Acting Secretary of Transportation Named

Steven G. Bradbury has been named acting secretary of transportation following the Jan. 11 resignation of Elaine Chao as secretary.

DOT officials said the appointment was made in accordance with the department’s established order of succession.

His term as acting secretary is expected to be brief. President-elect Joseph Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has nominated former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as the next secretary of transportation.

Bradbury has served as general counsel of USDOT since Nov. 27, 2017. In that role he has had authority to resolve all legal questions regarding the agency’s policies and programs.

He has also overseen DOT’s 55,000 employees and  $87 billion budget since Sept. 10, 2019, as a member of the Office of Deputy Secretary of Transportation.

Chao, who was an original member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, announced her resignation on Jan. 7, the day after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Both Chao and Bradbury had pledged to work toward a smooth transition to the next leadership team of the agency.

Chao Stepping Down as Transportation Secretary

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao will leave her post on Jan. 11.

Although Chao referenced Wednesday’s riots at the U.S. Capitol in her resignation letter, she would have been leaving office later this month anyway due to the inauguration of a new president.

Chao in a letter to DOT employees called the storming of the Capitol “a traumatic and entirely avoidable event. It has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.”

President-elect Joseph Biden has nominated Pete Buttigieg as the next transportation secretary.

In her letter to DOT employees, Chao said she was “tremendously proud of the many accomplishments we were able to achieve together for our country.”

She pledged to help Buttigieg in the transition to become head of DOT.

Feds Continue to Push Updating Grade Crossing Plans

Federal authorities continued to push this week their efforts to reduce railroad grade crossing accidents.

Federal Railroad Administration head Ronald Batory and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao spoke at a conference in Washington that addressed grade crossing safety.

Both talked about a proposed rule published last month in the Federal Register that would require the 10 states with the highest number of grade crossing accidents – including Indiana and Ohio – to update their existing safety programs.

“The Department is committed to supporting infrastructure improvements, new communications tools, and working to change driver behavior so that highway-rail grade crossings are safe environments for all transportation users,” Chao said at the conference.

FRA and Operation Lifesaver data show that an average of 250 people a year have died at road crossings in the past decade.

Only trespasser fatalities surpass grade crossing incidents in the number of rail-related deaths in the United States. Batory described grade crossing deaths as preventable.

Speaking about the proposed rule to require states to update their grade crossing safety plans, he said it would “provide states a tool to engage with federal and local partners, railroads, and rail safety advocates to identify high-risk crossings and develop strategies to save lives.”

The other eight states with the highest number of grade crossing incidents are Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and Texas.

Under the proposed rule the states with the highest number of fatalities would need to update their existing grade crossing safety action plans that list the most dangerous crossings and the state’s plans to improve them.

The other 40 states and the District of Columbia would be required to create all new plans.

Public comment is being accepted on the proposed rule through Jan. 6, 2020.

If the rule is adopted states will have one year to create or update their action plans before submitting them to the FRA for review in advance of publication.

Batory Takes over as FRA Head

Ronald L. Batory was sworn in on Wednesday as the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration.

The ceremony was officiated by Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. Batory is the first FRA head to have railroad operating experience since Joe Szabo, who stepped down in 2014.

During remarks at the ceremony, Batory said that safety will be the FRA’s primary focus.

Acting FRA Head Resigns Post

The acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration has resigned following allegations that he was moonlighting as a public relations consultant.

Heath Hall stepped down on Sunday from his position, which did not require Senate confirmation.

Hall was appointed acting FRA head after the Trump admistration’s pick for the permanent FRA chief post was held up in the Senate.

Trump has nominated  former Conrail executive Ron Batory, but Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Corey Booker of New Jersey have placed a hold on the nomination in an effort to use it to pressure the administration into releasing federal funding for the proposed Gateway rail tunnel project between New York and New Jersey.

Hall had been reported to have taken a leave of absence from the FRA, citing unidentified family issues, but reports have surfaced saying that twice Hall appeared in Mississippi as a spokesman for the Madison County sheriff.

Hall had said on a federal ethics form that his public relations work would remain dormant while he worked at DOT.

However, information has surfaced that Hall received compensation for public relations efforts between July and December last year.

“We were unaware of the information that is being reported but those allegations, if they are true, are troubling,” DOT spokeswoman Marianne McInerney said in a statement. “Heath Hall has resigned his position at the Department effective immediately.”

Railway Age reported that Batory has been working as an aide to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and is to offer his advice when when the FRA’s new interim acting administrator, General Counsel Juan D. Reyes III, testifies on positive train control implementation on Feb. 15 before the House Rail Subcommittee.

