Transportation Committee Outlines 2008 Agenda
Chairman Oberstar to Build on Successes of 2007After a successful first year in the 110th New Direction Congress, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) laid out an ambitious Committee agenda earlier this month building on the accomplishments of 2007.
"The demands of our economy are so great that no single means of transportation can handle it alone. It’s time to restructure the way America moves people and products in our marketplace," Oberstar said last year in an editorial. Click here to read the entire editorial on America's future in transportation.
The Committee's successes last year are in stark contrast to those of the 109th Congress, 2005-2006, before Democrats took leadership of the Committee. In 2007 alone, the Committee and its Subcommittees held 116 meetings - compared to 123 in the entire 109th Congress, and 74 pieces of legislation - a rate of nearly double the 77 in the entire previous Congress. All in all, the Committee and its Subcommittees met for 343 hours and questioned 705 witnesses.
Most importantly, the Committee worked on 23 bills that had the support to pass both the House and the Senate, including the Water Resources Development Act, which had enough support to overcome a Presidential veto and became law through a Congressional override.
But there is unfinished business still left to be done, including winning Senate approval of 27 pieces of legislation that cleared the House but are still waiting to be approved in the other body. These bills include reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the Federal Railroad Safety Act.
Here are some of the goals set forth by the Committee, under their respective Subcommittees:Aviation
- FAA Reauthorization.
- National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Reauthorization.
- Hearing on Runway Safety.
- Hearing on airline mergers if any such deal is announced.
- Hearing on congestion and delays, focusing on FAA's actions to reduce delays at New York airports.
- Monitor issues concerning Air Traffic Controller Staffing.
- Monitor U.S.-EU actions on air emissions, and plans by the European Commission to extend its Emissions Trading Scheme to non-EU airlines.
- Coast Guard reauthorization.
- Hearing on the Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2009 budget.
- Federal Maritime Commission reauthorization.
- Hearing on the Coast Guard’s ice breaking capacity and planned presence in the Arctic.
- Hearing on the application of the Jones Act to the refurbishment of Jones Act vessels in foreign shipyards.
- Field hearing in Florida or Puerto Rico to examine how the Coast Guard, which broke all previous records for drug interdictions in 2007, can build on this achievement in 2008.
- Economic Development Administration reauthorization.
- Funding for the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
- Legislation to refine FEMA’s authority.
- Continue the review of the courthouse construction program to ensure the most cost efficient design and construction methods are employed.
- Hearings assessing the surface transportation needs throughout the country in preparation for the reauthorization of the federal surface transportation bill.
- Continued oversight of the Department of Transportation, including continued efforts to monitor and improve the agencies enforcement of drug and alcohol testing policies, cross-border trucking, highway safety efforts, and motor carrier safety.
- Federal Railroad Safety Act
- Reauthorize Amtrak, which was last reauthorized in 1997.
- Hold additional hearings on rail competition and service, domestic high speed rail, rail capacity, security, and technology innovation.
- Oversight hearings on pipeline safety and continued implementation of the hazmat reauthorization bill, which was included in SAFETEA-LU.
- Reauthorization of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
- Water Resources Development Act of 2008.
- The Clean Water Restoration Act.
- Brownfields reauthorization.
