FRC – Department of Transportation

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Department of Transportation – New

“…President Obama… unveiled a plan to connect America’s cities and communities through a network of high-speed and revived conventional rail corridors. While this is only one step in the work needed to modernize the nation’s transportation network, this down payment will expand transportation options for all Americans, spur commerce and economic development and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

…It is clear that President Obama and his administration are ready to move America in a new direction. Transportation systems have enormous impacts on the lives of the American people – from our pocket books to climate change, from our household expenses to the global economy…. The President’s commitment to high speed rail is an important piece of what must be a bold new vision for our national transportation program.”

“We look forward to working with President Obama’s administration and Congress to move beyond the current, 1950s-era federal transportation program and build a safe, clean and smart transportation system for the 21st Century.”

– James Corless, Director of the Transportation for America campaign[1]
“Transportation in American needs to catch up with the rest of the world. Traffic congestion wastes fuel and time. Many roads are in bad conditions and unsafe. Mass Transit and Maritime transit are under utilized by both the consumer and freight.

In order to attain results, the process must be expedited. The time frame to plan and build must be compressed in half.”

– Bryant Delaney, DOI2.com

This is a summary (yes a long page summary) of the thousands of pages the Department of Transportation provides to the public as a review and report card of their performance. The details can be found in a soon to be published book – “FAKE THE NATION” – The Peoples Last Stand.

The federal government reports 80% of federal program are performing when the data represents only 7% of the programs have reported current data and 60% of all programs haven’t reported any results in at least 3 years.

Every agency creates their own programs and provides an annual report of the results of each program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sets the parameters for these reports and claims 80% of all government programs are on target. If a private business only reported 7% accurate data, their leaders would be in jail. What about the leaders of the biggest business in America? Shouldn’t they be held accountable to the same rules and principles as private business?

“Fake the Nation” developed out of the frustration of seeing taxes increase year after year with no end in sight. The turning point for writing this book was when the federal government started running private businesses.

For the past 200 years, government has passed more and more rules on business creating a monster with 3 heads that affects every American. First, compliance with the rules and regulations is a cost that businesses pass on to the purchasers of their products. Second, the balance of international trade has regulated many businesses out of business. Third, the laws of Government have created a false sense of security creating the mentality that the Government is watching for bad business practices protecting American’s from corrupt business executives.

We define these basic principles in detail. But unlike most essays on the failure of government, Fake the Nation goes the extra mile to demonstrate proven business practices that will make the government operate efficiently.

To support American we do not need bigger government. We need leadership. It’s been said that “experience equals knowledge, the application of knowledge equals wisdom”. It is impossible to attain wisdom in a vacuum. If our leaders to not have the breadth and depth of experience they cannot apply their experiences to become wise.

The two party political system perpetuates the waste of American tax payer dollars. Fake the Nation tracks of $111 TRILLION of waste created because the federal government leadership doesn’t understand business – yet they now run the financial and automotive industries in America.

Fake the Nation provides proof of the problems and solutions to control the expenses of the federal government through 3 simple principles:

1. The federal government has no obligation to provide any service that can be provided by private business and/or state and local government. The federal government’s responsibility is only applied where the services would be duplicated by the majority of the states or where the services are for the protection on one state from the actions of another state.
2. State responsibilities only apply when the services offered by the State benefit all local level governments. State governments will not regulate any aspect of private business except to protect the rights of all citizens within the state.
3. Local governments shall have the responsibility to set the rules and laws for the citizens of their community. No state or federal law, rule or regulation shall dictate to the local governments except where the rules, laws or regulations adversely affect the lives of citizens within other local governments. This is not to be extended to include civil rights, only criminal activities

This can only be accomplished when the American people stop adopting the platforms of political parties and mandate politicians adopt the Peoples Platform. We the People decide the agenda politicians enact the vision of the American people.

Department of Transportation– Current
Mission

Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future.
Before

· $65B Budget
50,000+ Employees
Score

· 0% FAIL
Score Summary

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Score Detail

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Strategic Goals
Summary
By Programs

Effective 9

Moderately Effective 19

Adequate 3

Ineffective 1

Results Not Demonstrated 2

Total 34
By Dollars

Effective – $7,767

Moderately Effective – $11,275

Adequate – $44,097

Ineffective – $900

Results Not Demonstrated- $131

Total – $64,170

All Agencies

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Strategic Objective 1.0: – $11.2B

Safety Performance

ENHANCE THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY BY WORKING TOWARD THE ELIMINATION OF TRANSPORTATION-RELATED DEATHS AND INJURIES

Improving safety throughout the transportation network is the premier goal of the Department of Transportation. Passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) provided a renewed foundation for innovation in vehicle and infrastructure safety, partnerships with the states, and data-driven solutions to persistent safety challenges. The National Rail Safety Action Plan targets the most frequent and highest-risk causes of train accidents and accelerates research into new technologies. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are implementing risk management systems, which help them identify potential problems and develop targeted responses.
1.1 Highway Safety

Motor vehicle traffic crashes account for 99 percent of all transportation-related fatalities and injuries. In 2005, they were the leading cause of death for Americans age 3 through 6 and 8 through 34. Alcohol is the single biggest contributing factor in fatal crashes. Motor vehicle crashes place a considerable burden on the nation’s health care system and have significant economic effects. The cost to the economy of all motor vehicle crashes was approximately $230.6 billion, in 2000 dollars, or 2.3 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. The FHWA, NHTSA, and FMCSA contribute to the accomplishment of the Department’s highway safety goal by promoting safer roads, safer vehicles, and safer driver behavior.
1.2 Passenger Vehicles

Passenger vehicle occupant fatalities constitute around 70 percent of all highway fatalities. While the total number of passenger vehicle fatalities has declined over the last five years, the Department knows that more needs to be done. Passenger safety rests on three things: safe road conditions, safe cars, and safe behavior. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) works with States to address road conditions that lead to crashes, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) works with vehicle manufacturers to develop safer cars and with the driving public to promote safer driver and passenger behavior.
1.3 Promoting Passenger Safety

There are a number of FHWA and NHTSA programs that have contributed to the decline in passenger fatalities over the years.
1.4 Large Trucks and Buses

Just as passenger safety relies on safe road conditions, safe vehicles, and safe driver behavior, so does safety for large trucks and buses. The FMCSA conducts education and outreach to truck drivers, bus drivers and motor carrier companies. In addition, FMCSA develops, implements and enforces in-use safety regulations, and along with NHTSA, analyzes the causes of commercial motor vehicle crashes. NHTSA is responsible for developing, setting, and enforcing vehicle safety standards related to new trucks and buses as well as determining safety related defects prompting the recall of a truck or bus.
1.5 Motorcyclists

Motorcyclist fatalities have increased each year since reaching an historic low of 2,116 fatalities in 1997. In 2007, motorcyclist fatalities increased for the tenth year in a row to 5,154 from 4,837 in 2006. This is a 6.6 percent increase in just one year and fatalities among motorcyclists (motorcycle operators and passengers) accounted for 13 percent of the 41,059 total fatalities in motor vehicle crashes in 2007.
1.6 Non-Occupants

The target for non-occupant fatalities was re-baselined in 2008 when this measure became a DOT sub-metric. The non-occupant fatality rate uses overall VMT data to calculate the rate since pedestrian, bicyclist, and other non-occupant miles traveled are not available—meaning the numerator is much smaller than the denominator and changes in the rate are minuscule.
Strategic Goal 2.0: – $9.86B

Aviation Safety

This remains one of the safest periods in aviation history for both commercial and general aviation. Over the last five years, nearly three billion airline passengers reached their destination safely. As the stewards of aviation safety in the U.S., FAA and its industry partners have built a system that operates nearly 32,000 scheduled commercial flights daily and has reduced the risks of flying to all-time lows.
2.1 Promoting Aviation Safety

Creating safe flying conditions is a complex interplay of many activities but FAA has learned that by addressing the precursors to accidents, operational errors, and runway incursions, safety is enhanced. Therefore, the agency spends considerable time and resources to reduce operational errors and runway incursions.

In addition, in recent years, FAA has focused on reducing aviation risks in Alaska, particularly those associated with general aviation. Aviation plays a vital role in Alaska, but the state’s topography, high volume of off-airport operations, and extreme weather present unique safety challenges to pilots.
2.2 RUNWAY ACCIDENTS

Reducing the risk of runway incursions is one of FAA’s top priorities. The definition of a “runway Incursion” was changed in October 2007 to “any occurrence at an airport involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of aircraft.” Reducing runway incursions lessens the probability of accidents that potentially involve fatalities, injuries, and significant property damage.

FAA pursues a number of initiatives to address runway incursions, but close calls at some of the nation’s busiest airports in 2007 showed that FAA and the aviation industry must take quick action to reduce the risk of runway incursions and wrong runway departures. In 2007, more than 40 aviation leaders from airlines, airports, air traffic control and pilot unions, aerospace manufacturers, and the FAA agreed to quickly implement a five point short-term plan to improve safety at U.S. airports.
2.3 Promoting Aviation Safety

One of the fundamental principles of aviation safety is separation—the need to maintain a safe distance from other aircraft, terrain, obstructions, and restricted airspace. Air traffic controllers employ rules and procedures that define separation standards for this environment. An operational error (OE) occurs when controllers fail to apply or follow these procedures that enforce separation and allow aircraft to end up too close to each other or to an obstruction. Reducing the risk of operational errors is one of the FAA’s top priorities as traffic continues to increase. We did not meet our FY 2008 target of limiting Category A and B (most serious) operational errors to a rate of no more than 2.15 per million activities, reaching an operational rate of 2.31 (preliminary estimate).

