Free Republic

More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, are preparing to release a letter this week threatening to form a third party if the Republican Party does not make certain changes, according to an organizer of the effort.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao had been on the job only a few weeks when she took action on one of the region's most intractable problems and directed millions in federal transit dollars be withheld from the District, Maryland and Virginia until they create a safety agency to oversee D.C.'s subway, Metro. Chao was making good on a threat by her predecessor, Anthony Foxx, a move that surprised some local officials who had hoped that the jurisdictions had shown enough progress to stave off the action. It's too soon to say whether Chao's action is a sign she will continue...

The state and federal governments will spend $13 million to improve passenger rail service south of Fredericksburg as part of a multiyear project to make trains faster and ease traffic in Northern Virginia. The money will be used to build a third train track on a three-mile stretch in Spotsylvania County to allow Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express passenger trains to avoid being stuck behind slow-moving freight trains. "States like Virginia have struggled for years to find ways to make rail service . . . a viable alternative to what seems like an always clogged Interstate 95 corridor," U.S. Secretary...

Federal transportation officials today told Congress and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) that they have approved the proposed 23-mile extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, reversing their announcement in January that the project was unfit for federal funding. In a letter to Kaine and in a 10 a.m. conference call with the governor and Virginia congressional leaders, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the $5 billion project had finally met the Federal Transit Administration's standards for cost efficiency, construction and expected ridership. The project will now move into the final design phase, a major step toward receiving $900...

Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas. Cintra officials announced the company’s financial plan for the $1.36 billion Highway 130 segments on Monday, March 10. OOIDA Senior Government Affairs Representative Mike Joyce told Land Line that the Association does raise red flags when federal dollars are used to subsidize private investors. Officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are not, however, categorically opposed to a state using future toll revenue to...

Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the U.S. under a Bush administration demonstration project may not be proficient in English, despite Department of Transportation assurances to the contrary. A brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructs Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States." Still, at the Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and DOT Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III reluctantly admitted under intense questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers were being...

WASHINGTON – Only exports stand between the economy and recession, setting up another national argument about how to handle the rising flow of goods in and out of the country. Transportation fights are usually about who pays to build the roads and transit systems, with little said about trade. The Bush administration and Gov. Rick Perry have supported tolls and steadfastly opposed higher gasoline taxes. A new national study urges paying for desperately needed improvements any way we can, but one thing it specifically recommends is an increase in the federal gas tax of 40 cents a gallon over the...

Official Mexican government reports reveal Mexico has entered discussions with the state of Texas and top officials in the Bush administration to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico, with a plan to connect through Monterrey to the deep-water Mexican ports on the Pacific, including Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas. The official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo León contain multiple reports that José Natividad Gonzáles Parás, governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, has actively discussed with numerous U.S. government officials, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the...

Though inspections rate more than 70,000 bridges nationwide structurally deficient, a top transportation official Friday called the deadly failure of a Mississippi River bridge an "anomaly" and said motorists shouldn't fear for their safety. "I don't believe that they should be worried at all," National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said while visiting the bridge wreckage in Minneapolis. Rules in place for 30 years "have improved the conditions and the standards that in fact these things are being inspected on," he said. "But with that said, as a result of this catastrophic disaster, we're going to be looking at...

WASHINGTON - A new Texas road being planned to accommodate truck traffic between the United States and Mexico has riled Ohio members of Congress who fear it's the first phase of a "NAFTA Superhighway" that would be used to funnel cheap imports to the Midwest as it links Mexico, the United States and Canada. Texas and federal highway officials deny that a proposed North-South toll road running parallel to Inter-state 35 is part of a planned international superhighway, and say there are no plans for a transcontinental road. They insist the new thoroughfare would merely handle some of the extra...

(April 3, 2007)—Gov. Rick Perry spoke out Tuesday against proposed legislation that would put a two-year moratorium on private toll road projects including the Trans-Texas Corridor and urged lawmakers to “ensure vital transportation projects continue as planned.” Several bills are pending in Austin aimed at putting the brakes on the massive highway project. State Representative Lois W. Kolkhorst of Brenham has filed a bill that would kill the project altogether and a second measure that calls for a two-year moratorium on allowing private entities from buying the rights to build and operate toll roads. During a visit with US Transportation...

