January 22, 2001 From Traffic World A Year of Change by Frank N. Wilner

A Year of Change:

From Agenda to Leadership, Changes Abound on House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee

Legislation reauthorizing the Surface Transportation Board as well as rail and hazardous materials safety programs will gain increased attention by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee this year, said former chief of staff Jack Schenendorf. A simmering trade issue with Mexico could explode before the committee by March.

Nothing will eclipse consideration of aviation issues that include restructuring of the air traffic control system, said Schenendorf. Highway finance issues will lie mostly fallow until the 108th Congress but efforts may be made to construct the same protective fences around the inland waterways and harbor maintenance trust funds as the T&I Committee previously erected around the aviation and highway trust funds.

There are substantial changes within the T&I committee as Don Young, R-Alaska, succeeds Bud Shuster, R-Pa. The Ground Transportation Subcommittee will be divided into a Rail Subcommittee, with additional jurisdiction over Amtrak and commuter railroads, and a Highways and Transit Subcommittee. Subcommittee chairmen could be named this week, but it appears Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., who failed in a bid to chair the Education Committee, will chair the Highways and Transit Subcommittee after the Republican leadership gave him a waiver from six-year term limits for chairmen. American Trucking Associations lobbyist Debbie Gebhardt will become Petri's chief of staff Feb. 1. Also, Lloyd Jones, Young's chief of staff at the Resources Committee, has been transferred by Young to succeed Schenendorf.

The Appropriations Committee named Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., to succeed Frank Wolf, R-Va., as chairman of the transportation appropriations subcommittee.

On the Senate Commerce Committee, Gordon Smith, R-Ore., appears the likely new chairman of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee, succeeding Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who will chair the Aviation Subcommittee. New Senate term limits imposed by the Republican leadership require Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., to step down in two years. At the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has highway construction oversight, Robert Smith, R- N.H., remains chairman, but Nevada's Harry Reid becomes ranking Democrat, succeeding Montana's Max Baucus.

For the past six years the House T&I Committee focused on highway and aviation reauthorization programs and ocean-shipping reform, said Schenendorf, who now heads the Bush-Cheney transportation transition team. "A lot more time and energy now can be devoted" to other issues, he said. Although the STB and the two transportation safety programs have not been reauthorized, Congress has continued to fund them, leaving them in political limbo as advocates for change jockey to build a bipartisan consensus. Schenendorf stopped short of predicting reauthorization bills would exit the committee, much less be passed by the House or Senate.

The three programs are mired in controversy. Rail captive shippers want increased protection against rail market-power abuse as part of STB reauthorization and an effort is building to shift rail merger approval to the Justice Department. Minnesota's Jim Oberstar, the committee's ranking Democrat, introduced an STB reauthorization bill to limit railroad pricing freedom over so-called rail bottlenecks and cap rates for small grain shippers.

As for hazmat reauthorization, labor unions oppose any dilution of Occupational Safety and Health Administration involvement in this safety program as advocated by the trucking industry. And rail unions demand greater protection for whistle-blowers and limits on how many consecutive days railroads may order employees in safety-sensitive jobs to work.

The looming trade issue involves the blocking by the Clinton administration of Mexican trucks and drivers from nearly unrestricted access to U.S. highways as required by the North American Free Trade Agreement. If a final NAFTA arbitration ruling expected before early March finds, as anticipated, that the United States is in violation of the treaty, Mexico stands to collect $1 billion in sanctions from U.S. taxpayers.

Shuster Chooses to Retire

Pennsylvania Republican Bud Shuster, just elected to a 15th term but ousted after six years as House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman because of Republican term limits on committee chairmen, is retiring Jan. 31. He cited health reasons but his diminished power is believed the controlling factor. Shuster is expected to become a lobbyist.

"Two things make me know the committee will be in good hands" under Don Young, R-Alaska, said Jack Schenendorf, Shuster's chief of staff. While running the Resources Committee, Young demonstrated a similar ability as Shuster to reach bipartisan consensus, said Schenendorf. Second, since beginning his quest four years ago to succeed Shuster, Young has met monthly with experts from all transport modes to discuss policy issues and options, said Schenendorf.

Among Shuster's accomplishments was crafting the $218 billion Transportation Equity Act for the 21stCentury and the $40 billion Aviation Reform Act for the 21st Century. Shuster also led efforts to build firewalls around the aviation and highway trust funds that previously were used, in part, for other purposes.