In FY 2008, FAA revised the way operational errors are measured. The new separation conformance measure of proximity provides a consistent comparison of events. However, the conformity measure needs further refinement for enhanced utility. Several types of events currently fall outside the conformity index, such as errors involving military flights of two aircraft and errors involving dependent Instrument Landing System (ILS) approaches. In FY 2009, we will be expanding conformity to include a greater number of events that result in operational errors.
Strategic Goal 3.0:

Rail Safety

In the past 10 years, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has successfully reduced the total number of rail-related accidents nationwide and the rate of accidents per million train-miles. From FY 1998 through FY 2007, total accidents have declined by 21 percent, while the rate of accidents per million train-miles has dropped by almost thirty-three percent. Significantly, this has occurred while rail traffic rose almost 18 percent. Although this is good news, FRA was concerned with the slight increase in the number of train accidents and the relatively flat accident rate over much of this same period.

To address the train-accident challenge, the Department launched the National Rail Safety Action Plan in 2005. The plan targeted the most frequent, highest-risk causes of train accidents; focused FRA oversight and inspection resources more precisely; and accelerated research efforts that had the potential to lessen the largest risks.
3.1 Promoting Rail Safety

FRA has succeeded over the past several fiscal years in meeting or exceeding its grade-crossing goals, measured by the number of incidents that occur where roads cross railroads. To reach this level of safety, FRA has required railroads to take a number of precautions, such as

· using train horns at highway-rail crossings;

· testing warning devices regularly;

· using alerting lights on locomotives;

· applying retro-reflective material on all rolling stock; and trimming vegetation that could block signs.
Strategic Goal 4.0: – $10M

Transit Safety

Public transportation provides a flexible, safer alternative to traveling by automobile. Currently, transit is one of the safest modes of travel per passenger-mile traveled. According to the National Safety Council, passengers on the Nation’s bus, rail, or commuter rail systems are 40 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident, and 10 times less likely to be involved in an accident resulting in injury. The challenge is to further reduce the rate of fatalities and injuries even as the total number of people using transit increases.
Strategic Goal 5.0:

Pipeline Safety

While pipelines are by many measures the safest mode for transporting hazardous liquid and natural gas, the nature of their cargo is inherently dangerous. To address this hazard, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has designed and implemented a strong, risk-based, systems approach to protect the safety, security, and reliability of our Nation’s pipeline infrastructure. This risk-based systems approach also helps provide secure and reliable transportation of our Nation’s energy resources.
5.1 Promoting Pipeline Safety

With enactment of the PIPES Act of 2006, PHMSA has sharpened its focus on further mitigating the risk to people and is advancing the agency’s risk–based, integrity management approach. Some of the big gains over the past year have been in reducing the number of pipeline incidents caused by corrosion and excavation. These numbers have declined significantly for both causes in all three pipeline sectors (gas transmission, gas distribution, and hazardous liquid pipelines) over the last 12 months—largely due to PHMSA’s efforts in advancing integrity management and damage prevention.
Strategic Goal 6.0:

Hazardous Materials Safety

Promoting Pipeline Safety

The major risks from the transportation of hazardous materials are the potential for fire aboard an aircraft, release of toxic-by-inhalation materials in bulk, and motor carrier crashes and rollovers involving flammable liquids in bulk. The first two of these are considered low-probability high-consequence risks, while the third is the more common occurrence of the three; although it is still a small percentage of all motor carrier crashes.
Strategic Goal 7.0:

Reduce Congestion

REDUCE CONGESTION AND OTHER IMPEDIMENTS TO USING THE NATION’S TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

Most Americans would not know that congestion is costing America an estimated $200 billion a year collectively. What individual citizens do know, however, is that their time is being wasted sitting on our nation’s roadways or in our airports – time that should be spent with family, friends and in our communities. The National Strategy to Reduce Congestion has elevated congestion relief to a top priority and a number of significant changes are being explored and proposed that could fundamentally change the way we plan and pay for transportation improvements. On a parallel track, the multi-agency NextGen program plans to transform aviation over the next 20 years, making it even safer and expanding capacity by a factor of 3. Finally, DOT’s comprehensive surface transportation reform proposal (Reform Proposal) recommends changes to Federal surface transportation program and policies, many of which would enable states and localities to more effectively pursue congestion reduction strategies.
7.1 Improved Infrastructure – $11.57B

Improving the condition and performance of pavement and bridges is critical to the structural integrity and cost effectiveness of the transportation system. The condition of the National Highway System (NHS) also affects traffic congestion, wear-and-tear on vehicles, comfort of travelers, and fuel consumption.
7.2 HIGHWAY CONGESTION

Traffic congestion on our Nation’s highways now affects more trips, involves more hours of the day, and includes more of the transportation system than ever before. Congestion varies significantly day to day because demand and capacity are constantly changing at any given location. Overall, 67 percent of the peak-period travel nationwide is congested, compared to 32 percent in 1982. Travelers in 85 urban areas spent 4.2 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2005, more than a five-fold increase when compared to 1982.
7.3 Reducing Congestion

Initiatives designed to demonstrate the value and efficacy of congestion pricing in reducing traffic congestion are key to advancing the Transportation Secretary’s Congestion Initiative. To this end, the Department initiated the Urban Partnership (UP) and Congestion Reduction Demonstration (CRD) programs and is now working with six metropolitan areas to demonstrate various pricing strategies. These UP/CRD partners have agreed to pursue integrated approaches that, while prominently featuring pricing, also include supporting technology and transit strategies. Five metropolitan areas were selected for the first Urban Partnerships: Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. After considerable debate, the New York state legislature failed to provide the necessary tolling authority for a highly innovative cordon pricing scheme in New York City. Consequently, the funds set aside for New York City were redistributed to Chicago and Los Angeles for CRD programs. The FHWA has a comprehensive agenda underway to capture lessons learned from all of the UP/CRD programs. Peer exchanges ensure the eventual widespread deployment of congestion pricing applications. Additionally, an intensive evaluation program has been established to quantify both the benefits and costs of these pricing strategies.
Strategic Goal 8.0: – $8.55B

Transit Rider Ship

With the uncertainty of gasoline prices for the foreseeable future, public transit is an attractive alternative to the automobile. Transit agencies are handling increasing numbers of passengers; ridership growth increased by only 0.7 percent in 2003 and 2004, grew by 1.9 percent in 2005, 2.1 percent in 2006, and 2.5 percent in 2007, but expanded by 4.3 percent in 2008 . Transit is one of the safest ways of traveling, relieves road congestion, and reduces air pollution. Federal investments in transit, combined with State and private sector funds, make public transportation possible for tens of millions of Americans every day saving time, providing mobility, and reducing congestion.

According to a recent Texas Transportation Institute analysis, Americans wasted 4.2 billion hours and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel sitting in traffic jams. Traffic congestion now costs motorists in our Nation’s top urban areas about $78 billion a year in wasted time and fuel. Mass transit, however, saved $10.2 billion in wasted fuel and time.
8.1 Promoting Transit Ridership

To support this goal, FTA continued to invest billions of dollars in the Nation’s transit infrastructure to ensure transit is as safe, efficient, and cost-effective as possible, thus attracting new riders. FTA also implemented several new initiatives to promote ridership and recognize transit agencies that develop innovative and successful programs to increase ridership.
Strategic Goal 9.0: – $563M

Transportation Accessibility

According to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, there are some 40 million disabled Americans and this number is expected to increase as the population ages. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that the number of Americans over 85 will increase from 5.4 million to 19 million between 2008 and 2050. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that public transportation be accessible to these individuals; it is vital to maintaining independence and mobility for people with disabilities and linking them to employment, health care and their community.
Strategic Goal 10.0: – $4.0 B

Aviation Delay

Reducing delays is one of the biggest challenges facing the FAA. Commercial airline passenger delays in the U.S. amount to approximately $10 billion in delay costs each year. The problem is exacerbated by increased traffic and congestion concentrated at several major airports, particularly in the New York metropolitan area. Although a reduction in traffic of about 10 percent is expected this fall as airlines cut schedules due to high fuel prices, the large hub airports might not see significant delay reduction, because airlines tend to maintain schedules there. Along with increased congestion, adverse weather conditions are a major contributing factor to airport delays. Approximately 70 percent of flight delays are caused by weather. In the first 6 months of FY 2008, the percentage of operations conducted in severe weather increased almost 25 percent compared to the same time period in FY 2007.
Strategic Goal 11.0: – $1,430 Million

Global Connectivity

The U.S. Department of Transportation leveraged $1,430 million to promote competition and economic development within the U.S. and internationally.
Strategic Goal 12.0: – $960M

More Efficient Movement of Cargo

The binational St. Lawrence Seaway is the international shipping gateway to the Great Lakes, connecting the heartland of North America with the world. Commercial transportation on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System serves as competition to other maritime trade routes as well as other transportation modes, which benefits the nation in lower consumer prices of finished goods and raw materials, and helps to reduce roadway and railway congestion—each Seaway-size vessel carries roughly 25,000 metric tons, the equivalent of 870 tractor trailers.

Commercial trade on the Great Lakes Seaway System impacts 150,000 U.S. jobs, $12 million per day in wages, $9 million per day in business revenues by firms engaged in trade, and provides approximately $2.7 billion in annual transportation cost savings compared to competing rail and highway routes. Almost 50 percent of Seaway traffic travels to and from overseas ports, especially in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
12.1 Highway Freight Corridors

A doubling of international trade over the last decade placed a strain on many of the Nation’s intermodal ports and gateways and contributed to an increase in traffic congestion. A further increase in freight activity on the Nation’s highways is anticipated in this decade due to continued growth in international trade. Traffic congestion hinders freight movement and undermines business productivity and international trade.

