Tag: lahood: Page 2

Roadbuilding

LaHood suggests 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike

Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has suggested raising the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon. LaHood said this week that Congress should increase the federal gas tax, which has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, to 28.4 cents per gallon, The Hill reports. DC radio station WAMU 88.5 notes that LaHood said at […]

October 17, 2013

Roadbuilding

Senate Transportation Committee approves Foxx nomination

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Monday unanimously approved the nomination of Anthony Foxx for Secretary of Transportation. At the committee’s business meeting, where it considered Foxx for the USDOT position and Penny Pritzker as Secretary of Commerce, Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) urged his colleagues to move quickly with the approval […]

June 11, 2013

Business

LaHood expects big Obama announcement on transportation, comments on I-5 bridge collapse

During a recent talk before the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) in Washington, D.C., outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told those in attendance to expect a big announcement from President Barack Obama later this year concerning transportation infrastructure. “Once we get past immigration, guns, the sequester, I think the President is going to be big and bold […]

June 6, 2013

Roadbuilding

Inhofe: Obama’s $500 billion to $600 billion reauthorization bill “not going to happen”

Oklahoma conservative Republican Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who has “been through,” as a he puts it, eight reauthorization bills, said after hearing outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood say President Obama’s goal was $500 billion to $600 billion long-term reauthorization bill: “It’s not going to happen.” But, he said, a long term, well-funded bill is […]

June 5, 2013

Roadbuilding

LaHood: Expect major transportation infrastructure announcement from Obama

Expect a major announcement on transportation infrastructure from President Obama. That’s the word from outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. “Once we get past immigration, guns, the sequester, I think the President is going to be big and bold on transportation infrastructure. So I’m not going to steal his thunder. I think you’ll see him […]

June 5, 2013

Roadbuilding

LaHood encourages Great Lakes governors to push for five-year transportation bill

At a summit of the Council of Great Lakes Governors on Saturday, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraged governors in the Great Lakes area to increase transportation funding pressure on Congress, The Detroit News reported. LaHood urged the governors to push for a five-year transportation funding bill with new revenues. He said the bill […]

June 3, 2013

Roadbuilding

Acceptance of connected vehicles depends on cost, LaHood says

Outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at a connected-vehicle conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that Americans’ acceptance of vehicle-to-vehicle communication will depend on the cost of the technology, Reuters reported. U.S. regulators believe the technology could help avoid or reduce the severity of about 80 percent of crashes that do not involve an impaired […]

May 15, 2013

Roadbuilding

Obama nominates Anthony Foxx as Secretary of Transportation

President Obama nominated Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor as his new Secretary of Transportation on Monday, outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood confirmed on his blog today. LaHood writes, “Mayor Anthony is the right man for the job” and cites projects in Charlotte like “improvements at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the expanded LYNX […]

April 29, 2013

Business

Transportation Sec. LaHood: Volvo’s first U.S.-made wheel loader a sign of confidence in American economy, workers

Last week, we watched as the first American made Volvo wheel loader (an L60G) rolled off the line at the company’s expanded Shippensburg, Pennsylvania plant. As we noted in our report,  Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez was in attendance also. Yesterday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took to his blog to discuss Volvo’s decision. Of […]

March 26, 2013

Business

Transportation Sec. LaHood: “America is one big pothole”

During an interview on National Public Radio’s “The Diane Rehm Show,” outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asked lawmakers and whoever replaces him to think outside of the box in order to find more transporation funding. LaHood voiced his disappointment with infrastructure spending in the U.S. and the MAP-21 transportation bill Congress passed last summer, […]

February 8, 2013

Roadbuilding

Seat backs and tray tables upright

After a really bad flight we are ready for a really bad landing. Both the House and Senate are closing in this week on final votes on their versions of a replacement for SAFETEA-LU, the too-tough-to-die surface transportation bill. We need reauthorization so badly that any landing may be the best news we could hear. […]

February 13, 2012

Roadbuilding

Ladies and Gentlemen, a (draft) reauthorization

Really? We have waited and waited and waited (eight times) for a new surface transportation bill – quick, who won the Super Bowl the last year of SAFETEA-LU) — with details (there was of course a strong bill bill from Democrat Jim Oberstar, the previous leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee). Current committee […]

January 31, 2012