The magazine said that Trump could name Batory as deputy administrator, a post that does not need Senate confirmation but carries less prestige and offers less money

However, Batory would be able to oversee the FRA while awaiting Senate confirmation.

The Senate could also invoke cloture, which would override the hold that Schumer and Booker have on the nomination.

However, that usually requires 60 votes and Republicans cannot muster that within their own membership ranks. Under certain circumstances, cloture can be invoked with 51 votes.

A third option would be for Trump to name Batory as FRA head as a recess appointment in late February when Congress is away on break. That would make Batory head of the FRA through the end of 2019.

Senate, Chao Talk About Infrastructure Plan

Talks between members of the U.S. Senate and the Trump administration about the latter’s proposed infrastructure package were held this week on Capitol Hill, although few details of those discussions have been released.

Speaking for the administration was Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who was joined by other administration officials.

Although news media reports have said the infrastructure plan is expected to be $1 trillion, some recent reports have put the size of the package at a lower figure, perhaps no more than $200 million.

There has been speculation that the package will be rolled out in the coming weeks, probably after the state of the union address on Jan. 30.

Senator John Barrasso, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said in a statement that the meeting featured “a direct back-and-forth with administration leadership on their priorities.”

Senator Tom Carper, the ranking minority party member of the committee, said in a statement that, “While there is no shortage of issues on which the president and I disagree, the kind of large scale trillion-dollar infrastructure investment that then-candidate Trump talked about is something that has the potential to elicit bipartisan support here in Congress.”

More than 150 national trade organizations, including some in the railroad and railroad supply industries, have urged Congress to approve an infrastructure investment package.

Chao Prods Railroads to Finish PTC Work

The U.S. Department of Transportation is leaning on railroads to finish installation and implementation of positive train control by the end of the year.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao wrote to the chiefs of Class Is, intercity passenger railroads and state and local transit agencies to prod them into meeting the Dec. 31, 2018, deadline set by federal law.

Chao expressed concern that many railroads are behind schedule in implementing PTC.

She said the Federal Railroad Administration will work with railroads “to help create an increased level of urgency to underscore the imperative of meeting existing timeline expectations for rolling out this critical rail safety technology.”

In 2008 Congress adopted legislation requiring PTC with a deadline of Dec. 31, 2015. That deadline later was moved to the end of 2018 although in certain circumstances the deadline could be the end of 2020.

Trump Meets to Talk Infrastructure Plan

News reports said that President Donald Trump met this week with U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster to discuss the administration’s infrastructure proposal.

The administration has proposed using $200 billion in federal funds to leverage $1 trillion worth of infrastructure improvements.

Trump had indicated last month that once a tax bill had passed Congress that his administration would be ready to focus on the infrastructure plan.

DOT Seeking Environmental Review Changes

Regulatory changes being proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation are being touted as designed to streamline the environmental review process for multimodal projects.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said the proposed changes will bring the Federal Railroad Administration’s  environmental review process into harmony with procedures used by the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration.

A DOT news release said that the proposal, which has been sent to the Federal Register for publication, is being made so that multimodal projects are required to follow only one process rather than multiple agency processes.

Under the proposed rules, most concrete and steel bridges built after 1945 would be exempt from historic sites review.

In her AASHTO speech, Chao said that DOT is seeking to identify ways to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy that will save states time and money, and reduce burdensome compliance costs.

“Important new regulatory and policy changes are underway at the Department to help deliver infrastructure projects faster, and in a more cost effective manner,” she said.

Chao said DOT has issued an updated guidance policy for the application of categorical exclusions for multimodal projects. The new rules allow one USDOT agency to use the categorical exclusions of another USDOT agency for certain multimodal projects.

Administration to Talk Infrastructure with DOTs

The Trump administration will meet this week with officials from state departments of transportation to discuss the administration’s ideas for infrastructure investment.

The invitation to participate said the event’s purpose “will be to underscore the need for a different approach, outline our draft guiding principles, and allow you all to brainstorm actions to help carry this conversation on the need for change and the opportunity to empower state and local leaders back to your states and communities.”

Attending the meeting will be Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and members of the President’s National Economic Council, and special assistant to the president for infrastructure D.J. Gribbin.

President Trump has proposed $200 billion of direct federal infrastructure spending over 10 years, with the goal of using it to leverage an additional $800 billion in state, local and private investment. However, the administration has yet to release a formal plan.