The buffer index, a measure of travel time reliability, represents the extra time freight carriers should add to their average travel time in order to ensure on-time arrival, at least 95 percent of the time, for an end-to-end trip along the corridor. The extra time is added to account for any unexpected delay. The buffer index, which is expressed as a percentage, decreases as trip reliability improves.
12.2 Promoting Corridors of the Future

The Corridors of the Future Program (CFP) is making a significant contribution to the Nation’s transportation system through the establishment of comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional approaches that will be vital for the competitiveness of the United States. Since the transportation system that supports the economy rarely stays within political boundaries and a large percentage of the value and tonnage of freight moves across State, regional or national boundaries, the CFP multi-jurisdictional approach allows transportation agencies to address congestion from a national/regional perspective.
12.3 Border Crossing

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was $74.1 billion, or 6.6 percent higher in June 2008 than in June 2007. Border delays and border crossing time reliability are an important concern for public agencies, travelers and those involved with or affected by international travel and trade.
12.4 Reducing Border Crossing Delay

Through FY 2008, more than $560 million in projects was funded through the Coordinated Infrastructure program. States use these funds in a border region to make improvements to existing transportation and supporting infrastructure, and construct highways and related safety and safety enforcement facilities related to international trade. They also undertake operational improvements including those related to electronic data interchange and use of telecommunications, modify regulatory procedures, and coordinate transportation planning, programming, and border operations with Canada and Mexico.
Strategic Goal 13.0: – $58M

Harmonized and Standardized Regulatory and Facilitation Requirements
13.1 New and Expanded Agreements

Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreements (BASA) promote aviation safety and environmental quality, enhance cooperation, and increase efficiency in the civil aviation system. The agreements are based on recognized comparability of U.S. and foreign systems for approval and surveillance of the aviation industry. By building a network of competent civil aviation authorities and concluding agreements with additional countries and/or regional authorities, FAA increases safety and competitiveness globally. Improved global understanding of U.S. safety regulations, processes, and procedures leads to better international regulatory oversight and evens the market by holding more international players to comparable standards.
13.2 International Air Transportation Market

Since the 1940s, international air transportation has been subject to restrictive bilateral agreements that limit price and service options and artificially suppress aviation growth. DOT’s policy is to negotiate bilateral and multilateral agreements to open international air travel to market forces, thereby removing limitations on the freedom of U.S. and foreign airlines to increase service, lower fares, and promote economic growth. These Open Skies agreements have made it possible for the airline industry to provide the opportunity for better quality, lower priced, more competitive air service in thousands of international city-pairs to an increasing portion of the world’s population.
14.0 Expanded Opportunities

Expanded opportunities for small businesses, especially women-owned and disadvantaged businesses, serve the economic interests of the United States, both nationally and globally. These small businesses routinely develop, manufacture and distribute quality products to the private sector, but continue to face significant hurdles participating in procurement opportunities with the Federal Government. To give these entrepreneurs a fair opportunity to compete, Congress and the Administration have established procurement goals for the Federal Government. In turn, each DOT Operating Administration (OA) develops targets consistent with legislative mandates and anticipated contracting and subcontracting opportunities.
Strategic Goal 14.0: – $7,188M

Environment Stewardship

PROMOTE TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS THAT ENHANCE COMMUNITIES AND PROTECT THE NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The transportation system has a significant impact on the environment. At the current rate of growth, transportation’s share of the human-produced greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is projected to increase from 28 percent to 36 percent. DOT’s Climate Change Center and Environmental Forecasting is a collective effort of DOT agencies to examine environmental factors in a coordinated manner while each agency continues pursuit of the issues under its purview.

The U.S. Department of Transportation leveraged $7,188 million to protect communities and their natural and built assets.
Strategic Goal 15.0: – $2.845B

Reduction in Pollution
15.1 Mobile Source Emissions

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) target six major pollutants as among the most serious airborne threats to human health. Transportation is a major contributor to some of the pollutants—particularly ozone, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Over the past 20 years, contributions of emissions from on road mobile sources to all emissions rapidly declined. The downward trend in on road mobile source emissions is expected to continue as a result of the introduction of cleaner engines and fuels.
15.2 Pipeline Spills of Hazardous Liquids

PHMSA’s first priority is the continued safe operation and reliability of all pipelines. PHMSA has taken a proactive approach to protecting the environment by designing and implementing a strong risk-based systems approach to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the Nation’s pipeline infrastructure.
15.3 DOT Facility Cleanup

DOT has a special responsibility to ensure that its own facilities are compliant with environmental laws and regulations. Our activities fall into three broad categories: restoration, compliance, and pollution prevention. Restoration activities involve identifying, investigating, and cleaning up contaminated sites. Compliance activities include the operation of facilities, equipment, and vessels in accordance with environmental requirements. Pollution prevention activities mean preventing future clean-up activities by avoiding the generation of pollutants in our operations or facilities.
Strategic Goal 16.0: – $4.203B

Other Environmental Activities
16.1 Human Environment

The FHWA promotes environmental stewardship practices by recognizing Exemplary Human Environment Initiatives (EHEI) in transportation projects and activities that were particularly effective and innovative in how they enhanced the human environment and improve public benefit. The EHEI measure is based on the number of projects or activities chosen for national recognition in six categories:

· Encouraging non-motorized transportation activities such as greater use of bicycling, walking (including access for persons with disabilities), and other non-motorized modes of travel.

· Enhancing the environment for human activities through infrastructure changes (e.g., historical preservation activities) that benefit human transportation and increase livability and quality of life.

· Process and procedural changes (e.g., collaborative decision making) that allow for more efficient service delivery.

· Educational and training programs that inform people about issues or changes that should be made to improve the human environment.

· Product development including Geographic Information System or travel modeling related activities that result in the creation or improvement of a tangible product or technology that improves everyday processes, and

· Other projects and activities including, but not limited to, border planning or economic development that do not fit in the other five categories.
16.2 Ship Disposal

The Maritime Administration is the U.S. government’s disposal agent for merchant-type vessels 1,500 gross tons or more owned by the Federal Government. The Agency has custody of a fleet of approximately 100 non-retention ships that are available for disposal but not yet under contract. These obsolete ships are located at the James River Reserve Fleet site in Virginia, the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet site in California and the Beaumont Reserve Fleet site in Texas. Steady progress in the disposal of the obsolete ships must be maintained to minimize the risk to the surrounding environment due to the presence of hazardous materials on board the ships.
Strategic Goal 17.0: – $136M

Streamlined Environmental Review

DOT establishes and pursues rigorous timeframes for all projects requiring an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). By tracking timeframes, DOT has developed a better understanding of the key impediments to the process, enabling us to address the concerns of Congress, the States, and others. The DOT has established 60 months as the FY 2008 target for the median timeframe for completing an EIS. DOT facilitates the achievement of the objective by promoting environmental stewardship practices and integrated planning efforts, and encouraging linkages between planning and NEPA requirements.

The EIS process not only ensures that infrastructure projects comply with NEPA guidelines, but it also allows citizens and local organizations an opportunity to voice their concerns and propose alternatives. DOT embraces the public’s thoughts on alternative ways to accomplish what it is proposing and to offer comments on its analysis of the environmental effects of the proposed action.
Strategic Goal 18.0: -$900M

Security, Preparedness, And Response

BALANCE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY REQUIREMENTS WITH THE SAFETY, MOBILITY, AND ECONOMIC NEEDS OF THE NATION AND BE PREPARED TO RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES THAT AFFECT THE VIABILITY OF THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR

Threats may emanate from nature or from acts of terrorism, but either way, the transportation system is at once a target for damage and a critical infrastructure element for response and recovery. Working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense as appropriate, the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as state and local transportation departments, are significant players in security, preparedness and response..

The U.S. Department of Transportation leveraged $900 million to ensure preparedness for response to emergencies that impact the transportation system.
Strategic Goal 19.0: – $250M

Defense Mobilization

The Department of Defense (DOD) relies on the U.S. commercial transportation industry as well as government-owned ships to deliver equipment and supplies throughout the world in order to maximize defense logistics capabilities and minimize cost.

· The DOT-owned Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is a very important component of the Department’s ability to provide sealift capacity in times of emergency to DOD. These ships serve as an important asset supporting the Department’s emergency preparedness and disaster response activities. The RRF is composed of 44 ships with special capabilities that can carry or offload heavy and oversized military cargoes which regular U.S.-flag commercial cargo ships cannot carry. RRF ships meet approximately half of the U.S. Transportation Command’s surge (or initial) sealift requirement during a mobilization.

· DOT, through the Maritime Administration, is also responsible for establishing DOD’s prioritized use of facilities at 15 U.S. commercial strategic ports during DOD mobilizations or other requirements of the nation’s defense to ensure the safe, secure, and smooth flow of military cargo through the commercial U.S. transportation system while minimizing commercial cargo disruptions.

· DOT’s Maritime Security Program (MSP) ensures that the United States will have U.S.-flag commercial vessels along with their intermodal assets to support DOD operations.

· The Maritime Administration also supports the education and training of new merchant marine officers by operating the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) and by providing partial support to the six State Maritime Schools (SMS) providing training to develop an unlimited number of licensed mariners to support DOD during national emergencies.
Strategic Goal 20.0: – $642M

Security and Readiness
20.1 Security in the Air

In FY 2008, FAA continued to enhance our ability to respond to crises rapidly and effectively, including security-related threats and natural disasters, by building and improving emergency plans and preparedness tools that will enable us to sustain essential services and provide for employee well-being during crisis events. Operational coordination, communication, and command and control capabilities needed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises were strengthened and the use and functionality of operational and corporate crises response structures, such as specialized hurricane coordination cells and continuity of operations programs, were improved.
20.2 Security on our Highways

FHWA continued to balance the need to protect critical transportation infrastructure with the safety, mobility and economic needs of the nation. During FY 2008, FHWA enabled state departments of transportation to implement critical security enhancement activities such as response to disasters, freight and border security operations, and critical infrastructure vulnerability assessments and counter measure deployment. A major ongoing program is maintaining national defense mobility using the Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET). The STRAHNET is a 62,791-mile system of roads deemed necessary for emergency mobilization and peacetime movement of heavy armor, fuel, ammunition, repair parts, food, and other commodities to support U.S. military operations.
20.3 Security in Public Transit

Transit is a critical, high risk and high consequence national asset. Every day, transit provides mobility to 14 million passengers on transit systems that range from very small bus-only systems in rural communities to the largest urban economic and financial centers in the nation. FTA has provided employee training, emergency preparedness, and public awareness through oversight, technical assistance, and research programs. We also provided guidance and information to state and local agencies on transit preparedness in the case of an emergency. FTA also formalized a relationship with the DHS Transportation Security Administration through the execution of the DOT/DHS Memorandum of Understanding’s Public Transit Annex enabling FTA to leverage its expertise and resources to maximize effective transit security coordination.
Strategic Goal 21.0: -$8.3M

Intelligence, Preparedness, Response

Prevention of Terrorism Act (IRPTA), Public Law 108-458 (IRPTA), which established a new paradigm for sharing information. DOT created an Information Sharing Council which established an Information Sharing Environment (ISE) for the sharing of terrorism information among all appropriate Federal, State, local, tribal entities, and the private sector through the use of policy guidelines and technologies.