MARSHALL — The proposed construction of Interstate 69 has been placed on a short list of projects that could receive preferential treatment over other transportation projects for federal funding, officials said. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters said this week that a final decision should be made this summer on which projects will be given the funding priority. If I-69 is selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the Corridors of the Future program, the federal department will aggressively support the project to move it "from the drawing board to completion faster than ever before," Peters said in...

News Release Contact: Randall Dillard Telephone: (512) 463-8588 Interstate 69 from Texas to Michigan is included on a short list of interstate corridors being considered for fast track development by federal transportation officials, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary. E. Peters has announced. If I-69 is selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation this summer as part of the Corridors of the Future program, the federal department will aggressively support the project to move it “from the drawing board to completion faster than ever before,” according to the announcement. The Texas segment of I-69 is being developed as part of the...

President Bush has announced that he intends to appoint an official with toll-road investor Macquarie to be the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation. David James Gribbin, IV, of Virginia is currently the division director for Macquarie Holdings, a Washington, DC, company under the umbrella of the toll-road investor Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia. Before that private sector job, Gribbin was chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration. Current Transportation Secretary Mary Peters also worked at FHWA at that time. Bush’s announcement may draw anti-privatization sentiment from U.S. senators during the confirmation process, according to Toll Road News,...

The Senate early Saturday confirmed President Bush's nomination of Mary Peters as the new secretary of transportation. Peters, a former federal highway administrator, succeeds Norman Mineta, a Democrat who resigned in July after six years in office. In a statement issued by the White House, Bush said Peters is "an innovative thinker who will work with state and local leaders to confront challenges and solve problems." Peters, 57, who spent most of her career in government highway jobs, is a strong advocate of privatizing roads. But highways are only a part of the Transportation Department's portfolio. The 60,000-person department also...

Bush taps Peters for Transportation WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday picked Mary Peters to be the nation's new transportation secretary, a Cabinet position that took on more prominence after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Transportation pick headed highway administration when it investigated rail company President Bush's nominee to replace Norman Mineta as secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, presided over the Federal Highway Administration when the agency shut down criminal and civil investigations of CSX Transportation regarding fatal railroad-crossing accidents, according to a former employee of the rail company. Dave Nelson alleged to WND that the CSXT investigation was shut down by the Federal Highway Administration while John Snow, formerly CEO of CSXT, was Treasury secretary. Nelson said both Snow and Peters should be asked, "What did you know and when did you know it?"...

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate eight individuals, designate two individuals and appoint thirteen individuals to serve in his Administration: The President intends to nominate Mary E. Peters, of Arizona, to be Secretary of Transportation. Ms. Peters currently serves as Senior Vice President at HDR, Inc. Prior to this, she served as Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Earlier in her career, she served as the Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. Ms. Peters received her bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix.

The president met with the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in the Oval Office. He gave a speech in Washington, DC, on his national strategy to combat terrorism. Bush nominated Mary Peters, a former Federal Highway administrator, to replace Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Our intrepid Secretary of Defense faced the surgeon's knife today, having successful arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff (left shoulder). Eric Ruff, the Pentagon press secretary, said Rumsfeld's cuff tear was caused by "an old athletic injury." Rumsfeld wrestled in college and is an avid squash player. ohioWfan and I exchanged days...

Cintra-Zachry consortium plans system near 1-35 State leaders sealed a $7.2 billion partnership with an international consortium Friday to build the first portions of Gov. Rick Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor road network. The agreement signed by Cintra-Zachry officials and the Texas Department of Transportation commits the state to pay the consortium $3.5 million to develop a plan to design, finance and build the corridor. The corridor will roughly parallel Interstate 35 from the Red River to the Rio Grande. A plan is expected to be complete in about a year. It will outline $6 billion in short-term projects that Cintra-Zachry...