ACT Legislative Summit Registration Opens Next Week

Whether you are a public policy newbie or a seasoned wonk, the 2015 ACT Legislative Summit will have an expanded program of hands-on, in-depth, high-value education and guidance for you. Sessions will be balanced with opportunities to visit Congressional and agency offices to make the most of your time and interests. Watch for a separate email next week with a link to online registration.

When: March 23-25

Where: Hamilton Crowne Plaza, Washington, D.C.

President Obama Delivers State of the Union Address

How to Pay for a Transportation Bill Being Discussed

President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening. In prior speeches, President Obama used the State of the Union as a forum to lay out a laundry list of proposals. This time, the President laid out broad themes and avoided going into specifics.

The President again called for investment in our nation's infrastructure and again failed to lay out any specifics on how to pay for such investment. The President has often inferred that he is supportive of paying for a transportation bill by linking it with legislation that would repatriate taxes from off-shore corporate profits.

President Obama is not the only one who sees repatriation as a way we could pay for a transportation bill. Last week, Congressman Delaney (D-MD) and Congressman Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced legislation that would broadly do what is described above. Others in Congress see this as the easiest way to pay for a transportation bill. However, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has said that he is opposed to the strategy, but stopped short of completely killing the idea.

There is also a growing bi-partisan chorus of Members who seem to favor a gas tax increase. Included in those are the aforementioned Senator Hatch, Senate Commerce Chair John Thune (R-SD), House Transportation & Infrastructure Chair Bill Shuster (R-PA), and Senate Environment & Public Works Chair Jim Inhofe (R-OK), all of whom have said that they are open to the idea of a gas tax. Regardless of the growing support, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) have all but slammed the door shut on a gas tax increase.

With just over four months left until the Highway Trust Fund runs dry, no clear path toward reauthorization has emerged. 

For more information and insight, contact ACT Government Affairs Director Jason Pavluchuk at pavluchuk@actweb.org, or 202.285.6414; Twitter: @Jpavllc and @ACTNational.

ACT Board Meeting Kicks Off Exciting Year

New ACT President Rob Henry led the Board of Directors through two days of intensive planning Jan. 12-13 in Washington, D.C., for what promises to be a very active year. Henry focused the Board's visioning for 2015 on seven priority areas, including strategic planning, membership, sponsorship, professional development, events, communication, and finance. The Board also adopted a new slate of Public Policy Committee voting members. Watch for additional details about 2015 plans in a future issue.

ACT Participates in Smart Card Alliance Roundtable

On January 15, ACT Executive Director Mark Wright and Government Affairs Director Jason Pavluchuk joined industry experts and transportation association leaders at the Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council's Multimodal Payments Convergence Workshop in Washington, D.C. Included in the meeting were representatives from credit card companies, transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, and national organizations such as ITS America and AASHTO. ACT Board Member Katie Sihler also attended representing RideScout. The meeting focused on ways to further the advancement of universal and multi-modal payment systems.

During the meeting, Pavluchuk spoke about the need to recognize changes in mobility, noting that many of the mobility services in use today are owned and operated by private sector companies. He emphasized that the challenge is no longer just getting two transit agencies to agree on how to manage back office payments and transfers; rather payment systems must facilitate such services as true rideshare, transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft, advances in vanpooling, bikeshare, carshare, transit, parking, and tolling.

Pavluchuk said the public sector is falling behind largely because of bureaucracy and its sense of ownership, while the private sector does not have those hurdles. In short, there is a strong business case for a bikeshare provider to seek a seamless fare partnership with a carshare or rideshare provider. However, in the public sector, the focus is on government procurement and the boundaries that government agencies establish, both real and cultural.

To help continue discussion and information sharing, Wright offered the ACT International Conference in Baltimore as a forum in which the Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council could convene a summer meeting. A decision on that is pending, however, ACT will certainly remain involved with this working group and will pass along information and opportunities to participate as they become available. 

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to Retire

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a longtime champion of transportation and current Ranking Member of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, announced that she will not seek re-election in 2016. This news, while not surprising, sent shock waves through California politics as well as the transportation world.

In California, there will be many politicians on both sides of the aisle who have eagerly awaited the opportunity to run for the Senate. In the transportation realm, this means that for the first time in nearly ten years, the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee will have a new leader. Early indications are that Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) will assume the helm as top Democrat of the committee in the next Congress, however, there is still time for changes to occur.

What does that mean for this Congress? In short, there is at least one very motivated Senator looking to pass a transportation bill this Congress. 

For more information and insight, contact ACT Government Affairs Director Jason Pavluchuk at pavluchuk@actweb.org, or 202.285.6414; Twitter: @Jpavllc and @ACTNational.