Along with our work in intelligence, DOT continued to ensure readiness to undertake its role as defined in the National Response Framework, issued in 2008. In this capacity, DOT is the lead agency for coordinating transportation response and support following a disaster and has taken a more active role working with State and local transportation officials in planning for disasters. This includes development of a system of emergency actions that define alternatives, processes, and issues to be considered during various stages of national security emergencies and identification of actions that could be taken in the early stages of a national security emergency or a pending emergency to mitigate the impact or reduce significantly the lead times associated with full emergency action implementation.
21.1 Promoting Transportation Sector Security Issues in the Homeland Security Context

The Homeland Security Council established a National Exercise Program (NEP) addressing the full spectrum of emergencies and crises likely to require Executive Branch coordination. The NEP Implementation Plan defines processes and responsibilities for achieving and executing that program. Exercises in the plan are broken into priorities. Tier 2 exercises are the second highest priority for participation. Tier 2 exercises are focused on integration of Federal activities in a geographic region (overseas or domestic). Tier 3 exercises are other Federal exercises for which no support is mandated.
Strategic Goal 22.0: – $1.2 B

Organizational Excellence

We cannot achieve our strategic goals without leadership and continuous improvement in all the supporting functions of the Department. We actively pursue the goals of the President’s Management Agenda as well as other externally- and internally-driven initiatives that improve the operations of the entire Department through each and every DOT agency.

The U.S. Department of Transportation leverages $1.20 billion to provide leadership in human resources, commercial services, financial management, performance improvement, and eGov.

23.0 President’s Management Agenda – $1.05B
23.1 Human Capital

The human capital management agenda focuses on long-term management of the Federal workforce and fostering a citizen-centered, results-based government that is organized to be agile, lean, and focused on core competencies.
Organization Chart

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Budget

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Overview

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The Consolidated Balance Sheet shows the Department had total assets of $61.3 billion at the end of FY 2008. This represents a 1 percent decrease over the previous year’s total assets of $61.8 billion. The largest increase of $950 million was in the increase in Direct Loans disbursements made under Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (TIFIA) which provides credit assistance to major transportation projects.

The Department’s assets reflected in the Consolidated Balance Sheet are summarized in the following table.
Liabilities

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Net Costs

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Cost by Program

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Challenges:
1 – Management Challenge: Continuing to Enhance Oversight to Ensure the Safety of an Aging Surface Transportation Infrastructure and Maximize the Return on Investments in Highway and Transit Infrastructure Projects.

Recent tragic highway incidents underscore the need for FHWA to ensure that its oversight actions target tunnels and bridges that represent high-priority safety risk so that problems are identified, evaluated, and remediated in a timely and thorough manner.
2 – Ensuring that major projects are completed in an efficient and cost efficient manner to maximize the return on Federal infrastructure investments

FHWA continues to play an important role in ensuring that Value Engineering (VE) is successfully integrated in the development and delivery of surface transportation programs and projects. In FY 2007, the State DOTs and the Office of Federal Lands Highway performed a total of 316 VE studies and achieved a significant cost savings of $1.972 billion on projects with an estimated construction cost of $24.81 billion. In addition, a total of $41.8 million was saved as the result of approved construction VE Change Proposals that were submitted by contractors.
3 -Management Challenge: Addressing Long- and Short-Term Challenges for Operating, Maintaining, and Modernizing the National Airspace System

– Hiring and training nearly 15,000 controllers over the next 10 years

One of FAA’s challenges over the next ten years is hiring and training enough air traffic controllers to address the surge in retirements. The Agency has developed a strategy for this and continues to modify and improve it as needed. FAA’s new hires come largely from three sources: experienced military controllers, Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) partner schools, and the general public. This year FAA has taken action in all three areas to greatly increase the qualified applicant pool and reduce the time and cost associated with hiring and training.
4 – Keeping existing modernization projects on track

FAA has created and implemented mitigation strategies to comprehensively address the need to keep modernization projects on track. Implementation of executive and management reviews and wide-ranging processes have resulted in positive, measurable, and dramatic changes in how FAA manages modernization projects.
5 – Reducing cost, schedule, and technical risk with NextGen

The development and execution of NextGen is the most complex, high-risk undertaking FAA has ever attempted and will require multibillion dollar investments from the Federal Government and airspace users. NextGen implementation is led by the recently appointed Senior Vice President for NextGen and Operations Planning, in cooperation with the NextGen Management Board and NextGen Review Board. The Senior Vice President for NextGen and Operations Planning is supported by the NextGen Integration and Implementation Office. This office is structured to successfully implement NextGen by carefully monitoring the cost, schedule and technical risks.
6 -Maintaining FAA’s aging air traffic control facilities

Today there are over 500 terminal and en route air traffic control systems and facilities located throughout the country. Both the number and locations of the Air Traffic Control systems and facilities currently in use were driven by available technology. In preparation for the transition to the NextGen Air Transportation System, an estimated 400 legacy systems and facilities will need to be replaced or modernized.
7 -Properly accounting for capital investment projects

Following extensive corrective actions undertaken during FY 2007, FAA continued to standardize and improve its processes for monitoring and accounting for capital investment projects. These initiatives are described in the Capitalization Program Management Plan (PMP), approved January 2008, which has been used to guide the Capitalization Program. FAA has made significant progress against the PMP. The activities identified in the PMP have been substantially completed, with ongoing clean up and routine processing tasks on target to be completed by September 30.
8- Management Challenge: Developing a Plan to Address the Highway and Transit Funding Issues in the Next Reauthorization

– Facing a near-term funding crisis in the Highway Trust Fund

Given the current constraints in the Federal budget, the Department has undertaken several initiatives to encourage more effective and efficient use of existing revenue sources and the development of additional sources of revenue. The importance of these efforts was reinforced in September as the Department instituted emergency measures to deal with an expected shortfall in the Highway Account of the Federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Although Congress passed legislation, which the President subsequently signed, providing the Highway Trust Fund with $8 billion from the General Fund to avoid the shortfall, these funds provide only temporary relief. The HTF will remain vulnerable to shortfalls as long as it continues to rely on fuel taxes as its primary source of revenue.
9- Demand for more investment and rapid cost escalation will increase the pressure to expand highway funding

The amount needed to offset the effects of inflation in highway construction and maintenance costs has soared dramatically in recent years. The increases have substantially reduced the purchasing power of highway construction funds and have led some state planners to cancel or delay projects. The Inspector General urged DOT to pursue innovative uses of funding to counter this price escalation.
10 — Developing a comprehensive Highway funding framework quickly

In addition to its provisions regarding innovative finance, the DOT’s Reform Proposal provides a comprehensive vision of a clarified Federal role in surface transportation. The Reform Proposal reflects the Administration’s strongly-held beliefs on the long-term inability of the gas tax and the current Federal programmatic structure to adequately respond to America’s transportation, economic, energy, and environmental policy goals. It provides an investment strategy and regulatory framework for Federal surface transportation investments and outlines programmatic, financial, and regulatory reforms that a surface transportation authorization bill might include. These reforms would focus substantial Federal funding on projects of national interest; give state and local officials greater flexibility and private-sector financing options to tackle urban congestion; ensure that government invests tax dollars effectively, and continue to focus on safety. In addition to grant programs, the proposal would encourage pricing and the leveraging of Federal funding and provide for greater accountability with more effective decision making and performance measurement.
11 -Management Challenge: Reducing Congestion in America’s Transportation System

The Department is pursuing a national strategy to reduce congestion across all modes of transportation. Congestion limits economic growth, wastes billions of gallons or fuel, and costs billions of dollars in lost productivity each year. This will likely remain a prominent challenge for the Department for some time, particularly with regard to air travel. FAA and FHWA are the focal points in the Department for addressing these challenges.
12- Keeping planned infrastructure and airspace projects on schedule to relieve congestion and delays

New runways and runway extensions provide significant capacity increases. Since fiscal year 2000, fifteen new airfield projects have opened at the 35 busiest airports. The progress of each Operational Evolution Partnership (OEP) runway and/or taxiway project is monitored by a team comprised of representatives from key FAA organizations and outside stakeholders. The team is responsible for ensuring that the runway and/or taxiway project is commissioned on schedule with all necessary equipment and airspace procedures in place to achieve the full operational capability of the airfield project. The team provides quarterly updates to the NextGen Management Board, which is chaired by the FAA Deputy Administrator. Any issues relating to the runway project are discussed, assigned to an executive to resolve, and tracked by the integration team to ensure resolution.
12-Leading Stakeholders

The Department acknowledges the need to leverage its available tools to influence stakeholder decisions on infrastructure improvement. Indeed, the critical need to move from a tax-based transportation model to a user pay model and the concomitant need to have a level playing field for private and public sector investors in transportation infrastructure represent significant policy change. The Nation can no longer afford to rely almost exclusively on Federal fuel taxes to fund our transportation infrastructure.
13- Developing innovative funding solutions for infrastructure needs

Any sustainable response to traffic congestion must accomplish two general objectives: making efficient use of existing transportation infrastructure and adding capacity where needed. DOT has strongly endorsed the use of innovative finance – including public-private partnerships (PPPs) – accomplish both ends. There are more than 20 major PPPs in various stages of procurement in the US, including several managed lanes projects which will incorporate pricing and reduce congestion; many of these projects would likely not be financially viable under more traditional public procurement approaches.
14 -Management Challenge: Improving Oversight and Strengthening Enforcement of Surface Safety Programs

