. . . besides being an Illinoisan. From John Kass at the Chicago Tribune comes this dispiriting item about Obama’s DOT nominee Ray LaHood:
Obama selected outgoing Illinois U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine) for the post of secretary of transportation, putting LaHood in charge of Obama’s planned trillion-dollar public works bonanza being sold as a jobs [...]
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
What Ray LaHood has in common with Rod Blagojevich
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged dot, politics on December 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
LaHood’s legislative record on aviation
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged Aviation08, dot, faa, politics on December 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of the surprises about the rumored Ray LaHood nomination for secretary of transportation — set to be announced tomorrow — is that he has so little transportation experience. He is on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and would thus be well positioned to oversee Barack Obama’s planned burst of infrastructure spending. LaHood did serve [...]
Ray LaHood nomination would mean short shrift for DOT
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged Aviation08, dot, politics on December 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’ve got a busy morning, so more on Ray LaHood’s transportation (and especially aviation) record soon, but I’ll just say that the likely appointment of retiring Republican congressman Ray LaHood as secretary of transportation seems to indicate that Barack Obama does not plan to devote a great deal of attention to transportation issues — much [...]
Getting our “infrastructure” priorities straight
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged airports, congress, dot, politics on December 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It’s pretty common knowledge that the United States has for years underinvested in “infrastructure” — from the power grid to physical plants to transportation — and thus one of the first priorities of the next administration should be to devote massive resources to repairing infrastructure. And I’m sure the commuter inching forward on a Dallas [...]
Reason: keep Mary Peters at DOT
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged dot, faa, politics on November 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
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.
Dalmia writes that one of the top priorities of [...]
A pilot’s take on Duane Woerth rumors
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged congress, faa, general aviation, labor, politics on November 21, 2008 | 5 Comments »
There’s a lot of virtual ink being spilled in the blogosphere about Obama’s shortlist for FAA administrator. Some of those rumored to be under consideration include Representative Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), the chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee; Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); Clinton-era FAA chief Jane Garvey; Robert Herbert, an aide to Senator Harry Reid [...]
Bankruptcy, not bailouts
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged atsb, business, labor, politics, travel, united on November 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I bet you’re thinking, how would a bailout of the “big three” U.S.-based automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler — affect a bailout of the airline industry? Tellingly, a few observers have compared the situation with the car-makers (Scene: Washington. Detroit: Give us big money money; our bankruptcy is your DOOM. Congress: Sure, always [...]
A memo to the next president
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, Aviation08, delays, Deregulation 2.0, faa, labor, politics on November 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
If you’re a regular reader of the Aviation Policy Blog (and I hope you are; the best way to keep up to date is to subscribe to my feed), you’re well aware of how aviation is playing out in the 2008 election (or the extent to which it isn’t). In today’s Wall Street Journal, “Middle [...]
Obama, McCain advisers on transportation issues
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, Aviation08, congress, delays, dot, environment, faa, politics on October 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Top policy advisers to Barack Obama and John McCain differed on key transportation issues at a forum in Washington this morning, but they agreed, in the words of McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, when it comes to transportation, “the ratio of importance to discussion on the campaign trail is high.”
Mortimer Downey, Obama’s senior transportation adviser and [...]
“There’s no part of our operation that government can’t find a way to improve.”
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, competition, congress, consumer advocacy, environment, faa, labor, politics, regulation, us airways on March 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
TEMPE — Echoing Doug Parker’s plea for the government to “do no harm” to the airline industry, C. A. Howlett, US Airways’ top government affairs officer, outlined the challenges the industry — and US Airways in particular — face in the policy environment. His primary focus was the pending FAA reauthorization bill. Put off since [...]
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