Skip to main content

US Tranportation Secretary pessimistic?

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has expressed doubts that the reauthorisation bill will be passed in the current session of Congress, according to the Innovation Briefs report by Ken Orski.
March 15, 2012 Read time: 1 min
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has expressed doubts that the reauthorisation bill will be passed in the current session of Congress, according to the 3949 Innovation Briefs report by Ken Orski.

LaHood spoke during the recent annual meeting of the 2774 Transportation Research Board in Washington, where six US transportation secretaries discussed challenges they had met during their time in office. LaHood’s comments drew some surprise given recent announcements from the US Government about the importance of infrastructure.

There have been some earlier comments that the Senate Finance Committee may have arrived at a bipartisan agreement on providing the US$13 billion needed to fund the bill. However LaHood pointed out that the politically polarised situation in the 10 months to the next US election will make it hard for sufficient agreement to be reached that would allow the reauthorisation bill to be passed.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • On the road to energy efficiency and emissions reduction with IRF
    November 15, 2019
    Global commitments to reduce carbon emissions and simultaneously increase the resilience of critical infrastructure to extreme weather events have placed greater societal expectations on road builders to design and deliver sustainable pavements that are both affordable and scalable.
  • US highway bill receives temporary extension
    June 3, 2015
    The US president recently signed a short term extension for highway funding. This two month extension will provide funding for highway infrastructure until the end of July. This is a very temporary measure made as the US Government has so far been unable to agree the longer term deal that will guarantee highway investment. The president did propose a six-year transportation bill worth some US$478 billion. This would have given the necessary funds to deliver the much-needed investment in the country’s transp
  • A new event is preparing the asphalt industry for tomorrow’s world
    September 11, 2018
    An inaugural event for the European bitumen industry urged attendees to look to the future - Kristina Smith reports What will tomorrow’s roads look like? Will lanes be narrower, will the road charge vehicles as they drive on them, will they collect data, will they be self-cleaning and de-polluting? All these questions and more were pondered at a two-day conference in Berlin, entitled ‘Preparing the asphalt industry for the future’. It was the first such event for Eurasphalt & Eurobitume (E&E), and set a
  • Highway 407 Revisited – smart tollroad extension
    June 7, 2016
    In the late 1990s, World Highways published a supplement on construction of Canada’s Highway 407, the world’s first all-electronic toll road. But how successful has it been? David Arminas reports from Toronto The head office for 407 ETR Concession Company is a low-rise building next to exit 59, just north of Toronto, Canada’s economic powerhouse. The building may be non-descript but inside is the advanced technical heart of Highway 407 ETR – Express Toll Route. It houses the latest toll monitoring techno