Over the last several years, Congress has provided increased funding to enhance surface transportation safety programs, particularly under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). Over the last 21 years, the Department has helped reduce the rate of highway fatalities per 100 million total vehicle miles traveled by about 45 percent (from 2.51 in 1986 to 1.37 in 2007). Still, 41,059 people were killed on our Nation’s highways in 2007. The Department has set an ambitious goal of reducing the highway fatality rate to 1.0 by 2011. However, finding ways to reach this goal is a significant challenge for the Department.
15- Closely monitoring Mexican motor carriers operating throughout the United States under the Department’s demonstration project

On September 6, 2007, the Department initiated a 1-year demonstration project to permit up to 100 Mexico-domiciled and 100 U.S. motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the United States–Mexico border. The demonstration project was subsequently extended for two additional years. The FMCSA addressed the needs with coordinated, site-specific plans for checking trucks and drivers participating in the demonstration project. This required coordinating inspections and driver checks with state partners and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, resulting in the development of 25 port-of-entry specific plans. Nearly 100 percent of the licenses of Mexican drivers crossing the border were validated to ensure that all Mexican drivers participating in the project are properly credentialed and licensed.
16- Countering Fraud in the Commercial Driver’s License program

Over the past six years, the DOT IG and FMCSA carried out commercial drivers license (CDL) fraud-related investigations of corrupt third-party examiners in 26 states resulting in prosecutions in 20 states. On April 9, 2008, a notice of proposed rule making was published in the Federal Register which proposed to tighten regulatory controls over CDL learner’s permits, strengthen requirements for proving that CDL applicants are in the United States legally, and improve detection and prevention of fraudulent testing and licensing.
17- Resolving hours of service rules for commercial drivers

In response to a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, FMCSA published on December 17, 2007, an Interim Final Rule (IFR) regarding hours of service (HOS) for truck drivers. The IFR retains the HOS provisions allowing 11 hours of driving time within a 14-hour, non-extendable window from the start of the workday, following 10 consecutive hours off duty.
18- Improving State accountability in programs for reducing alcohol-impaired driving

In 2007, alcohol-related fatalities remained at 41 percent (17,036) of all traffic fatalities (41,059). Practically speaking, no significant improvement in the safety target can be achieved unless alcohol-related fatalities drop dramatically, and the States are the linchpin in achieving this drop.
19- Further reducing railroad collisions and fatalities through more safety oversight

Over the past 10 years, significant progress has been made in reducing collisions and fatalities at highway-rail grade crossings. The number of such collisions fell by 31 percent from the end of 1996 to its end-of-2006 total of just over 2,900. FRA’s grade crossing safety oversight activities have contributed to this progress. However, these grade crossing collisions continue to claim over 300 lives each year. FRA pursued a number of activities in FY 2008 to address this issue.
20- Management Challenge: Continuing to Make a Safe Aviation System Safer

– Taking proactive steps to improve runway safety in light of recent serious incidents

Reducing the risk of runway incursions is one of FAA’s top priorities. Reducing runway incursions lessens the probability of accidents that potentially involve fatalities, injuries, and significant property damage. The definition of a runway incursion was changed in October 2007 to “any occurrence at an airport involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of aircraft.” This definition has also been adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Before it was developed, countries around the world used at least 20 different definitions for a runway incursion. With its adoption, the worldwide aviation community now has a single runway incursion definition, which will help in the search to determine common factors that contribute to these incidents.
21- Ensuring consistency and accuracy in reporting and addressing controller operational errors

To address this challenge, FAA will continue to focus on the development and implementation of an automated software prototype that will depict Air Traffic Control separation conformance in the Terminal environment nationwide. The Traffic Analysis and Review Program, TARP, will apply separation logic to targets; identify where applicable separation standards are not being maintained; and highlight incidents for further investigation.
22- Strengthening risk-based oversight systems for air carriers, external repair facilities, and aircraft manufacturers

The FAA continues to strengthen its risk-based oversight system and has expanded the Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS) to 107 certificate management teams, FAA teams that oversee the nation’s Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 121 air carriers.
23- Maintaining a sufficient number of inspectors

In March 2008, the Aviation Safety Organization (AVS) provided to Congress a 10-year Aviation Safety Workforce Plan. This plan ensures that an adequate safety staff is maintained to address oversight needs and addresses inspector attrition and anticipated changes in the aviation industry. The plan also addresses competencies and skills required within the AVS workforce to stay abreast of new technologies and to meet growing industry demands for service. As of August, AVS had hired a net increase of 143 positions, 85 of which are Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASI), putting us on target to meet the planned end-of-year staffing level.
24- Strengthening oversight of the Airman Medical Certification program

The Airman Medical Certification Program is a critical safety program through which the FAA ensures that pilots are medically qualified and fit to pilot aircraft in the National Airspace System. Each year FAA processes approximately 460,000 airman medical certificate applications. After completing FAA training, physicians in private practice are designated as Aviation Medical Examiners (AME). The FAA currently has approximately 4,500 AMEs designated to examine and evaluate airmen to determine whether they meet Title 14 CFR Part 67 airman medical standards. To properly discharge the duties associated with their responsibilities, AMEs must have detailed knowledge and understanding of FAA rules, regulations, policies, and procedures related to pilot medical standards and the certification process.
25- Strengthening the Protection of Information Technology Resources, Including the Critical Air Traffic Control System

– Enhancing air traffic control system security and continuity planning

The National Airspace System of the United States is one of the most complex aviation systems in the world—consisting of thousands of people, procedures, facilities, and equipment—that enable safe and expeditious air travel in the U.S. and over large portions of the world’s oceans. Successful operation of the NAS relies on a system that continuously tracks the position, routes of flight, and movement of aircraft. ATC control activities are geographically distributed among Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) which are responsible for many thousands of square miles of airspace. The ARTCCs control aircraft from the time they depart terminal airspace (or in certain cases airports) to the time they arrive at another airport or terminal’s airspace. Centers may also “pick up” aircraft that are already airborne and integrate
26- Testing and strengthening the information system security program at DOT Headquarters

In FY 2008 DOT has undertaken several initiatives to test and strengthen the Departmental information systems security program specifically meeting tougher Federal Government security standards, correcting identified security deficiencies, and securing its IT infrastructure, all at a time of heightened vulnerability.
27- Ensuring the timeliness of data recording and protection of personally identifiable information when interfacing with non-Federal systems

In FY 2008 DOT has undertaken initiatives to ensure the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) when interfacing with non-Federal systems. These efforts have focused on the compliance requirements associated with OMB M 07-16, Safeguarding Against and Responding to the Breach of Personally Identifiable Information. DOT policy requires encryption of all PII in transit.
28- Continuing to enhance oversight of information technology investments

In early FY 2008 DOT finalized both the Earned Value Management (EVM) and IT Program Rebaselining policies. These comprehensive policies will allow DOT to benefit from additional management oversight across the IT investment portfolio since this guidance provides a framework for comprehensive planning, proper baseline maintenance, and earned value analysis which combined provide a formula for increased visibility into individual investment performance and enhances overall portfolio management.
29- Management Challenge: Managing Acquisition and Contract Operations More Effectively to Obtain Quality Goods and Services at Reasonable Prices

– Increasing incurred-cost audits of procurement contracts to reduce unallowable charges

Acquisition Policy Letter (APL) 2008-06 was issued on April 24, 2008 by the Office of the Senior Procurement Executive (OSPE) for the purpose of establishing a Departmental plan for assuring incurred-cost audits are obtained and audit report recommendations are resolved in a timely manner. The policy letter requires Operating Administration (OA) Chief Contracting Officers to (1) take action to revise their current FY 2008 contract audit plan to identify planned contract audits ot implemented during FY 2007 or FY 2008 and included in FY 2009 audit plans and to resolve any pending audit finding with questioned costs by November 20, 2008. They are also required to update and resolve the list of DCAA-reported unresolved questioned costs that are more than 6 months old as of October 2006 and report any costs recovered to the OSPE. Additionally, quarterly status reports are to be submitted to address audit hours used, resolved and unresolved questioned costs, and whether justifications have been placed in the contract files where audits were not requested.
30- Developing strategies for the future acquisition workforce

The Acquisition Workforce Career Development Program policy issued in November 2006 provides the framework for implementing OFPP Policy Letter 05-01 and establishes procedures to be used by DOT Operating Administrations in implementing this program. The Acquisition Workforce Career Development Program is applicable to those positions and career fields defined as the acquisition workforce. The DOT acquisition workforce is defined to include all positions in the General Schedule Contracting Series (GS-1102); all warranted Contracting Officers regardless of General Schedule series with authority to obligate funds above the micro-purchase threshold; all positions in the GS-1105 Purchasing Series; Contracting Officer Technical Representatives (COTRs), or equivalent positions; Project and Program Managers, as identified by the Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO); and other positions designated by the CAO as performing significant acquisition-related functions.
31- Management Challenge: Reforming Intercity Passenger Rail

– Improving Amtrak’s cost-effectiveness to sustain its financial progress

At the urging of the FRA, Amtrak has taken many steps to address these areas over the past few years. As a result of a combination of programs focusing on diverse aspects of corporate operations and its intensive efforts at revenue management—the company is relatively more stable financially that it was five years ago. Nevertheless, Amtrak’s reliance on public subsidies has grown over time, with a Federal appropriation of $1.325 billion in 2008.
32- Overcoming challenges to improving Amtrak’s on-time performance

The FRA has taken proactive steps to improve Amtrak’s on-time performance (OTP).
Agencies:

