Shikha Dalmia, a policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, an L.A.-based think thank that sets itself apart in the right-of-center policy community by focusing on transportation, offers a libertarian perspective on the best and worst cabinet appointees that Barack Obama might choose at the Department of Transportation.
Mary Peters
Dalmia writes that one of the top priorities of the next transportation secretary should be to speed up the NextGen transformation by “extricating air traffic control operations from the Federal Aviation Administration’s bureaucratic shackles and spinning them off as a separate ‘company’ with the authority to fund the $25 billion revamp through revenue bonds paid by user fees.”
The candidate who is best suited for this job is, in fact, the current Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters. She began her term in 2006 and since then she has repeatedly drawn attention to the imminent bankruptcy of the National Highway Trust Fund and the need, therefore, to explore leasing arrangements with private companies to build new toll roads and to implement congestion pricing — an idea that Obama has praised — in our most-congested urban areas as well as airports. . . . Peters has proven herself to be an able administrator. More to the point, she would offer creative and sensible ways for Obama to deliver on his idea of using infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy without burdening taxpayers.
Dalmia’s “second-tier picks” include Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Clinton-era deputy transportation secretary Mort Downey, and San Francisco Bay Area transportation commission director Steve Heminger. Unlike Peters, the latter two are thought to be on Obama’s shortlist. Dalmia also mentions some positives about former FAA administrator Jane Garvey, who has apparently made favorable noises on highway pricing. But Dalmia writes that “she starved the air traffic system of funding, partly because she didn’t have the gumption to standup to the demands for a sweetheart contract by the controllers’ union.”
And Dalmia’s worst options: Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). “They routinely advocate spending gas tax revenues on everything but highways and are huge champions of mass transit, regardless of a project’s effectiveness. Oberstar, a bike enthusiast, is arguably the worse of the two because he also has a taste for larding highway pork on favored constituencies. . . . Oberstar would be a great friend of the decrepit transportation status-quo, something that America’s economy can ill afford.”
Obama’s Cabinet: Hoping for an Empirical Presidency [Reason Foundation]
Amazing, we have think tank wonks, thinkers, etc. that want to tell everyone how the future of aviation should move forward. As an Air Traffic Controller and local union leader I wonder if Mr. Dalmia could let us in on how close NextGen is to being reality? According to the FAA it is 10-20 years out.
So let’s turn it over to the “business”that everyone in this country believes is so much better. Wait a minute the airlines, the auto industry, and even Wall Street are begging the government and the tax payer to bail them out. I would suggest Mr. Dalmia and his other thik tank buddies look at the past Administrations failure to accomplish anything and blame it on a “sweetheart” deal given to the Air Traffic Controllers. This Administration along with Mr. Sturgell and Ms. Peters have blamed us for their mismanagement and lack of ability to lead.
This Administartion had the opportunity to move forward with NextGen when they had a sympathetic House and Senate. They chose to instead attack every Union worker in the Agency. They saw it as a perfect momment in time to “bust” the Unions. And just like every other company in troble today the leades of these Agencies, DOT and FAA have received their pay raises and bonuses. Do the homework by putting in a FOIA request and find out how much they have spent. I have and teh only reason they froze our pay for five years, so they could increase theirs.
New leadership at the top and yes if you get the evil unions involved in the development of NextGen it actually might come in under budget and on time just like STARS did when we were involved.