is reasonable.

The STB has accepted the Petition by the Union Pacific to determine if it is reasonable to include in its tariff, or shipping rates, for hazardous materials shipments, a requirement that the railroad be indemnified from liabilities arising from haz mat incidents caused by the shipper's negligence. The tariff-based indemnity provisions relate to the loading, sealing, and securing the commodity, or the condition of the equipment tendered by the shipper (known in the industry as the packaging). The UP's tariff does not indemnify it from liabilities cause by its own negligence or fault.

Procedurally, this issue is similar to a former ex parte docket item the Board had pending for some time (Docket EP-677). That docket was closed, after significant comment by carrier and shipper interests, in favor of an actual controversy rather than what the Board at the time considered a policy statement in the abstract.

Even though the petition before the Board is the UP's request to consider its tariff imposing indemnity requirements on its shippers, the Board has opened the proceeding to comment from the public, outside of the original parties to the petition. According to the Board's Order, anyone interested in joining the proceeding is to file with the Board by December 27, 2011.

Ultimately, this proceeding picks up where prior docket EP 677 left off to some extent in that the Board now has a live case to decide the reasonableness of rail carriers imposing indemnity obligations on the shippers of hazardous materials.