1. Office of the Secretary: Leadership of the DOT is provided by the Secretary of Transportation, who is the principal adviser to the President in all matters relating to federal transportation programs. The Secretary is assisted by the Deputy Secretary in this role. The Office of the Secretary (OST) oversees the formulation of national transportation policy and promotes intermodal transportation. Other responsibilities range from negotiation and implementation of international transportation agreements, assuring the fitness of US airlines, enforcing airline consumer protection regulations, issuance of regulations to prevent alcohol and illegal drug misuse in transportation systems and preparing transportation legislation.
2. Federal Aviation Administration: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees the safety of civil aviation. The safety mission of the FAA is first and foremost and includes the issuance and enforcement of regulations and standards related to the manufacture, operation, certification and maintenance of aircraft. The agency is responsible for the rating and certification of airmen and for certification of airports serving air carriers. It also regulates a program to protect the security of civil aviation, and enforces regulations under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act for shipments by air. The FAA, which operates a network of airport towers, air route traffic control centers, and flight service stations, develops air traffic rules, allocates the use of airspace, and provides for the security control of air traffic to meet national defense requirements. Other responsibilities include the construction or installation of visual and electronic aids to air navigation and promotion of aviation safety internationally. The FAA, which regulates and encourages the U.S. commercial space transportation industry, also licenses commercial space launch facilities and private sector launches.
3. Federal Highway Administration: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) coordinates highway transportation programs in cooperation with states and other partners to enhance the country’s safety, economic vitality, quality of life, and the environment. Major program areas include the Federal-Aid Highway Program, which provides federal financial assistance to the States to construct and improve the National Highway System, urban and rural roads, and bridges. This program provides funds for general improvements and development of safe highways and roads. The Federal Lands Highway Program provides access to and within national forests, national parks, Indian reservations and other public lands by preparing plans and contracts, supervising construction facilities, and conducting bridge inspections and surveys. The FHWA also manages a comprehensive research, development, and technology program.
4. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was established within the Department of Transportation on January 1, 2000, pursuant to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 [Public Law No. 106-159, 113 Stat. 1748 (December 9, 1999)]. Formerly a part of the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. Administration activities contribute to ensuring safety in motor carrier operations through strong enforcement of safety regulations, targeting high-risk carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers; improving safety information systems and commercial motor vehicle technologies; strengthening commercial motor vehicle equipment and operating standards; and increasing safety awareness. To accomplish these activities, the Administration works with Federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, the motor carrier industry, labor safety interest groups, and others.
5. Federal Railroad Administration: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) promotes safe and environmentally sound rail transportation. With the responsibility of ensuring railroad safety throughout the nation, the FRA employs safety inspectors to monitor railroad compliance with federally mandated safety standards including track maintenance, inspection standards and operating practices. The FRA conducts research and development tests to evaluate projects in support of its safety mission and to enhance the railroad system as a national transportation resource. Public education campaigns on highway-rail grade crossing safety and the danger of trespassing on rail property are also administered by FRA.
6. Federal Transit Administration: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) assists in developing improved mass transportation system for cities and communities nationwide. Through its grant programs, FTA helps plan, build, and operate transit systems with convenience, cost and accessibility in mind. While buses and rail vehicles are the most common type of public transportation, other kinds include commuter ferryboats, trolleys, inclined railways, subways, and people movers. In providing financial, technical and planning assistance, the agency provides leadership and resources for safe and technologically advanced local transit systems while assisting in the development of local and regional traffic reduction. The FTA maintains the National Transit library (NTL), a repository of reports, documents, and data generated by professionals and others from around the country. The NTL is designed to facilitate document sharing among people interested in transit and transit related topics.
7. Maritime Administration: The Maritime Administration (MARAD) promotes development and maintenance of an adequate, well-balanced, United States merchant marine, sufficient to carry the Nation’s domestic waterborne commerce and a substantial portion of its waterborne foreign commerce, and capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency. MARAD also seeks to ensure that the United States enjoys adequate shipbuilding and repair service, efficient ports, effective intermodal water and land transportation systems, and reserve shipping capacity in time of national emergency.
8. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for reducing deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes. NHTSA sets and enforces safety performance standards for motor vehicles and equipment, and through grants to state and local governments enables them to conduct effective local highway safety programs. NHTSA investigates safety defects in motor vehicles, sets and enforces fuel economy standards, helps states and local communities reduce the threat of drunk drivers, promotes the use of safety belts, child safety seats and air bags, investigates odometer fraud, establishes and enforces vehicle anti-theft regulations and provides consumer information on motor vehicle safety topics. Research on driver behavior and traffic safety is conducted by NHTSA to develop the most efficient and effective means of bringing about safety improvements. A toll-free Auto Safety Hotline, 1-888-DASH-2-DOT, furnishes consumers with a wide range of auto safety information. Callers also can help identify safety problems in motor vehicles, tires and automotive equipment such as child safety seats.
9. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) oversees the safety of more than 800,000 daily shipments of hazardous materials in the United States and 64 percent of the nation’s energy that is transported by pipelines. PHMSA is dedicated solely to safety by working toward the
elimination of transportation-related deaths and injuries in hazardous materials and pipeline transportation, and by promoting transportation solutions that enhance communities and protect the natural environment.
10. Research and Innovative Technology Administration: The Research & Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) is an agency whose mission is to identify and facilitate solutions to the challenges and opportunities facing America’s transportation system. RITA’s focus is to promote transportation research that will foster the use of innovative technology. RITA includes the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, an organization dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness of other Federal organizations with critical transportation-related functions and missions. With responsibility for research policy and technology sharing, the agency partners with national and international organizations and universities. RITA also includes the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Transportation Safety Institute and the University Transportation Centers program.
11. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation: The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC) operates and maintains a safe, reliable and efficient waterway for commercial and noncommercial vessels between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The SLSDC, in tandem with the Saint Lawrence Seaway Authority of Canada, oversees operations safety, vessel inspections, traffic control, and navigation aids on the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Important to the economic development of the Great Lakes region, SLSDC works to develop trade opportunities to benefit port communities, shippers and receivers and related industries in the area.
12. Surface Transportation Board: The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is an independent, bipartisan, adjudicatory body organizationally housed within the DOT. It is responsible for the economic regulation of interstate surface transportation, primarily railroads, within the United States. The STB’s mission is to ensure that competitive, efficient, and safe transportation services are provided to meet the needs of shippers, receivers, and consumers. The Board is charged with promoting, where appropriate, substantive and procedural regulatory reform in the economic regulation of surface transportation, and with providing an efficient and effective forum for the resolution of disputes. The Board continues to strive to develop, through rulemakings and case disposition, new and better ways to analyze unique and complex problems, to reach fully justified decisions more quickly, to reduce the costs associated with regulatory oversight, and to encourage private-sector negotiations and resolutions to problems where appropriate.

History:

From its inception the United States government wrestled with its role in developing transportation Infrastructure and transportation policy. Often, the result has been confusion and needless complexity, leading to an overabundance of aid for some means of transportation and inadequate support for others. The law that established a cabinet-level Department of Transportation did not pass Congress until ninety-two years after the first such legislation had been introduced. Lyndon Johnson called it “the most important transportation legislation of our lifetime . . . one of the essential building blocks in our preparation for the future. . . .”

Passage of the Department of Transportation enabling act in 1966 fulfilled a dream at least as old as that of Thomas Jefferson’s Treasury secretary, Albert Gallatin. Even before that, the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers had helped to foster trade and transportation. To enhance the prosperity of struggling new states and to fulfill the need for rapid, simple, and accessible transportation, Gallatin recommended in 1808 that the federal government subsidize such internal improvements as the National Road.

Just before he left office in June 1965, Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the independent Federal Aviation Agency (as it was then called), proposed the idea of a cabinet-level Department of Transportation to Johnson administration planners. He argued that the department should assume the functions then under the authority of the under secretary of commerce for transportation. Moreover, he recommended that the Federal Aviation Agency become part of that department. As he later wrote, “I guess I was a rarity-an independent agency head proposing to become less independent.”

Frustrated because he thought the Defense Department had locked the Federal Aviation Agency out of the administration’s supersonic transport decision-making, Halaby decided that a Department of Transportation was essential to secure decisive transportation policy development. After four-and-a-half years as administrator, he concluded that the agency could do a better job as part of an executive department that incorporated other government transportation programs. “One looks in vain,” he wrote Johnson, “for a point of responsibility below the President capable of taking an evenhanded, comprehensive, authoritarian approach to the development of transportation policies or even able to assure reasonable coordination and balance among the various transportation programs of the government.”

Charles Schultze, director of the Bureau of the Budget, and Joseph A. Califano, Jr., special assistant to the president, pushed for the new department. They urged Boyd, then under secretary of commerce for transportation, to explore the prospects of having a transportation department initiative prepared as part of Johnson’s 1966 legislative program. On October 22, 1965, the Boyd Task Force submitted recommendations that advocated establishing a Department of Transportation that would include the Federal Aviation Agency, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Coast Guard, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the Great Lakes Pilotage Association, the Car Service Division of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the subsidy function of the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Panama Canal.

With modifications, Johnson agreed, and on March 6, 1966 he sent Congress a bill to establish a Department. The new agency would coordinate and effectively manage transportation programs, provide leadership in the resolution of transportation problems, and develop national transportation policies and programs. The department would accomplish this mission under the leadership of a secretary, an under secretary, and four staff assistant secretaries whose functions, though unspecified, expedited the line authority between the secretary and under secretary and the heads of the operating administrations.

With the proposed legislation Johnson sent Congress a carefully worded message recommending that it enact the bill as part of his attempt to improve public safety and accessibility. Johnson recognized the dilemma the American transportation system faced. While it was the best-developed system in the world, it wasted lives and resources and had proved incapable of meeting the needs of the time. “America today lacks a coordinated transportation system that permits travelers and goods to move conveniently and efficiently from one means of transportation to another, using the best characteristics of each.” Johnson maintained that an up-to-date transportation system was essential to the national economic health and well-being, including employment, standard of living, accessibility, and the national defense.

After much compromise with a Congress that was jealous of its constitutional power of the purse and its relationship with the older bureaucracies, Johnson signed into law the Department of Transportation enabling act on October 15, 1966. Compromise made the final version of the bill less than what the White House wanted. Nevertheless, it was a significant move forward, producing the most sweeping reorganization of the federal government since the National Security Act of 1947.

On April 1, 1967, the Department opened for business, celebrating the “Pageant of Transportation” five and a half months after Johnson had signed the enabling legislation. Dignitaries from the department, the Smithsonian Institution, the transportation industry, and the public gathered for ceremonies on the Mall celebrating the start of the new department. Alan S. Boyd, named by Johnson as its first secretary, guaranteed that the new department would “make transportation more efficient, more economical, more expeditious and more socially responsible.”

By April 1, this newest cabinet-level department was suddenly the fourth largest, with a blueprint of organization, an order providing for essential authorizations, and several leading officials on the job. It brought under one roof more than thirty transportation agencies and functions scattered throughout the government and about ninety-five thousand employees, most of whom had been with the Federal Aviation Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Public Roads.

To Alan S. Boyd, the former Civil Aeronautics Board chairman and under secretary of commerce for transportation, fell the challenge of setting up the new department: structuring it around Congress’s recommendations in the enabling act, organizing it, and setting it in motion. The new secretary faced a host of problems: creating his own immediate office, providing appropriate missions for his assistant secretaries, building the new Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration, helping to start the National Transportation Safety Board, and setting up an organization and management plan for the entire department.

Acknowledging the connection between transportation systems and the needs of urban areas, the White House drafted a plan to transfer urban mass transit functions to the Department that formerly resided in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As mandated by the Department of Transportation Act, Johnson directed the secretaries of housing and urban development and transportation to inform Congress where the most “logical and efficient organization and location of urban mass transportation functions within the Executive Branch” would be. When this failed to resolve the issue, Johnson transferred most of HUD’s mass transit capacity to the Department of Transportation, effective July 1, 1968. Responsibility for these programs resided in the newly established Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration).

By the conclusion of Boyd’s administration, the department embraced the Coast Guard, the renamed Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, and, tangentially, the National Transportation Safety Board. Boyd’s most significant achievement was to organize the department and to get it operating as a constructive governmental entity.

During his first administration, Richard M. Nixon presided over several transportation-related matters, including the bailout of the Penn Central Railroad, the launching of Amtrak, and the attempted extension of federal support for supersonic transport. He nominated as his secretary of transportation the moderate, thrice-elected governor of Massachusetts, John A. Volpe. A modern Horatio Alger, Volpe headed a construction firm that built hospitals, schools, shopping centers, public buildings, and military installations along the Eastern Seaboard and in other parts of the country. In 1968, the former federal highway administrator had been a rumored vice-presidential nominee–until Maryland governor Spiro Agnew received the nod.

In 1970, the Highway Safety Act authorized the establishment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Although the law added somewhat to the department’s safety mission, the Federal Highway Administration originally had handled most of the functions that the new agency assumed. Besides establishing another operating administration and adding to the secretary’s span of control and coordination workload, the Highway Safety Act separated highway administration into two parts: design, construction, and maintenance on the one hand; and highway and automobile safety on the other. Such organization ran counter to the original Departmental organizing concept for the various modes of transportation: unlike the Coast Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration, for example, the Federal Highway Administration no longer bore responsibility both for facilities and infrastructure and for safety programs.

Volpe gave highest priority to coordinating the missions of the diverse agencies placed under the department’s umbrella and developing a “balanced” transportation policy. Symbolic of this effort was the establishment of the Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought that he had effectively begun to coordinate separate agencies, each of which had its own constituencies on Capitol Hill, in industry, and among the public. For years, these agencies had acted autonomously and with little coordination or teamwork among themselves. Volpe believed he had begun to forge them into a united transportation agency.

During Volpe’s tenure the Department assumed a higher profile in resolving national transportation problems. These included airline hijackings, the sick-out of the fledgling Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, the decision to end federal support for production of the supersonic transport and to handle applications for Concorde landing slots, the financial insolvency of the Penn Central Railroad and the creation of Amtrak, and the Coast Guard’s handling of the case of the defection of the Lithuanian seaman Simas Kudirka.

On December 6, 1972, Nixon named Dr. Claude S. Brinegar to succeed Volpe. Brinegar, a senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Union Oil Company, had a Ph. D. in economic research and was a self-styled “non-political” professional manager. Reserved in management style and pragmatic in political philosophy, Brinegar successfully steered the department through Watergate and the energy crisis of 1973-1974. Moreover, he charted the Administration’s response to the “Northeast Rail Crisis,” the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, and at the urging of Congress, drafted a written National Transportation Policy in March 1974.

When Gerald R. Ford, Nixon’s successor, decided to run for president in his own right, Brinegar indicated that he had no wish to join the campaign. He returned to California, and Ford named William T. Coleman, Jr., to succeed him. Coleman had served on several airline and transit boards, including the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia’s transit system. Coleman was a distinguished lawyer who, with Thurgood Marshall, had played a major role in landmark civil rights cases, including Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, which ended de jure school segregation in 1954. Later, Coleman met and impressed Ford, when the then-House Minority Leader served on the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy; Coleman was senior consultant and assistant counsel to the commission. During Coleman’s tenure, on April 1, 1975, Congress granted the National Transportation Safety Board, which had been established within the Department, its independence from the department. On the other hand, Coleman delineated a Statement on National Transportation Policy in September 1975 and National Transportation Trends and Choices in January 1977, which, while set aside by his immediate successor, “used the knowledge of the past to look into the future” and “to creat[e] a planning and decisionmaking framework to guide that future.”

Ford lost the election of 1976 to Jimmy Carter, the former governor of Georgia. For secretary of transportation, Carter chose Brock Adams, a six-term member of the House of Representatives from Washington. Adams, a leading authority on transportation matters in the House, had been Brinegar’s nemesis and the primary author of the legislation that reorganized the bankrupt northeastern rail lines into the Government-backed Conrail system.

Adams’s establishment of the Research and Special Programs Directorate on September 23, 1977, subsequently the Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), was a significant institutional development. When Adams created RSPA, he combined the Transportation Systems Center, the hazardous materials transportation and pipeline safety programs, and diverse program activities from the Office of the Secretary that did not readily fit in any of the existing operating administrations. The establishment of the RSPA set a precedent in that it was a creation of the Secretary, not Congress. (Passage of the Pipeline Safety Act of 1992 gave RSPA equal statutory standing with the other operating administrations.) RSPA simultaneously moved crosscutting research and development pursuits from the Office of the Secretary to an autonomous operating administration.

During Adams’s administration, the Inspectors General Act of 1978 established for the department, and other executive agencies as well, an inspector general, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The mission of the inspector general was to help the secretary cope with waste, fraud, and abuse. Although housed in the department and given the rank of assistant secretary, the inspector general was generally autonomous.

Before leaving office, Adams recommended that the Federal Highway Administration and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration be reorganized into a Surface Transportation Administration, an idea to which James Burnley and Federico Peña would later return. Adams was succeeded by Neil E. Goldschmidt, mayor of Portland, Oregon, since 1972, and later president of the United States Conference of Mayors. Meanwhile, legislative triumphs in transportation deregulation included the Railroad Regulatory Act (better known as the Staggers Rail Act), the Truck Regulatory Reform Act, the International Airlines Reform Act, and the Household Goods Regulatory Reform Act.

Goldschmidt expressed an interest in government industrial policy, an early example of which was the Chrysler Corporation Assistance Program, worked out largely by the Treasury Department. When Congress drafted the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, he began a review of the automobile industry’s problems. Goldschmidt also established the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization in the Office of the Secretary. It was responsible for carrying out policies and procedures consistent with federal statutes to provide policy guidance for minority, women-owned, and disadvantaged businesses taking part in the department’s procurement and federal financial assistance activities.

Ronald Reagan’s first secretary of transportation, Andrew L. (“Drew”) Lewis, Jr., a management consultant and political leader from Pennsylvania, successfully negotiated the transfer of the Maritime Administration from the Commerce Department to DOT and provided the department with the maritime connection it needed to formulate an effective national transportation policy. The department assumed greater visibility during the air traffic controllers’ strike in August 1981, during which Lewis spoke for the administration. After personally negotiating with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in the days leading up to the strike, Lewis forcefully explained the government’s response to the strike-firings and no amnesty for strikers. Lewis was also responsible for the enactment of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982.

Lewis’s successor, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, had been Reagan’s assistant for public liaison. A consumer adviser in two administrations and a member of the Federal Trade Commission during the Nixon and Ford administrations, Dole brought to her new position experience in consumer and trade matters. At DOT, she focused on many safety-related issues, including drunk driving and the so-called “Dole brake light.” Responding to a Supreme Court ruling, Dole authorized deadlines for the installation of air bags and other passive restraints in motor vehicles, which resulted in major increases in seat belt usage by the public, and incentives to manufacturers to equip new cars with air bags.

While Dole was secretary, the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 gave the department a multifaceted new mission to promote and to regulate commercial space launch vehicles. Because no operating administration had a comparable mission and because of its modest funding, Dole located the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the Office of the Secretary.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and the Civil Aeronautics Board Sunset Act of 1984 had abolished the board and transferred to the department many of its functions relating to the economic regulation of the airline industry. Specifically, these included the aviation economic fitness program, functions related to consumer protection, antitrust oversight, airline data collection, and the review of international route negotiations and route awards to carriers. On January 1, 1985, the Office of the Secretary took over most of these functions, under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs.

Continuing a trend begun when the department transferred the Alaska Railroad to the state of Alaska, the Department divested itself of entities that it thought should be in the private sector. Dole moved to end Federal Railroad Administration ownership of Conrail, finally realized in April 1987. She also encouraged the establishment of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in June 1987, transferring administration of Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport from the Federal Aviation Administration to that authority.

To succeed Dole, who had departed to help her husband’s campaign for the Presidency, Reagan chose James H. Burnley IV, her deputy and former general counsel. While deputy secretary, Burnley had helped to negotiate the sale of Conrail, directed the privatization of Amtrak, enabled the transfer of the Washington airports to the regional authority, and helped to assemble an air traffic control work force in the wake of the 1981 strike. He also helped to produce the department’s policies on aviation safety and security.

Disappointed with the Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent foot-dragging on safety regulations, and seeking to increase the secretary’s management oversight capacity within the department, Burnley proposed to curtail the autonomy of the operating administrations. A working paper recommended integration of the functions of the Maritime Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the surface transportation administrations under three under secretaries, for water, air, and surface transportation, respectively. Burnley offered his reorganization proposal at the conclusion of Ronald Reagan’s second term in the hope that it would provide Congress, his successor, and the public with an alternative to proposals according to which one agency or another would leave the department.

His successor, Samuel K. Skinner, a George H. W. Bush appointee, chose instead to emphasize the establishment of a National Transportation Policy. Skinner also welcomed expansion of the department’s role in crisis management response. His handling of a succession of disasters, both natural and manufactured, earned Skinner the Washington moniker “the Master of Disaster.” For Skinner, it began with additional evidence that a terrorist bomb had destroyed Pan American Airways flight 103. (The explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, had killed 270, including eleven on the ground. ) In rapid sequence followed the machinists’ strike at Eastern Airlines (March 1989) and the company’s subsequent bankruptcy, the Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 1989), the Loma Prieta earthquake (October 1989), and Hurricane Hugo (September 1990), all high-profile incidents that took place during Skinner’s first twenty-one months in office.

For Skinner, establishment of a national transportation policy became the department’s highest priority. In Moving America, national transportation policymakers outlined six objectives: to maintain and expand America’s national transportation system; to nurture a sturdy financial footing for transportation; to keep the nation’s transportation industry vigorous and competitive; to guarantee that the transportation system enhances public safety and the national security; to maintain the environment and the quality of life; and to ready American transportation technology and expertise for the next century. By March 1990, conditions had persuaded Skinner that to realize these goals, diverse departmental offices would have to work together. As a result, the secretary launched the National Transportation Policy-Phase 2 under the leadership of Thomas D. Larson, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. NTP-Phase 2 activities combined to help the department inventory its strengths and weaknesses and identify room for improvement.

On December 18, 1991, Bush signed into law the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), derived in part from the NTP, which provided a six-year reauthorization to restructure the department’s highway, highway safety, and transit programs. One effect of this legislation was that the Urban Mass Transportation Administration became the Federal Transit Administration. The ISTEA legislation also required the department to establish two new organizational entities: the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which was to provide timely transportation-related information through the compilation, analysis, and publishing of comprehensive transportation statistics, and the Office of Intermodalism, in the Office of the Assistant Deputy Secretary, which was charged with coordinating and initiating federal policy on intermodal transportation.

Skinner, meanwhile, had become White House chief of staff. A month and a half later, Bush named Andrew H. Card, Jr., his deputy White House chief of staff, to be secretary of transportation. Disaster response to Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida in August 1992, highlighted Card’s eleven-month term at the helm of the department.

Bush lost the election of 1992 to Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. In a move to enhance diversity in his cabinet, Clinton selected Federico Peña, an Hispanic American and the former mayor of Denver, Colorado, initially to head the “cluster group” that dealt with transportation issues during the transition, and ultimately to manage the Department of Transportation.

In March 1993, Clinton announced an initiative that the Democratic Leadership Council embraced, a plan for a six-month National Performance Review (NPR) of the federal government. Following a highly successful program analysis by Texas governor Ann Richards, Clinton asked Vice President Al Gore to head his administration’s effort to improve the quality of the government and to reduce the cost of delivering services to the American taxpayer. The NPR challenged federal agencies to identify what worked and what did not, to propose new ways of doing the job that would eliminate red tape and improve both operations and customer service, and to think about doing their work in smarter, more cost-effective ways.

While the NPR laid the groundwork for “reinventing government,” the department had been responding to several congressional initiatives, including the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act, and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. The outcome was the DOT Strategic Plan, which Peña announced in January 1994.

The plan delineated the department’s mission and enumerated seven broad strategic goals to carry out: “tying America together” through an effective intermodal transportation system; investing strategically in transportation infrastructure; creating a new alliance between the nation’s transportation and technology industries in order to make them more efficient and economically competitive; promoting safe and secure transportation; actively enhancing the environment; “putting people first’ in the transportation system; and transforming the Department. Meanwhile, the department continued to be at the center of the federal government’s crisis management response team, as exemplified by its response to flooding in the Mississippi River Basin in the summer of 1993 and the Northridge earthquake of January 1994.

The NPR had promised a government that not only would do its job better, but would cost the taxpayers less as well. Consequently, the Clinton administration was able, by December 19, 1994, to propose a “middle-class” tax cut, one that would be funded in part by restructuring several federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Transportation. That same day, Peña outlined a plan to restructure the department by the end of the decade. After a month and a half of workshops and discussions with Congress, the public, and department employees throughout the country, Peña announced a restructuring plan for the department. Pending congressional approval, three operating administrations, a Federal Aviation Administration, a new Intermodal Transportation Administration, and the Coast Guard, would replace the current ten. Where Congressional approval was not necessary, Peña moved ahead, transferring the Office of Commercial Space Transportation from the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Aviation Administration, and launching the Transportation Administrative Services Center (TASC) to provide fee-based administrative services previously financed by the Working Capital Fund, both within DOT and to other government agencies.

Following his reelection in 1996, Clinton selected Federal Highway Administrator Rodney E. Slater to succeed Peña at DOT. The second former federal highway administrator (after Volpe) and the second African-American (after Coleman) to become Secretary, Slater was instrumental in getting ISTEA reauthorized, with the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, the largest public works legislation in history. During his first year and a half at DOT, airline and railroad mergers again became fashionable. Department negotiators helped to avert a strike against Amtrak–and Congress mandated that Corporation”s overhaul; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued regulations allowing consumers to turn off their airbag switches where necessary; and the United States finalized a long-sought, liberalized aviation agreement with Japan.

Also, in keeping with his conviction that transportation was about “more than concrete, asphalt, and steel,” Slater announced the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures program to encourage students to choose careers in transportation; a “Safe Skies for Africa” Initiative to promote sustainable improvements in aviation safety and airport security in Africa; and on October 8, 1998, proposed the idea of creating a unified Department, ONE DOT, able to act as an integrated, purposeful leader increasing transportation efficiency and effectiveness.

In the wake of the Presidential Election of 2000, the eventual winner, Texas Governor George W. Bush (R), reached out to the Democratic Party for his nominee to head DOT. After the closest race in 112 years, the issue hung–for five weeks–on the contested vote in Florida, with electoral votes that could have swung the election to either Bush or his Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore. Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that essentially certified the Republican standard bearer’s victory, Bush chose former San Jose Mayor and Congressman Norman Y. Mineta (D-CA), a Japanese-American who, along with his family, had been held in a relocation camp in Wyoming during World War II. Mineta, age sixty-nine, was, when Bush nominated him to become the nation’s fourteenth Secretary of Transportation, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce. After an extraordinarily close election, Bush turned to a Democrat who was not changing parties, just Cabinet posts, to heal the partisan breach. As such, Mineta would become the first Asian-Pacific American to serve as Secretary of Transportation-and the first DOT Secretary to have served in a previous Cabinet position.

Less than eight months into the new Bush Administration, on September 11, 2001, radical Islamic extremists with the group Al Qaeda, hoping to sow terror and confusion among Americans, commandeered four American domestic airliners, and transformed them into missiles that were used to destroy the World Trade Center in New York City and to hobble the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing thousands. Under Mineta’s command, DOT managers and FAA air traffic controllers performed a herculean task by bringing the rest of the fleet down safely. Responding to this new form of terrorism, Congress passed and, on November 19, 2001, Bush signed into law the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which, among other things, called for the establishment of a completely new Transportation Security Administration in the Department of Transportation, to increase security at airports and other transportation venues. On February 16, 2002, the Transportation Security Administration opened for business, and was due to become fully operational by year’s end. On June 6, 2002, Bush asked for a broad-based reorganization of the Federal government, which, by establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, proposed to transfer the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration out of the Department of Transportation.

Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, DHS’s enabling legislation, which Bush signed into law on November 25, 2002. On January 25, 2003, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge was sworn in as that Department’s first Secretary. On March 1, the Department of Homeland Security became fully operational. Four days earlier, on February 25, 2003, in an historic “Change of Watch” ceremony replete with color guard, speeches, silent drill team, and John Philip Sousa marches, Mineta ceremoniously transferred civilian leadership of the Coast Guard to the new department. The following day, Mineta formally handed over the Transportation Security Administration to Homeland Defense: “On Saturday, March 1, . . . [w]e hand over an agency that is fully intact and which does credit to both of our departments.. “Creating TSA was by far the toughest, most challenging, and most satisfying endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. Starting from a blank sheet of paper on Nov. 19, 2001, we created an agency of more than 60,000 employees that is truly fulfilling its goal of protecting Americans, as they travel across our country, and beyond. . . . Not only have we improved security for the traveling public, but [we] have also cut waiting times at checkpoints, fulfilling our promise of delivering world-class security and world-class customer service.”

In non-9/11-related developments, on January 29, 2004, ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, Mineta launched DOT’s “Moving the Nation’s Economy” initiative, tracking the new Transportation Series Index. TSI tended to be more sensitive to economic shocks, and hence is more suitable in detecting cyclical turning points than the current indicators used by National Bureau of Economic Research. The Research and Special Programs Administration’s organizational architecture changed yet again when the Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004, which President Bush signed into law on November 30, created two new Operating Administrations, a more sharply focused Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Probably the Department’s most important legislative accomplishment occurred after Bush had asked Mineta to stay on in his second Administration. Congress passed and, on August 19, 2005, Bush signed into law, the surface transportation bill reauthorization, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).

On June 23, 2006, having already served as Transportation Secretary for sixty-five months, longer than anyone before him, Mineta announced his retirement, effective July 7. Two months later, President Bush named Mary E. Peters of Arizona, former Federal Highway Administrator (2001-2005), as his choice to be Secretary of Transportation. Following Senate confirmation, Peters took the oath of office October 17.

[1] http://t4america.org/pressers/2009/04/16/transportation-for-america-applauds-president-obama-and-department-of-transportation%E2%80%99s-high-speed-rail-initiative/

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